We are spending more money on marketing WR-V than we spent on Honda City: Jnaneswar Sen, Honda Cars India

Honda Cars India has launched its latest sub-compact SUV -- the Honda WR-V. The car will go up against Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza and Ford EcoSport who are top selling cars in the segment in India. 

While the company clocked 1,000 bookings during the pre-booking period from March 2 to March 16, the company said it registered around 400-500 bookings after the official launch on Thursday.

Zeebiz spoke to Honda Cars India's Senior Vice President Marketing Jnaneswar Sen on WR-V marketing campaign, ad spends, the price and tie-ups with other automobile companies in India.

What is the target audience that you are looking to attract for Honda WR-V?
We have designed the entire package around young trend setters. So we understood their needs deeply, both practical and emotive. To fulfill all their needs. This car is ideal for this kind of an audience.

What is the marketing plan for WR-V?
We have planned an entire 360 degree campaign. The basic tone and manner is youthful and perky and we have tried to break the clutter. The audience we which we are trying to impress is on the road for fairly long time every day. We have a comprehensive digital marketing strategy for the WR-V.

What are the ad spends that you will be putting on the WR-V campaign?
We do not share spends but we are spending a fairly good amount of money to create awareness, impact and positioning WR-V clearly in people's mind. It is more than what we spend on the new Honda City.

Will the WR-V be the defining car for Honda to find success in the SUV segment?
We would like to call this car as a sporty lifestyle vehicle, so we did not constrain ourselves with traditional body shapes. The car is designed around it's target customer. Since we did not constrain ourselves we can get a wide variety of customers for the WR-V. In the SUV range of Honda we have the CR-V for a long time and it is one of the benchmarks, which has been successful over the years. The BR-V again is not a traditional SUV. It is a highly versatile car. The WR-V is a sporty and lifestyle vehicle and we are confident it will do well.

For automobile companies experiential advertising plays a big part, what is Honda doing here?
From a consumer's view point it is experience which matters and this is experience with the product and with our dealerships. While it is not experiential marketing in the sense that you are asking me, but this experience leads to huge word of mouth for us and that itself is a strong marketing tool for us. For instance, in last year's JD Power customer satisfaction index we are No.1.

With Tata Motors-Volkswagen alliance to jointly produce cars, does it make sense for automobile companies such as Honda to tie-up to take on the leaders?
No strategy is good or bad really, it is the outcome which matters. We cannot comment of the strategy adopted by others. As far as Honda is concerned so far we have no such plans.