Maruti Suzuki earmarks 15pc for WagonR Think Big Challenge

Maruti Suzuki has embarked on the third season of the WagonR Think Big Challenge to bring out the most innovative and unique business ideas by acting as a platform for all those who are looking for a support to start with.

The challenge is based on WagonR’s core brand values – smartness and leadership. Commenting on WagonR’s association with such an initiative, Shashank Srivastava, Chief GM - Marketing, Maruti Suzuki, elaborated, “WagonR as a car is associated with ‘Smart’ people and entrepreneurship is the smartest thing to do – a smart entrepreneur creates jobs rather than seeking it. It is this higher level of smartness with which our brand is associated. Hence, WagonR remains relevant to the current context of smartness.”

He further said that with this initiative, Maruti Suzuki aimed to bring the instinct of entrepreneurship alive in India.

The campaign would begin on a pan-India basis with online registrations of business ideas from 19 cities. Ten participants will be selected from each city basis their submission of business proposal and one winner from each city will be selected in the main city round. These 19 people will make it to the zonal round from which four participants from each zone will make it to the national round. These aspiring entrepreneurs will be mentored by management gurus and will be judged by an exclusive panel at each step of this campaign.

Sharing on the spends allocated for the Think Big Challenge initiative, Srivastava said, “The activity is in its third year. We are optimising our costs year on year and more and more people are already aware of this and eagerly wait for this activity. We spend 15 per cent of brand budgets on the same.”

Maruti Suzuki has adopted a segmented approach for the media. The auto major is reaching out to people through its vast network of dealerships across India. “We are present in television through very mass appealing ads with our brand face Madhavan. We are present in radio, print, Internet and on ground activities. We are also using digital interface to reach the corporate segments. We also are having an e-mail thrust to the targeted audience, plus we are using our past database of our customers and participants and directing communication to them as well,” Srivastava added.

Meanwhile, digital forms the backbone of this entire contest. Maruti Suzuki’s Facebook page, blogs, contest site and brand site have been aligned for this activity. The auto major is also reaching out through Internet advertising and is promoting the same in various groups.