The 9th edition of Blogworks’ monthly social index for auto brands in India – the India Auto Social Index was launched a couple of days back. This survey helps in rating the monthly online movements in terms of brand recognition and conversations related to the brand name in the online world.
Blogworks helps global brands and organisations strategically leverage social media to draw insights, engage stakeholders in conversations, build communities, and co-create for business impact.
With the increase in importance of social media in business as well, such surveys help the companies to understand their reception by the customers. After word of mouth, social media is the most important parameter which dominates the customer’s mind and thus affects the purchase. Given the capital intensive nature of the business, and the criticality of new launches, brand owners are increasingly looking at the social web for marketing and deeper analysis to understand brand and sales impact.
Surprisingly, Toyota was the most mentioned auto brand in online portals during January and February 2014. Toyota’s marketing initiatives during the recently concluded Delhi Auto Show, using the hashtag #BornWithAttitude to promote the Etios Cross and #Toyotawave seems to have created a wave of mentions for the brand and propelled it to the top.
Ford, thanks to its initiatives using #FordAE2014 jumped to the second position. Maruti Suzuki jumped one place to third boosted by the launch of its new hatchback Celerio and the buzz around its Automated Manual Transmission (AMT).
Tata Motors, India’s largest automotive group slipped two positions to the fourth while the German giants Audi continued to be in fifth place with a very efficient use of the #AudiDrivingExperience, a contest to encourage young people to experience driving the Audi Sports Cars.
Etios Cross Most Talked About Hatch
The bigger surprise was the fact that Toyota Etios Cross was the most talked about ‘hatch’ in the country with people appreciating its crossover hatch looks, making the brand more vibrant and youth oriented.
The upcoming Toyota Corolla Altis was the most mentioned car in the executive car segment, with the seven speed CVT transmission with paddle shift and generous legroom, followed by Honda Civic (even though Civic was recently axed from the lineup and is no more on sale).
These statistics of India Auto Social Index are surprising to the core. We would really be interested in understanding how things turn up in the subsequent months.
