Vibhor Mittal
Mahindra Rise : The Story
Unfolds
A deep dive into Strategic Brand management
process of Mahindra

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Mahindra Rise: The Story Unfolds
A deep dive into Strategic Brand management process of Mahindra

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Contents
1 Objective...............................................................................................................................................3
2 About Mahindra and Mahindra ............................................................................................................3
3 The strategic brand management process ...........................................................................................4
3.1 Identify and establish Brand Position: ..........................................................................................4
3.1.1 Positioning and Brand promise.............................................................................................5
3.2 Planning and Implementing Brand marketing program ...............................................................7
3.2.1 Brand Elements:....................................................................................................................7
3.2.2 Integrating the brand into marketing activities and supporting marketing program ..........8
3.2.3 Marketing Campaign.............................................................................................................8
3.2.4 Leveraging Secondary associations.......................................................................................9
3.3 Measuring and Interpreting brand performance .........................................................................9
3.4 Growing and Sustaining Brand Equity.........................................................................................10
3.4.1 Brand strategy:....................................................................................................................10
3.4.2 Brand portfolio:...................................................................................................................10
3.4.3 Mahindra Rise .....................................................................................................................11
3.4.4 Mahindra Eco and Xsongyong.............................................................................................11
4 References ..........................................................................................................................................12

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1 Objective
The objective is to have a deep dive and analyze the journey of Brand “Mahindra”, which started as
the automotive manufacturer for Willy Jeeps.
2 About Mahindra and Mahindra
Mahindra & Mahindra is the flag ship company of the Mahindra group and has rich history of more
than 7 decades now.
Founded as the steel trading company in 1945, Mahindra & Mahindra- or brand Mahindra has
been a synonym of strength, reliability, passion and quality in the Indian automobile industry as
well as a mind map in consumers.
The Mahindra story began in 1945 with two men on a mission. When J.C. and K.C. Mahindra met
Barney Roos, the inventor of the rugged “general purpose vehicle”, and had a flash of
inspiration:“Wouldn’t this iconic vehicle, invincible and unconquered in World War II, be ideal for
India’s terrain and its kutcha rural roads?”. The answer was the Willys jeep, the first utility vehicle
produced under license in India. Early pioneers of globalization, the brothers collaborated with a
wide range of international companies and before long, Mahindra’s reach extended to steel,
tractors, telecom and more.

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3 The strategic brand management process
The strategic brand management process of Brand Mahindra actually started in year 1994 and
picked up the speed with the launch of Mahindra Scorpio in year 2002.
Prior to the launch of Scorpio, Mahindra was known for jeep manufacturer ranging from offroading
and style statement vehicles like Willy and Classic 4x4, to MUV like Armada, marshall , commander
used by police forces and people residing in rural area.
Like any other brand management journey, with the launch of Mahindra Scorpio, Mahindra and
Mahindra , has gone through various cycles of design and implementation of marketing programs
and activities to
1. Identify and establish brand positioning
2. Planning and implementing brand marketing programs
3. Measuring and interpreting brand performance
4. Growing and sustaining brand equity
3.1 Identify and establish Brand Position:
Brand identification and positioning is the act of designing the companies offer and image so that
it occupies a distinct and valued place in target customer mind.
In 90’s , being the market leader for MUV, Mahindra and Mahindra, witnessed a serious
completion in urban market from TATA range of SUV and MUV. Therefore to maintain the Points
of parity, Mahindra and Mahindra had realigned their product and brand portfolio by :
 Redesign of Armada and Bolero to create match the comfort and aesthetics of the
competition
 Redesigning of MARSHAL – Mahindra’s hard top vehicles with more space and targeted
towards to stage as well as economic contract vehicles.
 Launch of INVADER to target upwardly mobile novae rich as a new personal off road
vehicles.
 Launch of multi utility vehicle CAMPER at Rs. 0.38 million.
These realignments were highly appreciated by the targeted audiences and had high recall. As is
evident from the adjoining graph, the fact that Bolero resulted in achieving a high opinion even

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though it was a new roll outpoints to the fact that M&M was successful in its portfolio
restructuring
However, since 90’s also coincided with beginning of a burgeoning of passenger segments in the
Indian automotive markets, MUV market was share was not more than 10-12 % , and SUV is niche
market , Mahindra & Mahindra realized the need of repositioning the brand .
Since the visual depiction or mental map or brand Mahindra in the minds of customer was of strong,
sturdy , big and off road vehicles . Therefore, with a vision of convincing the consumers about the
advantages or Points of difference, aligned with the current Mental map of the brand, Scorpio was
born.
3.1.1 Positioning and Brand promise
The idea behind the Scorpio was to create an SUV, but position it as Car plus for end users.
Therefore to have the core brand association, Scorpio was positioned/ marketed with following
features with a mantra “NOTHING ELSE WILL DO “
RationalBenefits
•Good looks
•Car like
comforts
•Great Value
EmotionalBenefits
•Ownership
Pride
•Thrill
•Excitement
•Power
RelationalBenefits
•Young
•Modern
•Premium
•City
Companion
•Extension of
lifestyle
•Cost
competiveve

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3.1.1.1 Target Customers
•Thirll of SUV
•Family Car
•Technology and Urban touch
•Safety and Reliability
Men
•Comfort
•Spacious and Luxurious
•Posistioing around car
•Competive price
Ladies
•Thrill of an SUV
•More power than normal car
•Competive price
•Technology and Urban touch
Youngsters

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3.2 Planning and Implementing Brand marketing program
Building brand equity requires creating a brand that consumers are sufficiently aware of and with
which they have a strong favorable and unique association . Therefore brand building process will
depend on
 Initial choices of brand elements and identities
 Marketing activities and supporting marketing plan
 Direct and Indirect brand associations
3.2.1 Brand Elements:
To reposition the Brand Mahindra in the market, Mahindra and Mahindra requires the strong
product brand as well as the related brand elements . Here is the list of brand elements with
which Scorpio was launched in market and created an impact
Brand Element Image Description
Brand Name : Scorpio NA
Conveys the outdoors, thrill,
adventure and dominance
Mahindra Logo
Represents Strength and
strong hold.
Brand Logo
 Metallic Font
reemphasizing
dominance
 Mighty muscular :
conveys the rough and
tough image of the
product
 Nothing else will do :
Conveys the urge for
ownership

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3.2.2 Integrating the brand into marketing activities and supporting marketing program
For the successful brand promotion , Mahindra and Mahindra had focused really focusses on the
product strategy , price strategy and distribution channel. Below listed are some measures aligned to
the 5 Ps of Marketing
3.2.3 Marketing Campaign
The marketing campaign for Mahindra Scorpio was designed to not only for Indian market but for
the international market too. Here are the common aspects of the campaign or TVC .
 the TV commercials were shot with foreign artists
 Mahindra Scorpio making grand and elegant entry
 Pride of Ownership for man
 Woman driving showcase ease of driving
 Nothing else will do Jingle to reemphasize No Compromise
 Dominance on road
The series of TVC, can be viewed at the https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH-3Lijuc-g
•Indeginiously Made in India from Scratch
•Designed for both rural and urban market
•Product was launched with catchy colors but had elegance
Product
•Offered Price was competent as compared to sedans and other SUVs
available and features offered
•Multiple variants to suite the spending capability of both young and oldPrice
•The complete sales force was revived with a mix of young and old people
•People were trainedPeople
•Showrooms were redesigned to provide a sporty as well as upmarket feel
•Phased apporach for product roll out starting with metrosPlace
•Hi-tech workshops were setup for the post sale service
•Existing dealers were given special training about the service deliveryProcess

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3.2.4 Leveraging Secondary associations
 Once the brand Mahindra Scorpio had proven itself in market, Mahindra & Mahindra targeted
Politian’s, including MPs, MLA as well as senior government officials. This indirect association
reemphasize the power , pride and dominance among the general customers
 In addition to this, association with Akshay kumar as brand ambassador communicates the
rough and tough along with elegance.
 The use of Scorpio in Movie Boss, communicates to target audience as Mahindra Scorpio as Boss
of SUV segment
 Organization of Mahindra Escape tours, re-iterates the best off road vehicle.
 Association with Movie Scorpion king , helped in brand awareness .
3.3 Measuring and Interpreting brand performance
With the aggressive marketing and supported execution plans , Mahindra was able to reposition
itself from a traditional MUV maker to a SUV or Car plus manufacturer. However this is not the
end. Competition was catching up and the brand requires Audit and Brand equity management .
Brand audit requires the understanding of sources of brand equity and from perspective of both
firm and consumer. Whereas, the brand equity management system offers research procedure
designed to provide timely, accurate and actionable information to marketers which can be used
to enhance the brand equity.
Therefore, to be ahead in competition, brand Mahindra does continues RnD and time to time
releases a marketing campaign about the specifics to enhance the brand equity
For Example
 TVC of Mahindra Scorpio in Deserts to showcase new mHawk engine and position as
offroader, hardcore and dominating
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGwJNxW0LfI
 TVC of Mahindra scorpio to highlight 13KMPL Mileage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_QRfzvwb_k

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 TVC of Mahindra Scorpio to highlight silent CRDe engine technology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqocU-q3C4k
 Latest TVC 2014 of new Scorpio to re-enforce, power, pride and a blend of SUV with
urban touch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvZHXclEj-Q
3.4 Growing and Sustaining Brand Equity
Managing brand equity mostly requires the expansion of your horizon ,especially when the
competition is rising and you are at the top . This includes revisiting the brand strategy and
managing brand equity over geographical boundaries and cultures .
3.4.1 Brand strategy:
Mahindra and Mahindra was riding high on the success of Scorpio and were consistently improvising
the product with time. However, the brand equity Mahindra was slipping due to the following
reasons
 With the increasing competition and expanding market, Scorpio was stuck in a particular
price segment with players like Renualt , Nissan entering in market and challenging the
leadership of Scorpio
 Brand Mahindra was getting shadowed Brand Scorpio and losing its edge
3.4.2 Brand portfolio:
To bring back Brand Mahindra as primary brand , Mahindra and Mahindra re-organized the brand
hierarchy and portfolio in 2010 and had taken following measures
 New Product XUV 500 was introduced in the portfolio as premium SUV , superior than
Scorpio
 Xylo was revived as the urban MUV , targeted for the commercial use
 Facelift old timer Bolero with comfort and asthetics , focused for the off road and rural
areas
 Acquired Xsongyong , included Rexton as luxuary SUV
 Revived Mahindra Thar for typical SUV on the lines of Willy with some comfort features
Here is the snapshot of new portfolio

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3.4.3 Mahindra Rise
As part of managing brand equity over time , Mahindra released a new Logo
Along with a new campaign called: Live Young Live Free . The TVC for “Live Young Live Free “
highlights all the products of Mahindra ie Thar ,XUV , Scorpio doing both off roading and City drive. The
theme is adventure which Mahindra was known initially, and now added a tag of comfort and
sophistication and dominance on road.
Moreover, new commercials of Scorpio also shows the perfect blend of offroad and on road drives.
3.4.4 Mahindra Eco and Xsongyong
As part of managing brand equity across geographies and cultures and market segments, Mahindra and
Mahindra has acquired Reve ( Battery operated car ) to tap the renewable energy segment and
Xsongyong, a Korean automaker to extend its brand overseas as well as to cater to premium SUV
segment
Bolero Scorpio Thar Verito
Xylo Rexton XUV 500 Quanto
Cash Cow
High end Prestige
Flanker
Cow

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4 References
 www.slideshare.com
 www.mahindra.com
 Www.youtube.com