The first car ran on India's roads in 1897. Today, the automobile industry in India is one of

the largest in the world and one of the fastest growing globally. India's passenger car and

commercial vehicle manufacturing industry is the sixth largest in the world, with an annual

production of more than 3.9 million units in 2011.

More and more cars of all sizes, hues and features, continue to adorn Indian roads, with

global brands converging to Indian markets, with new models, on a regular basis.

The purchase of an automobile continues to be a big decision for most buyers. Whether it is

the first four-wheeler purchase by an individual, or an upgrade to a bigger and better car, or

even the purchase of an additional vehicle in the family, all of these experiences involve a

fair amount of research, planning, thinking and reviewing process. Purchase of an

automobile also involves an active process of seeking opinions, and hence word-of-mouth

referrals play a significant role, in the final decision of purchase. Thousands of potential and

existing customers are turning “social” by the day. Every second, hundreds of posts,

comments and reviews about automobiles get posted on social media, which are read and

believed, too. In fact, a high percentage of potential customers actually refer to these

reviews and it acts as a key decisive factor for them while making their purchases.

What are the key factors users are talking about prior to purchase? What kind of questions

do they have about automobiles? What are people sharing about their experiences with a

vehicle? Are they happy? Or not? How would their openly expressed opinions affect the

purchase decisions of others? These are the kind of questions that any automobile brand in

India, may have.

Keeping the above in mind, we analyzed a social customer’s perspective towards the top

automobile brands operating in the Indian market. The following report contains this

analysis that will help the reader understand how each of these brands fares in the mind of

an average Social Indian Consumer.

Introduction

We used Radian6, a sophisticated, easy-to-use, real time monitoring tool to extract

conversations about the following automobile brands having presence in India:

The social media presence of these brands on Facebook and Twitter was also analyzed, and

fan and follower counts were compared. For the above brands, keywords included the brand

names and their car vehicle models priced up to INR 25 lakhs. These keywords were

incorporated in Radian6 and all conversations from October 01, 2012 to October 30, 2012

were captured. On each of these conversations, totally numbering 41,890, was analyzed for

specific aspects of the vehicles and broadly classified into 4 aspects – Features, Looks, Pricing

and Safety, and the overall conversation-level sentiment was noted.

The social media presence of these brands on Facebook and Twitter was also analyzed, and

fan and follower counts were compared. Also compared, was the fan feedback on these

Facebook pages, to measure the relationship between their engagement level and the fan

base.

Abstract

Table of Contents

Segment wise Share of Voice 1

Social Media Presence 2

Aspect wise Analysis 3

Media Type Analysis 3

Brand Reputation and Advocacy 4

Influencers 5

Summary 6

Share of Voice

Out of the total 41,890 conversations analyzed, the Hatchback segment appears to be the most preferred, which

explains the tendency of Indian customers to use smaller cars that cost less. SUVs, on the other hand, follow

closely, most likely due to their ability to perform well on various terrains and their sturdy build. Sedans, most of

which are considered to be more “luxurious” of the vehicles, are spoken about the least, but do not lag too far

behind, in terms of share of voice.

A healthy mix of the segments is observed, as far as the share of voice for the type of vehicles is concerned, with

the Hatchback segment garnering a much higher commentary than others.

GIVEN THE POTENTIAL ACROSS THREE SEGMENTS, UNDERTAKING A SOCIAL MEDIA

LISTENING ACTIVITY WOULD HELP THE BRANDS TO ALIGN TO COMMUNICATION

OPPORTUNITIES AND MARKET TRENDS.

Comparison between popular vehicle Brands

and vehicle segments in India

1

A glimpse of how automobile brands in India fare on

the two most popular social media platforms

*Average of last 20 posts taken till October 22, 2012 (6:30 PM IST). **Consolidated Facebook likes and Twitter Followers of different models of these manufacturers were considered, as individual brand pages are unavailable.

Social Media Presence

Tata and Mahindra, due to the sheer popularity of their vehicle models, manage pages dedicated to these models

and hence, generate tremendous buzz and engagement from its audience. Volkswagen, despite having a higher

fan base than most other automobile brands, receives below average feedback from its followers. The recent

launch of Hyundai Eon generated a significant amount of likes and shares on Hyundai’s Facebook page. Nissan, on

the other hand, generated higher number of shares on posts containing images of its international models.

POPULAR VEHICLE MODELS HAVE THEIR OWN DISTINCT IDENTITIES. THAT IS WHY,

THESE MODELS, AND NOT THEIR MANUFACTURERS ARE THE ACTUAL “BRANDS” ON

SOCIAL MEDIA.

Average of Likes

Average of Comments

Average of Shares

2

What people discuss the most when conversing

about automobile brands? Aspect wise Analysis

Twitter, due to its short updates and ease of reading, is the preferred

platform for conversing about automobile brands. It is followed by the

more elaborate platforms such as Forums and Blogs, where detailed

information can be shared and it facilitates participation of multiple users

who can post their opinions.

APART FROM THE USUAL TWITTER, BRANDS NEED TO BE

PRESENT ON FORUMS AND PARTICIPATE IN DISCUSSIONS

THAT WILL NOT ONLY HELP THEM ANSWER QUERIES, BUT

ALSO ENSURE THEY ARE TALKED ABOUT MORE.

Where does the chatter take place? Media Type Analysis

Quite evidently, the product pricing is the most important aspect for people while considering automobiles, so much

that discussions about safety take a backseat. Features are also almost equally considered while conversing about

car brands. The above graph clearly explains the customer psyche in India.

FOR POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS, IT IS AN ESSENTIAL THING TO KNOW HOW MUCH A CAR

AFFECTS THEIR WALLETS WHEN IT IS BOUGHT.

3

Proprietary Social Wavelength metrics

comparing automobile brands

Brand Advocacy

Matrix

Brand Reputation and Advocacy

The Brand Reputation Index is

the relation between the shares

of sentiments of the brands, with

respect to the volume of

sentiments of the industry. The

BRI is helpful in accurately

ranking each brand on the basis

of its sentiment and the

sentiment of the industry. It is

observed that Maruti Suzuki,

despite a lower volume of

positive conversations than Tata

Motors, has a much better BRI

due to its comparatively higher

share of positive conversations

than neutral and negative ones.

The Brand Advocacy Matrix,

another useful metric, shows

each brand as a data point in a

chart. This chart positions each

brand according to its volume of

conversations and Brand

Reputation Index. Two major

“Indian” brands, Tata Motors

and Maruti Suzuki generate high

advocacy and volume of

conversations, which places them

in the Star Quadrant. Other

Brands generally account for a

much lower volume of

discussions, and therefore need

to generate more buzz to

increase advocacy.

SINCE A HUGE VOLUME

OF NEGATIVE

CONVERSATIONS EXIST

ABOUT BRANDS, A

MECHANISM TO

ADDRESS COMPLAINTS

AND QUERIES NEEDS TO

BE BUILT. THIS WILL

HELP ACHIEVE BETTER

POSITIONING AND BRI. The Brand Reputation Index is a metric derived by Social Wavelength to measure the relationship between the sentiments of brands. The Brand Advocacy Matrix plots the BRI in relation to the brands volume and presents a clear comparison between brands.

4

5

RT @HorribleHarshad: @anandmahindra heading home in a Xylo, like a

bunch of other people. Maybe India comes home in a Mahindra :)

@AnandMahindra (643,582 Followers, 4,497 Updates)

On the road with @SwatySMalik swatys in her #Mahindra XUV

pic.twitter.com/HGN4M33m

@GulPanag (449,463 Followers, 55,526 Updates)

Maruti's new Alto gets 6,500 bookings before launch |via

@EconomicTimes http://t.co/uPqgb3Se

@TinuCherian (195,072 Followers, 39,743 Updates)

RT @hormazdsorabjee: Here's our review of the Mahindra Quanto.

Refinement for a 3-cyl engine impressive but performance a bit

disappointing. http://t.co/3mGbohCE

@TheMehulPatel (137,856 Followers, 28,849 Updates)

RT @SHIJINSHYAM: Another Pic of @RannvijaySingha at Etios Motor

Racing Event at Gurgaon oct 6th 2012..... http://t.co/VO61lk4V

@RannvijaySingha (105,677 Followers, 2,893 Updates)

Influencers

The “Indian” automobile brands are preferred more than their foreign counterparts in India, the

three accounting for 53% of the share of voice.

The popularity of the various automobile segments in India is comparable, with Hatchbacks and

SUVs being slightly more popular than Sedans.

Price is the most important factor in discussions about automobiles, followed by features. Together,

these are the primary aspects of discussions in 72% of the conversations. Safety is considered to be

the least important of the aspects, with only 8% of the discussions about it.

For fans to engage with a brand, the quality of content is an essential factor. As a matter of fact,

posts from a brand with a lower number of fans may generate higher engagement than those of a

page with a much higher fan volume.

There is a healthy mix of people discussing about automobiles on various media platforms. Those on

Twitter generate more content due to the microblog’s facilitation of shorter updates, which have a

higher chance of being read. Conversely, Forums and Blogs are used by people who like to post

detailed reviews about brands, and replies and comments to these reviews, in addition to the

reviews themselves, are further read by people.

The share of the sentiments for a brand, determine its positioning in the industry, in terms of

sentiment. The Brand Reputation Index gives a clear view to this observation, where a brand with a

higher share of negative conversations (from the total conversations about itself), may end up being

placed lower in ranking, irrespective of how many conversations it accounts for in the industry.

The Brand Advocacy Matrix shows that volume and sentiment can greatly influence a brand’s

positioning in the industry, and a higher volume of discussions for few brands may push the

positioning of other brands lower.

Keeping a track on influential conversations, especially negative ones, is essential to ensure that it

does not snowball into a major crisis. Also, popular automobile forums such as teambhp.com, need

to be continuously monitored to track conversations about brands.

To put it simply, since social media conversations about brands can potentially make or break their

reputation, and these need to be continuously tracked and responded to, wherever required.

Summary

6

Social Wavelength is India’s largest social media agency. Founded in 2009, we are now a team of 150+,

managing social media for 60+ brands and having presence in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bengaluru.

We are authorized resellers in India for Radian6, one of the leading social media monitoring tools in the

world.

Social Wavelength has been recognized as a “Red Herring Asia 100” company for its innovative business

model. Earlier this year, we won the WAT award for being “Social Media Agency of the Year.”

For Business Enquiries:

Mihir Karkare Vice President mkarkare@socialwavelength.com Mobile: 9870399493

About Social Wavelength