What’s common between Nokia and Maruti Suzuki? They both are established brands who are fast losing their market share in India. 2 years ago they both were clear leaders in their segment, Nokia in Mobile Phones and Maruti in Small segment ‘Hatchback’ Cars.
They both are still market leaders in their segment but are fast 
losing their shares, and both for quite different reasons- Nokia is losing market share to Indian Mobile makers like ‘Micromax/Lava’ who are creating very cheap phones with all ‘Smart Phones’ like features while Maruti Suzuki is losing them to tens of other International Car makers who are creating Cars for urban middle class Indians.
Reports say that Maruti Suzuki’s market share dropped below 50% for the first time in last 25 years. In last one year alone its market share dropped 6% to 47%. On the 
other hand Nokia has seen a dip in market share from 64% in ‘08-09 to 52.2% in ‘09-10. This is mainly due to the local brands which have cropped up in Indian market.
One of the main reasons for other brands (both in Mobile and Cars) to capture market share so quickly has been their aggressive marketing strategy over TV. Micromax and Karbonn were major sponsors during IPL/FIFA and that has helped them gain a good market share. Similar was for Car makers, with Nissan promoting Micra, Honda promoting Jazz, GM promoting Spark and Beat.
It was surprising to see no major ad spend from both Nokia and Maruti Suzuki side until very recently. It seems that they both are now really worried about their losing market share- The proof of this lies in the theme of Ads which are launched from both of these brands.
Today they are NOT trying to promote any major product or feature, but are trying to play legacy game! Maruti with it’s ads is sending the message ‘India’s most fuel efficient Car maker’ and ‘Car with Best Resale value’ etc. Nokia is also back on TV with ad for its new ‘low cost’ phone C1 series and sending across the message of trust and reliability.
Do you think such ads will help regain market share for these Big Brands, or you think audience is mature enough to neglect these ads and follow the trend? In my opinion more than TV commercials, its the product which these brands should launch keeping in mind the new competition and consumer’s changed outlook. What say?
Comments
Customers are much better informed now and they have got more reliable and proven choices. Maruti flourished in the era of Fiats and Ambassadors, they made decent cars and the public stuck with them for long. Now others have caught up and they are bound to lose some market share. Though 47% should not be bad in a rapidly maturing market
About mobile brands people have caught on to the fact that the manufacturers of these phone couple probably be the same while the companies extract a premium for their branding alone. I dont think I would like to spend more on the same phone just so that the brands can pay crores to hrithik or shah rukh
As you said, aggressive marketing by micormax/lava helped them to gain such share from the existing players. so i am sure if they do the god branding and aggressive marketing then it will for sure help them gain the shares.
But at the same time i would like to ad that only marketing will not help them, but hey have to come up with innovative features and plans for their respective products
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