Mahindra planning to RISE! But where to?

Spanning more than 7 different sectors and a lot many more companies, Mahindra Group is one of the largest conglomerates in the country today. With the acquisition of Ssang Yong, it has given itself the headroom to expand itself internationally. So obviously having a specific positioning and branding campaign for the international segment makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it?

The fact that Mahindra started around 60 years back from an automotive business and has moved on to cover businesses as diverse as retail and agribusiness shows that the big guns at M & M would have worked doubly hard to build a strong positioning and branding strategy. From proving that Indians were second to none right after independence to the just launched ‘RISE’ campaign, the Mahindra Group has come a long way.

So why the RISE campaign?

The campaign talks about the necessity to rise in every sphere of life. When various employees, customers and other individuals were interviewed, the biggest question they asked was the relevance of M & M’s old philosophy of proving that Indian’s were second to none. Since M & M has a 10% foreign workforce and also a strong presence in international markets, there is no sense in continuing with it.

What is the RISE campaign all about?

It speaks about the desire to rise from the levels of mediocrity to excellence and to succeed efficiently by contributing to the growth of the organization and the society. It speaks about the optimism about the future by encouraging positive change and thinking out of the box.

People shouldn’t be fixed in limits by certain rules and laws which would act as an obstacle for them to develop their creativity and serving the customers efficiently.

The core values on which the entire corporate philosophy, tagline and branding campaign will be based are professionalism, improving the quality in everything the company does and putting the customer at the focus of everything.

How will the customers and employees know of this? How will it be measured?

The heads of all the 7 sectors are leading the initiative and efforts on to include this initiative in the HR policies, talent management and in each and everything associated with M & M. As per what Anand Mahindra says that the prime measurement criteria will be the customer promoter and employee promoter score. It calculates the scores on the basis of the number of people who recommend Mahindra to their friends, employees etc.

So where does Mahindra want to RISE to? 

One really doesn’t know about the financial impact of this campaign. M & M is spending around Rs 120 cr on this and hopes to generate 10x returns which could be revenues, profits or anything of that sort.

A move was needed from the “Indians are second to none” strategy to encompass the global community since M & M has grown way beyond its boundaries. Probably it may have been directed at the recessionary hit Western world which has sunken to record depths. An Indian company encouraging them to RISE, who knows?

This is probably the best way M & M can speak about all their brands from automotive to aerospace in just one breath. Since they are so different to each other, the necessity to RISE together in all them is necessary for the success of the organization.

The fact that this is coming at a time when with scams everywhere around, even a valued person like Ratan Tata is in danger of being DEVALUED, makes one look at it with real interest. Even though Anand Mahindra says that they thought of this three years back, the coincidence cannot be forgotten.

For such a campaign to be successful, the ROI in whatever way can be calculated has to be planned. Whether it is number of recommendations or the effects on sales or profits, if ROI isn’t calculated effectively, this would be another of those run of the mill campaigns.

What do you think?