Indiantelevision.com Team

(12 March 2008 7:30 pm)

MUMBAI: Automobile major General Motors (GM) will launch a new television commercial (TVC) to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Chevrolet in India. The TVC will go on air by the end of this week.

GM plans to spend around 70 to 80 per cent of its marketing budget in the production and promotion of its ad campaigns.

Speaking to indiantelevision.com, GM India general manager (marketing and product planning) Gaurav Gupta said, "We want to convert ourselves from a house of brands to a branded house. And to do so, we will be increasing our marketing budget by almost 50 per cent and we will be spending about 70 to 80 per cent of that budget in ad campaigns."

In addition to TV channels, the new ad film will run across digital video platform. GM will also be applying methods like in-film branding to market its products worldwide.

"We have already done the in-film advertising of Chervolet in Tara Rum Pum. Right now, we are talking to production houses whereby we can use embedded advertising for our in-films which are to be released in the near future," added Gupta.

GM India has also announced the launch of "The Cashless Ownership Offer," which takes care of labour cost, parts for all services, maintenance and running repairs for a period of three years or 45,000 kilometres, whichever occurs earlier.

The company has invested more than US$300 million in its second vehicle manufacturing facility in India at Talegaon, Maharashtra. The plant is slated to open in the 4th quarter this year. While the trial production of GM's cars will begin next week, the commercial production will begin at the end of this year.

"GM India's second plant will have an initial production capacity of 140,000 vehicles per year, with the capability for significant expansion in line with rising market demand. It is scheduled to begin regular production by the end of this year," said GM India president and MD Karl Slym.

Besides investing $200 million in its power train engine manufacturing company, GM India is expanding its dealership and service centre network to support the market demand for its products.

"Apart from launching the power train engine manufacturing company, we intend to have in place 125 sales points and 135 service outlets across the country, compared to the current tally of 108 sales points and 113 service outlets by the end of this year," said GM India director (operations) S Garg.

In 2007, GM India has experienced an annual growth of 74 per cent on sales of 60,032 vehicles. The company aims at a 10 per cent growth by 2010 from its current posittion.