Brands
Maruti Suzuki Smart Finance accelerates past two million car loan mark
MUMBAI: Fasten your seatbelts! Maruti Suzuki Smart Finance (MSSF) is racing ahead, crossing the landmark of two million car loans in just five years. Bossing the car-buying experience since its launch in 2020, the platform has partnered with 28 finance institutions to offer seamless, transparent, and hassle-free financing solutions across the Arena and Nexa channels.
Maruti Suzuki India senior executive officer for marketing and sales, Partho Banerjee, said, “Five years ago, Maruti Suzuki pioneered a digital, end-to-end car financing solution, transforming the car-buying experience in India. Today, almost 50 per cent of our car finance cases are being done through MSSF, reflecting our commitment to enhancing the convenience of our customers with innovative digital solutions. Furthermore, using this platform, customers can get their cars financed 24×7, 365 days a year from anywhere.”
Designed to put customers in the driver’s seat, MSSF offers tailored loan plans, competitive financing options, and rapid approvals, sometimes within a day. The platform’s industry-first features, including on-road price configuration, credit score-based interest rates, pre-approved and customised loan offers, and real-time loan status tracking, have made car financing faster, more flexible, and effortless.
Brands
Godrej clarifies ‘GI’ identifier after logo similarity debate
Says GI is not a logo, will not replace Godrej signature across products.
MUMBAI: In a branding storm where shapes did the talking, Godrej is now spelling things out. Godrej Industries Group (GIG) has issued a clarification on its newly introduced ‘GI’ identifier, addressing questions around its purpose and design following a wave of online criticism. At the centre of the debate were two concerns: whether the new mark replaces the long-standing Godrej logo, and whether its geometric design mirrors other corporate identities.
The company has drawn a clear line. The Godrej signature logo, it said, remains unchanged and continues to be the sole logo across all consumer-facing products and services. The ‘GI’ mark, by contrast, is not a logo but a corporate group identifier intended for use alongside the Godrej signature or company name, and aimed at stakeholders such as investors, media and talent rather than consumers.
The need for such a distinction stems from the 2024 restructuring of the broader Godrej Group into two separate business entities. With both continuing to operate under the same Godrej name and signature, the identifier is positioned as a way to differentiate the Godrej Industries Group at a corporate level.
The rollout, however, triggered a broader conversation on design originality. Critics pointed to similarities between the GI mark’s geometric composition and logos used by companies globally, raising questions about distinctiveness.
Responding to this, GIG said its intellectual property and legal review found that such overlaps are common in minimalist, geometry-led design systems. Basic forms such as circles and rectangles appear across dozens of brand identities worldwide, the company noted.
It added that the identifier emerged from an extensive design process and was chosen for its simplicity, allowing it to sit alongside the Godrej signature without competing visually. While acknowledging that elemental shapes may appear less distinctive in isolation, the group emphasised that the mark is part of a broader identity system that includes a custom typeface, sonic branding and other proprietary elements.
Following legal and ethical assessments, the company said it found no impediment to using the identifier, reiterating that the GI mark is a corporate tool not a consumer-facing symbol.
In short, the logo isn’t changing but the conversation around it certainly has.
