New Delhi: So, the fourth generation of the Swift is out. From the days of the Concept-S being displayed at Auto Expo in January 2004 and launch at the Paris Motor Show in September the same year, the Swift has surely come a long way. It is one of India’s most popular modes of personal transport, across body styles and even across two-wheelers and four-wheelers.
Forget the numbers. They are the result. The reason is that the Swift has catered to a certain “mindset” in the Indian automobile market. It appeals to more of the right brain than the left. It is more on the lines of a Katana or Hayabusa than a practical, spacious, economical, commuter motorcycle. It is an extension of the driver’s personality.
When launched in May 2005 in India, it was about the young, ambitious and proud Indian. It was launched without a television commercial. Instead, it was launched in the Hindi movie “Bunty aur Babli” coinciding with its physical launch. It was possibly India’s first “viral” campaign using all the online platforms available then. Photos of its camouflaged ‘mules’ were doing the rounds since December 2004. Café Coffee Day launch a cappuccino called Swift two months before the vehicle came out. The product planning team, sources say, positioned it against the Honda City and not the Hyundai Getz, which was its logical and rational competitor. This was a product launched from the outside in…defining the customer first and thereby defining the product, including the feature package. Hence its first communication tagline of “You’re the fuel!”Twenty years later, its fourth generation intends to cater to yet another new Indian customer, the ‘Gen-Z’.
My limited understanding of this generation says that it is a mix of being driven by both societal causes as much as self-gratification. It is heroic and hedonistic at the same time. The brands it wishes to associate with are not just physical manifestations but also espousing causes and candour. Basically, twenty years later, the Swift has a tougher task at hand to cater to its intended customer type and carve out its own space, as before.
To call itself “epic” at its very launch is a bit too presumptuous. Einstein never called himself “genius”. Nor does Apple call itself “cool”. Basically, the wrong tone of voice. Self-laudatory. Something the gen-Z does not appreciate much, especially in the social media chatter.
To price itself close to INR .10.00 lakhs is simply preposterous. This is a vehicle supposed to cater to the younger Indian, not necessarily the rich one. This is not the Baleno or the Fronx. This is the rebellious, opinionated, confident young Indian into his / her first job, cocking a snook at those who take safer decisions in life. Pricey? Profiteering? Again something the gen-Z does not take too kindly.
In 2005 you were addressing the millennial, an entirely new kind of customer for both Maruti Suzuki as well as India. You needed disruption then, in the product and the entire eco-system you created around it, right from its styling to making Bunty and Babli make love in an orange Swift on celluloid. In 2024 you are addressing the gen-Z, an entirely new kind of customer for both Maruti Suzuki. You need the same level of disruption, once again. The styling carries on from the third generation, and you are offering an AMT??!! Evolutionary. Not done with the gen-Z.
Does this mean I am writing off the new Swift? Not one bit. It is still a Swift, after all. Still cheeky. Still much funkier and cooler than what others offer. But for the pathetic AMT, which is a massive let down for a car that is supposed to have ‘dynamism’ oozing from its pores. It deserves a proper AT. The problem is that just because you use a parts bit common to the Baleno and the Fronx, you start thinking that is it like them, in its ethos. That feeling then creeps into everything you do about and around the brand. You expect it to rest on its past glory and keep plodding on. That is an easy way out for both the product planner and brand manager.
The Swift is a tribe. The Baleno or Fronx are not.
The Swift is right brain. The Baleno and Fronx are not.
The Swift is extroverted. The Baleno and Fronx are not.
Maruti Suzuki once made a huge mistake by equating the Zen with the Wagon-R and Alto, just as part of a larger family and not as the pivot of a tribe. The disastrous Zen Estilo was its death knell, after 16 years.
The Swift is an incredible brand, though not an epic as yet. Be careful with diluting its DNA, in the greed to make more money. Or the 20-year olds might not take too kindly to this 20-year old!
