Battle of the Brands: Automotives in India

Where is India’s auto industry headed in 2022? How are leading automakers keeping ahead of the curve on the preferences of the auto consumer? 

 

In the relaunch of the Talkwalker Battle of the Brands series, consumer and marketing insights will be delivered in four parts – bringing you a snapshot of emerging industry trends, followed by competitive analysis highlighting the best practices of leading brands. We kick off with insights into India’s automotive industry in February.

 

Talkwalker is a consumer intelligence acceleration platform, helping over 2,500 brands drive business impact with actionable consumer insights. The Battle of the Brands series utilises Talkwalker’s AI-enabled Blue Silk technology to analyse millions of images, videos, audio, conversations, and tags from across social media, blogs, news channels, and more. Providing a bird’s eye view of mentions, engagement, and sentiment surrounding some of the biggest brands in India today.

 

Driving into the digital age

 

The increased digitisation of car-purchasing journeys has become inevitable, especially given Indian consumers’ accelerated adoption of online shopping during the pandemic. Carmakers such as Maruti Suzuki have seized the opportunity to digitise up to 24 of 26 points of their car-buying journey, showing how car brands are adapting quickly in order to thrive in the new ‘phygital’ reality.

 

To engage the digitally-savvy auto consumer, carmarkers are also running 360-degree campaigns that inspire, educate, and tap into the voice of the consumer. Honda’s launch of the second-generation Amaze sedan last August saw a 74% spike in online conversations around the brand; Excitement built up during the new Honda Amaze TV campaign was sustained by community engagement around the #WinWithShaan contest, and through the featuring of user-generated content across Honda India’s social channels.

 

 

India’s used car market is poised for accelerated growth in 2022 and beyond, with experts estimating a compounded annual growth of 11% and sales to reach 8.3 million units by FY26. Used car platforms such as Cars24, CarDekho, Droom, and Spinny are riding on this boom in digital demand to increase their relevance by expanding platform offerings and outreach to India’s auto consumers in this segment. 

 

In a comparison of these platforms, Cars24 secured 66% share of voice based on online conversations in English over the past year – while its overall sentiment rating took a hit from the poorer reception of certain campaigns, evidencing the need for brands to close the gap on consumer intelligence.

 

 

The future of mobility

 

In the wake of Glasgow’s COP26 summit last year, online conversations around electric vehicles (EVs) saw a 65% year-on-year increase, according to Talkwalker analytics. As many governments, brands and consumers continue to push for sustainability, electric vehicles are also coming into view as a viable transport option for socially and environmentally-conscious consumers in India. 

 

 

Gen Z and Millennial voices in India, in particular, were major contributors to these ‘electric vehicle’ online conversations in the last quarter of 2021, their concerns around climate and sustainability mirroring worldwide trends.

 

How are carmakers in India keeping in touch with the latest conversation trends? What were some of the major highlights in India’s EV news and social conversations over the past year? And how are leading marketers navigating the fast-changing car-buying landscape? 

 

Stay tuned into the automotive edition of our Battle of the Brands series, for more.