Land Rover uses experience to communicate its brand story: Ankur Kansal

Land Rover has been building a connect with Indian audiences through a series of off- road experience events as part of ‘The Above & Beyond Tour’. Initiated in 2013, these events provide customers with an opportunity to experience the true capability and composure of Land Rover vehicles in off-road conditions. ‘The Above & Beyond Tour’ effortlessly showcases the incredible capability of Land Rover vehicles, thereby strengthening the relevance of the vehicles for customers in India. Similar to this event, Land Rover organizes several such events to engage with its existing and potential customer base across India. These initiatives have been specifically designed in order to gain proximity and reach out to the constantly expanding customer base. 

In an interaction with Adgully, Ankur Kansal, Brand Director, Jaguar Land Rover India, speaks at length about ‘The Above & Beyond Tour’, the importance of creating experiences for customers, Land Rover’s marketing strategy for India and more. Excerpts:

What is the genesis of ‘The Above & Beyond Tour’? What is the objective of such an initiative?

‘The Above & Beyond Tour’ is a series of drive experience events that we organise with Land Rover vehicles. These experiences allow us to bring the brand closer to our customers. For any brand to have a sustainable future, it’s important to build trust and credibility with the customer and we do this by delivering the experiences in a Safe, Authentic, Relevant and Engaging manner. This also helps us in differentiating the Land Rover experiences.

All events are conducted by a highly trained team of Land Rover Experience Instructors. These -individuals are trained as per the global standards of Land Rover and all events are run as per Land Rover Experience standards and procedures. Thus, safety is paramount.  We believe in maintaining authenticity in terms of vehicles and the track used. The vehicles that we provide to our guests are exactly the same as what a customer would buy from the showroom. So, the vehicles are not modified for the purpose of this experience. The track used is a naturally available terrain which again is not modified and this makes the overall experience extremely authentic for our customers. Land Rover uses experience to communicate its brand story: Ankur Kansal. Further, the experience is highly engaging as the customers actually get to drive the Land Rover vehicles over the chosen terrain, while the Land Rover Experience Instructor only guides the customer. The most important factor, however is relevance. Given, the road conditions one encounters in India, on a day-to-day basis and the unpredictable weather systems that may result in water-logged city roads, ‘The Above & Beyond Tour’ demonstrates the capability of Land Rover that lends itself perfectly to overcome these challenges. 

How has The ‘Above & Beyond Tour’ evolved since its inception? How has it helped Land Rover build the brand in India?

The first such event was conducted in India in 2013. When we started in 2013, of course, it was limited to a few events in the top cities in India. Since then, we have expanded the reach of ’The Above & Beyond Tour’ to Tier-2 and -3 cities across a variety of formats. We have smaller formats that we use via mobile terrapods, training programs where customers get to drive several models of Land Rover and then we have international expeditions. . The main objective is to maximise reach and take our brand as close as possible to the customers. 

What was the strategy behind the ‘Discovery with a Purpose’ campaign that you had conducted earlier?

‘Discovery With A Purpose’ was part of the launch campaign of the 5th generation Land Rover Discovery, which is Land Rover’s most ingeniously designed and versatile SUV. This ingenious and versatile design provides purpose and reason to everything that Discovery has to offer and as such the launch idea of the Discovery needed to have a purpose as well, besides being unique. We thus designed ‘Discovery With A Purpose’ campaign and the purpose was to raise awareness and create conversations about India’s endangered wildlife.

What forms the core of Land Rover’s marketing and communications for India?

First and foremost, we make sure that our products are launched with highly competitive prices, while offering something completely new to our customers. For example, if you look at our range that includes Discovery Sport, it is the only SUV in its segment that offers a 5+2 seating configuration.  It is also important to be able to tell a very compelling, relevant and differentiated brand story to our customers ‘The Above & Beyond Tour’ is one such method of telling the Land Rover brand story in a differentiated fashion. Further we focus on delivering a best in class digital experience. If you go to findmeasuv.in you will see that we have created this gateway for customers to have a seamless digital experience. Land Rover uses experience to communicate its brand story: Ankur Kansal. While the digital experience is important, it is also critical that we create world-class retailer facilities. We have 27 retailer outlets across 25 cities in India that provide a world-class sales and service experience. And then we focus on after sales service as well. We have a five-year service plan that is offered at 50 per cent cost, so that our customers can enjoy complete peace of mind during the ownership cycle. This is how we are building the brand in the Indian market.

Marketing
@adgully

News in the domain of Advertising, Marketing, Media and Business of Entertainment

More in Marketing