The Logan was one of the most-awaited car launches of 2007. On it rode Mahindra & Mahindra's second shot at the car market and French auto giant Renault's first shot at India.

A year down the road, the Logan has been spruced up and actor Kunal Kapoor is on their commercial giving the brand some star push.

Rajesh Jejurikar, Managing Director of Mahindra Renault said he is delighted that Logan is number three in the C-segment which is very competitive.

He added that positioning with respect to Logan is changing. "When it was launched, it was a product-based position. At that stage, we needed to establish product and the advertising about a product benefit or a product attribute. We are now taking it to the next level, which is creating an emotional connect. So, we are changing the tag and moving the product proposition up to a higher level and connecting with an emotional reason."

Excerpts from CNBC-TV18’s exclusive interview with Rajesh Jejurikar:

Q: Are you happy 30,000 cars sold or thereabouts in the first year? Is that what you had targeted or hoped for?

A: We are happy with the perspective that Logan, a completely new launch in India, has been among the top three players in the C-segment. The C-segment is very competitive. So, Logan at number three in the competitive segment is something we are delighted about.

Q: The C-segment grew about 15% last year. Were you expecting it to grow more a couple of years ago?

A: No. We were expecting the C-segment to grow at 15% but in the period between 2005-07, the segment did not grow as much. So, the starting base volume of the segment itself was lower. But 15% was the rate of growth we were expecting from the market. During the two years in between, the category did not grow much.

Q: You have roped in Kunal Kapoor for your new campaign. Why is that? What is it that you are going to communicate through him?

A: One of the things we did was to embark on an innovation process. We worked on trying to see in what way we can get breakthrough in this category. As a part of that process, we went and met a lot of customers and those who bought and those who did not buy. We started identifying what made people buy the Logan. There are several very loyal and delighted Logan customers. Why did they choose the Logan? The answer that kept coming back was they made a very thoughtful choice. We started working on this idea, which is that there are many people who are swimming with the tide today, and not asking why are they doing this. We came up with the idea which said there is a set of people who want to ask the question instead of just blindly swimming with the tide.

Q: When we look at the campaign with which you launched the Logan, the key point that you kept pushing in your communication was the wide body spaciousness. Is that something you don’t want to push much or did it not find the kind of appeal you were hoping it would with your consumers?

A: One of the reasons we were pushing space was it was very tangible. When we said it has great space or it is the widest car, customers would come in and tangibly feel it.

To say you have the greatest fuel efficiency, you want people to experience that. Today, when we say we have great fuel efficiency it is because there are many people who are going to testify and validate that Logan has great fuel efficiency.

There is an experience which builds on word of mouth.

Q: You are saying that the positioning is not going to change too much with this new communication?

A: It is changing in two respects; (1) when we launched it was a product-based position and at the stage where we started off we needed to establish product and the advertising was about a product benefit or a product attribute. We are now taking it to the next level, which is creating an emotional connect. So, we are changing the tag and moving the product proposition up to a higher level and connecting with an emotional reason.

Q: Won’t you think that you lacked in your earlier communication for the brand and the goals that you had for it?

A: Actually, when we mapped the launch campaign, we broke it up into two parts. We did say that in the first phase we want to establish product knowledge and that is very important when you are launching a new product.

You want people to know what your product is about and the benefits on which they can buy a product.

Having done that, it is much easier to ladder that to an emotional benefit and right now we are stepping up the strategy to the next level, which is to say what is the emotional reason why.

Q: Renault saw phenomenal success with the Logan. They worked on its pricing, isn’t it? You did not do that in India? Why is that?

A: Affordability is important and value is important as well. But in India nobody wants to buy a car because it is a cheap car.  When you look at the various things that they buy, the most expensive asset is obviously their house followed by their car. Many more people see you in the car than in your house. So, your car is really who they are to many people.

Q: You are saying that the price positioning was not something that you would want to communicate too much in India, because it wouldn’t really appeal to people?

A: You want price to be a delight to an overall offering; you don’t want price to be the reason for buying. There is a reason for buying and with the new campaign; we are saying the answer is with the Logan. But price is something we want people to discover as they experience the product because then they connect the value that they are getting with the fact that it is actually a great deal at that price.

Q: There is a perception that the Logan is not really a very good looking or stylish car. Is that something that you need to counter at all? It seems fleet operators find the car attractive and that comes in the way of personal car buying.

A: The famous quote is ‘beauty lies in the eye of the beholder’.  So, there are many people, especially those who are moving from a Hatch, which is the prime target group for the Logan.

Q: Is the Swift Dzire something that you need to figure out how to deal with because price is more competitive?

A: Swift DZire is about the same price as the Logan. So, it is not priced more competitively; it is about the same price. So, our primary target group though was moving the Hatch customers and they don’t have a problem with the styling of the Logan. Many of them think its very well-styled product.

Q: You are seeing interest rates go up, inflation go up and are seeing the economy people beginning to sound some kind of concerns. How is that going to impact this brand like it would impact anything else? You have a capacity of about 50,000 cars at your Nasik plant. What are you looking at next year given that you did about close to 30,000 this year?

A: There are environmental factors, which are not going to be easy on most industries and not just the car industry. We are hoping to keep our market share and ranking intact and hopefully grow our numbers as well.