Recycling
Without much news to report on from Mahindra & Mahindra or their US-based importer, Global Vehicles, some serious news recycling went down in the automotive cyberspace yesterday.
Autoblog Green added their two cents to the Mahindra EPA submission story that Automotive News broke over a week ago. We think some internet motor journalists had a few too many Corona’s for Cinco de Mayo. But the hardcore Mahindra fan will still want to check out the story. The Autoblog Green article is here. The Automotive News article is here. The PickupTrucks.com article is here. The Mahindra Planet article (with news of Mahindra’s SsangYong bid) is here.
Insider: “Government Has Nothing to Review”
Ward’s Autoworld did have a bit of insight yesterday. They quoted an unnamed Global Vehicles insider that told them Mahindra has still not submitted required paperwork to the EPA for approval. With an estimated 90 day timeframe for approval and arrival of the first US-bound TR20 and TR40 pickups, it will certainly be August before they are available. However, rumors heard on MahindraTruckForum.com call for a fall launch with a low-key promotion effort, and an 18-truck, cross-country caravan to promote the brand. Thanks Moulin6801!
StrawberryFrog?
Way, way back (in early February 2008) Global Vehicles announced that they had brought on internationally recognized ad agency StrawberryFrog to launch the advertising effort for Mahindra in the USA. At the time, StrawberryFrog had just missed out on landing the US account for Hyundai and were hungry for a US automotive account. At the time, a grass-roots advertising campaign was to be launched that would include mostly internet-based ad work and strategic print advertising. None of which materialized. Or maybe the advertising was so slick and clandestine that we just haven’t noticed…
Fast forward to yesterday and PRNewswire reports that Mahindra & Mahindra has globally hired StrawberryFrog to “develop a global Cultural Movement brand strategy”. We interpret that as unifying the Mahindra brand and making it globally recognizable. Much like General Electric is universally recognized whether or not you know that they make trains and jet engines in addition to light bulbs and home appliances.
"StrawberryFrog is helping us develop a Cultural Movement strategy, innovative global brand and digital strategy, as well as activation. We are impressed with StrawberryFrog's global track record in innovation, and excellence in strategy, technology, business, and creativity. They have demonstrated for us strategic and creative ingenuity and we are very satisfied with our collaboration." - Anand Mahindra, Vice-Chairman, Managing Director, Mahindra Group
So sayeth the man whose name is the brand. Will this mean that we will be seeing Mahindra truck advertising in the US soon? We certainly hope so!
Sources: As hyperlinked, and thanks to Moulin6801 for the tips and the image!
3 comments:
There's definitely been movement in the blogosphere in the last couple of days. But at this point all I want to hear is when the trucks will be coming. Mahindra needs to understand that there are quite a few truckers out there that can't wait to get their hands on a compact diesel workhorse.
The astroturfing efforts are pretty obvious, but I'm so interested in the product that I don't care.
My RWD Ranger is getting long in the tooth, a diesel-powered 4x4 truck that is somewhere close to the same size would be the ideal 20-year truck for me.
(Just so long as I can mail-order parts for the foreseeable future.)
Idiom alert: in the US, "truckers" drive 18-wheelers, or dump-trucks, or at least vehicles that require a CDL. People who drive pickup trucks are just normal folks who have pickups.
Having a global audience is great, but it can make a guy wonder if this whole site is astroturf...
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