Case Study: How Swaraj Tractors created farmers Facebook community to drive leads

Swaraj Tractors owned by Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. create a Farmers Facebook community of farmers to create leads and consumer-brand connect.

The Farmers Facebook community helped develop an 'emotional connect' with the brand as they moved away from the pricing strategy for its communication.

Brand

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd - Swaraj Tractors

Agency

VMLY&R

Category Introduction

In the Indian agriculture scenario, tractor sales are growing at 10% despite only a 3.2% rise in agricultural GDP over ten years. The current tractor population in the country is around 7 million.

As per the study in the category, farmer prefers to own a tractor rather than rent it. The positive market sentiment will trigger replacement demand with farmers exchanging old tractors for newbies. The Indian tractor industry is believed to be among the largest tractor markets in volume terms, contributing 35 percent of the global volumes. The total volumes globally (excluding India) grew at 3 percent in 2017, while the Indian industry saw a spike of over 20 percent.

Brand Introduction

Swaraj division is a tractor and farm equipment making company that is owned by Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. formerly known as Punjab Tractors Limited. The company was taken over by Mahindra Group in 2007 and subsequently, in 2009, the name was changed to Swaraj Division.

Since 70% of engineers in Swaraj are from an agricultural background, the brand is positioned as “By the Farmer, For the Farmer”.

Summary/Problem Statement

Although the primary objective of the brand was to build a Farmer’s community on Facebook, the strong engagement and analysis of data revealed that it could be used for business challenges too. Then came the business challenge and how social media could be leveraged to overcome it.

With a lot of clutter in the tractor market, there was a pressure to increase market shares as the competition had started with big campaigns communicating the low price offers and discounts. Traditionally, till 2018 the industry has been shy about building communication-based on price point.

Swaraj Tractors took a strategic decision to stay away from the competition’s tactic and went on further attempting to strengthen the emotional connect with farmers, thus creating a positive zeal in dealers as well as consumers. For potential customers, the challenge was to build a strong connection with emotional quotient, while keeping them away from the short-sightedness of discounts.

Objective

There were the following objectives of the campaign:

• Retain and Grow UP, MP and Gujrat markets
• Instill confidence in dealers
• Retain and gain consumer trust and confidence with revealing prices
• Increase sale during the festive season
• Image building for Swaraj

Brief

The aim of the campaign - #MaineChunaMeraSwaraj was to focus on building emotional connections with customers and dealers highlighting the RTB’s of the brand by creating strategic communication that takes the conversation away from the prices.

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Creative Idea

The brand took a back seat for the campaign and the core customer was at the front of the entire campaign. Farmers were the hero face of the campaign talking about their reasons to choose Swaraj tractors and why they stayed away from short term price benefits. The tone set was direct and hard-hitting.

Execution

By using the appropriate ideas, communication, and logo for Maine Chuna Mera Swaraj - the 360-degree campaign was created which encompassed digital, ATL and BTL.

On Digital, Facebook was one of the prime channels for the campaign.

Additional Touchpoints

Apart from social media channels, #MaineChunaMeraSwaraj was amplified on WhatsApp. Further, the campaign was amplified through events, OOH, and merchandises promoting 'Mera Swaraj' and driving awareness.

Results

Facebook:

• 15M+ impressions garnered
• 2.2M+ engagements recorded for season 1
• 15,000+ leads generated

Business

Impact

• Dealers: Highly motivated post the campaign launch
• Salesforce: High on confidence to see great reception from the customers of the campaign

Market Share

Swaraj retained its position in terms of market share and 15000+ high quality leads helped them increase sales volume