Japan’s MicroAd goes to India

MicroAd, one of the leading online ad platform companies in Japan is expanding its footprint in the region by setting up an office in India. To focus on the growing digital advertising market in India, the agency has established MicroAd India, its local subsidiary.

Currently MicroAd India will offer the company’s flagship ad service MicroAd BLADE in the country. It is an integrated management platform for display advertisements for advertisers and agencies. “MicroAd possesses original targeting technologies and ad platforms that serve optimum advertisements based on the advertiser’s goals. MicroAd India will offer the “MicroAd BLADE” service and work to develop the ad technology market in India. It is aiming to have a total of 250 companies adopt its products by September 30, 2013,” the company statement said.

According to the company, despite the current small size of the online advertising market in India, there is a huge growth potential as more and more brands are looking to tap into the growing online population in India. The online population is 130 million people, which is the second largest number in Asia after China. MicroAd India is also expecting to target the growing travel and tourism sites, and e-commerce market in India. It is focussing on meeting the need for re-targeting and search engine advertising that is growing in India just like in Japan.

Maruti Suzuki Dec sales rise 3% at 95,145 units

Maruti Suzuki's total sales in December rose 3.2 percent year-on-year to 95,145 units, helped by strong demand for its Ertiga multi-utility vehicle and compact DZire, even as sales of mini and mid-size cars continued to decline.

Maruti Suzuki's total sales in December rose 3.2 percent year-on-year to 95,145 units, helped by strong demand for its Ertiga multi-utility vehicle and compact DZire, even as sales of mini and mid-size cars continued to decline.

The India's largest passenger car maker by sales sold 82,073 units in the domestic market, up 6 percent from a year ago. But exports were down 11 percent to 13,072 units, last month.

Passenger car sales in India have taken a hit over the last one year as customers shunned petrol cars amid high fuel prices and expensive loans.

Maruti's sales of the predominantly petrol engine powered mini cars - 800, Alto, A-Star and WagonR - declined 15 percent to 32,797 units, despite good response to the newly launched Alto 800.

Demand for the company's mid-size sedan SX4 continues to be low with dispatches plunging 61 percent to 329 units in Dec. Van sales were also flattish at 7,897 units.

However, sales of the DZire compact sedan accelerated 42 percent to 13,076 units and sales of the compact hatbacks - Swift, Estilo and Ritz - gained 9 percent to 22,482 units.

Strong demand for Ertiga, which was launched in April 2012, continues to drive Utility vehicle sales. Maruti sold 5,447 UVs, including Ertiga, Gypsy and Grand Vitara, last month, compared with just 238 units, a year ago.

So far this financial year (Apr-Dec), Maruti's sales are up 7 percent at 8.28 lakh units. While domestic sales have gained 8 percent, exports are down 3 percent.

Maruti's shares hit a 52-week high of Rs 1,567 on NSE on Thursday morning.  At 10:45 hrs, the stock was at Rs 1,552.50, down 0.3 percent.

Maruti Suzuki, Maharashtra to promote road safety

India's largest car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki India Limited and Maharashtra Highway Police on Thursday formally announced a partnership to promote road safety in the state wherein a co-branded vehicle will cover 9 cities to spread awareness on safe driving practices across schools, colleges and communities.


The initiative was formally inaugurated by Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil.
From Maharashtra Highway Police, K.P.Raghuvanshi, Vijay Kambale and Rashmi Karandikar were present.

Speaking on the occasion, Hena Kausar, AGM, Maruti Suzuki, said, “I am sure with this initiative, in partnership with the Maharashtra Highway Police, we shall be able to reach the maximum audience to promote and instill safe driving practices.”

During the Road Safety Campaign, a Maharashtra Highway Police and Maruti Suzuki co-branded vehicle shall move across the targeted cities namely Pune, Nashik, Baramati, Thane, Kalyan, Panvel, Nerul, Vashi and Khargar covering residential areas and colleges in the vicinity of Maruti Driving Schools.
This vehicle will deliver road safety messages; speeches also initiate on-the-spot games/competitions to make the audience aware of safe practices.

Leaflets pertaining to Road signs and information of Maruti Driving Schools across Maharashtra shall also be distributed.
A separate event is also planned in Pune, where a simulator would be displayed and will be used by dignitaries present.

The Maruti Driving School training book will be promoted by distributing 350 copies to the winners of painting competitions organized by Maharashtra Highway Police in various colleges across Maharashtra.
These will be distributed by Deputy Commissioners/other police officials of the respective areas.

Toyota Kirloskar sales down 24 per cent in December

Toyota Kirloskar Motor today reported 24.31 per cent decrease in its car sales at 12,071 units in December 2012.

The company had sold 15,948 units in the corresponding month previous year, Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM) said in a statement.

For the entire 2012 calendar year, TKM's total sales increased 40.04 per cent to 1,90,663 units from 1,36,150 units in 2011, it added.

During the year, the company exported a total of 18,422 units of Etios series.

Commenting on numbers, TKM deputy managing director and COO (marketing and commercial) Sandeep Singh said: "Though we are satisfied with the overall growth in our sales volume of last year, the passenger car market continues to be slow, as has been in the last few months."

The company hopes the new year will usher in good times with economic revival and better market sentiments, he added.

Yamaha Motor India 6% sales growth in 2012

While four wheeler sales during the year 2012 did not come upto expectations, sales of two wheelers were positive. India Yamaha Motors, the Indian subsidiary of Yamaha Motor Company have registered a 6% growth rate during the year, particularly with its entry in the Scooter Segment. Sales during 2012 stood at 4,87,290 units as compared to 4,60,815 units in 2011 resulting in a growth of 6%.

On the domestic front, sales of India Yamaha Motors increased by 1.4%. The company sold 3,48,406 units during the past year as against 3,43,466 units during 2011. Exports were also positive with a 21% growth rate as the company exported 1,38,884 units in 2012 while in 2011 this figure stood at 1,17,349 units.

India Yamaha Motors launched their new two wheeler scooter "Ray" which drew the attention of the younger segment of urban Indian women. Ray along with the company's limited edition of FZ bikes ensured that the company experienced overall growth. Expansion of dealer networks was also undertaken with the company signed a MoU with the Tamil Nadu Government for setting up a new plant in Chennai. The company has more than 400 dealers spread across the length and breadth of India and plans are afoot to increase these dealership networks to 2000 by 2018.

India auto news release: 2012 proves to be a good year for India Yamaha Motor registers an Annual Sales Growth of 6%
2012 proved to be a good year for India Yamaha Motor as it witnessed a brisk growth due to its entry in Scooter Segment, superb product line-up and innovative customer centric activities. The company strengthened its position by clocking sales of 4,87,290 units in 2012 as compared to 4,60,815 in 2011 thus showing a growth of 6% over last year.
In domestic markets, the sales grew 1.4%, with 3,48,406 units in 2012 vs. 3,43,466 units sold last year. The export figures stood at 1,38,884 units in  2012 while 1,17,349 motorcycles were exported in 2011, a growth of 21%.

Speaking on the results, Mr. Hiroyuki Suzuki, CEO & Managing Director, India Yamaha Motor Pvt. Ltd., said, "The year 2012 has indeed been an exceptional year for us as we were able to launch our first scooter 'Ray'. Our core target audience for Ray-the young urban Indian women have responded to the Ray positively thereby manifesting their faith in the 'Yamaha DNA' With the launch of our scooter model and limited edition of FZ bikes we were able to maintain consistency in our overall growth and the results speak for themselves. Our untiring efforts to rev up sales backed by innovative marketing strategies and an impeccable product portfolio across segments have reaped encouraging results. We've also expanded our dealer network nationally and improved customer care quality for female customers by appointing more female staffs at customer contact points and introducing female customer care programs. This year we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Tamil Nadu government for the construction and operation of our new factory in Chennai. Our efforts towards enhancing our relationship with our esteemed customers through various initiatives like the Yamaha Safe Riding Science, the R15 One Make Race Championships and the Sales & Service camps have also been very rewarding. We are buoyant about the future and are looking forward to replicate and further improve upon this achievement in 2013 as well."
The company is also planning to introduce the Yamaha Female Riding Training programme very soon catering exclusively to women. Currently, India Yamaha Motor has more than 400 dealers across India and plans to spread out to more cities increasing its dealer network to 2000 by 2014.

Looking at the growing demand for two wheelers in the tier 2 and tier 3 cities, Yamaha has embarked on building a strong dealership network in these cities. The company is also working on its secondary network to be realigned to reach more customers in rural areas. With the addition of the recently launched scooter Ray in its portfolio, India Yamaha Motor is looking at an overall market share of 10% with 15% share coming from the scooter segment by 2016. Yamaha continues to reinforce its relationship with the customers and has launched the 'YES!YAMAHA' campaign that endeavors to provide the Best 3S Experience so that the customer always appreciates Yamaha and accepts the brand with an emphatic "YES".

Happy New Year

May all your endeavors are met with huge success and appreciation. Happy New Year 2013.

                                              From AAAAA Group & Team

New OS soon for smartphone

The Indian market might see a new operating system for smartphones soon, as Japanese telecom major NTT DoCoMo and Samsung Electronics are jointly developing one that will likely be released in Japan and other Southeast Asian countries sometime this year.

According to Japanese daily The Yomiuri Shimbun, the operating system (OS) that DoCoMo, along with other partners such as Vodafone and France Telecom, is developing, is called the ‘Tizen’.

In India, DoCoMo has a presence in the form of Tata DoCoMo, a joint venture which is a cellular service provider on both the GSM and CDMA platforms.

The ‘Tizen’ operating system has been backed by Samsung since last year but has been invariably shelved for various reasons. The report further reveals that Samsung would probably begin selling ‘Tizen’-equipped smartphones sometime this year. The Tizen OS, like Android, is open-source for most part, and is being developed on the premise that cellular service firms will be able to offer their own services, taking a slice away from the value-added services pie dominated by Apple and Google.