If GM Chevy Spark will suffer from Zen Estilo

Maruti made a master stroke by launching Zen Estilo.

Estilo seems to be the blend of Matiz and WagonR. Matiz is still regarded as technologically advanced vehicle and WagonR has proven its performance in the market.

Further Maruti capitalized on the looks of Matiz and highjacked the same .

Now when GM will launch Spark, shape wise it won't be much different from Matiz. Hence, it will fail to come up to the expectations of the customers since the looks would have already been associated with Estilo.

This can be a big setback to GM, who took years in launching the once most successful brand in the Indian Market.

Further, Maruti is always having the advantage, to improve the competitiveness of its brands, of launching the Diesel versions, once the engine is out in the market.

It seems that GM will be struggling to create a position in the market with its Chevy Spark when it will be launched in the market in Apr-07.

This is a classical case of marketing in which Speed is another important Marketing Mix element, which can be ignored only on the expense of losing competitiveness of the brand in the market.