Volvo India Pvt Ltd vice-president for marketing Anton Freiesleben told The Financial Express that the company had already put 200 of its high-performance multi-axle trucks (including the 30 tonne plus FH12 and the 15-30 tonne payload FL7) on Indian roads within a year of the plant going onstream in June '98.

While the FH12 rolled out in June last, the smaller FL7 hit the road in February this year. "Once 100 per cent utilisation is achieved, we will expand plant capacity," Freiesleben said.

With the economy looking up, the company is confident of growing the market for its trucks. He said Volvo started operations inIndia when the downturn had hit the nadir but in retrospect it was a blessing in disguise as it helped put together an effective service network along with getting production streamlined.

Citing the example of Brazil where Volvo set up shop in the mid-70s, he said sales in the first year totalled 82 units. Fourteen years later, Volvo had cornered a 23 per cent marketshare in that country.

To push sales here, Volvo India has decided to air TV ads on Star Plus and BBC with an intent to tapping the business segment (its customers' customers).

A move away from traditional wisdom (see box), the strategy is for a `push-pull' effect on transporters with the Volvo marketing team making pitches to clients like steel plants to move with Volvo operators. "Then they go to transport operators and tell them that their customers would like to move on Volvo," he said.

Freiesleben said another aim of the TV campaign was to increase the Volvo brand awareness (a Gallup showed 70 per cent recall in the target segment) toover 90 per cent.

The sales mix for the two trucks is expected to even out at around 50 per cent each although of the 200 sold so far 170 were FH12s. The FL7 is priced around Rs 20 lakh with an additional Rs 5-9 lakh for the trailer depending on the configuration while the larger truck costs around Rs 39 lakh including the trailer.

The ad campaign

No truck with TV. That's what the Swedish parent said when the idea of broadcasting commercials on key television channels was put forward by Volvo India. However, the `push-pull' strategy using transporters' clients to impress the Volvo advantage was finally pushed through. 60 spots for the two commercials have been taken over a 7-week period to run with news and news programmes on Star Plus and BBC. While one plays up the product's toughness, the other shows it cutting down transportation time frames. Made by Trikaya Grey, the impact of the ads will be gauged by Gallup which has been conducting biennial surveys for Volvo India.