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Ford's commemorative offer

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI NOV. 28. Buy an Ikon and win a trip abroad! Car maker Ford India has come out with an enticing offer to prospective buyers to kick-start celebrations to commemorate the third birth day of Ikon, its maiden car in India. Ikon completed three years of run on the Indian roads on November 22.

According to Vinay Piparsania, Vice-President (External Affairs), Ford India will hold a `lucky draw' for those who buy an Ikon car between now and December 31 and the `luckiest' four and their spouses could win a trip to Mexico, South Africa and Brazil. Claimed to be the `most exported automobile', Ford Ikon is now shipped to the aforesaid countries. The underlying theme of this commemorative offer is: "If you get a Josh machine, the world is yours". Even if an Ikon buyer is not lucky enough to win a trip abroad, he could still walk away with attractive freebies like cell phone, CD player, trendy watch and the like.

Coincidentally, the Ikon birthday falls in a sluggish month from the demand perspective for the automobiles, in general. More often than not, the last couple of months in any year have proved tough for car companies to push sales. Invariably they resort to `heavy discounting' to hold sales during this period.

Mr. Piparsania said Ford India always believed in adding more value to Ikon and its buyers. He was convinced that the best way to do this was certainly not through `discount offers'. In his reckoning, `discount' was bad for the brand. And, it also depressed the resale value of the product, bringing earlier buyers of the car to despair.

Three years after the launch of Ikon, Ford India is inching its way to making it a `Made in India' product what with the tie-up with Hindustan Motors ready to witness the roll out of locally made engines and gear boxes for Ikon. The quality initiative at suppliers' end and the relentless push on the export front are all, insiders say, will bring more global experience to Josh machine buyers.

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