Maruti plans customer campaign to stay in the competition

With no indication as to when the Manesar plant would restart production, it hopes the campaign will help keep customers within its fold and not lose out to competition.

This is important because the festival season (bookings start by August) demand is around the corner and a month-long expected plant closure is likely to push waiting periods on diesel models - such as the Swift - to six months, from four.

In the first stage, the car market leader is directly contacting those who have already booked those models which are made at Manesar. Meanwhile, sources added that a following campaign through media advertorials is also being considered.

Mr Mayank Pareek, Managing Executive Officer (Marketing & Sales) at Maruti Suzuki said, "We have a database of customers, those who have booked cars. We're starting the process now where we'll directly contact them."