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CATEGORY : AUTOMOTIVE
Embrand set out to understand the motorcycle market in India, shifts in brand positions over the years, internal and external business influences and other variables through qualitative pilots and use of structured product development tools. The discoveries were several - despite all the new models that Yamaha launched over the many years there was just one that represented its spirit The RX 100. The products that succeeded it, however, reflected the fact that Yamahas obsession with the competition mainly Honda (Hero Honda in India), had replaced its obsession with its consumers. In doing so it had ended up playing Hondas game without Hondas weapons products and service depth & width that strove to reduce rider involvement to the level of a domestic appliance. Honda riders rode motorcycles only because they could not afford a car. Their life was a constant struggle and excitement was the last thing they wanted from their two-wheeled commuting appliances. Yamahas equity was built in India, on the other hand, by people whose involvement in motorcycling was all-consuming they lived to ride ! In focusing on products aimed at satisfied Honda commuters, Yamaha had come up against its own legacy - a brand that maximized thrills per litre, and not kilometers per litre. Even though its new products could match equivalent Honda models in fuel efficiency, consumers were unwilling to believe it would. And neither could Yamahas dealers , in their worn-out, small (relative to Honda) showrooms, muster the confidence to make a dent in these beliefs. Neither did they have a fix like the RX 100 for the increasing number of affluent young moto-assasins (Think Bosozuka http://forums.mightycarmods.com/ showthread.php?958-Bosozuka-Tribes&p=11565), for whom even considering kilometers per litre was beneath contempt. To add insult to injury, even that fix was now available in mildly diluted but in contemporary packaging at the local Honda shop in the form of CBZ and Karizma, or at the local Bajaj shop in the form of the Pulsar.
In short, Yamaha was a cult whose devotees had nothing but fading memories and even more faded icons. Embrands strategic options to Yamaha were simple: Beat Honda in the commuting game with its own tactics products that offered paradigm-shifting fuel-efficiency performance. Honda had done so with its 83 kmpl, Fill it shut It, Forget it ethos introduced in 1983 to woo the Indian commuter off his Bajaj Scooter (the Indian version of the original Vespa). But 83 kmpl was a shift then, when the paradigm was Bajajs 30 kmpl. Extrapolating this to 2004 meant offering at least 150 kmpl to counter Hondas 83 kmpl! Offering this in a modern scooter with electric start and water-proof storage space would reduce the commuters involvement tremendously (a benefit remember!). However, before doing so Yamaha needed to understand why a 100 kmpl scooter, named Eterno, launched by Honda (vide HMSI, Hondas solo venture in India that worked in parallel with its other, co-branded, Hero-Honda venture) in 2003, was not exactly a resounding success. Win at its own game and produce a series of latter day avatars of the RX 100 a 21st century fix. To use another metaphor, if Yamaha was considering footwear as a business in India, it could either set up Bata shops or Nike shops. Trying to do both in one shop would be disaster, as a look at the history of TVS, another fading local two- wheeler brand, would prove.
CATEGORY : AUTOMOTIVE
CATEGORY : AUTOMOTIVE
CATEGORY : AUTOMOTIVE
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Yamahas pioneering move to import high-priced CBUs into India, soon followed with their own CBUs most of them at equal or even higher prices. In 2009, Harley Davidson used political muscle to enter India with its entire range of CBUs the cheapest priced at INR 0.6 million. Mahindra, a new brand in the Indian motorcycle, has followed a similar strategy by designing and launching a sporting 300 cc motorcycle as its anchoring act. Hyosung, the Hyundai of motorcycles, will launch 650 cc motorcycles in the INR 0.5-0.6 million range in Q4 2010 with Garware an Indian company known for its nylon yarn, fishing nets and shipping line.
The first product R1, was launched in 2007, within three years of Embrand completing its assignment, and the R15 and FZ 16/Fazer followed the R1 soon after. Yamahas market share in India stopped its descent and started climbing upward not much later. Each of the above Yamaha products earned rave reviews in Indian motoring media, saving millions in advertising expenditure for Yamaha. Cynics and critics wondered if any Indian would buy a motorcycle for Rs. 12 lakhs, completely missing the point - that a brand had fought its way back from near oblivion to credibility in the worlds largest and fastest motorcycle market. Competing companies, some of which had opposed
Retrospect: Excerpt from a comment by Jaspal Bajwa, CEO of Bausch & Lomb (India) in 1994, to Manoj Berry, then head of R,D,Y&Rs N. Indian operations, prior to the launch of ray Ban sunglasses in India Ray Ban seems to be expensive for most Indians today because few of them have experienced the genuine article, or seen such price-tags in the category. But with increasing affluence and product experience, and the entry of more expensive brands, the sticker-shock will fade as the consumer perceives that Ray Ban delivers value commensurate with the price.