Pleasure : Why Should Boys Have All The Fun ?

Brand : Pleasure
Company: Hero Honda
Agency: FCB Ulka

November 2005 saw the launch of the scooter from Hero Honda branded " Pleasure". The launch is a bold one because of two reasons
1. The scooter is going to compete with its technology partner Honda.
2. Hero Honda is perceived as a bike manufacturer.

Pleasure is a 102 cc scooter targeting the young ladies. The launch makes sense because the scooter segment is now growing and is expected to touch 1 million units. In the scooter segment , the ungeared scooter segment is growing very fast. Hero Honda wants to have a pie of this segment. It is a paradox in that in 1990's Hero Honda disrupted Scooters with its 4 stroke bikes and now it is introducing a scooter.

Pleasure is positioned as a Pleasure scooter. The company is targeting Ladies and Ladies only ( that is clearly and obviously cried out in the baseline and in the ads). That,I will call a sound strategy. If you are targeting ladies, why should you expect men to ride that scooter. So Hero Honda has decided that the brand will be for ladies. Pleasure is going to be sold through " Just4her" showrooms where the salesperson will be ladies . ( Men are going to be pissed off by that)

The product comes with 8 flashy colours and lot of features for the fairer sex like broader seats, electric start etc. So as far as the product concept goes, Hero Honda have a winner at hand.

The communication executed by FCB Ulka which is splashed all over the channels have an international look and aimed at the ladies of age group 18 - 35. The segmentation is based on the current techno boom and the emerging empowered ladies segment.

Will it work in the real world?

If I had the answer, I would have been next Philip Kotler.

There are some danger points in Pleasure's paths. The product is pitted against Honda Activa and Dio. Activa is a formidable player and its reputation itself is an entry barrier for Pleasure. Since the pricing of Pleasure is comparable with that of Dio, Pleasure should have to make sure that it create a meaningful differentiation.

Hero Honda off late has been unsuccessful in its new product launches. It has not been able to take out Pulsar or Boxer and all the new product launches like Ambition was flops. So Hero Honda will have to convince the ladies to choose Pleasure over Activa. If Hero Honda is able to sustain the brand over one year, there is a possibility of migration from Scooterette segment to Pleasure.

Till that time " Let boys have fun" .....

Brand Update : Pleasure

Pleasure has started using Hrithik Roshan in a latest marketing move. The latest ad is aimed at promoting the Just4her showrooms. Just4her is the all female showrooms for giving personalized service to Pleasure customers.
The latest ad offers Pleasure customers to have a date with Hrithik. 21 lucky customers will dine in style with Hrithik. Hrithik is the brand ambassador for Hero Honda group as such and had been endorsing Karizma. Pleasure is now trying to leverage the celebrity in breaking the stronghold of TVS Scooty.
Pleasure is Hero Honda's take on scooters. Aimed at the fairer sex, the product is advertised heavily in media with the tagline " Why should boys have all the fun". Just4her showroom are first of its kind in India. The showrooms are promoted using the tagline " Where every girl is a celebrity". Hero Honda has also created an Exclusive Lady Rider Club taking a lesson from the success of its Passport programme.

Related Brand
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TVS Wego : Body Balance !

Brand  : Wego
Company : TVS Motors

Brand Analysis Count : # 477

TVS is on a roll these days. The company's fortune multiplied ever since it broke up with its partner Suzuki in 2001. The company made a strong comeback in the two wheeler market with TVS Victor and later created a place in the market through TVS Apache motorcycle.

In 2011, the company has entered into gear-less scooter segment with the high profile , high decibel launch of TVS Wego. Wego is a unisex scooter  with a engine capacity of 110 CC and priced around Rs 42,000. The brand directly competes with the market leader Honda Activa. TVS has already built a strong equity in the 60cc scooterette market with its market leading brand TVS Scooty.

TVS Wego is in the market at the right time. The scooter market in India is growing at a scorching pace and dominated by one big brand- Activa. A large growing market  dominated by a single player is always an attractive option . There is always a space for a second brand provided it can offer a differentiated value proposition to the customer. 

In the Indian scooter market, the competitor is Honda and it is not an easy task to offer a value proposition that beats Honda. Many players have accepted defeat in this market including the erstwhile market leader - Bajaj Auto. Hero Honda is another strong contender with its brand Pleasure which is mainly targeting the lady commuter.

TVS has created a worthy challenger to Activa by launching Wego. Going by the reviews, there is a general consensus that Wego will be accepted by the consumers. More importantly , the brand was able to find a worthwhile differentiation to fight the market leader. Wego was launched at the right time when Honda is struggling to meet the demand for Activa. The long waiting period of Activa will force many customers to look for alternatives and this offers tremendous opportunity for Wego.

Wego is well styled and adequately powered scooter and is priced along the market going rate. The brand has found a unique differentiator  and has called it Body Balance . During the Bajaj Chetak era, balance was a critical issue since the engine of Bajaj Chetak was placed on one side and caused considerable imbalance. Vespa which was the competitor of Chetak was considered to be more balanced since the spare tire was kept on the other side to balance the engine weight. 

Although modern scooters like Activa and Pleasure doesn't seem to have such an issue, the body balance focus of Wego seems to be a relevant differentiator because balance have association with stability and safety.

The website of Wego explains the body balance in a detailed manner. Unlike the other scooters, Wego has a front inclined design which gives better stability while riding. The brand chose this feature as its USP and is going all out to promote body balance as its USP.

So the opportunity is right, the product has right features and has found a reasonable differentiation and the next critical stage is to communicate the value proposition to the consumers.Wego has really disappointed in the brand communication stage.The television campaign of Wego is one of the worst ads that I have seen in recent times ( strictly personal opinion ). 

One and only best thing about the ad is that it creates a strong association between the brand and the Body Balance feature. So in that perspective, the ad does its job. But on all other counts, be it creativity, execution , the ad is totally lost. The ad can be viewed once but not worth watching second time. 

Watch the ad here : TVS Wego Body Balance

I still don't understand why that old lady is carrying a monkey doll ???

My personal opinion is that  such features are best explained using a rational theme. Here in this case, the brand has tried to use humor  and hyperbole to convey the concept of body balance and the viewer is clueless about how this body balance works in practice.The counter argument would be that a normal user will checkout the website or showroom and find about the explanation about body balance and the campaign is just to bombard the consumer with this term . So to be fair to the brand, the ad works at some level but at the cost of refinement and creative execution. 

Unlike Hero Honda Pleasure, Wego has positioned itself as a unisex scooter for modern day couples. The entire communication is targeting couples . 

Wego can offer quite a challenge to Activa. Activa is currently struggling to meet the demand and the long waiting period can cause many customers to look at Wego. Activa recently launched a print campaign assuring customers of speedy delivery once they ramp up their operations. 

The success of Wego largely will depend on the performance of the product on road. The real customer reviews and word of mouth will be the acid test for this brand. 

Mahindra Rodeo : Power Scooter

Brand : Rodeo
Company : Mahindra Two Wheelers

Brand Analysis Count : 426

After acquiring Kinetic Scooters in 2008, Mahindra two wheelers is on an overdrive to capture a fair share of India's emerging scooter market. While retaining Kinetic Flyte, Mahindra has launched two new scooters - Rodeo and Duro into the market.

Rodeo is positioned as a power scooter . The brand sports a 125 cc engine which churns out 8 bhp . Rodeo competes with Honda's Activa, Aviator , Hero Honda's Pleasure and Suzuki Access.

Indian scooter market is a classic example which shows how difficult it is for marketers to predict the market pulse. This is a market which analysts predicted a demise. This is a market which humbled the mighty Bajaj Auto from a position of market leader to a market follower.

When every one predicted the demise of this category, Honda redefined this market through their Activa brand. Now according to press reports , scooter market in India is expected to grow more than 25% in the next 3-5 years.
India produces around 12 lakh units of scooters every year. The market is dominated by Honda which has a market share of more than 55% ( source).

Mahindra is entering a market where there is no powerful No.2. It is common sense that there are always a space for a second player in any market. The million dollar question is how to break the stronghold of Honda brands in this segment.

Marketing wisdom shows that the challenger brands should have a powerful differentiation if it wants to successfully counter the market leader. And it is good to see that Mahindra twowheelers have found a powerful differentiation & positioning strategy.

Rodeo is being positioned as a " Power Scooter". The brand is claiming that it is as powerful as a motorcycle ( in a symbolic sense) and has all the advantages of a scooter. Power looks like a good attribute to differentiate because scooters never are perceived to be powerful. And by claiming that attribute, Rodeo will be able to get the attention of the youth.
The brand is currently running a TVC across channels

Watch the TVC here : Mahindra Rodeo

The important question is whether a typical scooter buyer considers Power as an important attribute in scooters. Scooter is a functional product. The convenience matter most in this category. Honda scooters gave consumers a high quality refined product and consumers loved it.

Rodeo is trying to make a space for itself in the market by attaching it to the Power attribute. The brand at the same time achieves parity with the competitor's qualities like ride quality, storage etc. Mahindra also priced the product smartly at Rs 41299 a tad below the market leader's price. The power proposition + attractive price + Mahindra brand will prompt many potential consumers to put Rodeo into their consideration set.

Mahindra was able to successfully identify a relevant positioning platform for Rodeo. Although Rodeo may not attract the youth segment, it will definitely appeal to those who is looking for a powerful alternative to motorcycles.

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Brand Update : Scooty wants to Shake EM Up with Scootygiri

In its new campaign for Scooty Pep+ , the brand features the new celebrity ambassador Ms Anushka Sharma. The campaign titled Scootygiri projects the Scooty user as a young confident girl willing to question the status quo. The theme of empowered confident girl has been the major positioning platform on which Scooty has built itself to the current position. 

Watch the campaigns here : Scootygiri Romeo

                                           Scootygiri Dress code  

The brand now has the slogan " Shake Them Up with Scootygiri" exhorting girls to standup confidently and face issues head on.

The brand should be commented on being consistent in its message over these years.

An analysis of the brand's portfolio gives certain interesting facts. There are  three sub-brands under Scooty - Scooty Streak, Scooty Pep+ and Scooty Teenz.

Scooty Teenz is a sub 60cc scooter aimed at the first-time user of the product category. Scooty Streak and Scooty Pep+ are almost similar products interms of technical specifications. The difference is in the styling and promotion.Scooty now can be considered as a primary brand with sub-brands - Teenz ,Streak and Pep+.

Although Scooty has been performing quite well in the category , there is a gradual shift in the category moving in the direction of powerful scooters. This shift is now boosted by Hero Honda Pleasure and also gender-neutral new scooters like Access 125, TVS Wego Vespa etc. 

Scooty seems to be contented with the current technical specifications but it should not be blind to the fact that increasingly the ladies' scooter market is moving towards powerful scooters. TVS has a product Wego which is in the segment of powerful scooters . My contention is that Scooty should be modifying its product offering to reflect this shift. It cannot let Hero Honda Pleasure take up leadership position in this emerging  category. 

Scooty needs a presence in the higher engine capacity scooters to counter Pleasure . It cannot use Wego to counter Pleasure since Wego is a unisex scooter. Pleasure has been very aggressive in its promotions and will be creating a big chunk in the Scooty's existing customer base. The issue is much deeper that cannot be handled with high decibel ads or celebrity endorsements. Scooty has to see whether the entire category of ladies' scooter is shifting towards higher engine capacity ones. Ofcourse there will be a market for less powered scooters but that will be much smaller and unprofitable in future.

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Brand Update : Hero Honda Pleasure

Hero Honda Pleasure is on a celebrity overdrive. After using Hrithik Roshan for a print ad, the brand is now running a TVC featuring Priyanka Chopra. The brand expects the Priyanka to neutralize the Preity Zinta effect of TVS Scooty.

Pleasure had only an average success in the market. The brand is expecting a surge in sales once the massive roll out of Just4her showrooms are completed.

Picture courtesy : businessline
Related Brand
Pleasure

Hero Maestro : Such a Boy Thing !

Brand : Meastro
Company : Hero Motocorp

Brand Analysis  : # 528


Maestro, launched in early 2012, was Hero Motocorp's answer to its erstwhile partner Honda's market leader offering Activa. After the break-up of the JV, Hero Motocorp wanted to take the fight into Honda's stronghold in the Indian scooter market.

Maestro looks and feels the same as Activa and comes with the same technology . Maestro was launched not as a unisex scooter but explicitly as a masculine scooter. This was probably inspired by the success of Hero Pleasure which was launched as a girl's scooter.

Maestro has the tagline of " Such a boy thing " and the campaign highlights the features that would appeal to young men. It is interesting to see the strategy of Hero to attack Honda's Activa not directly but through two brands - Maestro and Pleasure which are segmented on the basis of gender.

Watch the tvc : Hero Maestro

Priced at par with Activa, Maestro has generated considerable interest in the consumers primarily because of the long waiting period for Activa.  The launch campaign is surprisingly not masculine and Hero doesn't want to push the product as  masculine although the tagline says so. The brand doesn't want to put-off those who want  a scooter which can be used by all members of the family.

Although I started to write about Maestro highlighting its gender based segmentation, a surprising article caught my mind : read it here

In a classic case of Osborne Effect  , the company had already announced that Maestro will be phased out soon . Its ironic that the announcement is done in the same year of Maestro's launch. Customers who bought Maestro has been left dumbfounded  by this announcement. In many forum's like Team BHP, new buyers has expressed their feelings of being cheated . Obviously when products are phased out, new buyers often feels cheated but this is a product which is in the introductory stage and suddenly the company announces that this product is going to be killed soon .

Having said that, Hero Motocorp which had established itself as a reliable and dependable market leader hopefully will not let the customers of this brand stranded without any support.

In this digital era, it is important for brands to hold on to its common sense while sharing information. Over 80%  of prospective automobile buyers search for information in internet before purchases. And the official press release of phasing out of Maestro will not miss the discerning eye and surely a customer is lost. 

And what business sense does it make to launch a product along with the announcement that it will be phased out ? Its not planned obsolescence where products are phased out in a planned manner and after it reaches some stage in the life-cycle. 

Maestro , as reviews say , is a good product that provided some credible alternative to the market leader Activa. But the company itself has digged the grave for Maestro. How sad !

TVS Scooty : Playful + Powerful

Brand : Scooty
Company: TVS
Agency: McCann Erickson

Brand Count:162

TVS Scooty launched in 1994 is one of the super brands in India. The brand has created and ruled the Scooterette market in India. Scooterettes are sub 100 cc variomatic scooters targeted specifically at the fairer sex.

The brand was an instant hit in the market because of its low price and smart positioning.The brand effectively identified the need for the TG and the product was lapped up in the market. The segment for this brand are

a. College going teenagers
b. Working ladies
c. Even Men

The market can be divided broadly into two based on the customer preference. One set of customers prefer Functionality and another segment prefers style. Scooty has been able to maintain the balance between both.
The entire market for scooters (75-125cc) is dominated by Honda with its Activa and Deo range. Scooty has a market share of about 30% in the segment. The scooterette market is hotting up with lot of competitors eyeing for the share . The latest in the block is the Hero Honda Pleasure which is positioned as a stylish brand exclusively for ladies. The competition also have prompted the players to enhance the power of the scooters.
Scooty has been consistently successful because the brand was quick to change with times.The brand never failed to emulate the competitors when they come up with added features. The brand always had two set of campaigns: one stressing style and the other stressing the functionality.

Scooty has now launched a more peppier Scooty Pep+ with more power. The engine has been upgraded to 90 cc from 75cc. The change was warranted because of the following reason:

a.There is an assumption that ladies/girls prefer less powerful vehicles. Although it is a fact that the segment prefer lighter vehicles, the " powerlessness" is just an assumption. The success of Honda is an ample proof that ladies too prefer powerful vehicle . There is also a distant possibility that the segment preference for more powerful vehicle will increase in days to come. The reason is that those who use these vehicles often need to carry either their kids or their friends along with them. Also the road conditions and the traffic calls for a powerful vehicle.Scooty aims to be the lighter powerful vehicle for them

b. Another factor is the segmentation issue. Scooty is more appealing to the college going girls because of the style. While in the case of working ladies, the segment is targeted by scooters rather than scooterettes. So unless Scooty take this segment seriously, it will be an opportunity lost for the brand. It has to be recalled that their scooter brand Spectra has failed in this market.

Scooty Pep+ is promoted heavily by TVS. The brand is positioned on the basis of Power and Style. The brand got a big boost with Priety Zinta as its brand ambassador. Priety and Scooty gels so well that I call it a perfect example of Successful celebrity endorsement ( my opinion). TVS has been lucky or smart enough in identifying right celebrities to endorse their products like Sachin and Dhoni for Victor and Star respectively.

Scooty also launched another campaign taking the brand to the next level talking about women empowerment and success. The brand is trying to ladder up to a higher state of connectedness with ladies. I think the brand has taken some lessons from Dove and Fair & Lovely which has been successful in laddering up. According to Professor Keller Laddering is the progression from attributes to benefits to more abstract values of motivations.Failure to do so will reduce the strategic alternatives to the brand. ( strategic brand management: Kevin.L. Keller).

The product category of scooterettes are showing more potential in the urban markets in coming days. This category is non existant in the semi urban and rural markets which will be a tough call and in the current conditions, it may not be possible also. The possible competition is from electric scooters and second hand Maruthi cars . Another issue for the brand is to sustain the value proposition for Scooty. Scooty is priced around Rs 32000 which is a premium. It is walking on the thin red line between benefit and cost. The price -value proposition will be biggest challenge for this brand. Having a no frill low cost Scooty has to be there to keep away the treat from the price warriors.

source: businessline,indicar, tvsscooty.com,economictimes,strategicmarketing