Suzuki GS 150 : Drive Me Crazy

Brand : Suzuki GS 150
Company : Suzuki Motors
Agency :RK Swamy

Brand Analysis Count : 407

Suzuki Motors entered the two wheeler market in 1982 through a joint venture with TVS and launched their first two wheeler Ind Suzuki in 1984. Ind Suzuki was a success in the Indian market. After a rocky relationship, TVS and Suzuki parted ways in 2002.

Suzuki re-entered Indian market in 2006 with two brands Zeus and Heat . But both these brands failed to make a mark in the market.

2009 is witnessing another attempt by Suzuki to grab a pie of the two wheeler market. Suzuki recently launched a 150 cc motorcycle Suzuki GS 150. The 150 cc bike which is priced at around Rs 60000 is trying its luck in the highly competitive Executive bike segment.

As discussed in my other posts on automotive brands, the success of the brand is dependent heavily on product quality than anything else. Brands like Activa has proved that product performance is the best possible advertising.

How ever in the case of brands like Suzuki and Yamaha, brand promotion is of utmost importance because of the peculiar situations they are facing.

Suzuki is the market leader in four wheeler segment but it is surprising that the brand has failed miserably in replicating its success in the two wheeler market.
There are two reasons for this failure. The first reason is that Suzuki is not serious about their two wheeler business in India. The efforts of the company was half-hearted and the brand does not have a deep distribution channel .
Second is their selection of products for the Indian market. Suzuki is doing the same mistake which Yamaha earlier did - launching substandard products for mass markets. Yamaha learned from mistakes and came back with good powerful bikes. But Suzuki is adamant that it will learn only from its mistakes.

GS 150 is launched for the highly competitive executive segment aiming for the numbers. But I think it was not a good strategy for Suzuki to launch a product in that segment while making a come back.

Now look at the relaunch scenario. Suzuki motorcycles does not have any meaningful equity in the consumer's mind. Although Suzuki cars have excellent equity , there is no guarantee that consumers will feel the same in the two wheeler segment. The failure of its earlier models and the long absence from the industry has removed this brand from the consideration set of the potential consumers.

Consumers of executive segment are very pampered. The players in this segment invest heavily in product features aswellas branding. With Pulsar and Hero Honda leading the crowd, it is a very difficult market to crack.

So the chances of Suzuki making an impact in this segment looks bleak.

Having said that , a company like Suzuki can change the game by launching a product that Indian consumers has never seen before. Suzuki has the technological ability and money power to do that. A high profile product with a marketing blitzkrieg can make Suzuki a hot property...

But Alas.....

Look at the branding strategies of GS 150. The brand is currently running a television commercial in most channels.
Watch the Tvc here : Suzuki GS150
It is one of the boring commercials I have seen in recent times. A commercial which lacks both imagination and strategic intent. A girl getting aroused while pillion riding a bike is an idea which has been raped a million times.
The brand has the tagline " Drive me crazy " which is nothing but unimaginative. Frankly there is nothing much to speak about the campaign. No clarity in USP or differentiation.

What Suzuki needed was a powerful statement. A power bike which would showcase its capabilities to the consumers. Yamaha did the comeback with R 15 launch. More than the volume, R15 was aimed at rebuilding the Yamaha brand. Once consumers got the taste of Yamaha technology, mass models will reap the benefit.

Suzuki should have bought in their superbikes and should have unleashed a campaign revolving around these macho machines. Time should be spent on building the core Suzuki brand reminding Indian consumers about the capability and technological superiority of this brand.
But Suzuki went after the volumes thereby killing all scope of building a brand.

Kinetic Honda : RIP (1972-2008)

Brand : Kinetic Honda
Company : Kinetic


Brand Analysis Count : 406

Kinetic is another sad Indian brand story. The brand which was once synonymous with Luna and gearless scooters is no more.

Kinetic as a corporate brand is not dead but Kinetic as a scooter brand has been laid to rest in 2008 after the take over by Mahindra & Mahindra.

Kinetic was born in 1972 with the launch of Kinetic Luna which became a generic name for Mopeds in the country. Later in 1985, Kinetic formed a joint venture with Honda to manufacture scooters in India. The company then launched India's first gearless scooter KH 100 which became a run away success in India.

Kinetic Honda was a premium scooter in its brighter days. I would say that this was the brand that gave the ladies in India - the luxury of travel.

Since the scooter was ungeared, Kinetic Honda became the favorite mode of transportation for the women folks. The scooter was reasonable for city use and ladies loved it. So despite the high price, the sales was rocketing like anything. The product was not really good. The engine was unresponsive and mileage was bad. But people loved it because it was ungeared and had an electric start.

Somewhere down the lane, things started to go wrong for Kinetic Honda. Kinetic Honda was limited by their JV Partner to focus only on Mopeds and Scooters. Since Honda had another JV with the Hero Group ( Hero Honda), Kinetic could not enter these markets. At one stage the competition became intense in the moped and scooter segment. TVS with their Scooty carved as significant chunk of Kinetic Honda's market share.

The joint-venture between Kinetic ( Firodia Group) and Honda faltered during 1998. Honda wanted to buy out Kinetic , but Firodia was not willing to sell stake ( Read a report here). Finally the JV ended with Honda exiting the venture.

The exit of Honda was a huge blow for the brand . The consumers were sceptic about the quality issues since everyone knew that Kinetic Honda 's main USP was its technology from Honda.
Kinetic Motors was not affected by the exit of Honda. Infact, the company became more aggressive after this break up.

The issue with Kinetic scooters was more than the Joint venture. The brand had its issues with Product , Price and Promotions.
Regarding the ungeared scooter segment, Kinetic Honda was never successful with its new products or upgradings. It is said that in automobile segment, 90% of success depends on the product and rest is in other marketing mix elements. Hence if the product is very good, then the chances of success is very high.

Kinetic was unlucky in this front. The brand was not myopic or complacent. Infact I was surprised at the number of products this company has launched over these years. The brand was working on new products but somehow the products was not successful in the market.

For example, in 1996-97, the company launched its scootterette Kinetic Pride but was withdrawn because the pillion ride was not comfortable. In 1997, the company launched a powerful scooter Marvel but the product failed in the market. In 1998, Kinetic launched its Y2K complaint version of Kinetic Honda. In 2002, the company launched Kinetic Nova and Kinetic Zing but both were not big hits.

After the split up with Honda, Kinetic ventured into motorcylce manufacturing and launched Kinetic Challenger in 2002. In 2003, the company stunned the auto world by launching 4 models at one go. Kinetic launched Kinetic Boss, GF170, City and Kinetic Velocity.

Again in 2003, Kinetic launched India's most expensive bike Aquila priced at Rs 1.15 lakh. The brand was launched in collaboration with Hyosang Motors. Surprisingly Aquila was well received by Indian consumers. But Kinetic was complacent in projecting Aquila as its flagship offering. Rather it played cold to the demand from the market and did not pursue the opportunity.

Despite doing these , Kinetic failed in gaining momentum in the Indian market. The nail in the coffin came when Honda launched its own scooter Activa.

If you look at the failure of Kinetic Honda, one of the reason was the price. While Kinetic Honda was ruling the market, consumers were willing to pay a higher price . But Kinetic continued its high price without giving additional value to the consumers. After the exit of Honda , the core product - Kinetic scooter never got any better. Kinetic also priced its new brands Nova and Marvel aggressively thus putting off consumers. Consumers never wanted to pay a high price for a brand which was yet to demonstrate its technical superiority on its own. The brand could have developed a product that convinced the consumers that Kinetic could stand on its own. TVS did that with its Victor and improved upon its image through Apache. But Kinetic never had such a product to showcase.

Kinetic failed in its motorcycle venture for the same reasons. The products had its own flaws and Kinetic was not aggressive in marketing its products convincing the customers that they are not just scooter makers. May be the brand tried too much in a short period of time.

The story of Kinetic did not end like that. During late 2000, the brand tried to make a come back by launching designer scooters under Italliano range. But again , the brand faltered in delivering world class product.The final product from Kinetic was Kinetic Flyte which got rave reviews from auto reviewers.

Kinetic is not a sad story . In 2008, Firodias decided to sell the scooter business to Mahindra & Mahindra. Soon after the take over, Mahindra decided to drop " Kinetic " brand from the products. That was the end of an era.

Kinetic group is still running strong with its businesses in automotive parts and is a leading supplier to Tata Motor's Nano project.

For consumers, the death of Kinetic is a death of an era. It is sad to see a home grown brand dying because it could not catch the pulse of the market and develop unique technology on its own.

Brand Update : Idea

Idea has launched another campaign extending its core idea of " An Idea can Change your life ". This time the brand has chosen a funny tale to drive home its positioning. 

Watch the new ad here : Walk the Talk

The new campaign revolves around the theme " Walk when you talk " urging the mobile users to walk while they talk and there by be more healthy. 

The ad is funny and Abhishek Bachchan is at his  best. The brand and the celebrity co-existed perfectly well without eclipsing each other. 

One should really appreciate Idea for being consistent with its positioning. The brand reaped the rewards also. " An idea can change your life " has become a common usage. 

Marketing a cellular service is a complex task. The prepaid segment which dominates the market is a highly volatile segment with little or no brand loyalty. Consumers look at the plans and coverage quality and some times acts as a grasshopper making life difficult for marketers. 

Brand managers spent on their brand building activities hoping that when plans become commoditized , consumers will give more value to the brand .

Related Brand

Idea

Brand Update : Pulsar

Faced with stiff competition from the likes of Yamaha, Honda and TVS Apache, Bajaj Pulsar have decided to strike back. The brand has been facing competition from the super bikes and was pressurised to hit back aggressively. Yamaha with its new launches and Apache are slowly eating away the market once owned by Pulsar. Pulsar reacted to this by launching new variants but on the promotional front, it was keeping silence.

In my earlier posts, I have been criticising this brand for being laid back in its promotions and commoditising its DTSI USP.

The brand has launched its revamped Pulsar 220 variant which will reinforce the brand's core promise of a performance bike.

Watch the new tvc here : Bajaj Pulsar 220

Although the ad is quite long , I really liked the climax.

And Hurray, Pulsar has a new tagline " The Fastest Indian ". After dumping the " Definitely Male " tagline, Pulsar ads never was a thriller. The product qualities made the brand a huge success. The ads just increased the familiarity and recall.

The new ad and new tagline gives a remarkable boost to this brand. And " Fastest Indian " is a very very powerful tagline. ( Hopefully Bajaj will retain this tagline for years to come ).

It is very wise for the brand to own the highest superlative . Pulsar has owned the " Fastest " superlative , that means another brand cannot be faster than the fastest. This gives a powerful boost to the brand itself. It all depends on how well Pulsar takes this proposition forward.

And being Fastest appeals directly to the target audience . Now in the promotion front, Apache and other performance bikes has to create a new superlative to beat the Bajaj.

The new ad is also well executed and packs the punch at the end beautifully . More than the ad, I liked the tagline.

It is good to see Pulsar getting the much needed promotional and creative boost.

Related Brand

Pulsar

Fuel : Ignite the Fire

Brand : Fuel

Company : Elder Pharma

Brand Analysis Count : 405

Here is another men's deo launch. Elder Pharmaceuticals has recently launched its range of deos for men branded as Fuel. The deo is being launched in collaboration with VLCC.

The men's deo market was virtually untouched till recently . Axe was ruling the market with no powerful competitors except for some foreign imports. But the last few months saw a plethora of brands entering this segment.

My earlier blogpost was also about the Fa Xtreme and Denver both targeting the male segment.

Fuel deo is running a tvc across various channels

Watch the tvc here : Fuel Tvc

I have been writing about stereotypes in my post on Fa and Denver and here it is - another brand talking about the same stuff.

A deserted place

A hunk

A sexy lady

Deo

Seduction...

compare this with Denver and Fa or Wildstone commercials.

What difference is there between these brands ? Nothing.

What happened to all agencies and the clients ? Are they not watching televisions ? Are they not aware of differentiation ? Or is it that anything goes with regard to Indian consumers ?

All these brands may be good products with a nice fragrance and quality but how come all these brands talk the same crap ?

Compared to other brands, I think Fuel wants to be more adventurous . The brand wants to be more naughtier than the rest of the crowd. A look at the website ( fuelyourlife.in) will tell you that the brand wants to be the equivalent of Kamasutra in Deos.

The intention is Ok but the execution is pathetic . I don't think that Indian male will always fall for products that show a hunk and a sexy lady. We are living in an era where our ads are regarded as high quality, wins accolades across the globe and still manages to sell the product in the market.

Fuel has taken the tagline " Ignite the Fire " which is best suited for an aphrodisiac rather than the deo . The brand could have treaded some different path rather that toe the line of its counterparts.

Brand Update : Cadbury Dairy Milk

It is very difficult to imagine a campaign for Dairy Milk without Big B. Amitabh Bachchan had become the face of this brand and was instrumental in making the brand a darling of youngsters as well as not-so-young ones. Cadbury's was one of the brand that used the persona of Big B to the maximum.

For the past few months, the brand has been trying to break free from the dependence on this powerful celebrity. The brand earlier came out with the "Kenya " campaign without Big B 's presence.

Now Dairy Milk is running another campaign without Big B. The campaign known as the Pay Day campaign is something that we never expect out of this brand

Watch the TVC here : Dairy Milk Payday

The ad is a retro taking us back to the 60's era.The new ad takes the theme of enjoying Dairy Milk on the Pay Day ( When you get the salary). The company has given an interesting story about the idea and its execution. ( Read it Here).

Frankly speaking, i really liked the ad because it is very different and clutter breaking. I think rather than strategy, Dairy Milk wanted to break the clutter and reinforce the brand. And it has done it in style.

Marketing a brand like Dairy Milk is not an easy proposition. The brand have huge brand equity and its campaigns has to live upto the expectations of the consumer. Advertisements for iconic brands like Dairy Milk serve a long term objective of retaining the share of mind rather than immediate sales. The brand needs to remain fresh and relevant and its huge popularity should not become a liability that constraints the creativity. So the agency need to experiment with the campaigns while retaining the classic touch of Dairy Milk. It is no easy task.

Even with Amitabh Bachchan, the brand had to make sure that the personality of Big B should not shadow the brand. The brand was successful in effectively using Big B without drowning the brand.

The latest campaign is a welcome deviation from the brand's journey. The ad may not appeal to the younger ones but will catch the eye of those in their mid thirties and forties.

Kudos for the team

Related brand
Cadbury Dairy Milk