Yamaha : Not truly Yamaha !

Brand: Yamaha
Company: Yamaha
Agency : Dentsu

Yamaha which once ruled the mind of Indian youth is now in dire straits. The company which is the second largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world is having a market share of 5% in the booming Indian two wheeler market which is growing at a rate of 12-15%.

Why?

Yamaha is a performance bike manufacturer which recently celebrated its golden jubilee of its existence . In India Yamaha was present in a joint venture with Escorts which brought out the blockbuster Yamaha RX 100 and the cult Yamaha RD 350. Yamaha and Hero Honda had during the late 80's beat the hell out of scooter manufacturers , but Yamaha now has lost its edge. Yamaha broke the partnership with Escorts and started its India operations as a 100% subsidiary of Yamaha Japan from 2001 onwards.

Yamaha was not able to sustain the momentum it had generated during 1990's with RX100. RX100 was a bike that had style and substance. The product was powerful, gave no mech problems and was embraced by the youth. But after the tight environmental regulations introduced in 90's , RX100 had to be shelved. RX100 was replaced by RX135 which was no where near RX100. The ride was terrible and the product had nothing to boast about. It was the beginning of decline of Yamaha.

Yamaha was not able to bringout a blockbuster product in the recent past. It is unfair if I don't mention that there were lot product launches from Yamaha but nothing clicked. The reason being that the company was focused on Utility segment ( true that money is there only in that segment). Yamaha did not try to look at the changing profile of the Indian consumer.

Yamaha also thought that it had the same premium image in the mind of the customer . It failed to realise that the brand equity has eroded because of failed product launches. It had no product to showcase its superiority as a bike manufacturer. While Bajaj demonstrated its arrival in to the bike segment with Eliminator and Pulsar, Yamaha still tried its luck in the executive segment which was dominated by Splendor from Hero Honda.

Yamaha should have realised that inorder to break the Splendor's dominance, It had to build a brand in the premium segment and using that image, try its luck in the mid segment. Bajaj launched Eliminator to show the technical superiority. We drooled at the cruiser and then grabbed Pulsar. Yamaha failed to do that.

Yamaha tried to shock the market with a low priced Cruiser Enticer at an unbelievable price of 49000 but the product failed because the company wanted to play the volume game. Enticer could not sustain the huge initial it got because the market for cruiser was only emerging and the product did not live up to the expectation. Cruiser with only a power of 125 cc was itself a failing proposition. Now that there is a trend towards low priced cruiser pioneered by Bajaj Avenger, Enticer relaunch may succeed.

Yamaha then launched Crux and Libero and Fazer in the executive segment but could not set the market on fire . The company says that it is moving away from utility bikes to performance bikes. The launch of Fazer was towards this direction. The product had an unusual look hence failed to catch the imagination of Indian bike enthusiasts. Here again the company made a mistake of not making a statement.

Yamaha is having big plans for India. The company is earmarking 200 crores in revamping its operations. On the marketing side, it has roped in John Abraham as the brand ambassador.

I am no expert in Motorcycles but I feel that Yamaha now needs to make a STATEMENT. A powerful statement that will force the consumers to look up and say " Its a Yamaha".

Just compare the Fazer launched in India and the Fazer which is showcased internationally, the Indian Fazer is no where near the international one. Why did Yamaha which wanted to play the lifestyle game launch a stripped down Fazer ? Had it launched a chunky masculine Yamaha in India, the brand will move miles ahead in the mind of the consumer. Forget the price and the volume, bring the best bike to India and make a statement.

What we have in India is not the Yamaha but only a shadow. Yamaha if it wants to emerge from the shadows will have to shed the volume game and seriously build the brand.

To become Truly Yamaha , Change the rules...

Brand Update : Yamaha

Yamaha has launched (relaunched ) Fazer in the Indian market. Yamaha India is clearly on overdrive with the success of R15 and FZ range. Fazer is a 150 cc bike priced around Rs 72000.
Fazer came to India in 2004 as a 125 cc bike. The bike was different from others because of its unique twin headlamps. But the bike got a lukewarm response from the Indian market.

Now Fazer comes with a new 153 cc engine and a terrific styling. In my earlier post on Yamaha , I had compared the Fazer 125 cc with its global counterpart and criticized Yamaha for bringing in a stripped down version of Fazer.

Now that complaint has been taken care of. The new Fazer looks exceptionally cool and stylish.

Fazer is targeting the bikers who likes to live their life on their motorcycles. The brand is being positioned as one ideal for those weekend getaways.
The brand is currently running a TVC : Watch it here

Fazer has the tagline of "Touring Spirit " which reflects the brand's positioning.

Yamaha has identified its core brand DNA. Yamaha has found that its success lies in performance bikes rather than those volume driven underpowered bikes. Yamaha is now reinforcing its brand DNA by bringing in models that drive performance and style rather than volume. A look at the home page of Yamaha India reflects the new Yamaha.

Corporate brand - Yamaha also sports the new tagline " Yes Yamaha ".

It is good to see a failed brand rejuvenating itself . The lesson that Yamaha gives the marketing practitioners is not to forget the Brand DNA.

Brand Update : Yamaha

This year Yamaha launched yet another bike branded Alba 106. Surprisingly this bike is a 100 cc bike which is an absolute contra strategy because almost all bike marketers are moving away from the 100 cc segment. Alba was launched after the reasonably successful run of Gladiator. But according to reports, Yamaha India is in deep trouble and time is running out for them to give a winner. As discussed in the previous blog about Yamaha, it is sad to find an iconic brand now slowly dying.

Alba 106 again is a mass market brand. The brand is once again going to dampen the brand equity of Yamaha which went down the drains with the failures of Crux,Frazer and YBX. What was needed for this brand was a SUPER BIKE and what came was a cropper.
To top it, ALBA 's campaign is one of the worse media campaign I have seen in recent times. The ad surprisingly do not feature the brand ambassador John Abraham. The brand uses the baseline " Got It?" which does not mean anything. The story , the positioning and the USP all missing in the campaign. If the agency feels that Indian consumer will be impressed by showing a tattooed girl and a dude, they are terribly mistaken or they lack commonsense.
Alba 106 fails to convey any sort of differentiation for the product. One print ad says " Ride it if you can handle it" which is a dampener. Another major issue that the brand faces is the failure of the earlier launches like Crux,Frazer etc. Customers who bought these brands are worried about the after sales support. This issue further damages the equity of Yamaha.
Yamaha is again trying wrong medicine to its disease. What it needs is a product like Pulsar that will bring back the confidence of customers back to the brand.


Related brand

Yamaha

Image courtesy : magindia

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.

Brand Update : Yamaha

In an interview with CNBC TV18, Rajiv Bajaj was asked about competition. His reply was he get jitters with the new launch of Yamaha R15. What Pulsar done to the motorcycles, R15 may repeat it.

I did not believe that statement. I viewed the launch of R15 with cynicism because of the price tag.

Can anyone think of buying a bike for Rs 100,000..

But a conversation with my journalist friend who handles the automobile-column in a leading newspaper changed my perception. According to him, R-15 is selling like hotcakes.

In my last post on the brand Yamaha, I had suggested that the brand needs was a statement. And it did make a statement with R15

R 15 is a stunner interms of looks. Auto reviews say that it doesn't disappoint interms of the performance.

More than that ,Yamaha got the timing correct. The market was evolving and there was a need for a motorcycle which made a statement. Two factors paved the way for the wide acceptance of R 15.

First was the emergence of a new set of customers who wanted a bike and was willing to pay the price to look different. R15 gave that fillip to this segment. These guys liked fast bikes and wanted something that suited the Indian conditions.

Second was the dealer support. Price wars among the bike marketers had significantly eroded the margins. R15 gave the dealers their required margin and they gave enough support for this bike.

Pulsar was too popular to be exclusive so the bike had to be exclusive and the higher price ensured that not everyone could afford this bike.

Whether R 15 will deliver volumes or not, it has given a new lease of life to Yamaha. The brand which was once an icon now have a chance to regain its lost status.

Related Post
Yamaha

Best Marketing Practice : Living the Story

Every brand has a story and the success of the brand depends on how well they tell the story to the consumers.
After a near -death experience in the Indian market, Yamaha have slowly started telling a compulsive story. In my last update on Yamaha, I had blogged about their new launch Yamaha YZF R15. Priced at Rs 1,25000, the brand has already made a strong start.

R 15 is positioned as the urban racing machine. The brand boasts about its racing instinct and most of the auto reviews have written positive words for this machine.

Last day I was watching the Auto Car show in UTV i and happen to see the report on the racing championship for R 15 owners held in October 2008. The first racing event was held in September.
I consider this event as one of the best marketing practice where a brand truly living the dreams it has painted for its customers.

The racing event promoted by Yamaha was not for the racing professionals but for the ordinary owners or R 15. But the entire racing was done on the professional race track. So many guys were able to realize their dream of participating in an actual race using their bike.

Its not the first time that a bike brand associating itself with racing . TVS Apache RTR was positioned along the racing platform. Even the market leader in performance bike - Pulsar also was associated with racing attributes.

But R 15 has gone the extra mile by making racing real by launching such an event. I bet that many of those R 15 owners who participated in the race was seeing the racing track for the first time. They also got the chance to burn the rubber and live their dream - thanks to the brand.
This event is also an outcome of the clear understanding of the consumers who buy such a bike.

Those who can shell out Rs 1 lakh for a bike will definitely a bike enthusiast who wanted to burn the rubber and make a statement. These customers will also be the key opinion leaders among their community be it students or professionals. So a racing event will be the best possible way to make them feel good about their purchase.

The customers of R 15 can participate the event by paying a nominal amount of Rs 500. According to the report , the company will handle the transportation of the bike to the racing venue. The riders are given enough training before letting them loose on the race track.

The brand is going to have lot of advantages by organizing such an event. First is the reinforcement of the brand's positioning of a sports bike. The event also will make the opinion leaders to hook on to their brand. Those who have participated this even will cherish those moments and will have generated lot of positive word of mouth . It also will strengthen the case of pricing the brand at Rs 1.25 lakh .

Another interesting factor is that this event is not for potential customers but existing customers. So this case is an example of a successful "After Marketing' . 'After Marketing ' is a jargon that is used for all marketing activities that are done after the sale is over.

Related Brand

Yamaha

Bajaj avenger- Feel Like God

Brand : Bajaj Avenger
Company- Bajaj Auto Ltd
Agency : Lowe

Brand Analysis Count : 1

Bajaj Avenger was launched in 2005. The brand was the sibling of India's first cruiser bike - Bajaj Eliminator . Eliminator had a good start but the expensive price tag of Rs 92000 dampened the enthusiasm of majority of bikers.

More over Eliminator was underpowered with a 125 cc engine and the value conscious customers gave the product thumbs down. The launch of Yamaha Enticer also took some market away from Eliminator initially.

Taking a learning from Eliminator , Bajaj launched Avenger . Avenger can be termed as a rebranding for Eliminator. Avenger sported a 180 cc dtsi engine and came with an attractive price tag of Rs 60,000. The failure of Yamaha Enticer also made the category worth a try.


The new bike is positioned on the comfort platform. The brand comes with the tagline " Feel Like God ". The brand is promoted in both print and visual media. The basic brand premise is that you will feel like god when riding this bike. The big idea is from the insight that cruisers are powerful bikes meant for a laid-back comfort riding.

Cruisers are niche products. The category is virtually new in India. And Indian road and traffic conditions also are not favorable for cruisers. But the changing Indian consumers definitely points to a favorable market for cruisers. More than volume, cruisers also are great image boosters for the company. A successful cruiser can give a positive image boost for all other products from the company.

Avenger, priced at Rs 60000 is definitely attractive in terms of price. With that Bajaj tries to give more than just low price. The Pulsar engine ensures that Avenger has the power.Lack of power was behind the failure of Yamaha Enticer.

The ads of Avenger are well made and definitely motivates a bike enthusiasts to give a test ride.

Smart advertising works well only with good product : plain common sense isn't it? But this is often missed by all marketers. Hope the Avenger lives to the expectation and its customers feel like " god".

Otherwise customers will behave like " God", they will just kill the product.........

Key words: Advertising, Brand, Brand Management, Positioning

Revised on 21/05/02008

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

Brand Update : Bajaj Pulsar

Recently I saw an ad of Bajaj which showed that Bajaj XCD 125 is now in the DTSI Club . The DTSI which stands for Digital Twin Spark Ignition system was a technology patented by Bajaj.

This technology uses twin sparks at either end of the combustion chamber which gives faster combustion compared to the single spark plugs found in conventional engines. This twin sparks increases the power of the engine and offer better performance.

Bajaj did a great marketing move by patenting it and then branding this technology as DTSI. This is a classical case of ingredient branding. The DTSI was featured in the second generation Pulsar which was launched in 2003.

While Pulsar rode the wave in 2001 on the back of excellent styling and mind-blowing positioning , DTSI became the key differentiators for the brand after 2003. Pulsar was perceived to be a mean machine because of DTSI.

Pulsar thus created and ruled the performance bike category in India.

Its natural for any company to think of extracting maximum mileage out of a patented technology. Bajaj did just that by extending the DTSI technology to all its vehicle models including scooters . My doubt is whether Bajaj has commoditized the DTSI technology by extending it too much.

When DTSI was associated with Pulsar, it meant power , efficiency and performance . But what will DTSI mean when it is associated with a small scooter like Bajaj Krystal or a entry level bike like XCD.

Branding an ingredient is the same as branding a product. The consumers should feel that the ingredient brand is different from other ingredients . The concept of positioning also applies to ingredient brands.

In many ways, Bajaj has done correct strategies for DTSI. It patented it, protected it and branded the technology. But where it had failed was that it commoditized the ingredient brand.

Bajaj did not try to give a special personality for DTSI. Remember, DTSI had a strong secondary association with Bajaj Pulsar. Both the brands benefited out of this association. Pulsar used DTSI as a differentiator while DTSI got the performance tag from Pulsar.

But by making this technology available to all other brands without clearly looking at synergy was a big mistake from Bajaj. I have no doubt that the extension of DTSI technology to other brands will greatly help the sales of these brands . XCD will sell more when it has the DTSi technology.

When a measly powered scooter is also powered with DTSI, what is DTSI ? It had lost all its brand values which were power and performance. I don't think that XCD is anywhere near Pulsar in terms of power or performance. So in a way Bajaj has virtually killed this powerful ingredient brand.

The brand which is going to suffer most will be the flagship brand Pulsar. When every other Bajaj brands have DTSI, how is Pulsar different from rest of the crowd ?

The obvious answer will be the design. If it is so, then Pulsar could be beaten by any other bikes which are better designed. Having good looks is good for the brand but cannot be sustained over a period of time because :

Competitors can come with good looking bikes.
Designs can be outdated.

Both these are affecting Pulsar. Too many Pulsars on the road has made this brand dated in terms of looks. But DTSI was a powerful differentiator which cannot be copied since it was patented. But Bajaj , because of greed, faltered with one of the most powerful differentiators at its disposal.

Last month, I read a report saying that the newly launched Yamaha FZ 16 has become the number two brand in the 150 cc segment beating Apache RTR , Hero Honda Hunk and CBZ. In some markets, FZ also has beaten the market leader Pulsar. Without a clear differentiator, Pulsar is now more vulnerable than ever.

Is Bajaj listening ?????

Related Brand

Pulsar
Yamaha

Bajaj XCD : Positioning Problem ?

Brand : Bajaj XCD
Company : Bajaj Auto


Brand Analysis Count : 381

Bajaj XCD was launched in September 2007. The brand was expected to boost the fortune of Bajaj Auto and intended to give nightmares to the market leader Hero Honda.

XCD was a 125 cc motorcycle planned by Bajaj to pip the largest selling motorcycle brand Splendour. Indian twowheeler market is dominated by the 100 cc segment which constitutes around 60% of the total volume sold. Bajaj so far was not able to come out with a brand worthy of competing with Splendour . Its major challenger brand Discover , although was moderately successful failed to dethrone the Splendour.

XCD 125 was launched with much hype and fanfare. After Pulsar, everyone had high expectations over new product launches from Bajaj.

The launch ad for XCD 125 was a hi-fi ad which frankly I did not understand. The ad seemed to be expensive with lot of digital effects but conveyed nothing. May be the company wanted to position the brand as a hi-tech brand.

watch the launch ad here : XCD launch ad

Then came the down-to -earth campaigns for XCD. These campaigns were highly popular . The ads had two characters meeting at different places and the non-XCD owner getting pissed off at all these encounters.
Watch the campaigns here : XCD- Traffic signal
XCD Basement
XCD Showroom

The traffic signal advertisement was the most popular one and was really a cool ad. The characters were so popular that Sun Direct Digital TV used the same characters and theme for their commercial - watch here : sun direct

During this phase , XCD directly pitched against 100 cc bikes. Bajaj forecasted that over a period of time, 100 cc bikes will be replaced by more powerful 125 cc bikes. Since Bajaj had earlier failed to foresee the shift of consumer from scooters to motorcycles, it did not wanted the history to repeat itself.

So in a pre-emptive move, Bajaj launched the 125 cc brand XCD ahead of Hero Honda.

Hence, during the launch phase, Bajaj tried to convince the potential 100 cc bike customers to switch to 125 cc. These customers were in the middle-class segment and the price of these bikes were in the range of Rs 40,000- Rs 45,000.

In the campaigns, XCD tried to tell the consumers that 125 cc bikes are more powerful , fuel efficient and had lot of features like electronic start, LED lamps and digital speedometers that 100 cc bikes does not have.

More over the brand had the legendary DTS-Si engine which was proprietary technology from Bajaj.

Despite all these, the XCD failed to take-off. The company expected XCD to even overtake Pulsar interms of the sales volume. But after the initial spike, XCD failed to enthuse the market.

The first reason was the product failure. Immediately after the launch, there were reports on product problems and recall. Although there was no PR disaster, consumers were taken aback by the newspaper reports. ( report) The product also failed to deliver on the expectations generated by the advertisements regarding the mileage.

Another significant reason was the positioning issue. Bajaj XCD was destined to fight with Splendour . So through out the campaign , it wanted to establish the Points of Parity with Splendour and other 100 cc bikes.

But contrary to Bajaj's expectations, the consumers established Points of Parity of XCD with Pulsar. The main culprit was the ingredient brand DTS-Si. Since Bajaj XCD also had the DTSi technology, consumers expected the same level of performance with that of Pulsar.

Also consumers never put XCD 125 in the same category as 100 cc. Hence the comparison was with higher CC brands like Pulsar. Since XCD was no where near Pulsar, obviously consumers never was happy. Bajaj wanted to do a break-away positioning but the strategy failed.

Bajaj also confused the consumers by launching Platina 125 DTSI. Platina is the entry level brand and launching that brand with 125 cc engine killed any remaining prospect of XCD 125, since there is not much difference between the two brands except the price.

In 2009, Bajaj is trying a second luck with the XCD brand. In January , the company launched XCD 135 DTS-Si. The new variant is touted as India's first commuter sports bike.

The brand is currently running a television commercial in all channels : Watch it here

In my personal opinion, it is a lousy commercial which is a sheer waste of money. It is totally absurd and the idea is nothing new. I think some other brand had earlier advertised about the " one pillion rider " theme. Two girls fighting for a pillion ride is not a big ' aha' and the ad is too lengthy one which is a waste of money at this time of cash-crunch.

Here again Bajaj is trying to create a new category of bikes. The new XCD boasts of 5 speed gear box, front disc brakes, digital speedometers etc which is seen on the premium bikes. XCD also is powered with DTS-SI engine and is priced at Rs 45,000.

I don't think that Bajaj has learned from the mistakes from the failure of XCD 125. Here again the positioning of XCD is strikingly similar to Pulsar. Now the only difference between Pulsar and XCD is interms of engine power and price. Even the styling has become almost the same.

XCD 135 brand is again creating points of parity with Pulsar .I am sure that XCD will not match the power of Pulsar and those customers who expect the Pulsar's qualities in XCD are bound to be disappointed.

I don't understand why Bajaj has not been able to create a seperate identity for XCD rather than
keep its association with Pulsar. The advertising agency has also done the damage of creating a campaign which is strikingly similar to Pulsar campaigns by including the famous stunt called Stoppie where the biker lifts the rear wheel and balances using the front. .These stunts and visuals were trademarks of Pulsar ads.

Bajaj is also ignoring its best-selling Pulsar brand . It was not able to create new memorable campaigns for the flagship Pulsar and now they are messing up Pulsar by using same positoning platform for other bikes.

I have a feeling that Bajaj is now panicking because of the comeptition from Yamaha and Honda. In the Panic, it is creating strategies to boost short-term sales rather than investing for the long term. Brands take time to establish but Bajaj is trying to do things fast.

Having said that, the most important determinant of success in the two-wheeler segment is the product's performance. Splendour has been ruling the Indian roads on pure performance than anything else. If XCD 135 is able to create new benchmarks for performance, then there is nothing that can stop it from becoming successful - even lousy positioning cannot block its success.






Related Brand

Pulsar
Brand Update on Pulsar