Bajaj's sales have been going down. Just when biking enthusiasts had begun raving about Bajaj's products, the latter slid and slid well. Why? Reasons galore. Apparent reason could be new models from Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki and Hero Honda.
Who's the leader in motorcycling industry in India? Obvious, some would say. Hero Honda. Yes, we can't deny. But think about it. Are there no other leaders? The argument would be that Hero Honda has maximum share of the market. So it's the market leader and therefore, there can not be any other. Far from truth I would say.
Like everything other thing in the world, motorcycling category has evolved in India. The category evolves (fragments & diverges), so do the norms of leadership. In the earlier years the broad category was two-wheelers under which there were only two sub-categories - scooters and motorcycles. After that scooters evolved into geared and non-geared. Motorcycles evolved into 2-stroke and 4-stroke and so on. Though Bajaj was the leader in geared scooters, Kinetic Honda took leadership in non-geared. Hero Honda represented the 4-stroke while Yamaha, for some time initially, led in the 2-stroke market. You know the story.
The thing is, it almost seems that it's the categories which compete. Geared vs Non-geared. 4-stroke vs 2-stroke. 100cc vs 125cc. 125cc vs 150cc. Naked vs Full-fairing. Economy vs Performance. And therefore the brands which represent these categories seem to be competing with each other. If one brand is leader in different categories then one can say that brand is fighting itself. Competing with itself. But leadership in different categories all at the same time is near impossible in the long term.
What about Hero Honda's leadership? What about Bajaj's leadership?
In competition of categories Hero Honda rules. It gets its sales from 100cc bikes economy bikes. Even in that, just from one brand: Splendor. Hero Honda has promoted the sub-category of economy bikes so well that the it dominates the category of bikes and, therefore the leadership of brand Splendor.
Bajaj on the other hand, after years, really kick-started (not pioneered) the 150cc performance bikes category. The Pulsar turned out to be such a great face of the category, that the category flourished and Pulsar dominated the 150cc and higher capacity bikes.
The thing is, Bajaj seems to have lost sight of the track. Having obtained leadership, Bajaj seems to have had taken the 150cc category for granted and went after other categories as well and therefore spent (perhaps wasted as well) its invaluable marketing force in the process.
So what do we see?
Platina – 100cc, 120cc
Discover – 110cc, 125cc, 135cc (plans were to take Discover into 150cc)
XCD – 125cc, 135cc
What's next? Any more confusion for the consumers? May be XCD 150cc. Or Discover 150cc. Or Platina 135cc. Convoluted. Keep it simple.
Bajaj must understand that Pulsar is the thing for them. 150cc is their forte. It's the segment where bike enthusiasts have really taken a liking for the brand. But it's also a segment where 'new' is so necessary. Bajaj has given a significant chance to Yamaha to capture the enthusiasts' imagination. If Bajaj loses ground in 150cc then in other segments like 125cc and 225cc also, it might lose the race.
Look at it the other way. People who upgrade from 100cc would of course go for either 125cc or 150cc. If Bajaj is the leader in 150cc, these people are likely to buy Pulsar or some such brand. With the market getting sophisticated, Bajaj will hold the cards.
Also, a 150cc bike is the likely dream for a 100cc bike owner. A leader like Bajaj should be fuel that dream, should shape that dream.
If Bajaj does want to tap different segments, then categories must well mapped to different brands and not the same brand. For example, Pulsar 220 shouldn't have been called a Pulsar and shouldn't have borrowed the shape from Pulsar. Should've been a different brand with a different shape. Would've fared much better.
Focus. One brand, one category.
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