The boom in the Indian 2Wheeler segment happened when the 3 Japanese giants joined the 3 Indian companies, Honda with Hero, Kawasaki with Bajaj and Suzuki with TVS. Though only Hero Honda is still going strong, the other two ceased after tasting a good success. But Honda parallelly came up and had created a market for itself with its Unicorn, a premium 150cc bike. Suzuki which entered India much later with its Heat and Zeus, semi-urban and urban models respectively failed to create a mark. Then it was the introduction of the scooterette Access 125cc which again failed to compete with Honda's Activa and Dio. Recently launched GS150R also is a failure compared to Pulsars, Apaches and FZs. What did Honda get right which Suzuki failed to do? May be its understanding the needs of the target segment. Honda cautiously did not enter the semi-urban and rural market as it had its share from Hero Honda. It also maintained its brand as premium and sporty with the urban consumer, which is in-line with its global positioning. Suzuki tried to do things differently by positioning itself in the economy segment which was an India specific strategy. So does this indicate that Indian urban 2wheeler consumers want global standards from global companies?
Saturday, December 5, 2009
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