Switching Gears

You stop at a red signal… You find that the restaurant you were searching for is just 200 meters away post the signal… A lot of traffic is making the ambience very spacious and you wish to cruise ahead surpassing the rest… The lights are not yet green, but you find others moving ahead… Proving the Darwin’s theory right, you look for your survival and try to be the fittest; the noise of horns all around is already making you nervous… You switch gears, vroom ahead and march to your destination with a bold move on the accelerator and turn out the leader soon in the unorganized race…

Hasn't that been a familiar scenario?

This just does not apply to ordinary individuals like you but to even to corporations, even those who are in the business of manufacturing bikes. And your bike has a reflection of your personality, identity in your bikes…

Bajaj Auto is no exception to this. What they were two decades ago and what they are now is a radical difference. Through discussions in classrooms at numerous b-Schools or in any class of brand repositioning, Bajaj Auto can’t be missed for the revolution they have crafted.

Two decades ago, when there existed no competition, ‘Papa ka, mummy ka Bajaj’ was the identity among Indian households. They were known as scooter and auto rickshaw manufacturers. There ads that were featured then, on the only existing TV channel, Doordarshan were very different from now

.

Bajaj Super, Bajaj Chetak, everyone wanted to own them! People were willing to wait for 10 years, which isn’t necessarily a good thing as it casts doubt on the manufacturing capacity despite the big workforce. Now, Bajaj has a workforce of 12000, most of them ITIs, diploma holders while it earlier had a workforce of 17000 while the production capacity has gone up by 4 times the earlier. The output to input ratio has become impressive over the years. Who’s behind that?

As people stopped giving preference to motorcycles over scooters, there was a thing to worry for the scooter behemoth. Hero Honda was doing excellent at motorcycles while Bajaj was just not able to catch up. Boxer, Caliber was just not doing the job that they were supposed to. And, there is this undeclared thumb rule in the automobile industry; you just can’t take the spot of a player where one company is already the king. No one could take scooters away from Bajaj but now no one could take 100cc motorcycles away from Hero Honda. In the year 2001, Bajaj’s financials were very worrying… What could they do from here when customers don’t like scooters and there is Hero Honda established in economy bikes? There was already Enfield on the top end.

They had to come up with something radically new…

Although 100cc economy bikes were ruling the roost, there was a market gap which was yet to be fulfilled. Those who disliked economy bikes and could not afford Enfield were just looking for that midpoint. They wanted an ideal mix of power and economy.

Then came the ‘Definitely Male’!!!

A similar one from rival was doing good in the market, but it delivered style and power, not economy. Year on year, trying everything best they can, Bajaj came up with aggressive marketing on Pulsar and the youth kept saying, ‘Viola, I got it!’

Soon, Pulsar 150, 180 were the bikes to be found easily on streets. The rival came up with many models but they flunked easily without even a notice.

With all those changes that this bike made possible, the statement that Bajaj made to audience changed. There ads year on year kept changing and delivering various statements to different people.

The year 2001 marked the crossroad analogues to the red signal we discussed. The Pulsar was just to get launched; the destination was near; there was a lot of noise about drop in sales; survival of the fittest was on back of the min; removing Hero Honda from their position was not possible; switching gears and moving ahead of everyone in the industry was making them nervous; and yeah, the target was near!!

Now, the ‘papa ka mummy ka Bajaj’ stands as a youth icon. Now, the scooter and auto rickshaw manufacturer is known as a motorcycle manufacturer. This also becomes an example of brand repositioning and might even find a place in Kotler’s upcoming editions!

Yes, who’s behind it??? The man is called Rajeev Bajaj, who turned Bajaj Auto’s fortunes over years…

Look towards the left of the screen, enter your email ID and know how this journey took place apart from… How engineering quality was not enough, marketing was the weapon; How reduced workforce with not-so-great qualifications gave them higher manufacturing capacity; and a lot of other stuff on motorcycles!