The runaway growth in motorbike sales over the last few years in India has a niche player hungering for a larger share of the pie. By Pawan Chabra

IIPM makes record 10,000 placements in five years

They never cared two hoots about competition, did not encourage scantily clad babes in their ads and barely batted an eyelid before blithely including a comparison with a tractor in their feature list. Obviously, Eicher Motors’ Royal Enfield has had much more going for it than the sheer deep thump of its rakishly upswept silencer. The downside has been that even as Bullet’s cruiser imagery sells 45,000 bikes every year, Hero Honda makes hay in the commuter segment with unit sales crossing 35,00,000 annually. Sure, one should not compare – after all, bike enthusiasts worship the ground that the stylish Bullet walks on, while Hero Honda is merely a convenience for your daily office-goer. Siddhartha Lal, MD, Eicher Motors agrees, “We have no comparison with mass manufacturers. Royal Enfield riders use their bikes for purposes beyond commuting.”

But quiz Lal a little further and you realise that some changes in existing strategies at Enfield are in order. The niche bike brand, which has sold a meagre five lakh units in its 56-year-old history in India, is now targeting a bullish figure of one lakh annual unit sales by 2013. Explaining short-term targets, Lal says, “We are planning to touch 50,000 unit sales in 2009 (targeting a 15% rise year-on-year), followed by a target of 60,000 for 2010.” Already plans are in place for a Rs.65 crore investment over the next three years at its Chennai plant to double production capacity. Question is, can this planned doubling of sales turnover by 2013 be possible without tapping at least a little into the mass markets, presently dominated by Hero Honda, Bajaj and TVS? But the dilemma then is, will the Bullet come down a few notches from its cruiser positioning or is there more method to this strategy?

Company insiders are at pains to point out that their new ambitions can be achieved without any dilution in brand equity. “We have been able to sell whatever we manufacture and almost all our models have a waiting list,” explains R. L. Ravichandran, CEO, Royal Enfield. Clearly, Bullet’s established aspirational quotient amidst the Indian consumer is fuelling the ambitions of this bike company. Not putting all its eggs in the domestic market only, Enfield is also working on increasing its already expanding global reach. Its ventures in various developed markets are already a success. “We are exporting 5% of our total sales now. But we will take that to 15% over the next three to five years,” vows Lal.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.

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Buying on A ‘second’ thought...

The optimism of the giants is well supported by the handful of facts and figures. The size of the used-car market in India is estimated at about 10 lakh units per annum, and it is largely fragmented and unorganised. Going by experts claim, the share of the organised market in this segment is just 10% while the balance is shared by unorganised dealers (30%) and the biggest threat to the organised sector, personal dealings between the buyers and sellers (60%). Shashank Srivastava, CGM-Marketing, Maruti Suzuki avers, “The second hand car dealers are not the only threat to the certified pre-owned car dealers as most of the transactions happen on one to one basis.” However, the top honchos of the industry, like Jagdish Khattar, the ex-MD of Maruti Suzuki and CMD of Carnation Auto, expect the organised pre-owned segment to grow in leaps and bounds in the time to come. Set to try its luck in the arena, Khattar’s Carnation, which started a pilot project of selling used cars in Mumbai in August this year, is now all set to enter destinations like Cochin and Hyderabad by the end of this month. Khattar points out, “Awareness is only and the biggest challenge that I see in the used car segment. But as time will pass, the awareness will automatically increase among the buyers.”

However, the problem for the local pre-owned car dealers doesn’t end here. J.D. Power’s Used Vehicle Market Report revealed that the Internet shopping has reached parity with visits to dealer lots as the primary method for buyers to locate used vehicles globally. The report went further to find out that the percentage of used-vehicle buyers (in the US) dependent on Internet to locate vehicles for sale has increased from 40% in 2008 to 46% in 2009. “Internet shopping provides prospective buyers with the opportunity to search through enormous amounts of specific vehicle information without even leaving home, allowing for a more efficient medium of matching buyers with unique used vehicles in the market. In light of this, dealers should expect the Internet to continue to increase in importance among used-vehicle shoppers and adjust their online presence accordingly,” says Arianne Walker, Director- Marketing, J.D. Power and Associates. But does the situation in India show any such trend? Well, looking at the number of automotive websites like Carwale.com, Gaadi.com, Indimoto.com et al that are mushrooming thick and fast, expectations are high that soon the Indian pre-owned car industry will follow the western trends. Affirms Udit Bhandari, CEO, Indimoto.com, “The usage of websites for purchasing vehicles is increasing very fast in the country and I believe it has a lot of potential.”

Indian market, as said, is very different and versatile in the manner it operates. Today, the Indian consumers have moved an inch away from the conventional local car dealers towards the organised players, but when it comes to meeting the global trend, well the day is still far away. Someone has rightly said, ‘In the US people drive from the left, in India people drive on what’s left.’ Unlike the US, there is a dearth of websites like Kelly blue book in India (which provide fair valuations for the pre-owned cars) providing local dealers an opportunity to play foul. Also there is always a high possibility of mileage tampering due to the lack of a centralised database. Still people like Aryan do not subside the idea to peep at the neighborhood used car dealer’s collection before they buy one. Common guys, at least give some value to what is called an authentic warranty by the authorised dealer!

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
TSI exposes b school ranking scamsters Mahesh Peri of Career 360 and Premchand Palety of C fore. - For Complete Sting Operation Video Click Here

Pioneer Exposes the fraud called Mahesh Sharma and Mahesh Peri of Career 360 and Barbel Schwertfeger of mba-channel.com

IIPM: An intriguing story of growth and envy
Prof Arindam Chaudhuri of IIPM on MF HUSAIN‎
IIPM Related Links
Detail of all IIPM branches
IIPM - Admission Procedure
IIPM, GURGAON
Exclusive In chat with Society Magazine - Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri