Yamaha has relaunched its offensive with an intent to dethrone the existing undisputed leaders of the Sports Bike segment – Pulsar from the House of Bajaj. (Pulsar owns 51% of the sports bikes segment, and about 27% of the entire bike segment. Bikes are classified as sports bikes if they are 150cc and above)
Yamaha has foccussed its campaign on ‘personalized bikes‘. They are trying to build up their offering, Yamaha FZ as an extension of the customer’s personality. They propose that like fashion styles and accessories, even bikes can and should be tailor-made to reflect the rider’s personality. They do so by bringing in John Abraham, who is an apt brand ambassador both for the symbolism for masculinity as well as his known passion for bikes. Watch the ad below :
The ad does the following things:
1. Projecting the variety available in designs: They bring out to the fore the large variety of designs available for the bike, building on the idea that bikes should be personalized as per the rider’s lifestyle
2. Does not talk about performance : The ad has not talked about performance of the bikes. Whether it is because they believe their performance brand equity is well established or that they believe that performance is not the parameter to beat Pulsar on, is unclear to me. We will just wait and see how it is seen in the market.
An early perception by the marketers at Pulsar was that either consciously or unconsciously Yamaha as well as Honda would enjoy some leverage from their Japanese heritage, because every Indian associates Japan with high-end technology. A pre-emptive strike to answer these concerns was made through this ad, making it clear that Pulsar sells more than the Japanese bikes:
So, that’s what seems to be the scene ahead for a heating market, with Honda, Yamaha and Pulsar battling it out for a sizeable chunk of the market which is rapidly growing in India. Time will give us a champion who lords over a huge and growing market.