Strategic Battle : Bajaj v/s Hero Honda

Bajaj has captured the market in India at a very high pace competing international players like Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki etc. The company has made a good reputation in the minds of customers. Bajaj was king in Scooters Manufacturing till 1990 but the entrance of new bikes and cars hit the scooter industry badly, and there was sudden downfall in the sales of scooters. As scooters were giving almost the same mileage which cars were giving but the bikes were giving the mileage more than the double. Moreover scooters were used by the retailers to carry goods from wholesalers to their shops, now this work started done on bikes and by cars too.

 

Bajaj started its business somewhere in 1960s with the launch of Vespa-150 under the license of Piaggio of Italy. After that it launched Bajaj Chetak and it became the leader with this launch. Bajaj got tremendous success in a very short duration. Later on in the year 1985 Hero Honda entered India with the launch of its CD-100 causing threat to Bajaj. Here Bajaj was going to hit badly, but Bajaj analyzed the situation very well and did a joint venture with Kawasaki Japan to compete with Hero Honda. The first bike which Bajaj launched was KD-100 in the year 1986. Though it was not successful and was not able to compete with CD-100 but this started the ADVERTISEMENT BATTLE among them. Here Bajaj was stickled to its scooters of which it was king and Hero Honda was focusing on its bike, and were giving ads of the same.

 

In 1994 Hero Honda launched its new bike, Splender. The launch of Splender hit the Scooter’s Sale badly. The bike was an excellent example of Mileage and Handling. Here it was very difficult for Bajaj to stay in the market for long as some other big giants like Yamaha and Suzuki were also trying to capture the Market. But kept on searching for new Ideas and innovating its vehicles and somehow managed to hold a big stake in the market and maintain its faith. To fight with the growing demand of Splender, Bajaj launched Caliber in the year 1998, and that was a big hit from the court of Bajaj. This gave birth to the Strategic Battles between the 2 companies

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Bajaj kept on innovating the design and hunting for advanced technology and remained successful in searching the solutions for good mileage and pickups. It took a while for Bajaj to establish faith and trust in the minds of customers for its bikes. Earlier Bajaj was following the same concept for advertising which the Hero Honda is yet following. Look at the above ads of Bajaj. The ad are showing the love of people for Bajaj Scooters. It is showing that the Bajaj is making relations strong and as it is an Indian vehicle, it can change the face of the nation. “Naye Bharat kii nayi tasvir, HAMARA BAJAJ”

 

READ MY PREVIOUS POST TO WATCH THE ADS OF HERO HONDA

As I mentioned in my PREVIOUS POST, here you can observe that this concept was earlier opted by Bajaj and now followed by Hero Honda. I am here, talking about the concept of focusing on Indian Traditions and Culture, showing Families, focusing on relations and passion to do something for the nation. These all things were done by Bajaj in previous years. And these tactics proved to be the nerve of the Nation. Look at the above ads, the thing will be very clear. The ads are showing the roads, the handling of scooters on these ‘kaccha’ roads, then family and children and their relationships. This all made Bajaj to develop faith in the hearts of the customers and arouse emotions in their heart towards Bajaj.

 

Now, instead of following the same pattern Bajaj has changed its way way of Advertising its products. Instead of touching the heart and nerves of the audience Bajaj is trying to bring innovation in its ads by showing some epic or some idea behind its ads. It is true that Bajaj has spent millions on researching the newer technologies and variants in designs. Apart from that it is also true that Bajaj has spent quality time and money with its Advertisement Partner MICA to bring innovations in its Ads. Watch these videos of Bajaj Pulsar Ads, here you will find many innovative ads in this video.

Watch the innovation in this Ad that shows 3 DTSI models of Bajaj.

 

Here one thing more is very clear that whatever the bike Bajaj has launched, it has a purpose to compete another bike of Hero Honda.

Bajaj launched KD 100(1986) to compete with CD 100(1985), Caliber(1998) to compete with Splender(1994), Legend(1998) to compete with Street(1997), Pulsar(2001) to compete with CBZ(1999), Discover(2004) to compete with Passion(2001), Wind(2003) to compete with Ambition(2002), Caliber115(2003) to compete with Splender Plus(2003), CT-100(2004) to compete with CD Dawn(2003), Pulsar 220(2007) to compete with Karizma(2003) and now NINJA(2010) to compete with Karizma ZMR(2009). During this period various other models were also introduced by both the companies and some were mere modification. But it was not significant to mention all the models.

So this was the Strategic journey of Bajaj in its Battle against Hero Honda. Keep visit Advertisement Battles to read more such Battles.