marketing assign pulsar

8/8/2019 Marketing Assign Pulsar

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Marketing Strategy of

Bajaj Pulsar 28/11/2010



Introduction

India has a huge market in the two wheelers segment. It is the biggest contributor in the

automobile sector. In 2008-09, out of the total market share for automobiles 76.49% was

occupied by two wheelers (business maps of india) .

The two wheelers segment is made of mainly three components, motorcycles, scooters and mopeds. The latter two have more or less remained stagnant during the last decade and

half, whereas motorcycles have shown double digit growth of 17.4% CAGR in the same

period. By 2019-20, annual sales of 20.7 million units are expected to be achieved by

motorcycles.

The demand for two wheelers has been influenced by a number of f actors,

y Increase in per-capita income in urban as well as rural areas.

y Inadequate public transport system.

y Availability of cheaper f inancing options.

y Availability of fuel eff icient and low maintenance models.

y Change in demographic prof ile.

The major players in motorcycles include Hero Honda, Bajaj, TVS, Honda and Yamaha.

From the Bajaj stable, Pulsar has been one of the biggest success stories i n the f ield of two-

wheelers in India during recent times.

It has become the largest selling bike in the over 150cc two wheelers market in India. The

way it has been marketed has been a very big f actor in its success.



History

In November 2001, Bajaj Auto launched a bike which has gone on to become a best seller

and continuously scaled new heights.

Before the launch of Pulsar, the Indian bike market in the nineties was more concentrated in

the low capacity engine models, below 125cc. Manuf acturers were concentrating on givinghigher fuel eff iciency. In the high engine capacity only Royal Enf ield Bullet existed.

In 1999, the launch and success of CBZ by Hero Honda opened the eyes of manuf acturers

towards performance oriented bikes. Then Pulsar came along and gave a new life o this

segment and helped make it the f astest growing segment in India.

Bajaj Auto prior to 2001 had been looked upon as a company which manuf actured scooters.

It came into existence on November 29, 1945. Since that time it had been associated by the

middle class with stability and quality. But, with the launch of Pulsar it moved into a new

territory of high performance, style and excitement.

Pulsar was developed by the Product Engineering division of Bajaj Auto, which is the R& D

division, and designed by Tokyo R&D, a designing company.



Creating Brand Equity

Coming f rom the house of Bajaj Auto not much effort could have been spent by the

company on marketing and building the image of Pulsar. But the company had chosen to

differentiate it f rom its other offerings and focus on performance and styling as against

Bajajs regular image of stability and f amily oriented.

So, a whole new strategy had to be designed to create a separate brand identity for the

Pulsar bikes. This was very important as the target segment wanted high performance and

modern muscular design, things which could hardly be related with Bajaj Auto.

In the initial stages the traditional Bajaj brand was attached with Pulsar but without any of

its traditional identity. And with the huge success of Pulsar as a brand it has even

transformed the original image of the parent, Bajaj Auto.

The brand elements used to create the brand are the insignia of Pulsar, the various taglines

(Def initely Male, Digital Biking, etc.) , the overall performance of the bikes and association of

the product with the concept of manliness.

Initially when launched the Bajaj logo used to be prominently displaye d on the bikes, but

gradually the company has relied lesser and lesser on the Bajaj brand and has built up the

Pulsar brand. Recently it was decided that the use of Bajaj logo and name would be

altogether stopped and only the bikes logo will be displayed.

POPs and PODs

The Point of Difference which Pulsar has associated with it that differentiates it f rom its

rivals like TVS Apache and Hero Honda CBZ is the emphasis on manliness and its muscular

design. The whole communication idea initially was based on this point.

It also gave disk brakes as standard f ittings, which was then a novelty in Indian motorcycles.

Later, DTSi technology became another point of difference for the brand.

The Points of Parity which made a difference for Pulsar and helped it captu re the target

segment f rom CBZ were high performance, great styling and moderate pricing.

The long term strategy of Bajaj Auto to achieve their goal of being No. 1 in motorcycles

segment is to differentiate itself on the basis of its superior products and achieve quality

leadership.

Communication Strategy

Bajaj Auto had always been known for outstanding ads and punch lines. This had worked

with their range of scooters which were instantly recognizable by the name Bajaj.



In case of Pulsar also the advertisement campaign run by the agency (Ogilvy and Mather)

was also a very important f actor in the success of the bike. The bike itself was pretty much

different f rom anything that Bajaj had produced earlier. It was the f irst bike without the

Kawasaki tag, developed by internal R&D and was a beauty in design. So, the agency

decided that the campaign should also be different. The agency stuck upon the idea of

India's Male Bike. Idea was to position the bike as World's f irst bike endowed with a

Gender. Thus, was born the classic campaign of all times Def initely Male. The campaign

together with the design and performance catapulted the brand into stratospheric sales

level.

All its television commercials pointed out that it was a male bike, having superb

performance and great styling.

When newer technologies were used in the bike the communications changed accordingly.

When DTSI was introduced the positioning was changed f rom Def initely Male to Digital

Biking. And now with it becoming the f astes t Indian production bike a new tagline has been adopted of The Fastest Indian.

Another strategy adopted by Bajaj was the opening of ProBiking showrooms around the

country. These are showrooms showcasing their high performance bikes of which Pulsar is a

major part. This helped the customers get a f irst hand feel of the bikes as well as they got to

know about the specialities in a much better way than was possible in a regular showroom.

Product Modification

Bajaj did not rest with the laurels. It knew that Pulsar was the key to become the biggestcompany in the Indian bike market. Hence Pulsar got undivided attention f rom the

company. In 2003, Bajaj Auto launched its new technology DTSi . DTSi, which stands for

Digital Twin Spark Ignition , delivered more power and eff iciency. The increased performance

of the brand took Pulsar to greater heights. 2004 and 2005 saw some cosmetic ch anges in

the brand which appealed to the customers and thus cemented Pulsar's position in the

market.



Porters Five Forces Analysis

Threat of Substitutes

There arent any real substitutes

in this segment. One can say that

Tata Nano is there but it caters

to a different segment of

consumers than what Pulsar

caters to.

Threat of New Entrants

To enter into the automobile

segment huge investments need

to be made. So, it is not that

easy for a new player to enter

the market as the entry and exit

barriers are high. But the market

is lucrative so serious players

ma be interested.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers

Most of the components are

outsourced, with over 200

vendors. Being highly

f ragmented and availability of

other options their bargaining

power is limited. Eff icient supply

chain management is very

important in this case.

Bargaining Power of Customers

Buyers have more number of

choices to choose f rom and this

increases their bargaining

power. But in this segment of

over 150cc Pulsar has currently

almost monopolised the market

with a large number of offerings.

Competition

The competition is high with

competitors constantly trying to

match Pulsars offerings and

bringing in better bikes. To keep

ahead Bajaj has to keep

upgrading its product which it

has done till now.



References

y How the sons transformed Bajaj Auto, Feb 14, 2005

http://www.rediff.com/money/2005/feb/14spec2.htm

y http://business.mapsof india.com/automobile/

y http://autocarindia.com

y The Motorcycle Diaries, Sep 28, 2010

The Financial Express

y http://marketingpractice.blogspot.com

y Marketing Management, Philip Kotler, Kevin Keller, Abraham Koshy, Mithileshwar

Jha

13th

Edition, Pearson Education, Inc.

y http://www.4psbusinessandmarketing.com

marketing assign pulsar

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