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Creativity v/s Cult




'Haathi mat paalo' is the tagline Bajaj came up with for their flagship model Dominar 400, a direct play at their closest competition : Royal Enfield.

Bajaj's marketing team understood the existing problems consumers faced in the sub 400cc market, like heavy weight of the motorbikes, bad braking duties, less agility and difficulty in starting up. All the aforementioned problems are actually the weaknesses of the Royal Enfield line of 350cc motorbikes. Bajaj capitalized on these weaknesses and created an excellent advertisement campaign which showcased how their offering, the Dominar 400 would tackle these problems and be a better value option. The TVC which was designed by Ogilvy and Mathers, Mumbai was critically acclaimed and the witty nature of this campaign brought in a lot of interest for the Dominar 400 and also created a lot of buzz online.

But the success of the Dominar brand was only limited to its commercial because despite such a creative ad campaign, Bajaj failed to match Royal Enfield's sales figures. What Bajaj and O&M failed to understand was that most buyers do not purchase a Royal Enfield product based on the specification list but rather because they want to be a part of the RE cult and also because it gives them a chance to buy into a legacy more than 100 years old.

In this war between creativity and cult, I am drawn towards creativity, but the figures clearly state otherwise. Only time can decide the winner but why don't you help me decide by posting your thoughts in the comments below?

-Abhishek Mishra

  

Comments

  1. Ananthakrishnan ANovember 5, 2020 at 10:49 PM

    RE bike is just not a commuting tool which takes you from A to B. Its a sensation ,matter of social status and aspirational product for Indian middle class. A lot of sales comes from rural sales too. When a product performs brilliant despite of being technically incompetent, height of brand perception is evident. When you try to tackle similar product, strategy should be intact. Bajaj was also inconsistent in placing Dominar as a product. From 2017 to 2020, Dominar price has been hiked by 30% atleast. They have also played spoilsport by launching 250cc of same brand. Dominar was a product who could be easily postioned as a "power cruiser" but they unnecessarily took a dig at RE. They are moving away from Hathi ads but competition has stiffened and early bird advantage is apparently lost.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Krunal MamtoraNovember 13, 2020 at 2:23 PM

    First thing I would like to point out is that people do not join RE because of only Cult and Herd Mentality. The Overall Return of Value this machine gives to the owner far outweighs other bikes in this segment. This statement you have written is debatable and partially wrong - "What Bajaj and O&M failed to understand was that most buyers do not purchase a Royal Enfield product based on the specification list but rather because they want to be a part of the RE cult and also because it gives them a chance to buy into a legacy more than 100 years old." Yes being a part of RE can be a part of reasoning, But what other reasons customers want to buy RE? If you give me Torque, Looks, any property Its all part of Specifications which plays a major role in Purchase. Yes RPM of this machine is lower than its competitors but its a trade-off you are getting higher torque.
    If you talk about Dominar , It has a very limited segment in demographics than Royal Enfield. For Example if you take age as one of the decision factor for segmentation RE will have a way larger market than Dominar because there is no clear boundary of Age segment that appeals RE. We can't say the same thing for Dominar.
    With their new bike Meteor they have resolved many predominant issues. RE is also giving a Customization feature to select your accessories online.

    You should have adhered to the comparisons of only Marketing Campaigns in this blog.

    ReplyDelete

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