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Inflection Racing

As India's mobike market evolves, is there a turn in the road up ahead?

By P.V Sahad

Ace driving

This is no ordinary moto-race. It began in the mid-1980s - when Indo-Jap collaborations invaded Indian roads with their zippy 100-cc mobikes. Trouble-free and economical on fuel, the 100-cc mobike took about a decade to start replacing the scooter as the family man's transportation device. Marketers that sought to fulfill the consumer's needs on the all-so-crucial parameter of cost-of-transport, did remarkably well - selling hundreds of thousand bikes. It has, by and large, been easy cruising for four-stroke engine players these past 15 years or so.

Alas, time might just be running out for such easy fuel-economy cruising. For the first time in years, marketers might soon encounter an 'inflection point', a turn in the road. And depending on when it occurs and how sharp it is, the very order of the racers could change. That's the thing with sharp turns. They're the perfect points at which to slip into the innermost track - knee-pads scraping the tarmac et al -- to steal ahead in the race.

So - what might this turn be? The coming of the no-compromise biker.

The who?

The biker who does not see a two-wheeler as a compromise, as something he has to make do with because a Maruti 800 is out of reach. Now, in the world of classic perceptions, this biker does not exist. But in the marketing imagination - and increasingly in real life - he sure does. This is the consumer who is upwardly mobile, but is also comfortable with who he is, and is on the lookout for a bike that society would hold in the same esteem as he does.

A regular fuel-saving 100-cc bike would not fit the bill. But something smarter and snazzier? Something that most certainly is not a fuel-saving transportation device? Yes, but only so long as the bike is sharply differentiated, and in doing so, serves as a strong personality statement that has nothing to do with income (or even one's relationship with money). A statement that holds appeal even with those pinstripes in Ford Ikons.

To be fair, mobike marketers in India are already thinking vaguely in this direction. Take Hero Honda, for instance. Faced with a decline in sales and intensifying competition in its 'executive fuel-saving' segment (of premium 100-cc bikes), the market leader has recently responded with Karizma, a 223-cc performance bike priced at Rs 79,000 ex-showroom. The numbers sold may not be large, but at least the product is significantly snazzier than the 100-cc models, and thus capable of enticing the biker who's passionate about his set of wheels - and certainly not ashamed of using two rather than four. If this brand makes a breakthrough in getting its message across (it's still an 'if' at the moment), the same set of attitude-drivers can be applied in larger volume segments as well. And that could turn the market, giving it the first inflection point in years.

Of course, there's no reason that Hero Honda should define the race track, with all its twists and turns. If anything, the company has been slightly late in launching upscale bikes. The 174-cc Bajaj Eliminator was perhaps first off the block, priced at around Rs 80,000. Another significant recent launch has been Yamaha's 125-cc Enticer, a cruise bike at just under Rs 50,000.

Market analysts are not so sure that Hero Honda has the requisite resources to play any game other than fuel economy. The company's rivals, on the other hand, are arming themselves with all sorts of higher-power bikes. Even LML is mulling the introduction of Daelim Daystar, a cruiser made by its Korean technical collaborator. Then there's also Royal Enfield Motors, the original power player, looking sharper now with Enfield Lightning, Thunderbird, Bullet Machsimo and Electra.

In other words, it's still an open race, and should the no-compromise biker emerge, there's no saying which marketer will steal the race. And there's little time left to fashion a turn-negotiating strategy. According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), April and May 2003 saw 86,847 motorcycles sell in the 125-cc and above engine size category - a 56 per cent jump over the corresponding period the previous year. In contrast, the period saw the 75-125-cc category grow just 7 per cent.

So which brand would you put your money on? The one that's able to understand this no-compromise biker - and his self-esteem --- the best.

Remember that classic Harley ad? Opens to a highway scene. There's a sedan on the road, cruising quietly, with an executive at the wheel - looking anxiously in the rear-view mirror. There's the sound of a Harley - getting louder. As the bike nears the car, the nervous exec reaches out to push down the little 'lock' knob of his door. Cut to overview shot. The bike peacefully overtakes the sedan. On comes the voiceover: 'Harley Davidson. Respected Everywhere.'

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