It might not seem like much, but the above question is an eternal one. After all, cracking this riddle would mean a gleaming top line for our bike making brigade. And yes, the first for-ever hungry company that manages to crack it, will, of course, wear the coveted number one crown.
But if you have been following the Indian market, and I don’t mean in the hard core sort of a way: keeping a tab on numbers, margins et al, but simply a track of new launches, you’d realize it’s almost impossible to solve the riddle. I mean, just look at the number of new launches, variants, paint jobs, feature enhancement surgeries that happen on a model, and that too within weeks of its launch.
This can only mean two things: one, our bike makers are still clueless about what we as customers demand, and second, as buyers, we too are clueless about our needs!
The latter is well highlighted by the questions I have had to field over the years from a widespread audience on what bike they should buy. The needs put forward are equally wide-ranging: “I want a fuel efficient bike, and it ought to be cheap,” says a 100cc customer, almost always. There’s no talk about styling or features. Why then, are bike makers lavishing their entry level models with electric start, alloy wheels, and bright and contemporary styling?
Cause it helps sell! Look at our top three bike companies, and look at their model line up - Hero Honda has constantly updated the CD, there was the Dawn, and now there’s the Deluxe, fully loaded. Bajaj too played its part with the stylish Platina, and TVS, well… TVS introduced not one or two, but four variants of the Star, before bringing in the fifth – the 110cc avatar. The point of it all being; it’s the top-of-the-line variant, no matter which model, that has the lion’s share.
Yes, that’s a typical Indian bike buyer for you: he knows he wants fuel efficiency, and low purchase price, but give him an extra douse of features, which he thought unnecessary, and he goes and picks the best endowed one!
But why just the entry level customer, buyers in the 150cc plus segment aren’t any different.
We say we want performance. Fuel efficiency can’t be in the 30s of course, but kilometer-to-a-litre isn’t our priority. We want our motorcycles to look good, handle well, and offer a newness so far missing in the segment.
The P150 comes out, and we lap it up. Achiever, Unicorn, Graptors, and the likes don’t catch our fancy. We find them lacking in a number of areas – styling and performance to list a couple.
Apache sees light of day – its stylish, a tad faster, and handles like a dream, but we still don’t exactly take to it like a dog (or was it ants?) to sweets. P150 upgrade is launched, this time with a LED tail and LCD read, but a disappointing gain in performance, but we still take to it, and say, “Look at all that fancy stuff! That’s value for money”
Now, here’s my point.
We as buyers don’t exactly appreciate what we demand. And despise taking risks. We are like a herd; we move with the majority; the more bikes on the road means, the make is proven, it would be a safe bet then, forgetting what we demanded and stood for in the first place.
I’d hate to be a manufacturer in India.
But I am not too happy to be a buyer either, thanks to the majority of the bike buying public’s attitude – we get swayed by fancy stuff so easily rather than rewarding true performance and motorcycling purity which we speak about at rides, meets, blogs, and even on a web forum.
No wonder manufacturers refuse to take risks, and we end up saddled with duds, which we have been living with what seems like eternity, and will probably continue to do so... well, at least till the Expo, we will.
But if you have been following the Indian market, and I don’t mean in the hard core sort of a way: keeping a tab on numbers, margins et al, but simply a track of new launches, you’d realize it’s almost impossible to solve the riddle. I mean, just look at the number of new launches, variants, paint jobs, feature enhancement surgeries that happen on a model, and that too within weeks of its launch.
This can only mean two things: one, our bike makers are still clueless about what we as customers demand, and second, as buyers, we too are clueless about our needs!
The latter is well highlighted by the questions I have had to field over the years from a widespread audience on what bike they should buy. The needs put forward are equally wide-ranging: “I want a fuel efficient bike, and it ought to be cheap,” says a 100cc customer, almost always. There’s no talk about styling or features. Why then, are bike makers lavishing their entry level models with electric start, alloy wheels, and bright and contemporary styling?
Cause it helps sell! Look at our top three bike companies, and look at their model line up - Hero Honda has constantly updated the CD, there was the Dawn, and now there’s the Deluxe, fully loaded. Bajaj too played its part with the stylish Platina, and TVS, well… TVS introduced not one or two, but four variants of the Star, before bringing in the fifth – the 110cc avatar. The point of it all being; it’s the top-of-the-line variant, no matter which model, that has the lion’s share.
Yes, that’s a typical Indian bike buyer for you: he knows he wants fuel efficiency, and low purchase price, but give him an extra douse of features, which he thought unnecessary, and he goes and picks the best endowed one!
But why just the entry level customer, buyers in the 150cc plus segment aren’t any different.
We say we want performance. Fuel efficiency can’t be in the 30s of course, but kilometer-to-a-litre isn’t our priority. We want our motorcycles to look good, handle well, and offer a newness so far missing in the segment.
The P150 comes out, and we lap it up. Achiever, Unicorn, Graptors, and the likes don’t catch our fancy. We find them lacking in a number of areas – styling and performance to list a couple.
Apache sees light of day – its stylish, a tad faster, and handles like a dream, but we still don’t exactly take to it like a dog (or was it ants?) to sweets. P150 upgrade is launched, this time with a LED tail and LCD read, but a disappointing gain in performance, but we still take to it, and say, “Look at all that fancy stuff! That’s value for money”
Now, here’s my point.
We as buyers don’t exactly appreciate what we demand. And despise taking risks. We are like a herd; we move with the majority; the more bikes on the road means, the make is proven, it would be a safe bet then, forgetting what we demanded and stood for in the first place.
I’d hate to be a manufacturer in India.
But I am not too happy to be a buyer either, thanks to the majority of the bike buying public’s attitude – we get swayed by fancy stuff so easily rather than rewarding true performance and motorcycling purity which we speak about at rides, meets, blogs, and even on a web forum.
No wonder manufacturers refuse to take risks, and we end up saddled with duds, which we have been living with what seems like eternity, and will probably continue to do so... well, at least till the Expo, we will.
No comments:
Post a Comment