Honda CBF Stunner

Now, it’s not exactly as I expected it to be, is the new 125 from Honda, the CBF Stunner – 11bhp, 11Nm of torque, hydraulic shocks, analog meters and regular lamps.

But where it does leave the rest of the 125s behind is in the styling stakes – it does look like a more modern Karizma really with its half front faring et al. it also gets tubeless tyres and split seats.

It is what Honda calls a sporty 125 designed to appeal to the boys in their late teens – so it gets rearset footpegs and a toe-only gear shifter. One of my colleagues rode the bike and said it doesn’t feel as fast as Honda quotes it to be - 0-60kmph in 5.2 seconds. He also mentioned it should compare well with the Gladiator in terms of performance, ride as well as handling.

More on the bike is a weeks time.. till then here are the specs from the bike’s brochure.

Ads – are they a reflection of our bike makers?

I would think so, and here’s why. Let’s talk Hero Honda first.
You’d agree no one understands the entry-level, 100cc market better than the Munjals along with Honda. After all, they have the puny machines to thank for, for their number one bike maker status, umpteen numbers of years running…
And it shows in the CD and Splendor ads. The connect, is superb. And is a reflection of the bike maker’s understanding of the audience. Watch the Blind dad ad for the Splendor and Super Splendor for starters!
However, the ads for the company’s premium segment offerings; the X-treme, the Karizma R or even the latest Hunk, are pathetic, to say the least. These ads lack oomph and excitement; actually they lack everything the product stands for – power, performance and the sheer ability to enthuse. An indication, I believe, that Hero Honda (Honda mostly) fails to understand the needs of the premium TG.
Bajaj on the other hand understands the 20 to 30 somethings as if the company were shaping their thoughts! The Pulsar ads, right from the beginning have had that all-important ‘hook up’ flavour to them. And the fact that buyers, even after having faced quality issues with the bikes, have gone ahead and bought these offerings is a testimony to the same. In fact, they swear by their bikes, do these enthusiasts. And the amazing thing is; they actually consider the bike’s shortfalls as her pluses!
TVS too has done well in the premium segment ad scenario. The Apache ads were brilliant – college guys, frolicking, taking pot shots at boring, and more focused men. And then the RTR ad – the flirting, the rebellion, and of course the carefree attitude – the ad only raises the bar. The Star ads meanwhile have touched the right listeners as well. And though TVS isn’t setting the sales charts on fire, the company is at least logged on to the radar of majorities. And that’s half the battle.
Ads then are a reflection, a refection of our bike makers understanding of our needs.

Off-beat vs herd mentality

We hear, read and witness a new launch every other day now. While some introduce completely new, exciting offerings (if not breathtaking); some choose to launch rehatched versions of their sometimes best selling, and sometimes slow moving models. But what goes on behind launching each of these offerings; what’s the thought process; what’s the game plan? Though, it’s impossible to get it entirely spot on, unless of course I were a company insider, here’s an attempt to make sense of some product strategies.
There are largely two ways of going about deciding a new product– a) Let’s call this one herd mentality - dive into a segment which has been witnessing great growth in the recent past – double digit, triple digit growth rates and the like – backed up of course with million page market research report indicating (actually shouting) that the concerned product category has immense potential, and will continue to grow for… well, ever.
And b) The ‘off-beat’ approach - enter virgin territory; create a new niche; spawn a new segment; etc etc…
But both approaches have their set of problems.
‘a’ for instance is a crowded place (remember ‘herd’); the competition here is intense; under cutting the only mantra; better value-for–money proposition, a prerequisite. So, if you are Hero Honda, Bajaj Auto or even TVS, it’s okay to take this approach. After all, the three have had reasonably good numbers by their sides, as well as success, at some level or the other. As a result are better equipped both mentally and financially to take a hammering if their products were to fail.
We have seen the three at it as well, and pretty often. Bajaj tried to knock off Hero Honda in the 100c segment, Hero Honda on the other hand tried the same on the former in the 150cc plus segment. As for TVS, it tried to outdo both in both these categories. The outcome though is been more or less the same on both counts – HH continues uninterrupted in the 100s while Bajaj and TVS have had to make do with relatively smaller, but sumptuous helpings. While in the 150cc plus, Bajaj is still king, with TVS and HH managing just about okay sales.

However, if you were a new entrant to the market, or have been battling miniscule sales, much like Suzuki and Yamaha respectively, and obviously Kinetic, it’s best to take the ‘off-beat’ approach.
Here’s how it helps. Creating a new segment, or a sub segment, first, takes the competition away. It also helps the maker get noticed, as it gives the company something new and different to harp about. All the manufacturer has to do then, is to convince buyers, the new product category actually makes sense for him. We have seen a few examples of this ‘Off beat’ approach, and I’ll list them for you in the subsequent posts.

Brands: why bike makers need to build them, and break them… Part II

Let’s take a look at Hero Honda (HH) now…

The company is the number one motorcycle maker in the world, and that, I must clarify, is in terms of bikes sold, and not for the variety of product mix, or cutting edge technology or the like. But it’s still a huge achievement, nonetheless.
However, the successes behind this success story aren’t very many.
There’s been the Splendor-Passion combo, the success of which I need not elaborate on at all. The CD too has been a hugely successful brand for HH. But beyond these, there’s little that HH can tom tom about.
But before we get on further, just for a moment imagine, the enormity of the triumph these brands have had, to single handedly be responsible for the company’s accomplishment. Unbelievable!

Equally unbelievable are the number of flops the company has had to live with.
HH tried to do something different in the middle ages so to speak with its entry level platform. It introduced a restyled CD 100 as the Joy. The bike of course bombed. HH then tried the same with the Dawn nameplate, she too failed.
Finally, some sense prevailed and HH re-introduced (yet again), the CD/ Splendor platform as the CD Dawn and CD Deluxe. The two met with better fortunes than the earlier two. Was it the CD brand then? I can’t think of anything else, really, cause the bikes, and their styling weren’t too different in the first place.
Hero Honda must be of the same opinion as well, otherwise how to do you explain the range of Splendors – there’s the regular Splendor+, then came along the 125cc Super Splendor, and now the Splendor NXG has chugged in promising a Splendorful life.

However, excluding the entry-level and what we largely term as the executive segment, HH has had little success. The CBZ eventually failed, so did the Ambition, the Achiever, and so on and so forth.
The company finally brought back the CBZ nameplate with the X-treme, and it was a good move, no doubt, given that the name still kindles the right flame in a biking enthusiast’s heart.
But, I have two questions here. First, why couldn’t Hero Honda, such a heavily marketing driven company, introduce the CBZ brand earlier? And second, when it did, why couldn’t they do a better job on the styling front, especially when the complete Indian motorcycle dynamics had moved towards better styled machines?
The answer to the first question, I believe, is that it was a huge goof up on the company’s part. Instead of understanding the brand and the value it commanded, HH set about breaking it with new launches like the Achiever, when that was the last thing it needed.
As for the second, we all know Hero Honda banks on Honda for the products they get. Maybe it’s a case of Honda and Hero Honda being on different wavelengths, and with the former calling the shots, HH’s understanding of the market needs - styling, features, performance etc etc, in Honda’s view, can be ignored (put politely, of course). Or maybe HH has little clue about what is actually needed.
I personally believe it’s the former.

Getting back to the CBZ, since the X-treme’s launch the bike has done pretty well, selling around 12,000-15,000 every month. It’s a fabulous achievement considering the bike’s styling isn’t very, how should I put it, palatable. The thought process at Hero Honda would then have been, “What if the bike were actually a great looker, imagine the numbers we’d manage then!”
Enter the Hunk. Employing the same mechanicals as the X, from the engine to the cycle parts, she boasts of tastier, more contemporary and racy styling.
But why Hunk? Why not something like CBZ 150 R or better still, the new CBZ X-treme. Picture the recall the bike would have had, if she too had the CBZ nameplate. Maybe HH understands the consumers better, and feels it will sell more bikes by having two different brands, I don’t know.
What I do know - in the long term, a company does need to build successful brands. Otherwise, it will have to start everything from a scratch - from defining the brand’s values, to its target audience, to its deliverables. The end result - a lot more money will be spent every time a new bike is launched.

Something HH has become used to, I guess.

Hero Honda Hunk: will she show the way?

Hero Honda, synonymous with awfully fuel efficient motorcycles, has failed time and again to cut mustard with anything remotely performance oriented. Sure, the company started the 150cc revolution with the CBZ, but look where it is now – struggling to establish itself as a player of significance in the face of Bajaj Pulsars and TVS Apaches.
It’s not like it hasn’t tried, after all Hero Honda unofficially has the coveted title for most number of models in a particular segment.
In the 150, it began with the CBZ, followed by the Achiever, the X-treme and now we have the Hunk – another terrible name among the list of appalling monikers. On the other hand, Bajaj has stuck with the Pulsar, and to its credit has timely upgraded the bike, though it would have done well to upgrade the quality as well, and so has TVS, having dumped its Suzuki baggage replacing the Fiero nameplate with the Apache. That the bikes deep down are identical is of course another story.
So can the Hunk muscle her way through the hustle bustle of the 150cc segment, all the way to the top?
I won’t personally place my bets on it. You see, the Indian buyer, that’s you and me and another 50,000 of us joining the fold every month in this particular segment, are of the ‘me too’ sort. Give them a potent machine which has astounding handling prowess, performance which raises the bar significantly higher, and ergonomics that have you singing pagans for the bike, but take away those silly things like the LED tail, split grabs and orangey digital displays, and we feel short changed.
So even though the Hunk looks good, and has the right cycle parts - mostly borrowed from the X-treme in addition to gas-charged dampers at the rear – she might not exactly break the 20,000 units a month mark. And I don’t mean in the coming months, but ever.
I would like to be proved wrong of course, because it will prove that we, the Indian biker, are maturing as a creed.