New launch: Bajaj Pulsar 220 DTS – Fi (with fabulous photos)

Brand name: Pulsar 220 DTS- Fi
Company: Bajaj
Baseline: Distinctly ahead
Price: Rs 81,280
Weight: 150 kgs
Plant: Aurangabad
Capacity: 50000 units a year

Strategy: The newly-launched Bajaj probiking showroom is the seventh one in the country and is an exclusive dealer shop to provide complete biking experience to the customers.

Note: The Pulsar DTS Fi is the first bike in the Indian market to have both front and rear disc brakes. The Bajaj Pulsar DTS-Fi is the first Indian motorcycle with an oil cooled engine. The tyres of the new DTS-Fi are tubeless and hence offers an exciting riding experience

Future plans: Bajaj has plans to develop a small four-wheel commercial vehicle and a small car that will be a high-tech 'experimental car'. The company described it as a Bajaj Pulsar on four wheels. A motorcycle on four wheels is usually called an ATV or Quad. Bajaj may not plan to produce an ATV for India because of the legal problems involved in getting an ATV certified for on-road use

Is this the future vision of the company, to enter into the new segment, further intensifying the competition or Bajaj just want to mislead others, so that it will not get the risk of first mover in the new segment? Whether Bajaj not willing to pioneer and not want to take first mover advantage?
May be it depends upon the Indian road condition and the attitude of the customers towards the vehicle.
For more technical information visit rearset.blogspot.com
Source: fastcursor.com, www.purionline.com

New launch: Tata Magic and Tata Winger

Brand name: Tata Magic
Company: Tata motors
Price: Rs 2.60 lakh
Seating Capacity: 4 to 7
Target: Rural market of India.
Version: Diesel ( CNG later)
Note: Magic is the passenger version of the Tata Ace



Brand name: Tata Winger
Company: Tata motors
Price: Rs.4.70 lakh to Rs 6.55 lakh
Seating Capacity: 9 to 13
Target: Urban passenger transport segment (budget, luxury, comfort). Mainly used for intra-city travel and rural travel for staff vehicles, hotel and airport transfers, tourist usage, ambulance, and school vans.
Version: Diesel (CNG later)
Note: Winger is a maxi-van, a version of the Renault panel van Traffic

Magic and the Winger are being positioned as new category creators. The main idea is create new segments in commercial passenger vehicles and extend its coverage of the entire spectrum of customer needs in mass transportation from the rural interiors to cities as well as the top-end luxury mass transportation segment. Tata Motors is expected to launch more bus products, such as the Globus and Starbus, later this year. The company's market share in commercial vehicles went up to 63.9 per cent in 2006-07 from 61.2 per cent in 2005-06.
source: domain-b, businessline

Cielo: A Strategic Blender?

As we all familiar with the brand Cielo sometimes before, is dormant today.
What actually pushes this brand to such a quagmire?

Cielo was the brand owned by Daewoo motors India limited, was a part of the $ 65 billion Daewoo Group founded in 1967 in Korea. The group diversified into general trading, construction, machinery, automotive, ship building electronics and tele communications. Cielo was launched in India in July 1995, since there is no option for the Indian customers in the mid size segment except Maruti esteem. Within a short span of time Cielo saw a large volume of bookings from the customers. This made a intense competition for Maruti. Soon after the situation turned upside down that all the bookings made by the customers for Cielo were cancelled and it faced a huge problem.

Circumstances:
Daewoo motors saw a intense competition and higher customer expectations in terms of quality and performance in developed markets. Hence the company decided to penetrate in the emerging markets where the demand for automobiles was expected to increase in the future; it launched the brand Cielo in India.

Strategies used:
Promotional campaign, called the ‘Diwali Bonanza scheme’ for corporate, offering one Cielo free on purchase of every ten cars. This campaign was initiated by the marketing head of Korea, who had no idea about the Indian auto industry and the target market.
Frequent changes in positioning. The car was positioned as ‘technology with aesthetics’ which was later moved on to a ‘premium family car’ positioning followed by “value-for-money” car.

Consequences:
The customers began to look the brand with a suspicion because of the way it had been marketed
The Cielo had been promoted as a feature-rich, luxury family car. But the frequent change in the positioning made confusion among customers. Since there is a gap between a premium car, a family car and value for money car. Cielo fails to grab a good image for themselves in the minds of the customers.
The Nexia was promoted as being an upgraded version of the Cielo. The move failed badly because the customers failed to see any worthwhile additions to the earlier Cielo model.

Cielo fails in “Positioning”. Even though Daewoo is one among the first multinational player to enter into the Indian auto market only after Maruti Udyog Limited, improper market study leads to the fall of the brand Cielo.

Will we learn a lesson to concentrate upon giving importance to “Positioning”?
Other brands of the company: Matiz – small car segment