By Saloni Dutta
With TVS Star City Plus creating a buzz, Arun Siddharth, Senior General Manager handling the Motorcycles Business of TVS Motor Company Ltd, tells us how a sharp brand thought helps the two-wheeler major communicate better across consumer segments
Q] What defines marketing at TVS? How do you effectively use your media mix for the brand’s benefit?
We have a dedicated structure in place and actively search new media to create content. Our communication, just like our product, has to be profitable, efficient and effective and should catch consumers in a compelling way. Our vision this year at TVS Motorcycles is thought leadership. It is important to have a brand thought as this ensures that everybody connected with the brand, including our sales and dealership staff across more than 800 dealerships and 1,000 service and sales points, speaks the same language. For this, our brand messaging has to be sharp and consistent. For example, TVS Apache is all about racing and this messaging is consistent whether our consumer is in Delhi or in Kanyakumari. Similarly this singularity of thought is also reflected in TVS Sport, our mileage bike, which we call Mileage Ka Baap. Sharpness in brand thought is something that we are going to go behind in a big way.
Q] Kindly give us an estimate of your marketing spends?
Our spends are in line with the category and we will be increasing our spends significantly because of new product launches. The new TVS Star City Plus was a huge summer launch and the TVS Victor will be back around mid-year/Diwali. You will see a commendable increase in budget though it is dependent on how the industry performs going forward.
Q] How do you use popular and newer mediums like digital for your marketing campaigns?
It’s become fashionable to talk about Digital, but it’s a tricky medium. The question is, do people actually know how to use it and use it well, because while you see actual Internet usage growing in urban areas, in rural areas usage of Internet is primarily limited to a few applications, mail or search. Our Facebook page has over a million followers and we use it to provide information to consumers and get consumer feedback, and to make sure that our consumers talk among themselves on our forum. This helps create buzz. In addition, we also conduct panel researches, announce our product launches, break our campaigns and even take feedback on product colours. Brands are not built when you talk to consumers, but when consumers talk to themselves and that’s what we are looking at. However, in case of rural customers, the usage of new media becomes very interesting as we use demo vans, mileage melas, haats and ITC eChaupal to spread the message of bikes, product benefits and brand cognizance. New media creates unique challenges of usage for the brand team. We use Radio and Print for call for action and other newer media to create the brand perception across new consumers or to drive engagement.
Q] How do you use BTL activities for consumer engagement for the brand?
Building scale and cost effectiveness is the biggest challenge with BTL. In our business, we trade on volumes more than margins; so a sharp idea is important. Our BTL activities are entirely born out of our brand thought. For example, for TVS Sport, a Mileage Mela helped us demonstrate very clearly and unequivocally our mileage versus that of our competition. We drive awareness and consideration through ATL and engagement through BTL.
Q] What are the marketing activities planned by TVS Motorcycles to supplement the launch of the new TVS Star City?
The two-wheeler industry had a rough ride last year. New launches are critical for manufacturers because they give disproportionate share gain and we launched the TVS Star City Plus with the new government coming in. This launch was even more important because TVS Star City is the biggest motorcycle franchise of TVS Motor Company with more than 4.5 million customers. TVS Star City was seen as an entry level brand and our interactions with consumers revealed that consumers felt that our styling was not up to the mark. The insight we gathered was that today’s consumers don’t just want mileage, they want a bike which is an extension to their identity and which is where style plays an important part. In durable and automobile marketing, a huge part of our consumer insight comes from the way the product is designed and the new Star has an upgraded style and a brand new engine.
The consumer and marketing campaign also sprung from ‘What happens when a new star is born?’ It creates insecurity among the current stars. We roped in cricketers Virat Kolhi and MS Dhoni. Dhoni is the brand ambassador but we also wanted Virat to add spike for the launch. This is one of our biggest launches of the year and in addition to a huge TV campaign, we have an integrated communication, which includes a big outdoor plan across 22 states, across almost 40-45 cities.
We have also done an innovative Digital campaign for the first time and used a unconventional medium like Railways to take the brand message of the new Star across different touch points. We have also planned a huge Print campaign across leading dailies across the country, in all the 22 states where we are launching.
Q] How do brand ambassadors like Dhoni and Virat impact the brand’s growth and supplement it?
Brand ambassadors help break the clutter, make the campaign sticky, memorable and also add a bit of star power. Dhoni and Virat have been our brand ambassadors for more than three years, but it is the first time that you see both of them doing a single campaign for us, i.e., for the new Star City launch.
Q] What is the brand’s current market-share in India?
TVS Motorcycles has around 13% of the domestic market-share in the total two wheeler segment. Within motorcycles, we are not present in some segments like the executive segment which is the biggest. In the economy segment, we have around 10% market-share, and in premium we have around 13-14% market-share.
Q] With myriad changes in the market landscape, how has the consumer evolved?
There are two segments of customers - commuter and sport - and both have evolved quite differently over time. The commuter today demands style and high end features in his bike at a decent price. The market has also evolved from being price-point based to a value market. The sports segment is a different ballgame and with international makers and new technology entering India, this segment is beginning to take off. With consumers following international trends, we need to be ahead of them. We track blogs to see what’s being talked about and our consumer researches and panels also track trends globally.
Q] How does TVS Racing work in the marketing scheme for TVS?
We believe what we race on Sunday, improves what we sell on Mondays. So it’s extremely important for a technology company like ours to be at the forefront of motor-racing. It adds to our R&D strength and muscle. The whole idea is to take our team international and at some point, we want TVS Racing to add to the Apache portfolio. It is run and driven by passion.
Q] What opportunities and trends do you see in the two-wheeler segment?
The market will divide more into commuter and sports segments and the sports segment will develop in a big way over the next five years. People will get more knowledgeable about technology. We will have to understand youngsters and their media consumption patterns much better and Internet will become a huge area of trust. In the commuter market, people are becoming more style conscious and want products that make a statement of who they are irrespective of the price point.
ABOUT THE BRAND
Founded in 1979, TVS Motor Company (size $1.5 billion) is the flagship company of the 100-year-old $7 billion TVS Group, with international presence in more than 60 countries. TVS Motor Company has a talent pool of more than 7,000 personnel and manufacturing facilities at Hosur in Tamil Nadu, Mysore in Karnataka, Nalagarh in Himachal Pradesh and Karawang in Indonesia. The company’s products straddle various segments with TVS Sport and TVS Star City+ in the economy segment, TVS Phoenix 125 in the executive segment and TVS Apache series RTR in the performance segment. The company also manufactures TVS Max4R, a product dedicated to rural commuters.
CMO FILE
Arun Siddharth, Senior General Manager, handles the Motorcycles Business of TVS Motor Company Ltd. He joined the company as a management trainee in 2003 and worked in sales for the first four years of his career before handling the marketing function on the Apache brand. At TVS Motor Company, Siddharth handles the marketing and product management functions for the motorcycles business, brand marketing, new product development, product launch channel management and process development.
MARKETING TIP
Singularity and sharpness in brand thought are most paramount
FACTS
CREATIVE AGENCY: MCCANN
MEDIA AGENCY: MADISON
SOCIAL AND DIGITAL MEDIA MARKETING AGENCY: ePAGEMAKER
BTL/ACTIVATION AGENCY: JAGRAN ENGAGE (OUTDOOR ONLY)
PR AGENCY: INTERNAL PR DEPARTMENT
Feedback: saloni.dutta@exchange4media.com
