Mahindra Two Wheelers recently entered the premium two-wheeler market with Mahindra Mojo. Naveen Malhotra, Senior General Manager, Marketing & Product Planning, Mahindra Two Wheelers Limited, talks about the new campaign and giving customers a never-before experience
By SAMARPITA BANERJEE
Q] Mahindra Two Wheelers had launched Mojo in October 2015. So why did you come up with a campaign now?
Mojo is a 300 cc premium motorcycle addressing the touring needs of the customer. This is a completely new segment for us. For this particular product, it was important for us to be targeted and address the biking enthusiasts. We launched the product in four cities. So, there was a need for us to first get established, get the brand philosophy and the ethos into customers and make them believe in the product. The theme of the campaign is ‘One for the Road’. Since it’s a new segment for us, and we have a smaller TG to address, we wanted to connect with the customers first. However, last month, we expanded to 11 more cities. So, from our perspective, it’s an apt time for the campaign, since we are scaling up to more cities.
Q] You started off with innovative marketing initiatives like the Jungle Trail. Are you coming up with more such initiatives?
When we first started, it was important for everyone in the ecosystem including the employees, the dealer fraternity, the media and also our consumers to believe in what we were talking about. We actually started off with a maker’s trail and the first ride was actually for the people who made the product. We took a group of employees for a ride from Pune to Pithampur, the point where the product was designed, to the point where the product was manufactured. After that, we organized the trial for the media. We didn’t do a normal media launch. Instead, we did a media ride for two days, from Bangalore to Coorg and back. Then we started selling the products, and right from Day 1, we formed communities for Mojo in each of these cities. The community is called Mojo Tribe. Every weekend or once a week, a longer trail happens in each of these cities where our customers go on a ride. We also have a mountain trail planned for July, where we ride from Delhi to Leh and back to Chandigarh. Following this, we have different coastal and desert trails planned for the year. This is how we would continue to promote the product and help our customers do things that are beyond the road ride. Apart from that, we also offer test experiences to people who do not own the Mojo.
Q] A lot of brands, be it cars or bikes, are coming up with ads on the theme ‘exploring the unexplored’. How is your creative different?
When it comes to a difference between us and other brands, for us, our focus is on the Mojo experience. Frankly speaking, it was a conscious effort not to show a solo rider and a solo bike. We believe that what a biker really enjoys is to be in the company of other bikers. Our film has multiple bikers and it’s about the journey together. And through our communication, we are saying ‘Welcome to the Mojo Tribe’. It’s not just about buying the product but about coming and living the Mojo experience with fellow bikers.
Q] What kind of response has the bike received so far?
We have only recently launched our campaign and are very targeted. However, even before the launch, we were able to pre-book 100 bikes. Pre-booking 100 in a segment like this coming from Mahindra is actually commendable. Steadily, we have been seeing a considerable response from these four markets. Now. we are looking forward to the second phase where we are entering more markets.
Q] When it comes to the premium bike segment, you are a late entrant and there are already a lot of players there. How are you planning to tackle the competition?
In the premium bike segment, there are sports bikes and tourer bikes that address specific needs. Frankly speaking, rather than seeing competition in the space that we are addressing, I see a vacant space. There are actually no good, affordable tourer bikes available and there was a clear gap available in the market for us.
Q] What were the challenges you faced as a new entrant in the sector?
For any new brand, the challenges are the same - how to go about building brand awareness in the market, how to make customers believe in you and your product and how to ensure that what our customers are able to experience and believe becomes word of mouth. The route we took for Mojo was very important. We needed to connect with each and every bike enthusiast on the ground, communicate with them and make them experience the product the way we wanted. There were customers who said they liked the look and feel of the bike but could not decide after a 5 km test drive. So we let customers have the bikes for a day because we had the confidence in our product. Building awareness, credibility and acceptability were a few of the challenges.
Q] What differentiates Mahindra Two Wheelers from other players in the market?
Since we were a new entrant in the market, we were able to understand the customer’s need faster and better. We realized there is a clear space and that we need to innovate and give unique features to our customers that nobody else has thought of yet. If you look at features like anti-theft, flip key in the Centuro or engine immobilizer, these were clear innovations that the industry had not seen before. In one word, what differentiates us is innovation.
Q] How is the two-wheeler segment doing overall in the market? Quite a few players have quoted good results in April. How has Mahindra Two Wheelers fared?
We are a young two-wheeler company and for us, it is about making an impact with our products. Mojo is doing well for us. We launched Gusto 125 in March and are expanding that offering to more markets. In April, we took Gusto 125 to the West and now we will move to the North. The parameter for us is more in terms of how we are able to make an impact in the market with newer brands, and getting a mindshare of people.
Q] What is Mahindra Two Wheelers’ market-share?
Surprisingly, internally we don’t even talk of market share. You know, we are a start-up in a way, and so market-share is not a good measure for us. But yes, if we were to look at numbers, we are 1%. We are a small and new organization, and I therefore don’t normally look at that as a measure for ourselves.
Q] Recently, there were talks of Mahindra launching a new commuter motorcycle. Any update on that?
That’s speculation, and we normally don’t comment on speculations.
Q] What is your broad marketing strategy for the next couple of years?
We had run a campaign last year titled ‘Kisi se kam nahi’ featuring Centuro and Gusto, the aim of which was to establish in our viewer’s minds that our products are as good or better than other players in the market. That is something we will continue with for the two products. For Mojo, our aim would be to give people on-ground experiences and to focus on targeted communications. So going ahead, you will see more digital and on-ground so that we are absolutely targeted in our communication.
Q] Which platform takes a major chunk of your media investments?
For Mojo, all the work that we have done till now is only on digital. And going forward, for other brands as well, digital is going to be a continuous platform that we work on. We will use TV to some extent but the primary medium would be digital, because digital gives us the platform to engage with customers.
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