Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Changing Marketplace - Two-wheelers


The dynamics of the Indian automobile market is changing, especially the two wheeler market. In the pre-liberalization era the market was dominantly a scooter market with the market share of scooter touching 70-80 percent of the two-wheeler sales . That changed with liberalization and the ratio changed and it was the motorcycles within the category whose sales dominated the product category. The company which rode the changed preference of the consumers towards motorcycles was Hero Honda, with their best selling Splendor and CD 100 they were able to witness unprecedented growth in both their top as well as bottom line. The change in consumer preferences were driven by both the fact that motorcycles were more fuel efficient and also were technologically superior. The introduction of Honda Activa did revive the scooter segment, but it could never reach it is previous levels. As of 2005-06 data the motorcycle sales are 85% of the total combined scooter and motorcyle sales, which is reverse of what was there 15 years back.

The latest sales figures for September show that there is a fall in the sales of two-wheelers as whole. Though the market leader Hero Honda has shown a small growth but they are cannot be compared with the phenomenal growth that they have had in the last few years and at the other end TVS motor company has shown a substantial drop of 29.04 percent in the overall two-wheeler sales and in motorcycles the drop is to the tune of 49.53 percent. The economy as a whole is doing very well, if one were to look at the sales of consumer durables and also the sales of cars (Though in cars there is a expectation that may be there would be a decline in the near future), so why is this decline in the sales of two-wheelers?

One of the reasons when one reads the newspapers is the rising interest rates and the tightening of finance from company's end for the 100 cc segment. But the market has also witnessed a shift in consumer preference from 100cc to the larger 125/150cc, as can be seen by the success that products like Pulsar, Discover have had in the market place. Companies are claiming that their new launches in the next few months would shore up the sales, but then one wonders if the lowered interest in the segment is due to poor marketing effort by the major players, in terms of new launches, campaigns ................... Hopefully the companies will pull up their socks and ensure a better performance in the upcoming festive season

5 comments:

Anonymous said...


The dynamics of the Indian automobile market is changing, especially the two wheeler market. In the pre-liberalization era the market was dominantly a scooter market with the market share of scooter touching 70-80 percent of the two-wheeler sales . That changed with liberalization and the ratio changed and it was the motorcycles within the category whose sales dominated the product category. The company which rode the changed preference of the consumers towards motorcycles was Hero Honda, with their best selling Splendor and CD 100 they were able to witness unprecedented growth in both their top as well as bottom line. The change in consumer preferences were driven by both the fact that motorcycles were more fuel efficient and also were technologically superior. The introduction of Honda Activa did revive the scooter segment, but it could never reach it is previous levels. As of 2005-06 data the motorcycle sales are 85% of the total combined scooter and motorcyle sales, which is reverse of what was there 15 years back.

The latest sales figures for September show that there is a fall in the sales of two-wheelers as whole. Though the market leader Hero Honda has shown a small growth but they are cannot be compared with the phenomenal growth that they have had in the last few years and at the other end TVS motor company has shown a substantial drop of 29.04 percent in the overall two-wheeler sales and in motorcycles the drop is to the tune of 49.53 percent. The economy as a whole is doing very well, if one were to look at the sales of consumer durables and also the sales of cars (Though in cars there is a expectation that may be there would be a decline in the near future), so why is this decline in the sales of two-wheelers?

One of the reasons when one reads the newspapers is the rising interest rates and the tightening of finance from company's end for the 100 cc segment. But the market has also witnessed a shift in consumer preference from 100cc to the larger 125/150cc, as can be seen by the success that products like Pulsar, Discover have had in the market place. Companies are claiming that their new launches in the next few months would shore up the sales, but then one wonders if the lowered interest in the segment is due to poor marketing effort by the major players, in terms of new launches, campaigns ................... Hopefully the companies will pull up their socks and ensure a better performance in the upcoming festive season

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Ahmedabad said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ahmedabad said...


The dynamics of the Indian automobile market is changing, especially the two wheeler market. In the pre-liberalization era the market was dominantly a scooter market with the market share of scooter touching 70-80 percent of the two-wheeler sales . That changed with liberalization and the ratio changed and it was the motorcycles within the category whose sales dominated the product category. The company which rode the changed preference of the consumers towards motorcycles was Hero Honda, with their best selling Splendor and CD 100 they were able to witness unprecedented growth in both their top as well as bottom line. The change in consumer preferences were driven by both the fact that motorcycles were more fuel efficient and also were technologically superior. The introduction of Honda Activa did revive the scooter segment, but it could never reach it is previous levels. As of 2005-06 data the motorcycle sales are 85% of the total combined scooter and motorcyle sales, which is reverse of what was there 15 years back.

The latest sales figures for September show that there is a fall in the sales of two-wheelers as whole. Though the market leader Hero Honda has shown a small growth but they are cannot be compared with the phenomenal growth that they have had in the last few years and at the other end TVS motor company has shown a substantial drop of 29.04 percent in the overall two-wheeler sales and in motorcycles the drop is to the tune of 49.53 percent. The economy as a whole is doing very well, if one were to look at the sales of consumer durables and also the sales of cars (Though in cars there is a expectation that may be there would be a decline in the near future), so why is this decline in the sales of two-wheelers?

One of the reasons when one reads the newspapers is the rising interest rates and the tightening of finance from company's end for the 100 cc segment. But the market has also witnessed a shift in consumer preference from 100cc to the larger 125/150cc, as can be seen by the success that products like Pulsar, Discover have had in the market place. Companies are claiming that their new launches in the next few months would shore up the sales, but then one wonders if the lowered interest in the segment is due to poor marketing effort by the major players, in terms of new launches, campaigns ................... Hopefully the companies will pull up their socks and ensure a better performance in the upcoming festive season

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Anonymous said...


The dynamics of the Indian automobile market is changing, especially the two wheeler market. In the pre-liberalization era the market was dominantly a scooter market with the market share of scooter touching 70-80 percent of the two-wheeler sales . That changed with liberalization and the ratio changed and it was the motorcycles within the category whose sales dominated the product category. The company which rode the changed preference of the consumers towards motorcycles was Hero Honda, with their best selling Splendor and CD 100 they were able to witness unprecedented growth in both their top as well as bottom line. The change in consumer preferences were driven by both the fact that motorcycles were more fuel efficient and also were technologically superior. The introduction of Honda Activa did revive the scooter segment, but it could never reach it is previous levels. As of 2005-06 data the motorcycle sales are 85% of the total combined scooter and motorcyle sales, which is reverse of what was there 15 years back.

The latest sales figures for September show that there is a fall in the sales of two-wheelers as whole. Though the market leader Hero Honda has shown a small growth but they are cannot be compared with the phenomenal growth that they have had in the last few years and at the other end TVS motor company has shown a substantial drop of 29.04 percent in the overall two-wheeler sales and in motorcycles the drop is to the tune of 49.53 percent. The economy as a whole is doing very well, if one were to look at the sales of consumer durables and also the sales of cars (Though in cars there is a expectation that may be there would be a decline in the near future), so why is this decline in the sales of two-wheelers?

One of the reasons when one reads the newspapers is the rising interest rates and the tightening of finance from company's end for the 100 cc segment. But the market has also witnessed a shift in consumer preference from 100cc to the larger 125/150cc, as can be seen by the success that products like Pulsar, Discover have had in the market place. Companies are claiming that their new launches in the next few months would shore up the sales, but then one wonders if the lowered interest in the segment is due to poor marketing effort by the major players, in terms of new launches, campaigns ................... Hopefully the companies will pull up their socks and ensure a better performance in the upcoming festive season

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Pranav Jha said...


The dynamics of the Indian automobile market is changing, especially the two wheeler market. In the pre-liberalization era the market was dominantly a scooter market with the market share of scooter touching 70-80 percent of the two-wheeler sales . That changed with liberalization and the ratio changed and it was the motorcycles within the category whose sales dominated the product category. The company which rode the changed preference of the consumers towards motorcycles was Hero Honda, with their best selling Splendor and CD 100 they were able to witness unprecedented growth in both their top as well as bottom line. The change in consumer preferences were driven by both the fact that motorcycles were more fuel efficient and also were technologically superior. The introduction of Honda Activa did revive the scooter segment, but it could never reach it is previous levels. As of 2005-06 data the motorcycle sales are 85% of the total combined scooter and motorcyle sales, which is reverse of what was there 15 years back.

The latest sales figures for September show that there is a fall in the sales of two-wheelers as whole. Though the market leader Hero Honda has shown a small growth but they are cannot be compared with the phenomenal growth that they have had in the last few years and at the other end TVS motor company has shown a substantial drop of 29.04 percent in the overall two-wheeler sales and in motorcycles the drop is to the tune of 49.53 percent. The economy as a whole is doing very well, if one were to look at the sales of consumer durables and also the sales of cars (Though in cars there is a expectation that may be there would be a decline in the near future), so why is this decline in the sales of two-wheelers?

One of the reasons when one reads the newspapers is the rising interest rates and the tightening of finance from company's end for the 100 cc segment. But the market has also witnessed a shift in consumer preference from 100cc to the larger 125/150cc, as can be seen by the success that products like Pulsar, Discover have had in the market place. Companies are claiming that their new launches in the next few months would shore up the sales, but then one wonders if the lowered interest in the segment is due to poor marketing effort by the major players, in terms of new launches, campaigns ................... Hopefully the companies will pull up their socks and ensure a better performance in the upcoming festive season

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