Honda’s ‘go rural’ campaign to take on Hero, Bajaj Auto

For Honda, the battle in the two-wheeler segment has now shifted to rural India. After entering the bike market with 110cc Dream Yuga, Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India (HMSI) has flagged off a fiercely competitive ‘rural’ network expansion drive. The project, internally codenamed as ‘Go Rural’, attempts to catch up with, and eventually, overtake former partner Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto in India. With an eye on rural India, HMSI has set up a core team to identify villages and remote areas where Hero has an enormous presence. The company wants to cater to all the villages in next five years with dedicated teams for North, South, East and West India, sources said. With sales of 1.7 million units last year, HMSI has a market share of 15% in India’s 13-million-a-year two-wheeler market. Hero dominates with 45% market share, selling 6.4 million units last year, and Bajaj Auto has a 20% share, selling 2.56 million units in the domestic market last year. Overall, India is world’s second largest market for bikes. However, experts said HMSI has a long and difficult road ahead considering that rival Hero MotoCorp generates 45% of its revenue from the rural areas where Honda’s share may be under 10%. In a bid to reach out to rural customers, HMSI has launched a new brand campaign with new brand ambassador Akshay Kumar. Targeted at the rural market, Honda’s campaign would be in all the regional Indian languages with the company adopting its global tagline — Power of Dreams — for the first time in the Indian market. Currently, it uses this tagline for its car business in India. According to a top industry executive, the spendings on the brand repositioning is estimated to the tune of at least R100 crore. This includes the payment to be made to the brand ambassadors, advertising and media buying firms. This campaign is extremely crucial for Honda as it is a first after their split with Hero, so it’s going to be a gamechanger for them in a sense that it will establish their individual identity. Having recently overtaken TVS Motor as India’s third largest motorcycle maker, HMSI is taking aim at Number 2 Bajaj before joining the race with Hero in earnest. Hero Motocorp spokesperson said the compay always had strong rural initiatives, which was consolidated under the Har Gaon Har Aangan umbrella platform in 2007. “We have already covered over 1,00,000 villages across the country under this programme. With the innovative Service Har Jagah initiative under this platform, we are providing service to bikes in their respective villages,” the spokesperson said without commenting on the competition and its future strategy.