SCOOTER STUDS
Thanks to the Harleys, Bullets, Pulsars et al, bikes were supposed to be for the red-blooded males and scooters for gals, right? Maybe not
:: Rajiv Singh
Kanav Kapur is madly in love. In fact, now he just can’t live without his ‘dream’ love — not his girlfriend but a brand-new yellow Vespa that he bought a month back.
“It’s very very sexy. Girls stare at my yellow Vespa when I am driving,” says the 22-year-old businessman, who was a motorbike freak before recently converting to scooters. “It looks good on me and suits my personality,” adds Kapur, who runs a textile manufacturing unit in Delhi.
And for those die-hard testosterone-driven bikers who would scoff at Kapur, he has some advice: “Go, take a walk, man. It’s attitude that makes you masculine, not scooters or bikes.”
Kapur is not alone in his admiration for scooters. A country that still can’t get over the memories of Hamara Bajaj and LML — both scooters with gears and predominantly driven by males — is seeing a transformation in attitude as more and more men, especially youth, start driving gearless scooters.
In the April-September period of 2013, while scooter sales grew 16.6% over a year ago, bikes struggled at just 0.9%. And for the first time in over a decade, scooter sales surpassed motorcycles in a month. Honda Activa, which has over 43% share in the scooter segment, sold 142,000 units in September to overtake Hero MotoCorp’s Splendor motorcycle as the largest selling two-wheeler in a month. Splendor managed to sell 124,217 units.
While women still account for over a third of the gearless scooter users in the country, it is the men who have stepped on the gas pedal; they’re aggressively lapping up gearless scooters whichtill not long time back were derided as ‘feminine’ and ‘made-for-women’ products.
The New Male
So what has happened to the macho concept of masculinity and ‘big boys only drive bikes’ theory? It’s gone for a toss, say brand experts and industry analysts. The concept of masculinity has been silently undergoing a transformation over the last few years as males are becoming more comfortable with their sexuality, they point out.
Codes of aspirations are shifting. At one level, entrylevel bikes continue to be used for commuting sans the lifestyle appeal. At another level, the appeal of fashion and international style coupled with convenience offers a novelty to today’s consumers who have no reference to the old imagery of scooters.
“Just as men don’t cry is a myth, boys don’t drive scooters is equally a myth,” says Subrata Chakraborty, managing director of Brand Curry, an advertising and branding agency in Delhi.
Versatility is the new standard of masculinity which is pushing machismo more and more into the hygiene zone, says Chakraborty. “While Ranbir Kapoor’s six pack is good, it’s his attitude that is cool and connects better with the ‘new male’ in India,” he says, explaining why Hero’s Maestro latest TV commercial of Kapoor has suddenly made the scooter look so cool for men.
Harish Bijoor, who runs an eponymous brand consultancy firm, says there is a very thin dividing line between the masculine and the feminine. Ancient Indian literature tells us of the ‘ardhnarishwar’ concept at large. Eastern philosophies have also put forth the theory of the yin and the yang. Both go to say conclusively that we are all an amalgam of the masculine and the feminine, he explains.
“To that extent, every brand consumption category witnesses consumption gender cycles and changes continuously. The scooter segment is surely an example.”
In the beginning, when a scooter was a motorised option, men flocked to it. And then came the dual usage, with more and more women opting for it. “This is when the product category image changed and assumed a gender tag. So, men consciously moved out,” says Bijoor.
The cycle, however, continued with more and more liberated men entering the terrain. “These are men who are confident of their sexuality and don’t give a damn about what others think or say. Consumption has now been evened out by the genders.”
Drivers of Change
Piaggio’s Vespa in particular and Hero Moto-Corp to a lesser extent are brands that have been responsible for pushing this cycle of consumption towards the male as well, adds Bijoor. Aggressive brand building exercises and sexy looking offerings have made the male sit up and take note. “All men are not looking at power between their legs. Some are looking at beauty, grace and come-hither auto looks as well.”
Agrees Anil Dua of Hero MotoCorp. “What matters most for men is attitude and scooters were lacking this badly,” says the senior vicepresident (sales and marketing) at Hero MotoCorp, India’s largest twowheeler maker.
Hero Maestro’s ‘Such a Boy Thing’ campaign with Ranbir Kapoor has not only made scooters l o o k c o o l a n d trendy but has also added an Xfactor to the segment, avers Dua. For this financial year up to the end o f N ove m b e r, Hero MotoCorp is set to sell more than 2 lakh Maest ro s . T h i s i s mu c h m o re than what it sold during the entire previous fiscal year, he informs.
From 7% of the entire two-wheeler sales in 2011, scooters now make up 11% of Hero MotoCorp’s portfolio. “You can gauge the popularity of scooters by the fact that we are not able to meet the demand,” says Dua, adding that the company would be scaling up manufacturing capacity from 60,000 scooters per month to 75,000 by January. “Nobody would have thought just a few years back that gearless scooters could ever turn masculine. But it has happened,” adds Dua.
Aggressive Sporty Look
For scooter makers, it’s indeed a miracle and they are busy making the most of it. In May this year, Japanese auto major Yamaha’s Indian subsidiary rolled out automatic scooter Ray Z to target young males between 16 and 22 years. The scooter’s smoked finish visor upfront, aluminium rear grab bars, an instrument panel with a carbon fibre-patterned background give it an aggressive sporty look — something that makes men feel more comfortable and can identify with.
“It’s not a scooty but a scooter,” clarifies Ateet Kumar who bought a Honda Aviator just a few months back. “Scooters are convenient, stylish, look attractive and are value for money,” explains the 28-year-old insurance agent based in Gurgaon. Taunt him about masculinity and bikes, and you’re likely to get a crisp counter: “What has masculinity to do with scooters? It’s just a matter of perception.”
And perception is what matters. So Honda took ample care to rejig the scooter specs. While Aviator’s upright sitting position is especially designed for men, its alloy wheels enhance the styling of the scooter. YS Guleria, vice-president, sales and marketing, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI), says it’s a myth that scooters for women sell more. “In fact, a family scooter sells more. More than 70% of automated scooters are family scooters,” says Guleria.
The concept of masculinity has changed and styling has done the trick. Design, innovation and technology have made scooters more appealing to men.
Close on the heels of the launch of Ray Z, TVS Motor rolled out its scooter for males — Jupiter — in September. The company already has Scooty Pep Plus for the female drivers and Wego has been branded as unisex.
Over the past two years, there has been a sovereign shift in the customer demographics in the scooter industry, with a large chunk of the pie being consumed by male customers, says Anuriddha Haldar, general manager (marketing and head of scooter vertical) at TVS Motor.
Tech Check
This can be attributed to several factors, starting with the scooter itself evolving from being women centric. Incorporation of new technologies with improvements in engine performance and fuel efficiency mean that scooters too offer the benefit of higher mileage, like a motorcycle while offering a host of other features.
“The new segment which emerged consumed the largest chunk of the scooter industry pie with the single male category accounting for close to 40%,” says Haldar.
TVS undertook extensive market research for around 30 months to understand the exact requirements of this emerging category of single males. And subsequently the company added features to suit their needs. “Jupiter has features such as 12-inch alloy wheels, a larger wheel base, more leg space and storage, telescopic suspension, gas-filled shock absorbers and an all-aluminium low-friction CVTi engine,” says the TVS marketing honcho.
Two-wheeler maker LML, which has been lying low, is also getting ready to launch gearless scooters for men early next year.
“The walk-through design of scooters coupled with easy manoeuvrability, safety, ease of handling and storage space have resulted in their mass popularity among men,” says Deepak Singhania, chairman and managing director of LML.
Ravish Guliya, a 30-year-old real estate consultant in Delhi, too, vouches for the convenience and ease that scooters provide. But there’s another plus as well — its multi-purpose utility. “It’s not only about attitude, but convenience as well,” he says, adding that a scooter can be used by other members in the family unlike a bike that can be driven by males only.
Men will be men, whether they drive scooters or ride bikes, he says.
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