Today it is a history because when we launched it was with the purpose that whatever was the shortcomings or the wish list of the consumer from an automatic scooter we tried to put everything into that.
Three takeaways worth carrying forward.
- 01
You know as an owner himself they are here for four to five days with Honda team and we have this learning you know department where we share with them the entire history of brand.
- 02
How do you filter that down to the dealerships because there that's the place where your customers actually interacting with your brand.
- 03
The communication aspect of the responsibility and the expectation which the brand has from the dealer owners.
Connected to the DMAasia operating frame.
Proof
This episode connects brand purpose to credible evidence, leadership archives and field-tested marketing practice.
Access
This episode connects brand purpose to routes into communities, councils, juries and senior conversations.
Ascent
This episode connects brand purpose to learning, recognition and the next generation of marketing leadership.
AdChoices / DAA
This episode connects brand purpose to privacy-first marketing, consumer trust and responsible data use.
Unfinished Business
This episode connects brand purpose to open industry problems that still need senior participation.
Durable lessons from the record.
- Start with the consumer problem, not the channel.
- Treat digital transformation as a behaviour change, not a software purchase.
- Measure effectiveness without losing the brand story.
If brand purpose is now table stakes, what will make the brand genuinely harder to ignore?
Take it into Unfinished Business →READABLE TRANSCRIPT1,253 words
One of the hobbies which has helped me throughout my career as a marketeer is I do sketch, I have a passion to play flute. As we know the Activa practically led a scooter revolution across the country. How has it changed how India moves today and what has it done for Honda in terms of brand recall? When Activa was launched I think there were many experts or the auto experts who said it's a scooter market going down and that too we launched as an automatic scooter.
India used to be a bigger geared scooter market than an automatic scooter market with automatic transmission. Today it is a history because when we launched it was with the purpose that whatever was the shortcomings or the wish list of the consumer from an automatic scooter we tried to put everything into that. One starting with the technology itself no more a two-stroke technology we came up with a four-stroke technology.
Over the years this four-stroke technology basically bridged the gap of the mileage which was a gap between a 100cc motorcycle and an automatic scooter transmission. So it narrowed this gap of mileage. Second as a unisex appeal it was for both males and females. It is not okay only male oriented design but it was a complete family vehicle. In a country where two-wheelers are the first choice of mobility like you know we spoke about right now. What is the next move for Honda you know in terms of opening up new segments like you've done with the Activa?
We are now exporting more than what we are selling in the domestic market. The Latin American market is consuming Navi like anything especially in the market like Colombia, Honduras and Gautamala. So very good response from the exports market. We are taking a further step. How do we take scooterization to the tier 3 towns or deep rural? Correct. The scooterization as a concept was not so popular in the rural area. Right. One is it was having some social stigma also attached to ladies riding on a two-wheeler. Yes.
But it is you know going away you know every year on year the society has started accepting women because they are more working women even in the rural area. Especially in the area of healthcare in education. So and public transport infrastructure still not able to cater to the mobility needs of the rural. So they have to go to school for teaching and come by in time but they cannot keep on waiting for the next bus to come. Correct. So and now society started accepting them this is where we know we need to go.
While we talk about marketing schemes and your strategy etc. today. How do you filter that down to the dealerships because there that's the place where your customers actually interacting with your brand. You know at the first level. How do you do this? So whenever any new dealer is recruited and he becomes a part of Honda family they go through a training. You know as an owner himself they are here for four to five days with Honda team and we have this learning you know department where we share with them the entire history of brand.
The communication aspect of the responsibility and the expectation which the brand has from the dealer owners. Then comes the dealer managers and finally the salesmen. And as you can imagine we have more than 20,000 salesmen are across our dealership. It's not possible to reach out to them each and every individual physically in a physical form. So how we do it? We come up with the you know e-learning app. So yeah.
So through these e-learning we keep on sending in the programs and through back end we can always find out how many people first have downloaded. How many have gone through them? And then we have you know very fun kind of interaction with them. We ask them random questions on the topic which has been uploaded and through the answers there are some goodies which are shared with them. And through the answers we can really know how much they have really you know adopted and the graphs about the new communication.
Whether it is new policy, new scheme, new product. So this is being done you know with them as e-learning. And now another part is since we are now already 18 years of the brand in the in our country. The first lot of dealers already have the next generation coming in. So we have already come up with the next generation entrepreneur programs where we because we have taught the fathers or their relatives or elders. But the new generation has become the owner now. It's 18 years.
So how do we tell them and pass on that information directly as Honda what we have shared with their parents. How do you retain your creativity as a marketer? I think marketing is very very interesting because one is that you know you tend to meet a lot of people and with a lot of different tastes and background. So you need to be always as a very very agile in your character in your nature. And since marketing also involves lot of communication in terms of print, in terms of the audio visual or TV commercial, outdoor.
So and you have to interact with lot of agencies, script writers, creative people. And one of the hobby you know which has helped me throughout my career as a marketeer is you know I do sketch. I have you know I have a passion to play flute. Oh okay. And so that helps me sometimes in evaluating what kind of music we should have in our you know TV commercials or even in our radio campaign. And when we whenever we have some FM campaign. So it helps.
I would not say I'm an expert but definitely this hobby helps me to evaluate those campaigns or the proposal by the agencies.
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