Marketing Mix- Bajaj Pulsar

1. Ramanathan Jayaraman 2. Bhupesh Bhute 3. Amit Jaswani4. Razin Naik5. Sanjeev Vishwakarma6. Neha Singh7. Vivek Singh

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Indian market for bikes- A brief overview

Initially, the Indian market for bikes was primarily comprised of the fuel efficient, smaller capacity motorcycles. The smaller capacity motorcycles were available in the 80 to 125 cc category. However, the launch and the subsequent success of Honda CBZ bike in 1999 proved that there is a huge potential for performance bikes in the Indian market. Bajaj Auto decided to capitalize this opportunity and hence launched the Bajaj Pulsar in the month of November, 2001.

The project for the development of Bajaj Pulsar took 36 months to complete. The company incurred costs of Rs. 1 Billion in the course of the completion of the project.

Bajaj Pulsar- The product and its evolution over the years

When Bajaj Pulsar made its debut in the Indian market in the year 2001, two variations of the bike, in the form of 150 cc and 180 cc engines, were offered to the potential customers. The bike offered 12 bhp of maximum power. Disc brakes as a feature in Pulsar were offered for the first time in the Indian motorcycle market.

The second generation of Pulsar was launched in the Indian market in the year 2003. The latest version of Pulsar incorporated the DTSi technology. DTSi stands for Digital Twin Spark Ignition. This technology was developed by Bajaj Auto and it holds an Indian patent for the same. With the integration of DTSi technology into the Pulsar, the power rating was improved by 1 bhp and also the fuel efficiency of bike was enhanced.

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In 2005, Bajaj Auto launched yet another upgraded version of Pulsar. This version of bike was offered with a 17 inch alloy wheels as a standard option for the first time. Also, the power rating in both the 150 cc as well as 180 cc versions of the bike was improved.

In 2007, Bajaj launched the Pulsar 220 DTS-Fi and 220 DTS-I versions of bikes. The 220 DTS-Fi model comprises of features such as the former featuring fuel injection and oil cooled engines, a digital dash, and modern styling. Features like fuel injections, rear disc brake and clip on handle bars were introduced for the first time in the Indian market. In 2009, a carbureted version of Pulsar 220 and the fourth upgraded versions of Pulsar 150 and Pulsar 180 were launched in market.

After sales service and maintenance:

Bajaj Auto has introduced an online facility for booking appointment for bike servicing in the city of Bangalore. This facility is called as “Click n Book”. The expected advantages of this facility to the customers are as follows:

Bajaj Auto has introduced an online facility for booking appointment for bike service in the city of Bangalore.

The “Click n Book” facility helps the customers in scheduling the appointment as per their convenience.

This new facility also helps the customers in choosing their preferred service centre.

This online facility is expected to reduce the waiting time in queue at the service centers.

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Bajaj Auto also displays maintenance and lubricant charts for the Pulsar bike on its website. These charts provide the customers vital information regarding the frequency at which several parts of the bike must be serviced. This frequency is determined based on the total number of kilometers travelled by the bike. These charts also provide information regarding the type of servicing activity required for a particular part or component in the bike. For example, some of the parts might require checking and cleaning, other parts might require tightening and replacement and so on.

Bajaj Auto also provides an online search facility that helps the customers to locate the dealer using an All India dealer’s database. This helps the customers in locating the nearest Bajaj Auto Service centre.

In order to further improve the customer experience during the process of servicing his bike, the following service features were incorporated by one of the prominent Bajaj Auto authorized dealership, called Swadeshi Bajaj, in New Delhi:

Dial - A - Test Ride: The dealer offers test ride at customer's place. All that one has to do is to just make a telephone call; the dealer representative visits the customer's place as per their convenience.

Door Step Service: Swadeshi Bajaj offers to collect the potential customer's relevant documents for the new vehicle purchase at the customer's doorstep.

Door Step Delivery: The dealers also provide the facility of delivering the vehicle right at the door step of the customer.

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Auspicious Time Delivery: The dealer also offers to deliver the new vehicle on auspicious moments, muhurats and days. All that the customer has to do is to just tell the dealer their preferred time of delivery.

Bajaj Pulsar- The Price

The following table shows the average price of a Bajaj Pulsar bike (according to the bike variations) in cities belonging to both metro as well as non-metro category.

Bike Version Average price in Rs. in metros

Average price in Rs. in non-metros

Bajaj Pulsar 150 CC

64375/- 63666/-

Bajaj Pulsar 180 CC

66625/- 65666/-

Bajaj Pulsar 200 CC

76125/- 75000/-

Bajaj Pulsar 220 CC DTS Fi

91875/- 91000/-

Bajaj Pulsar 220 DTSi

70000/- (Ex-Showroom)

93000/-

Also, many Bajaj Auto authorized dealerships offer the following financial schemes in order to attract the potential customer:

0 % Scheme: Under this scheme, a customer has to pay only nominal processing fees.

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Green Channel: As a part of this scheme, if a customer takes a quick decision to purchase a bike, the dealership supports the customer’s decision with a faster approval loan approval procedure.

Low Down Payment: In this scheme, the monthly EMI payment could be as low as Rs. 900/-. This scheme helps the customers in planning their monthly budget more efficiently.

Normal Channel: Customers can take 80% as loan with normal eligible documents, and obtain approval within 24 hours.

Exchange Scheme: Any model and any brand of existing bike of the customer could be exchanged for a brand new Bajaj. After the exchange, the price realized for the older bike is treated as a down payment and the balance is adjusted into any of the available finance schemes.

Bajaj Pulsar- Promotion

Pulsar was the bike that was launched by Bajaj Auto without the collaboration of the Kawasaki Company. Also, this bike was a technological and a designing marvel. The creative promotion campaign for Bajaj Pulsar was handled by the renowned advertising agency Ogilvy and Mather. The creative team decided to endow the bike with a gender. Taking this idea into consideration, the campaign with a tagline called “Definitely Male” was launched. The promotion campaign, coupled with the design and the performance of the bike, helped the company in achieving excellent sales numbers for the Pulsar bike.

Bajaj Pulsar- Promotion Transitions

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When Bajaj Auto launched the new DTSi technology for the Pulsar bike in the year 2003, the creative promotion responsibility was assigned to another agency called Leo Burnett. Leo Burnett changed the positioning of the brand from “Definitely Male” to “Digital Biking”.

When Bajaj Auto launched the Pulsar 200 version, the promotion campaign was focused on the concept of “free biking”. According to the definition of brand Pulsar, free biking is all about tackling obstacles. The expensive ad for this campaign was shot in Havana, Cuba. The underlying theme of the ad is to how two Pulsar riders discover a new route when the main road is blocked by a traffic jam.

Bajaj Pulsar is also associated with a reality show called StuntMania that is aired on MTV channel. This show targets the audience in the age group of 18 and above. This show also mentions about bike maintenance and rider safety.

Bajaj Pulsar- Place

Dealership system of Bajaj Auto:

The company has a network of 498 dealers and over 1,500 authorized service centers across the country. Around 1,400 rural outlets have been created in towns with population of 25,000 and below.

Following are the various types of showrooms implemented by Bajaj Auto:

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COCO: These are Company Owned & Company Operated showrooms. These concepts exist only for Pro-Biking showrooms.

CODO: These are Company Owned & Dealer Operated showrooms. In this case, showrooms are owned by the company but the operations in the showroom are managed by the dealer. This model is followed when Bajaj wants to provide the dealer financial benefits.

Logistics system of Bajaj Auto:

This function of distribution is not owned by the company in any form. This function is outsourced to the third party vendors. The third party here is Transport Corporation of India (TCI) and a few other private vendors.

The fleet to be transported is custom-designed for Bajaj Auto by the vendor. A Transit Insurance Compliance Letter (TICL) is signed between the two parties (i.e. the vendor and Bajaj Auto).

The local level sub-dealer sometimes gets to decide the last mile logistics, as he can decide to pick up the vehicles himself or have it transported to him. Freight charge is built-in in the product price.

Improving the distribution system at Bajaj Auto:

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Spare parts distribution is one of the critical processes in the servicing of the vehicles. Spare parts distribution is handled through a network of 400 dealers and 15 distributors. Spare parts are distributed from four warehouses that are strategically located across the country. The process that Bajaj Auto was using to manage the supply of spare parts across the distribution network was inefficient, did not produce accurate results, and was unsuitable for the increasing complexities of distribution.

To keep track of its safety stock, amounting to over 14,000 different items, the company was using a cumbersome manual process that was neither timely nor accurate. Lack of visibility of order status resulted in inventory problems at sales outlets because needed items didn’t always get priority during packing and shipping. To improve the efficiency across the distribution network, Bajaj Auto implemented a SAP based ERP system. As a result, overall productivity has improved by more than 80%.

Setting up of depots:

Setting up depots is a geographical strategy adopted by Bajaj Auto. But this does not mean that the company has gone all out to open a large number of depots. It has chosen strategic locations. The key role played by depots is that they are meant to cater to any sudden rise in demand of vehicles, and to cover the existing geographic span of India.

A dealer needs to consider his order requirements and then come up with an order to place to the regional office. If the demand is

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immediate, he may approach a depot for the load. Else, he has to try to stick to factory load. Both of these loads have their own sets of pros and cons.

Criteria for choosing a factory or a depot approach:

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Diagram showing the supply chain process at Bajaj Auto:

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