Dear Readers,
In the past month, one major marketing news that caught my attention was the BIG BIG decision coming from the house of Bajaj Auto. At least it was quite big according to my judgement. If your one of them who hasn’t yet realised what am referring to, not to strain your grey cells too hard. Yes, am talking about their decision to drop the Bajaj brand name from both their Pulsar & Discover brands. Henceforth they will be promoted as individual brands sans the Bajaj family name. And all new models would be under the umbrella of either of these two brands. When I first read this news article, I was shell shocked. To say the truth, I was clean bowled as to why they would make such a drastic decision. This was because as far as I knew, whenever one heard the name Pulsar or Discover for that matter, the first relation that consumers made was to Bajaj, the age old brand in the field of two-wheelers. And now, here they were having decided to let go of the rich and immense brand value and trust that had been earned over aeons.
The reasoning given was that the Brand Promise and Target Group of both these brands were at two extremes of the spectrum and hence should not be continued to be looked upon as a part of the same family.
Coming to think of it, it makes sense logically. But as an end consumer it will take quite some time for me to come to terms with the fact that they are disassociating the illustrious and close to heart Bajaj brand name from their two biggest selling brands. Only time can tell whether this bold move will pay dividends or otherwise.
Continuing to keep the topic of discussion i.e. means of transportation, let’s get airborne now!! Yes, you guessed it right. This issue’s Cover Story focuses on the Indian airline industry. Off late, the airline industry has been all glum and sorrowful, what with all the recession, rising oil prices and ballooning debts. Bankers have proposed restructuring the debt of major airlines in a bid to help them out. The scenario looks like it can’t get any better. But all is not lost just yet. Both Spice Jet & Jet Airways have reported profits and Kingfisher Airlines a narrower profit for the first quarter ending June’10. Many of the low cost carriers like IndiGo, SpiceJet & GoAir are going in for a major fleet expansion. Air passenger traffic has increased by 22%. These are just some of the positive signs visible at first look. In our Cover Story we have taken a close look at the airline industry in India and also how Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) techniques could possibly be the ideal tool that airline companies are searching for to come out stronger from this lull in business.
Also for the upcoming issue’s Eye to Eye section, we have sought your opinions on this big move of Bajaj that we have just discussed. Do let us know what you think and whether you agree or disagree with me!!
And finally do let us know what you think about this issue and please share your views & suggestions that you think would help in making Markathon bigger & better.
Happy Reading.
Kaushik Subramanian
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