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A Marketing Case Study on the Sales Performance of the Yamaha Gladiator in India so far.. Using the "Buyer Behaviour Model"

Disclaimer: This Case Study is based on my personal opinions and thoughts and is NOT backed by any market research data.

You may want to agree or disagree with my observations and conclusions.. but kindly note that this post/article is just a manifestation of MY thoughts and ideas.

Virtually every Auto Magazine in this country rate the Yamaha Gladiator as a good bike in the 125 cc segment. Even my own personal opinions do not differ much from these auto magazines..

But have a look at the sales figures of the 125 cc and above segment in India posted below (courtesy, Rearset). Since Yamaha India do not have any other bike except the 125 cc "Gladiator" in the 125 cc and above segment, the graph clearly indicates the sales figures of the Gladiator for Yamaha India.

Probably the Gladiator doesnt make it past the "Consideration Set" of the customer and make it to the "Evoked or Choice Set"

Even Suzuki India which also has the 125 cc "Zeus" and "Heat" as the sole models in their motorcycle lineup has been selling more than the Yamaha Gladiator.

Surprising isnt it..?? Inspite of being a good bike, why isnt the Gladiator selling that well as it should..??


Well, lets take this up as a Marketing Case Study (Like my Old MBA days, except this time there is no Market Research Data to back up my Case Study).

First lets divide this case study into a few sections:

1. Who are the 125 cc "Target Customers" and what are they looking for?

2. The "Buyer Behavior" of a typical 125 cc customer.

3. The "Evaluation/Choice Process" of a 125 cc customer, before making the Buying Decision.

1. Who are the 125 cc "Target Customers" and what are they looking for?

I regularly receive a lot of e-mails and also inquiries from friends asking for my opinion about which 125 cc bike to go for. From handling such queries and also by interacting with 125 cc bike owners, I can tell that the 125 customer has one Most Important Factor in his mind; and that is "M-I-L-E-A-G-E"..!!

Price maybe another important factor, but in most cases, I have seen that the buyer could have streched his budget a little bit for a bigger and more powerful 150 cc bike. But still he does not want to opt for a 150 cc bike, because he knows that a 150 cc bike would give him less mileage (one doesnt need to be a rocket scientist to deduce that).

The buyer does not want to lose out too much on the around 65 Kmpl of mileage of a typical 100 cc bike gives but at the same time he was also prepared to sacrifice of maybe around 5 Kmpl (not much mind you) for a little bit of more grunt and riding pleasure.

Therefore the obvious choice was to settle for a 125 cc bike.


Q. But according to most Auto Magazines, the Fuel Efficiency of the Gladiator isnt bad and almost at par with what other 125 cc bikes offer.. Why does the "Yamaha Gladiator" have lower sales then..??


For that, lets look at the "Buyer Behavior" of a 125 cc customer.

2. The "Buyer Behavior" of a typical 125 cc customer.


The "Buyer Behavior Model" shown above is one of the concepts taught to Marketing Students in the MBA course. The model has been seen to be quite effective in explaining the "Buyer Behavior" in those buying decisions in which there is a high level of involvement on the part of the potential buyer, that is, where the item under consideration is expensive and purchased infrequently.

Typically, the buying decision models comprised five stages:

• Need/Problem Recognition: The buying process begins with a recognition on the part of the buyer that he has a problem or need. Market Research should try to identify what are the factors that make a buyer go for a 125 cc bike.
  
  Factors like price, looks/styling, resale value will be always there, but according to me, the Fuel Efficiency happens to be the most important factor for a 125 cc buyer.






• Information search: According to Marketing Guru, Philip Kotler, information sources fall into 4 categories..
  
  # Personal Sources (family, friends etc.)
  
  # Commercial Sources (Auto Magazines, Promotional Materials)
  
  # Public Sources (Newspapers, TV Commercials, Internet)
  
  # Experiential (Handling, Using the product)
  
  Based on the information gathered, a 125 cc buyer will arrive at an "Evoked or Choice Set" from the 125 cc bikes available in the market. According to me, it is here where the Yamaha Gladiator fails to make it to the "Evoked or Choice Set" of most customers looking for a 125 cc bike.

3. The "Evaluation/Choice Process" of a 125 cc customer, before making the Buying Decision.

What is an "Evoked or Choice Set"..??


The process of arriving at the "Evoked or Choice Set" of a customer is shown above and is quite self explanatory. According to me, it is somewhere here where the Gladiator has so far been unable to make it to the "Evoked or Choice Set" of most of the 125 cc customers.

Lets say that a typical 125 cc customer is Aware about All the 125 cc bikes available in the market and here is what (according to me) he would think about the models..

"I need bike with Good Fuel Efficiency but not another 100 cc bike.. I think Ill look at the 125 cc bikes available."

Honda Shine: Hmm.. must be a fuel efficient bike. After all its a Honda

Hero Honda Super Splendor/Glamour: Must be fuel efficienct bikes after all its a Hero Honda..

Suzuki Zeus/Heat: Hmm.. relatively a new brand in bikes in India but the TVS-Suzuki bikes were fuel efficient also look at the Maruti Suzuki Logo..!! It must be fuel efficient like Maruti-Suzuki cars.. The bike looks like a commuter too.. Must be fuel efficient.

Bajaj XCD: Yes, yes.. I know from the advertisements that this is Indias most fuel efficient bike. Lets check it out.

TVS Flame: Hmm, a handsome bike.. and the TV Advertisement says that it is pretty fuel efficient too..!! Lets check it out.


Yamaha Gladiator: Definitely a good looking bike.. the advertisements showed John Abraham pulling wheelies with this bike in an Airport.. must be a powerful bike.



I could not really understand a thing what the Gladiator "Grafitti" Ad meant though..

But the Advertisements or TV Commercials doesnt say about the Gladiator about being fuel efficient.. Hmm.. after all its a Yamaha, the brand which once made the powerful but fuel guzzling RD350 and the RX100s.

Do you see the problem with the Gladiator now..??

Not every customer in India reads Auto Magazines regularly and not everyone surfs the internet to read reviews of bikes. The customer relies heavily on the Commercials, friends and family to provide him information about the bikes available. In such a scenario, the Gladiator probably doesnt make it past the "Consideration Set" of the customer and make it to the "Evoked or Choice Set".

According to me the problem lies with the way the Gladiator has been promoted/advertised so far. And I just hope that it is not continued that same way..

I ackowledge that these are just MY Deductions & Conclusions and might not reflect any Market Research data. But it would be interesting to see what are your opinions about the same.

Do you agree with me or do you think otherwise..??

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This is to remind that the Views or Opinions in the blog are entirely mine unless explicitly stated. The Views and Opinions published in this blog should in no way be related to any other person or organization associated -- directly or indirectly -- with me.