“We might be late to the market with our products, but they have to be developed with the highest standards and flawless engineering before being offered to the end consumer,” says Devashish Handa, Executive Vice President (Sales, Marketing & Aftersales), Suzuki Motorcycle India.
Nearly 80% of its sales are from the Access, Burgman and Avenis models. While Hayabusa and Katana are part of the aspirational quotient offered by Suzuki, Gixxer and V-Strom have failed to ignite the market. It is in this backdrop that Matsuri may be a ray of hope for the Japanese brand.
This customer event held recently in Delhi will now head out to Bengaluru this month where the intent is to draw more attention towards Suzuki’s motorcycle models and what they are capable of. The event strives to highlight customer commitment by way of reliable and well-engineered products in the 150-250cc space.
“Our larger capacity motorcycles, Hayabusa and Katana, have already created that strong aspirational hook for Suzuki aficionados,” adds Handa. Matsuri is a display of how the company wants to promote motorcycling culture and a community for its customers, apart from just offering practical and efficient scooters in the market.
Considering the enormous success other brands have seen with their individual community events, Suzuki would have perhaps figured out that it was high time to join the bandwagon. “Matsuri is a dipstick on how to plan and expand these customer events. After analysing the response in Delhi and Bengaluru, we will decide on the yearly plan for organising this event,” says Handa.
Brand Recall
Suzuki clearly needs to pull out all the stops in enhancing its presence in India. Decades earlier, during its partnership with the TVS group, there was a lot of brand recall since there was a novelty phase for customers with Japanese brands. However, Honda and Yamaha were also present and the former has surged ahead as the country ’s second largest two-wheeler player.
In the case of Suzuki, following the split with TVS in 2001, it has struggled to make a significant presence in the market. Its former Indian ally is now in a strong No 3 spot only behind Hero and Honda while Suzuki, along with Yamaha, forms part of the marginal participants in this competitive two-wheeler space.
The company has constantly reiterated that India is critical given its large size and position as the world’s largest market of bikes and scooters. Yet, it has not posed a threat to existing players with the local trio of Hero, TVS and Bajaj comfortably placed in the top rankings along with Honda. The Indian brands have also moved beyond the Japanese with TVS and Bajaj, in particular, having well defined strategies in place with European allies like BMW Motorrad and KTM respectively.
Suzuki has a lot of catching up to do and, for now, is reasonably content with its export numbers too even though they are way behind stronger Indian players. Of the 20,000 units shipped out each month, motorcycles account for 17,000 and scooters take up the balance. “The European markets have responded well to Access and Avenis models while Burgman needs some catching up to do. It is clearly better positioned as a powerful maxi scooter,” says Handa.
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