Storm the Norm

by Anisha Motwani

  The series brought in Honda’s impressive legacy of reliability and durability into its Indian products.

  On the motorcycle front, new products from the Dream series have now made Honda more relevant for semi-urban and rural India. Expanding brand reach into larger parts of India was paramount for both customer and network success.

  All this while, ATSC success continued

  •The ATSC segment’s contribution to total two-wheeler sales grew exponentially from 14 per cent in 2010 to 25 per cent in 2014–15, indicating robust demand continuing in this segment.

  •With an overwhelming 55 per cent market share, HMSI continues as the unchallenged market leader in this segment.

  •Honda launched the new Activa-i, its most affordable ATSC in India, tapping new growth from the personal compact ATSC category which contributed almost 25 per cent of ATSC sales.

  Honda’s portfolio now covered all four broad ATSC categories—moto scooter (dio), family scooter (Activa 3G, Activa 125), premium scooter (Aviator) and personal compact scooter (Activa-i).

  Scaling new heights

  The Honda CB Shine meanwhile has overtaken many competing models in its segment to become India’s all-time highest selling 125cc motorcycle. It is also the first ever 125cc motorcycle to touch the 30 lakh units sold mark. On the global platform too, CB Shine has raced ahead to become Honda Motor Company, Japan’s No. 1 selling motorcycle across Honda’s two-wheeler operations worldwide for the first time ending FY 2013–14.

  HMSI is today the second-largest two-wheeler company in India. Its cumulative investment in India has crossed ₹6,000 crore and the tight core team has grown to a 20,000-strong Dream family! For the first time in the history of the Indian two-wheeler industry, an automatic scooter—Honda Activa—has overtaken the long-ruling motorcycle models to become the top two-wheeler seller in India with monthly sales crossing 2 lakh units. What Honda’s unabated ascent demonstrates is its deep understanding of the Indian market and the ability to leverage changing market dynamics.

  Honda 2.0—The four Es strategy to reach the hinterlands

  After raising the bar high, by closing FY 2014 as its most successful year since inception and grabbing a 28 per cent market share, Honda’s next challenge was to redefine excellence for itself. Entering a new and empowered phase from 1 July 2014, Honda has developed its Wave 2.0 master plan which shows how the brand can fully exploit the potential of India’s hinterlands. Honda is now seeking to reach deeper into the hinterlands by concentrating on four Es—experience, extend, engage and expand brand Honda in India’s rural markets and increase the rural share of the business from the current 25 per cent to 30 per cent. As part of the Wave 2.0 strategy, a new rural vertical was set up with focus on strategy, communication and implementation to increase the share of rural markets.

  CB Shine

  »Connecting the dots with last-mile initiatives—mobile service van, service on wheels

  »Retail finance partnerships with national banks, gramin banks, cooperative banks and non-banking financial companies (NBFC) across India.

  »Engaging with customers innovatively from kanwar melas to mandis, and roping in opinion leaders at panchayats as well as engaging directly with women in rural homes.

  »Add 1,000 new touch points at a scorching three outlets a day to triple its network from 1,200 outlets in FY 2010–11 to 4,600 outlets by the end of FY 2015–16.

  »From the product perspective, Honda made the Dream series most its affordable value offering with the launch of its entry commuter offering, CD 110 Dream.

  »Reinforcing its differentiated brand imagery with ‘Honda is Honda’ (symbolized by the wing mark for its two-wheeler operations globally). The message is clear—the ‘wings’ of Honda stand for its time-tested reliability, technology and legacy of excellence, quality and innovation.

  Sustaining the dream run

  Honda understands that as long as there are people, there will always be the desire to move ahead. As a global leader with a rich legacy, Honda is ensuring that it doesn’t merely fulfil customer demands of today with hurried unpreparedness. Instead, it is working on influencing future customer demand by creating experiences that lead every customer to truly believe that Honda equals reliability, reputation, innovation, safety, trust and transparency.

  Honda is strengthening its ‘Make in India’ resolve through steady and strategic investments with a long-term objective of creating 39 per cent additional capacity within the three and a half years.

  Foreseeing future increase in customer demand for automatic scooters, Honda is constructing its fourth plant in India at Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Once operational in early 2016, this plant will be the world’s largest scooter-only plant of 12 lakh units annual capacity. Additionally, Honda will invest to build a new production line at its existing third plant in Karnataka before the end of 2016.

  Overall, this will take Honda’s cumulative production capacity to 6.4 million units—1.6 million units (first plant), 1.2 million units (second plant), 2.4 million units (third plant with upcoming new line) and 1.2 million units (upcoming fourth plant).

  The year 2015 is set to create new records for the company. Under its ‘Bigger, Better & Bolder’ roadmap for FY 2015–16, Keita Muramatsu—president and CEO, HMSI and Honda Motor India—has announced a massive product blitzkrieg of 15 new models including 7 brand new models. Staying true to its commitment, Honda had already launched 10 models in just 7 months. One of these, CB Unicorn 160, marks Honda’s entry into the new 150–200cc segment and has fast climbed to garner 30 per cent market share in this segment.

  Taking the connect with fun-loving youth to new highs, Honda is set to unlock a ‘New era of revolutionary fun-biking in India’ with Honda REVFEST—Unleash the Power, India’s grandest launch ever across eight cities on the same day! This will start the revolution of fun biking with CBR 650F—Honda’s first in-line four-cylinder 650cc motorcycle to be made in India.

  At stake is the world’s biggest two-wheeler market. And every day, Honda is racing ahead while giving wings to millions of Indians and their dreams to soar to dizzy heights. Today, Honda can say with well-deserved confidence that it is well on its way to firmly entrenching the wing mark in the hearts and minds of its Indian customers.

  CB Unicorn 160

  Trailblazing success

  2001

  Honda Activa launched

  2002

  Dio—moto scooter

  2003

  Eterno—geared scooter

  2004

  150 cc CB Unicorn—performance motorcycle

  2006

  125 cc CB Shine—mainstream motorcycle

  2008

  125 cc CBF Stunner—sportz motorcycle

  2010

  110 cc CB Twister—stylish 110 cc motorcycle

  End of JV partnership with Hero

  2012

  Dream Yuga—first 110 cc mass motorcycle

  2013

  HET technology introduced in all Honda automatic scooters

  Dream Neo—second mass motorcycle

  2014

  New era as Only Honda begins

  CD 110 Dream—Honda’s most affordable motorcycle in India

  Activa 125—Honda’s most powerful automatic scooter

  Goldwing—Honda’s iconic tourer lands in India

  2015

  CB Unicorn 160—Honda’s stylish performance bike with HET

  Livo—fusion of modern design with practicality for first-time aspirational buyer in 110 cc segment

  CBR 650F—Honda’s first ‘Made in India’ in-line four-cylinder engine motorcycle

  CHANGING THE ORAL-CARE LANDSCAPE IN INDIA

  One great insight is worth a thousand good ideas

  —Phil Dusenberry

  Brand Sensodyne was not created on a mere idea because ideas, valuable as they may be, are dime a dozen, but an insight is rarer, deeper and, therefore, much more precious. Sensodyne’s success clearly demonstrates the power of a stron
g insight. Like most iconic brands, Sensodyne has been a true game changer in its area of operation— the oral-care market in India. There are few brands that can boast a compelling story like that of Sensodyne in India, rooted in a simple yet powerful insight.

  Sensodyne’s big challenge

  We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.

  In the year 2011, when GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) decided to launch the Sensodyne brand in India, it knew that odds were heavily stacked against its success. Sensodyne was GSK Consumer Healthcare’s No. 1 brand globally and was successfully positioned as an effective sensitivity-relief toothpaste, enjoying the tailwinds of a highly evolved international oral-care market. In developed markets, consumers understood dental health very well and specialized oral-care products and oral-care regimes were popular.

  The Indian dental-care market had made a recent transition from tooth powder and neem sticks. The Indian branded toothpaste market was at a basic-benefit level where brands were mainly focusing on three benefits: freshness, cavity and germ-kill (80 per cent of the market). Numerous researches showed that consumers were happy with their current toothpastes and there was almost no need gap in the market, people being habituated to consuming basic-benefit toothpastes. Consumers did not have awareness of or did not care how different types of toothpastes addressed different oral problems; price was the typical deciding factor and the entire family used a single brand of toothpaste. There was fierce competition from heavyweight players who dominated the oral-care market in India. Local home remedies were the typical treatment for common dental problems.

  It was a big challenge to successfully launch a global flagship brand in a market where the concept of specialized oral-care products did not exist. The consumer was not aware of tooth sensitivity as a problem and, therefore, did not see the need for a product with sensitivity-relief benefits. What made the task more uphill was the fact that Sensodyne was a premium offering in this highly price-sensitive market (six times economy toothpastes) coupled with low brand awareness levels among consumers. To create a market for a specialist toothpaste in the middle of all this appeared to be an insurmountable challenge.

  Going glocal

  The first step in dealing with any business problem is research. Data is collected so as to approach the problem with knowledge. As the data, analysis, numbers and opinions are reviewed, some outliers stick out. Intelligent analysis can bring these to the fore and that should lead to insights about the brand.

  The Sensodyne team understood the importance of listening to consumers upfront and mounted comprehensive research to study the usage and attitudes of Indians towards dental hygiene. The research revealed some significant gaps in consumers’ understanding:

  »The sensitivity-awareness index in India stood at a low of 17 per cent versus 33 per cent globally.

  »Although people suffered from sensitivity, they were unable to articulate the problem and were largely unaware that there existed a solution.

  »Only 4 per cent of Indians visited dentists and most Indians did not follow proper oral-care hygiene practices (like brushing twice daily).

  Sensodyne was the first to identify the gap between the existence of tooth sensitivity and awareness about the condition and its solution, and to realize the large business opportunity it presented.

  The larger insight was the fact that consumers with sensitivity problems were not able to enjoy their favourite food and drinks.

  The journey ahead was now clear and Sensodyne’s innovative strategy for solving this consumer problem turned out to be the recipe behind the brand’s success. The important idea was to build awareness and drive trials among the sensitivity sufferers to place the brand in their consideration set. Instead of gaining category share from other brands, the task clearly was to build the category from scratch and then make Sensodyne synonymous with the category in the long run.

  The brand identified a clear task in building awareness around the condition of sensitivity and offering a simple, clinically proven effective solution in the form of Sensodyne.

  Colgate had started advertising its desensitizing toothpaste Colgate Sensitive from 2007. Sensodyne became the first brand in its category to identify a gap in awareness around the condition called ‘sensitivity’ and created a comprehensive success story that is a clear example of how market leaders must be game changers to achieve success, combining the best of global knowledge with local insights.

  Sensodyne was about five years behind its biggest competitor in launching a brand in the sensitivity-benefit segment. There were multiple local pharma players selling sensitivity toothpastes in India. However, these were sold on dentist recommendation only, and did not advertise. It was only from 2011, with Sensodyne’s entry, that there was aggressive advertising, with both Colgate and Sensodyne investing behind media. Sensodyne adopted an educational approach to advertising, teaching consumers to identify the condition and then presenting the recommendation of the expert, the dentist in this case.

  Building a go-to-market strategy with an edge

  Given the high competition and the spends required to create a market, Sensodyne charted a very systematic and structured course for its India strategy. Its multi-pronged strategy involved intensive product development to get this essential building block in place, a comprehensive test marketing initiative and rigorous consumer and clinical research lasting over two-three years.

  Refining the product to suit the Indian palate

  Sensodyne’s R&D team tweaked the product to suit the Indian palate and the local regulatory environment. Extensive research, conducted over two years, showed that Indians have very distinct product expectations as compared to global consumers. Elements such as foaming and taste were the driving factors in making buying decision, so the brand tested different levels of foaming and decided upon a mid-appropriate ‘foaming’ level for the Indian market. Given that the Indian taste palate is dramatically different from the western palate of GSK’s other markets, the brand adopted a very rigorous process of testing different flavours with consumers. The flavour option that it finally went ahead with was a localized fresh mint flavour that appealed to the Indian palate and eventually became very popular with consumers.

  Proofing the go-to-market strategy in a comprehensive test market environment

  Sensodyne’s journey in India began with a test market in the south. Sensodyne chose south India owing to several factors that gave it an edge over other markets—media isolation, high literacy rate combined with it being a high-revenue-generation market for GSK.

  The brand adopted a unique four-way matrix for the test marketing initiative with different operating levels in each of the markets, keeping in mind consumer preferences. The four-way matrix was based on metrics such as media share of voice, expert marketing, visibility and activation. The right mix of all these elements was necessary for the launch. This strategy allowed the brand to be nimble, proactive and responsive, and ensure course corrections based on real time consumer and market feedback.

  To illustrate, in a market like Tamil Nadu, the brand focused on high media share of voice (SOV), high expert marketing and low activation, whereas in Andhra Pradesh, it focused on high media SOV, low expert marketing but high activation. This was backed by rigorous research for almost a year. The test market gave numerous insights into consumers’ psychographics. It revealed that consumers were seeking specialist products but would prefer listening to an ‘expert’ on their problems, however, they were hesitant in reaching out to them for help. Many such learnings, heavy investments in clinical research powered by a simple scientific visualization of the solution, have been instrumental in making the brand what it is today. This test marketing helped the brand draw up a winning strategy, paving the way for its launch across the country.

  Innovative and extensive consumer activation: The winning stroke

  The entire focus was on educating the consumer around the sensitivity condition and, th
erefore, Sensodyne invested heavily in taking the sensitivity challenge to the consumer’s doorstep. The rationale was simple—consumers weren’t aware of the problem called sensitivity and that there was a simple solution to the problem. Over the next three years, Sensodyne invested heavily in building awareness and educating the consumers about sensitivity through its extensive consumer outreach programme—chill tests at various high footfall areas, asking people to drink cold water. The simple yet effective tests made people realize that they unknowingly suffered from teeth sensitivity which was preventing them from enjoying foods and drinks which they could easily have done. When engaged in a conversation with the brand promoters, people recalled that they had experienced short sharp sensations earlier too, but had never taken them seriously. Once their curiosity was piqued, the brand promoters explained the benefits of Sensodyne to the sufferers. The ‘Winning with a glass of chilled water’ campaign for Sensodyne was extremely successful and fetched GSK the coveted Effie gold medal for the most innovative/best activation campaign in 2013.

  Sensodyne’s magic recipe: Deeper engagement with the dentist community

  Building on the insight that consumers want to listen to experts, Sensodyne, in another significant outreach programme, redefined ‘engagement’ with the dentist community in India. Although competition had been engaging with the dentist community for a very long time, Sensodyne adopted a significantly different and more comprehensive approach.

  Being a scientifically proven product, it was important for Sensodyne that experts in the category, that is dentists, have a strong understanding of the product’s composition and benefits. As a global sensitivity expert, Sensodyne worked closely with dentists across the world and the success of this relationship lay in the credibility and trust it enjoyed amongst dental-care professionals. Globally, Sensodyne engaged with the dental community on a regular basis to update it on the latest developments in the area of teeth sensitivity.