Assignments for Creative Brand Management Track

Adcenter:
“You have been put in charge of your agency’s new business. Name three brands you would like to represent, and tell why. For each brand, describe what your agency would do differently that would cause the client to hire you.”

Why Hero Cycles?

I would like to work on the Hero Cycles account for two reasons:

1. I see marketing scope for Hero Cycles in the growing Indian market. There is an opportunity to refresh the brand by opening its arms to a promising target segment, not earlier pursued vigorously.
2. I like bicycles.

About Hero Cycles

Hero Cycles, founded in 1956, holds the Guinness World Record since 1986 for manufacturing the most number of bicycles. It held 48% share of the 50 million bicycle market in 2002-03 in India [R7].

Hero Cycles holds a lion’s share in the two main domestic segments, the rural market—where the bicycle is still relevant as a means of inexpensive transport, and the children’s recreational bicycle market. The main competitors are Atlas cycles, and the Hercules and BSA brands of TI cycles.

As an alert marketer, Hero Cycles has launched several innovations through its products. Hero Cycles introduced the all terrain bikes (ATBs) or mountain bikes to the Indian market in the late 80’s through “Hero Ranger”—whose straight handle bars and thick all-terrain tyres, in stark contrast to its thin framed counterparts found favour among the young of the times. Hero Cycles also launched Hero Zones, exclusive outlets to connect directly with their customers. It was the first to introduce indoor fitness cycles for the fitness conscious.

The Superbrands Organisation pays tribute to Hero Cycles as one of the Superbrands of India.

Recent Communication

The Hero Cycles advertising predominantly promote the young children and adolescent’s bicycles, for boys and girls. In the previous year Hero Cycles had roped in Irfan Pathan as its brand ambassador, who at 20 had just reached iconic status as Indian cricket’s spearhead bowling attack.

In 2005-06, Hero Cycles promoted its new Y-frame bicycles to children with the “Y should I…” campaign based on questioning general conventions [R8].

In January 2007 the Hero Cycles logo was seen splashed on the TV screen suffixed to clips of a recent Hindi film, Guru. The clips are from a song in which the female lead, Aishwarya Rai is seen dancing in the rain and riding a bicycle on a village bridge. Guru, directed by one of India’s most respected filmmakers, Mani Ratnam, traces the success story of a small town boy who realises his dreams of being India’s strongest industrialist. Aishwarya Rai plays the role of an independent, audacious girl who leaves her home on a bicycle.

The Pitch

Explore the target segment of urban adult, between the ages 22–35, with increasing disposable income.

Profile of the Target

The Indian city road is widening and it is growing longer by the day. At good intervals of length and time it branches out. Out of childlike impatience it hops and leaps above junctions. It promises a concrete certainty. What feeds its growth and intent are optic fibre lines running beneath it like arteries and nerves in colours of orange, green, and blue.

The middle class Indian, made richer by years of hard work in school and college, has a well paying job interfacing with a computer, connected to broadband internet, in a mammoth glass façade building, centrally air-conditioned, at a distance of approximately 20–40 kms from a new home shortened by a new car, or a new motorbike, or company escort vehicles.

The last business hour of the week is spent booking movie tickets on the websites of the new multiplex movie houses. In the weekend, vehicles are driven to the shopping-malls sprouting from the ruins of shut-down mills. Then the shoppers hit the courts—the food courts, usually a floor of the mall fully devoted to restaurants. At the food court the Indian yuppie trained in corporate decision-making skills is faced with a menu card with the cuisine of the world. The sports inclined, sporting Nike, Adidas, RBK, Umbro jerseys head to the sports bars, and cheer for Dhoni, Alonso, the Red Devils and the Gunners, amongst others while guzzling beer from a beer tower.

The Young Indian says, “I’m loving it” , nods to, “Hungry kya?”, and definitely has the “Visa Power”*. The Indian yuppie has earned it through hard work, feels we’ve just started and wants to go a long way.

The young Indian is fast growing unhealthy. The challenge to the economic growth and maintaining the lifestyle is inherent to the lifestyle. India is at the greatest risk of cardiovascular diseases. The World Health Organization estimates Indians could make for 60% of the world’s heart disease patients in 2010 and by 2015 lose $263 billion for loss of productive work days and treatment costs [R9].

Besides maintaining health to prevent diseases, higher on the priority list is simply to look good. As aspirations rise, there is a growing consciousness to be physically fit and maintain a popular body image. A 2006 research by Synovate suggests a 300% rise, from 0.1% to 0.3% of a billion, that translates to 3 million Indians heading to the gym[R10].

The Indian young wants to have fun, look good, set out on new adventures but is concerned about deteriorating health, and has the dough to pay for what they want.

The Challenges involved in selling bicycles to the Indian yuppie ...are several

1. For the target audience, cycling is a rarity. They have traditionally given up the bicycle around the age of fifteen on moving from school to college.

2. The bicycle doesn’t make practical sense as a means of daily transport for distances of 20–40 kms or more in the hot and humid conditions of most Indian cities.

3. Besides the impracticality of using bicycle for transport it is also a huge lifestyle leap to switch from the comfort of motorised vehicles.

4. The persona of the bicycle: for an adult to be seen on a bicycle is considered either childish or proletarian. The image of a cyclist, with a modern bike, in appropriate cycling outfits, guards and helmet that might be considered “hip” and “sporty” is yet to be widely seen in the city streets of India.

5. Although cycling is accepted as a very effective exercise to lose weight and keep fit, outdoor cycling is not recognised as one of the popular exercises. The ones that are recalled more are going to the gym, exercising at home, taking up some sport, yoga, walking, and running.

6. Inculcating a new habit and adding a new activity to their lifestyle.

Communication Strategy

There are two functional benefits to base the marketing upon—transportation and fitness maintenance, but the scope with the latter outweighs that of transport, in my opinion. The promotion on the basis of the functional benefit is insufficient and lacks inspiration. The brand needs to be an inspiring personality.

The Brand Personality

Insight:

The buzz word is “entrepreneurship”—from the President of India to every nation building conference, that’s the call for action to young India [R11]. Our new heroes are the business entrepreneurs—who, coming from modest backgrounds started something. In sports we cheer the young Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Dinesh Kaarthik, Irfan Pathan —who abandon fear to put the old guard to shame. Young India wants to start something. There are two kinds of people, the ones who simply step forward and the others, weighed down by inhibitions and conventions, contemplate, shy away, and wait for someone else to take the first step.

Hero Cycles must talk to the first category. The ones who want to start something.

“For the ones who
Set The Wheels In Motion”

Positioning Statement: Healthy recreation for the one’s eager for adventure.

The marketing communication works on two levels. While mass media establishes the brand personality, more direct and intimate methods should be used to drive down the functional benefits of bicycling.

Script for Television + Internet A/V Commercial – A

Visual	Audio
Looks like a seminar, its an induction session of hundreds of employees of a big company, someone important on the podium seems to be calling a volunteer, people look to their right and left, one person is seen raising a hand.	Are you the one to wait for someone else to raise their hand or the other one?
It’s a small open air amphitheatre. A hundred or so witness as a young band is seen bowing. One stands up to applaud.	Are you the one who waits for the applause to build or the other one?
A few people sit around an office cafeteria table discussing the business newspaper, with the graph of rising stock market.	Are you the one who thinks it’s just a phase or the other one?
In a traffic jam a car nudges into some space in the adjacent lane left by a truck that moved ahead a meter.	Are you the one to suggest turning back home or the other one?
A group of friends outside a multiplex movie house, with a newspaper in hand. We focus on the page they are holding—movie reviews and the number of stars for a movie.	Are you the one to wait for opinions, or the other one?
The music builds up…
A young man in biking gear and red helmet holds a bike helping a young woman get on it. She’s glad. They push ahead on an empty city road.	Which way do your lips curl more often?
Someone else carrying a bike climbs down a fleet of stairs. A slightly overweight man gets on his bike and joins his child who is on a smaller bike for a ride.	Which one are you? Given a chance, which one do you want to be?
A man cycling on a long highway across the screen.	Hero cyclesFor the ones who set the wheels in motion.

Script for a Television + Internet A/V Commercial – B

It’s dark and pleasantly silent outdoors. A man buckles his helmet and rolls on his Hero on a small street. It seems to set off a wing of black crows on flight. We look through a window of a house at a street, amber with street light. The cyclist passes by the street with the steely sound of the chain, wheels crushing gravel and moving past. We see silhouettes of an elder couple wake up and look outside the window. Further down the road somewhere, as the cyclist passes a corner stall, someone starts unbundling stacks of the day’s newspapers. As the cyclist rolls up a slope, behind him we see the sun rise. As he passes a street lined with houses on both sides, a lady emanates from a house, and starts drawing kolam* on the porch; from another house, a lady walks out to her garden to pluck flowers.

We are in a kitchen; a window behind the cooking platform opens to the street. As our biker passes outside, the milk in a vessel boils up to the brim. As he rides along, school children with dangling water-bottles and sagging school bags rush out running from an apartment complex, just in time for the school bus. Someone pours milk in a bowl of cereal. Our cyclist waves to a man who is about to roll up his shop’s shutters. He’s back outside the elder couple’s house, now riding in the opposite direction, its bright outside, and the lady hands her husband who is sitting on the porch a cup of coffee.

“Hero – For the ones who set the wheels in motion”

Making a case through ambient media

Promoting the functional benefit—fitness maintenance, of bicycling through more direct methods.

Medium	Message
Trial rooms in retail garment outlets	“Are you the one thinking I’ll get the next size, or the one who’s thinking I’ll ride up more slopes?” This is followed by a table that indicates size (inches) one could lose for the amount of riding one does.
Auto-rickshaws and Taxis (The auto-rickshaws and taxis, especially the former, are used for commuting short distances. In some cities auto-rickshaw and taxi drivers are infamous for taking longer routes.)	“Are you the one who’s worried he’ll take you for a ride, or the one wishing you were on a ride yourself?” The line goes on a tariff card that indicates, alongside the tariff, how much weight and size one could lose in relation to the distance travelled.
Highway Signage	The distances to destinations related with the amount of weight one could lose. “Mulund-200 Calorieson a Hero”
Ceiling of local city trains (When it comes to being congested, the Mumbai local train at peak hours wins hands down to a pack of sardines. It’s hot, sweaty, and the only direction you can look is upwards. Although there are ads on the sides it would be nice to have them on the ceiling.)	“Are you the one waiting for your 30 minutes of adventure TV or 20 minutes on your Hero Cycle”
Shopping Cart’s	The Hero Cycle handle bar incorporated on the shopping cart handle bar pictorially, with the line: “Are you the one hiding the cheese under a pack of brown bread or the one to enjoy it for breakfast after 20 minutes of biking in the mornings?”

Other Initiatives

• Promoting an annual bicycle marathon for the target audience in the cities.
• Associations with trekking groups to promote long distance bicycle trips.