We often dedicate India’s current levels of prosperity to the glorious 1990s; but the decade of ‘80s is what is considered as the period when India began turning the corner as far as its record of technological development and adoption was concerned. In itself, 1981 was a remarkable year; the year when HCL started its software export division in Chennai, Wipro started selling its computers and also the year when Infosys was born. While 1982 witnessed the launch of the ephemeral Insat 1A and the revolutionary colour television just before the Ninth Asian Games took place, the years that followed marked the launch of two of India’s topmost cult brands – the first hatchback, Maruti 800 (1983) and the first four-stroke bike Hero Honda CD 100 (1985). And this eulogy an unabashed pandering of how they succeeded.
The history, foremost. For decades, and especially during the ‘80s, those were the Premier Padminis and Ambassadors that were the ‘four wheels with motors’ Indians could ever think of. According to records, the waiting list for cars was as high as 62,000 in 1970s, much higher than the then annual production capacities of auto majors. Similarly, Bajaj’s waiting list for its legacy scooters was almost 25 times higher than that of its annual production capacity in the 1980s (Bajaj Auto once even said that it didn’t require a marketing department and was focusing only on its sales department).
Says a former senior employee of Hindustan Motors to 4Ps B&M, “Yes, the pre-Maruti era was of Ambassadors in India but the technology of Maruti 800 and the price at which the product was launched revolutionised the way the business of automotives was done in the country.” Truly, that unquestioned leadership – of the Premiers, Ambassadors, and even the Bajajs – became flimsy once Hero Honda and Maruti Suzuki entered the Indian market and changed the rules of the game. For example, when Hero Honda launched its four-stroke motorcycles for the Indian market, the consumer was used to scooters from the Bajaj stable (with the first lesson learnt on how to tilt the contraptions to one side before a kick-start). But the existing obsolete technology and complacent approach towards the lopsided supply-demand equation provided the Ludhiana-based Munjals with an upper hand. Meanwhile, Maruti was taking the four-wheeler market by storm, making a clear sweep as far as competition was concerned – in fact, competition became almost non-existent.
Clearly, the way the ‘People’s Car’ and the ‘Fill it Shut it Forget it’ bikes created history, and paved the way for a booming and self sustaining automotive industry that has gone on to become one of the largest drivers – and evidence – of economic growth, has become part of marketing folklore, more so as the duo shared a lot in common than just the decade in which they commenced operations in India. We list a few notable ones.
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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
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