"Bajaj" badge will be Removed from ALL Bajaj Bikes

[Umang]

Pulsar will just be Pulsar and no more "BAJAJ PULSAR." Looks like Bajaj Auto has become brand conscious now, than ever. In a swift development Bajaj CEO Mr. Rajiv Bajaj announced, the decoupling of the Parent Brand Bajaj from the motorcycles Boxer, Discover, Pulsar and KTM. Offcourse the Rear Engine(RE) 3 wheelers will come under a brand name of their own, effectively turning Bajaj into a large garage of brand names. This is the most radical restructuring exercise since the decision to exit scooters by BAL

Adding to his words Mr. Bajaj said, XCD 125, 135, Wind and Caliber have been discontinued and the production of CT 100 is now only export oriented. With this BAL will remain with only 5 tags, Boxer, Pulsar, Discover, KTM and Planitina. He said Plantina will not be discontinued, but there will be no further investment in this model as Bajaj is working out on strategies for transition from Platina to Discover. So effectively making BAL remain with 4 tags as mentioned above.

“The Bajaj brand is very diffused, covering everything from heaters and hair oil to insurance and financial services. Correcting that problem is the biggest opportunity for the company,” said Mr Bajaj.

The five-brand(including RE) focus will realign the entire organization and every operation from marketing and sales to R&D, accounts, finance, advertising, HR, production and distribution along these verticals. It could lead to the company dropping the Bajaj brand eventually. “In a brand-centered company, the brand strategy must manage all decisions, including styling, performance, sourcing, positioning, and pricing,” said Mr Bajaj. “Teams will be allocated to the brands to make them verticals.”

source - Velociti Magazine: Pulsar may no longer will be Bajaj Pulsar: Bikes may not sport Bajaj tag in future

 

[Aditya]

The Chairman and the MD of Bajaj seem to be having a big disagreement on this issue!!

 

[raj_5004]

whats the purpose of all this?

 

[cooldhaya]

Yeah why do they want to tinker with something which is going well for them right from the time when it was launched!

 

[Aditya]

Fact is, in comparison to the other bike manufacturers in town, Bajaj is in the news nearly always, and it can be for various reasons ... pulling out of the scooter segment ... branding issues ... whatever.
When you can manage a lot of air-time and front page headlines at no cost, will you say no to that??
There is never any bad publicity ...and free publicity is always good!!

 

[Akash]

I didnt get this thing. Whats the point in removing the brand tag?

 

[Aditya]

The brand tag is not being removed ... the brand is being migrated from "Bajaj" to "Pulsar" or "Discover" or whatever.

 

[Umang]

whats the purpose of all this?

Simple reason is that they don't want their one cheap product like hair oils, fans etc to conflict with another "high-fi" one like Bikes etc. so they are removing "Bajaj" from some of them to maintain exclusivity but I am not in favour of this move because TATA also produces salt etc but they are still doing well with their cars.

 

[Shynish M]

whats the purpose of all this?

This is a widely adopted corporate strategy. Though making the service into differnt verticals is nothing new, there are lot of good reasons to do it. Such a restructure happened in TATA consultancy an year ago. Just like the verticals are defined, there will be horizontal domains as well. Each verticle will fucntion as independent bussinsess unit. Means, they are responsible for their profit and loss and will operate with thier own budget. When some thing need to be shared acorss the verticles, either it should fall into the same horizontal or they need to pay for the service they are availing from the other vertical. This alingment has a considerable effect on the salary structure of the emplyees as well, as their bonus and variable pay, perfromance allowance etc.. will depend up on the profitability of the verticle. Further more, some of the major expenses will be reduced drastically (eg: hiring unwanted employees, evitable travels, other recreational expenses etc.). In essense, each verticle will be pushed to reduce the cost as much as possible and increase the profitability to the max. For the top management, they can easily manage individual verticles as with in the company the veritcles will be competing each other to prove that they are the most efficient and profitable account. This restructuring brings lot of visibility and accountability too.

Altogether, I feel this strategy is good and will lead BAJAJ to a new directions.

 

[AMG]

Their logo doesnt have any snob value.
Nobody wants to flaunt the "BAJAJ" logo.
It is not a harley that there is a huge pride in the logo.
It is after all just a bajaj logo.
So if they are removing it, let them.
Why take unnecessary tension?

 

[Umang]

well even if harley was to remove their tag then also i will have accepted!! because main thing is about buying bike because it has something not of brand tag! even if bajaj is producing some super bikes and bajaj tag is removed no body will care because they are buying the bike not brand tag! like mitsubishi evo x..mitsubishi does not have any snob value in india but still people are wanting to own a evo-x!!

 

[AMG]

@ umang
Take the case of ferrari and nissan GT-R
GT-R offers same performance as ferrari, yet people pay more for the ferrari.
Thats where brand value steps in.