Dentsu wins creative mandate of TVS Jupiter

Chennai-based TVS Motor Company has chosen Dentsu Communications to handle the creative mandate of its recently launched two-wheeler, TVS Jupiter. The agency already handles the company's Wego brand, which it bagged in October, 2012. The Wego brand was earlier handled by BBH.

McCann Erickson handles the creative duties of the company's Scooty Streak and Scooty Pep+ range (the other two products in the scooter segment).

Speaking about the appointment, Aniruddha Haldar, general manager, marketing, TVS Motor Company, says, "Effective communication in today's cluttered automotive world is essential in order to establish a brand and Dentsu Communications has been able to do that effectively for our Wego brand. We are confident that with the backing of its Wego experience and the understanding of TVS Motor Company's philosophy, it will be able to create a niche positioning for TVS Jupiter as well with some spectacular campaigns."

Arijit Ray, CEO, Dentsu Communications, says that TVS is one of the most prestigious portfolios of the agency. "It is truly a measure of the quality of work and engagement put forth by Team Bangalore over the last year, and the collective understanding of the agency of the automotive space," he says. Ray adds that Jupiter intends to build a great slot in the market.

TVS Jupiter is a scooter targeted at men. Interestingly, the company is not the only one to have ventured into this gender segment, as it will have to compete with Hero's Maestro and Yamaha's Ray Z, which target male consumers as well.

Considering that TVS Motor already has presence in the scooter segment with Scooty Streak, Scooty Pep+ and Wego, what made it launch yet another one? Two factors might explain its action: the consistent growth of the scooter industry in the automobile sector and the male single users of scooters being the largest and rapidly growing group in the scooter industry.

Elaborating further, Haldar explains that the scooter industry has been consistently growing at around 15 per cent year on year for the last three-four years. In fact, the category share of scooters has increased from 17-18 per cent to 25 per cent.

Coming to the second point, while 29 per cent of all scooters are used by women for personal use, 35 per cent are dual users (men and women). Single male users comprise 36 per cent of the scooter users, particularly since many motorcycle users are now shifting to scooters.

The switch of two-wheeler types is attributed to three factors - growing affluence and increasing congestion in cities causing men to seek a vehicle that's convenient and comfortable; the cost shift and reduced gap of mileage between motorbikes and scooters; and scooter's feature of a multi use vehicle, more suitable for families. "Till now, we had presence in 65 per cent of the scooter industry but with Jupiter, we will be present in the entire share of the industry," Haldar says.

But, what about the marketing challenge in the heavily competitive space? Haldar confidently replies, "Realising the ambition for the brand is going to be our biggest challenge. We intend to capture more than 4 per cent of the market share by the second month of operations."

While TVS Jupiter will initially be made available largely in North, West and East markets owing to the festival season, the vehicle will enter the southern market by November. The target consumer for TVS Jupiter is described as those Indian men who keep the cities working. For instance, businessmen, traders, self employed, contractors, people in the sales profession, or even family men. "We are also noticing scooters being preferred for running small errands or going short distances on weekends; like an add on vehicle," Haldar adds.

The TVS Motor Company's portfolio includes motorcycles (Apache RTR 180, Flame DS 125, Flame, TVS Jive, Star City, Sports), three wheeler (TVS King), variomatic scooters (TVS Wego, Scooty Streak, Scooty Pep+, Scooty Teenz) and mopeds (TVS XL Super, TVS XL Heavy Duty).