Hero MotorCorp’s Competitors

Purchasing behaviors of consumer are highly volatile. That is, they are influenced by several factors given different market segments. Such behaviors may include consumer preference while the factors comprise the marketing strategies adopted by the company as well other external factors such as competition, seasonal variations etc. As such, the demand for two wheeler automobiles in Canada and the world as a whole has been subject to a wide range of variables, due to the demand of fuel efficient and eco-friendly means of transport a factor which has largely influenced the business partnership between Electrovaya and Hero MotorCorp as from 2014, whose major business purpose is to manufacture electric powered two wheelers.

Founded in 1984, Hero MotorCorp Ltd., begun as a joint venture with Hero Cycles and the Japan’s Honda. It is now the largest two wheeler producer in India and one of the biggest globally. One of the company’s major product is the Hero Splendor Motorcycle series.

1. To determine the factors that have led to change of consumer preference
2. To examine how likely a consumer is to adopt new products.

Hero MotoCorp’s top competitors are: Yamaha, Honda, Bajaj Auto Limited, TVS Motors, Suzuki Motors, Harley Davidson, Royal Enfield, and Ducati Superbike. The company therefore has to contend with both local and international two wheeler manufacturers.

With the company has plans of extending their market coverage in Africa and South America and hence likely to be susceptible to more government regulatory rules, both in the countries of exportation and international trading laws. In addition, the company will be affected by Geo-political events.

Given the market structure of the company which is comprised of family and youths, it has to adopt various product production means in order to ensure compliance with social and cultural expectations. As such, diversity in product manufacturing and relevant advertisement to the correct groups is key for the company to maintain relevancy in the market.

Demand of diverse technological supply in the two wheeler automobiles as it is with four wheeler, puts on pressure on innovative nature in both quality and technological adoption by the company, otherwise it may lose part of its market share due to change in consumer preference for more technologically advanced and technically easy to use bikes.

The following are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of Hero MotorCorp company:

1. The company has a wide variety of products in its production units
2. Great distribution chain with more than 3000 service stations and dealers

• Intensive and excellent advertising strategies have ensured the strength of the Hero MotorCorp brand

1. Too much competition both locally and internationally has led to shrinking of the company’s market share.
2. Lack of innovation in a number of its products which leads to production of similar products with other brands.

1. With an increase in global population as well as an increased demand of two wheeler automobiles, the market share of the company is set to increase
2. There are unexplored international markets due to minimal exportation by Hero MotorCorp two wheeler products

• Recently the company prospected an introduction of two wheeler automobiles in the premium section i.e. production of electric motorbikes

1. Strong competition from other similar established brands both local in the Canadian motorcycle industry and international.
2. Efficient and improved public transport means such as subways are set to affect sales

The main objectives for this research are therefore:

1. To determine the effect of management decisions on product sales
2. To determine the effect of environmental factors on choice of the preference of the product i.e. motorbikes or vehicles.

• Propose ways in which the company’s marketing strategies can be modified to ensure more sales as well as provide decision-making advice to the executive on key issues as expressed by the consumers given the outcome from the first two objectives.

To aid in meeting the research objectives, a set of two objectives are formulated, i.e.:

Null

There is a relationship between management decisions and company sales

Alternative 

There is no relationship management decisions and company sales

External factors such as environmental factors and place of residence influences the consumers purchasing power

There is no relationship between external factors such as inflation, environment etc. and the purchasing power of the consumers

IN this project, a descriptive approach which will enable exploration of data patterns in the collected data hence determination new business insights. New data insights on both the consumer preferences and other factors that influence purchase of automobile commodities will enable formulation of a good marketing model after achieving the research’s objective.

The target audience for the research comprises of persons who are either using two wheelers or are interested in. Qualitative questions used to collect data are based on: view of technology, satisfaction of current product, ease of shifting to other products, preference between the two feature products. A total of 70 respondents are chosen after two test interviews and a workshop where persons with interest using stratified and simple sampling methods where the population is stratified according to their location i.e. urban, rural and sub-urban, hence, the respondents comprise both current consumers and non-consumers. Due to factors such as time, cost of research and criterion for respondent choice a data size of 70 entries is chosen as optimal. Additionally, the response rate of the survey is 100% .The logic behind the research questions is- income has a high probability of indicating economic status of respondents is employed as well as that a respondents age is most likely reflective of their opinion on technology.

Market Coverage and Regulatory Rules

The main limitation during the study is the inadequacy of sample data for data analysis due to the cost involved in collection of primary data. For instance, the survey tool used only limits up to 100 respondents after which a fee is levied subsequently as well as the cost of accessing the respondents is considerably high for a larger number.

Considering the descriptive analysis of the data collected from the survey on different question categories, the following results are obtained:

The cross tabulated results of technology indicate that 81.82% of all the respondents think that Hero splendor motorbike series is somewhat innovative while 31% are very positive that it is not so innovative i.e. of all the 11 respondents in that category

Moreover, 45.71% respondents react very positively to electric motorcycles while 1.43% have the least reaction hence indicating that most respondents are technological oriented.  

3.13% of the respondents indicated they were very positive that they very likely to replace their current product with a splendor product while 45.45% were somewhat likely and somewhat positive they would get another Splendor product in place of their current motorbike

That is, up to 64 of the respondents indicate that they are content with their spending on Splendor products, making up 81.43% of the total sample respondents.

Hence, following the results in table 2, table 3 indicates that 74.28 % of the respondents are likely to replace their current two wheelers with a Splendor series product.

However, there are no difference in preference between traditional two wheelers and electric motors that is both have a score of 42.86%. While those who were not sure are 14.29%

In addition, despite a high percentage of respondents indicting that they were likely to get a splendor product, there were no responses on those likely to recommend the splendor product to their friends (Table 5). Hence the net promoter score is low to -70%.

Table 5:How likely is it that you would recommend our new product to a friend or colleague?

Conclusion

There are a number of factors that determine the market score of a product whether new or current. Such factors as seen from the descriptive analysis in the previous section may include: (1). Fear of change whereby existing consumers of a certain form of a product are afraid to adopt a new product. (2). Technological innovation of the current product- products that are more technologically innovative are more likely to appeal more to the consumers and hence have a higher adoptability chance (3). Type of commodity- some commodities sell solely due to the reputation of the brand that is, there is a general belief that a certain brand has quality goods and the consumer is more likely to get value for their money.

From the research results and discussion in the previous section, the paper explores the original research objectives which included exploring relationship between factors affecting sales, hence proving the original two hypotheses from which it is concluded that:

1. There is a relationship between the management’s decision and sales, for instance the decision of manufacturing electric bikes in Canada has promoted the Hero MotorCorp brand hence boasting sales
2. Several external factors affect sales, i.e. consumer satisfaction, competition etc. Considering the case of consumer to consumer product promotion which have a negative promotion score would lead to decline in sales if it was a major product promotion strategy.

1. Given that there is an equal demand of both electric and fuel two wheelers, the company should supply sufficient amounts of both, that is none has a higher demand than the other hence the profitability will only defer in the cost incurred and prices sold.
2. The company should introduce a referral bonus so as to increase consumer to consumer product promotion such that any sale made through referrals incurs a commission that is paid to the referee. A strategy that will ensure wider advertisement coverage.

• Focus on technological innovations as a strategy to stay on edge of the existing competition on two wheeler manufacturing. For instance, the company may introduce dual fuel usage units, that is two wheelers that use both electricity and fuel for double convenience on those who prefer both or either.

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