Kingfisher Vs Air Deccan - Losing my plane !!

This is a story that can make branding history and... theories !!

Capt. Gopinath scripted a story and a dream for the common man to fly. He revolutionized the airline industry by innovatively finding ways to cut cost and offer flying experience to the society which had only dreamed to fly till then. I have seen happy families booking air tickets for their vacations, which was never a consideration before.

Those two hands, the blue and yellow uniform and the beautifully made TV advertisement capturing the emotions of a father-son
relationship - everything made Air Deccan a household name and a very dear one at that in the thousands of homes in the sub-tier II cities. Finally, flying was perceived (at least) to be affordable.


Then you have Mr. Vijay Mallya - magnificent in his attitude and high life - launching a super luxury airline company by the name of India biggest bear brand "Kingfisher". This airline is a complete contrast to Air Deccan. Video screens at the back of every seat, multiple cuisine option, fashion show on the flight and what say you - Kingfisher Airlines oozed frills, luxury and comfort. The brand philosophy behind launching such an airline company was so strong that Mr. Mallya had openly claimed in media that low cost airlines cannot survive.

As fate would have it or Mr. Mallya's vision, Kingfisher Airlines bought 46% of stake in Air Deccan and shortly after both these diverse entities merged into a single entity based on reports by management consulting firm Accenture that recommended their merger for greater operational and marketing synergies.

The merged entity (which would be Kingfisher) would offer low fare service under the Deccan brand and premium services under Kingfisher brand. By the meaning of the statement, it sounded good and logical strategy.

But the meaning was not to be implemented. I was shocked to my wits when I went to the airport last month. The Air Deccan counter no longer had the beautiful and very unique and very familiar blue and yellow uniform. It was replaced by 'RED'. I logged on to http://www.airdeccan.net/ and I could not recognise the site. It had become all red. Air Deccan had already become Kingfisher. To me, it was quite sad and a hasty brand management decision.

My questions are simple.

• Was there a need to tamper with the brand - Air Deccan? Was Mr. Gopinath so wrong in his positioning strategies that all his good branding/advertising work had to be mutilated to no recognition (that too in his presence as the Vice-Chairman of the merged company)? Especially when the intention is to have a low cost airline.
• How do you associate the colour red - the colour of Kingfisher Airlines - to the proposition of low cost airline?
• Would it not negatively rub-off the Kingfisher brand? Would it not make the Kingfisher loyalist feel hurt about lending its premium red colour to a low cost, poor service, poor man's airline? How can 'red' be low cost?
• How would it benefit Kingfisher and Vijay Mallya? Of course, short term ego would be boosted. He always believed that low cost airlines cant survive and he proved to be right and could changed and redesign a low cost airline brand completely. Having said that, how would rebranding Air Deccan to look similar to Kingfisher help Kingfisher in the long run?
• Would it not confuse both the Kingfisher 'king' and Air Deccan 'rural india' to no ends? Both these distinct target audiences would be lost in the bargain.

What I can understand is that there can never be two kings in a kingdom. How can the consumer be the king, when Mr. Vijay Mallya is the self-acclaimed king.

Ultimately, Kingfisher's strategy might work out successfully. Who knows !! But if it does, it will surely create new branding theories !!!

Mr. Bhansali, you fooled us !!

So what if Mr. Sanjay Leela Bhansali could fool me into watching his utter nonsense movie - Sawariyan, he even fooled the great Anil Kapoor, he even fooled the whole Randhir Kapoor khandan... !!

Last Saturday, I took another impulse decision and it was another bad decision. I bought 4 tickets for Sawariyan at IMAX Dome. About the movie, the lesser said is the better. There was no story that we could connect to. There was no thrill, no emotion, no intrigue, no excitement, no comedy.... the movie had absolutely nothing for the audience to connect with.

The worst part was the artificial setting of the movie. You dont get an idea about when the story took place, where the story took place... you just cant relate to the setting of the movie, the people, the culture, the society, the houses, the dress code... nothing... you cant relate to the movie.. period. The buildings and the roads were looking so artificial that you can make out that they are made of thick clothes. In one of the scenes, Ranbir Kapoor writes Sonam Kapoor's screen name - Shakina on one of the walls and I couldnot believe my eyes, the wall was shaking with his penstrokes - hence making it obvious that the wall was made out of canvas.

I am still okay... I had wasted just Rs. 800. I was thinking about all the hopes that Anil Kapoor had for his daughter Sonam Kapoor, Randhir Kapoor had for his son Ranbir Kapoor from Mr Sanjay Leela Bhansali.

Did Anil Kapoor or Randhir Kapoor read the script and screen play? I dont know. Let me assume, they may not have. But Sony Pictures must have read the script. They are the Hollywood biggies and have the experience to wean out the grass from the weeds. How could Mr. Bhansali even fool them.

This is not to Mr. Bhansali's credit. He deserves no credit. This is a sham called 'Play Safe; Take No Risk' mentality working. Sony Pictures, Anil Kapoor and Randhir Kapoor were all launching their products to the Indian market.

It was a high risk game. So why take risk? Go with a formula which has worked before. Who can be a better bet than the director of much aclaimed 'Black'? And then they became blind and black. They forgot their basics and experience. Couldnot see the disaster called Sawariyan coming their way to crash all their dreams and hopes.

Shit, ultimately I had to bear the brunt of their shortsightedness and the whims and ideosyncracies of a fool called Mr. Bhansali.

Enfield Bullet - Should it evolve and How?

With the Pulsar craze changing the mindset to strive for more powerful bikes and the booming economy improving purchasing power of the youth, I think we are very close to moving from 100/125 CC phenomenon to more powerful bikes (upwards of 300 CC) phenomenon.

Now with the shortly to be launched Pulsar 300 cc, the shift of mindset will be even faster. Bike makers are taking advantage of this new future demand forecast. Bikemakers are finally daring to come close to the till now untouchable 350 CC.

Where Royal Enfield rules the roost...

Is there finally an atttempt at encroachment towards the enfield fiefdom?

I own one. I vehemently used to deny that.

But with digital odometre/speedometer, digital fuel gauge, digital trip metre, indicators for air filter condition, engine temperature, battery voltage and Oil level (Pulsar has all these !!) combined with a 350 CC engine makes me think again....

Consumers are shifting to technologically more advanced bikes and now with this emerging trend towards 300 CC and above bikes, it is high time that Enfield builds its high walled fort with custom made canons !!!

Its the question of keeping alive or saving the pride that an enfield owner derives...

I am not worried as such but just being in a mood to forecast the worse... the worse is Enfield Bullet needs to evolve to save its skin.

But how do you evolve from an Enfield Bullet? So much heritage, so much ego, so much resistance to change (both from consumer & bike maker perspective)..... what do you do !!!

Let me start my campaign to arrive at ideas of how should the Enfield Bullet evolve to a new avatar keeping its integrity, lineage, and everything subjective and objective about bullet alive....

I invite comments from all of you to bring about a positive change to bullet, a positive commercially viable evolution for Enfield Bullet.... lets see what comes about....

Remember the first Pulsar 150 !!

I recently saw a Bajaj Pulsar that seemed for a second something not pulsar. Is that really a Pulsar, I thought?

It was a Pulsar. The Pulsar without the wiser and the meters jutting out. The first model which revolutionised the bike market and relaunched Bajaj as a new modern age bike maker.

Immediately the second thought was "when was the Pulsar launched in the market? I dont see these anymore already. Was it 2002? "

I kept my observation for the next week or so. And it is really a fact that in Mumbai roads, one does not get to see too many Pulsars without the wiser. It simply vanished.

It took only 5 years for one model to completely vanish from the roads. I see more Yamaha RX bikes than the revolutionary Pulsar without the wiser!!

What happened to all those bikers who bought Pulsar in plenty in 2002 and 2003? I am not sure when the wiser came into the Pulsar but it was surely not till 2003...

Did they graduate into four wheelers? Is Pulsar the stairway to a Maruti? Even if we agree to that, those pulsars must have been sold to second hand buyers. They cannot simply dissappear.

Is it that Pulsars are not durable? Do they become junk in five years???