Brand Update : TVS Wego wants you to Find Your We Time

TVS Wego , launched in 2011, was an earnest effort by TVS to garner a fair share of the Indian scooter market which was dominated by Honda's Activa. The brand had a high profile launch with a campaign pitching on one feature - Body Balance. 

Two years down the line, Wego although had a good start failed to make a significant impact on the scooter market ( source). The customers were not that impressed by the way the company had tried to convey its message through the launch campaign.

In 2013, TVS is running another campaign with a new theme - We Time. The new thinking is probably the result of a new agency ( Dentsu India) handling the account. In India we see the phenomenon of changes in brand positioning as and when the advertising agency is changed.

However, the new agency had thankfully changed the positioning away from the body-balance theme upon which the product was pitched. The new campaign takes a holistic view of the product features and takes the pitch above the features into what they call- We Time. I think the brand wants to convey that the scooter is so agile that the obstacles are easily evaded.

Watch the ad here : TVS Wego We Time

Body Balance is still the USP for the brand however, the brand has sidelined it in the commercials. There is still no WoW factor in the product that will hook customers to it. The new ad is watchable but doubt still persists whether the brand has made a strong case for itself against the leader - Honda Activa ?

Related Brand
TVS Wego : Body Balance

Brand Update : Scooty wants to Shake EM Up with Scootygiri

In its new campaign for Scooty Pep+ , the brand features the new celebrity ambassador Ms Anushka Sharma. The campaign titled Scootygiri projects the Scooty user as a young confident girl willing to question the status quo. The theme of empowered confident girl has been the major positioning platform on which Scooty has built itself to the current position. 

Watch the campaigns here : Scootygiri Romeo

                                           Scootygiri Dress code  

The brand now has the slogan " Shake Them Up with Scootygiri" exhorting girls to standup confidently and face issues head on.

The brand should be commented on being consistent in its message over these years.

An analysis of the brand's portfolio gives certain interesting facts. There are  three sub-brands under Scooty - Scooty Streak, Scooty Pep+ and Scooty Teenz.

Scooty Teenz is a sub 60cc scooter aimed at the first-time user of the product category. Scooty Streak and Scooty Pep+ are almost similar products interms of technical specifications. The difference is in the styling and promotion.Scooty now can be considered as a primary brand with sub-brands - Teenz ,Streak and Pep+.

Although Scooty has been performing quite well in the category , there is a gradual shift in the category moving in the direction of powerful scooters. This shift is now boosted by Hero Honda Pleasure and also gender-neutral new scooters like Access 125, TVS Wego Vespa etc. 

Scooty seems to be contented with the current technical specifications but it should not be blind to the fact that increasingly the ladies' scooter market is moving towards powerful scooters. TVS has a product Wego which is in the segment of powerful scooters . My contention is that Scooty should be modifying its product offering to reflect this shift. It cannot let Hero Honda Pleasure take up leadership position in this emerging  category. 

Scooty needs a presence in the higher engine capacity scooters to counter Pleasure . It cannot use Wego to counter Pleasure since Wego is a unisex scooter. Pleasure has been very aggressive in its promotions and will be creating a big chunk in the Scooty's existing customer base. The issue is much deeper that cannot be handled with high decibel ads or celebrity endorsements. Scooty has to see whether the entire category of ladies' scooter is shifting towards higher engine capacity ones. Ofcourse there will be a market for less powered scooters but that will be much smaller and unprofitable in future.

Related Brand

Scooty