Tumbling sales have prompted leading two-wheeler manufacturers to look at women buyers far more seriously than before. Marketing officials from companies say it is a huge yet untapped market.
Since the scooter is the most preferred two-wheeler among women buyers, manufacturers including TVS Motors, Hero Honda, Kinetic Motors are trying to woo the women buyer through special sales promotion schemes.
Apart from contemplating the idea of showcasing their products at malls, shopping arcades or other recreational areas which attract a large number of footfalls, companies are trying to reach out to women buyers not only in large cities but also in rural areas.
This comes in the wake of a cumulative decline of almost 8 per cent in two-wheeler sales in 2007-08. Where the motorcycle segment declined by nearly 12 per cent, the scooter segment at the same time grew by a healthy 11 per cent in 2007-08. The industry sold more than a million geared and gearless scooter during the period.
S Srinivas, general manager, marketing, TVS Motors, said, "Since our brand Scooty is targeted at the female class of buyers, we have undertaken the concept of 'women on wheels', which will aggressively promote the scooter in more than 150 tier I and II cities. This will promote product familiarity among the potential buyers."
The company will help the woman buyer obtain a learner's as well as the final driving licence at the end of the six-day course aimed at the idea of promoting women to ride.
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In addition, there will be a special financing package lined up for the customer, which will have convenient EMI schemes and easy downpayment load. Even the paperwork required for owing the vehicle will be done by TVS Motors.
To push the concept aggressively in city markets, two-wheeler makers are in talks with mall owners for gaining access into the display area of the shop floor for the scooters along with other products as most of the shoppers are women.
"The 'touch-and-feel' concept beats all the other promotion techniques as the customer can have a direct contact with the product he or she wants to have... the mall concept will also have test drives for the bikes", added an official from a leading Japanese two-wheeler maker.
More than 6 per cent of all two-wheeler buyers in the country are women and analysts say the current purchase level of scooters by them, which is about 450,000 units annually, is largely a conservative one. The extended reach planned by manufacturers will showcase the real target audience of the segment, believe analysts.
Hero Honda, maker of the Pleasure model (a gearless scooter), says that the scooter has been a huge hit among women buyers. Even though the model didn't earn the company the desired result, sales started to pick up rapidly through its renewed marketing push, which involved a film celebrity.
Says Anil Dua, vice-president, sales and marketing, Hero Honda, "We have put up a network of 'just-for-her' concept in our dealer outlets. Apart from a brand-building exercise, the concept targets women buyers for models like the Pleasure. Even the employees who work at such outlets are women."
Furthermore, the company is hiking the number of dealer outlets in India this year to promote the brand aggressively in rural areas. The company opened more than 1,000 outlets in the last two years taking its total figure to 3,000.
The concentration of women buyers for Japanese scooters has been significant too. An executive from Honda Motorcycles said, "We sold more than 600,000 scooters last year and about 30-35 per cent of buyers were women."
In the case of Suzuki, which manufacturers the Access 125 scooter, the percentage has been as high as 40 per cent.
In addition to that, companies like Yamaha and Honda are even going to colleges for organising events like choosing the youth icon and giving test rides while initiating competitions with prizes.