Its producers are not the only ones who are smiling over the success of the film ‘Barfi’.
Ludhiana-based industrialist Onkar Singh Pahwa also has reason to. The reason being that the cycle ridden by the protagonist in the flick is an Avon bicycle, manufactured by the company in which Onkar Singh Pahwa is managing director.
Using movies as branding tool is not a new phenomenon, asserts Pahwa and says that this platform has been leveraged by bicycle manufacturers earlier also.
Brand recognition and brand recall value are enhanced by using movies as a branding tool.
Even though branding of bicycles through movies may have a positive co-relation with the sales, Pahwa says it is difficult to measure the co-relation.
Movies on Thursday are definitely providing a new option for bicycle manufacturers to brand their products. With India being among the leading bicycle manufacturing countries in the world, producing 15.5 million bicycles out of the global production of 130 million, new marketing channels are being identified by the manufacturers to promote cycling.
Rajiv Chibber, general manger, marketing and sales, Urban Trail, the high-performance bikes from Hero, says promoting bicycle in movies is form of “surrogate endorsement”.
Manufacturers try to leverage the huge fan base of actors in a movie.
Bicyle manufacturers, however, make it clear that it is only after reading through script do they decide whether or not to be part a movie.
Pahwa says Avon has been associated with movies like ‘Koi Mil Gaya’ and ‘Bhootnath’. The common link between the movies the brand has been used, says Pahwa, is that the story line of movies are different from the “routine ones”. Similarly, Hero cycles was also featured in the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer ‘Ra One’.
Chibber says that another advantage of using their brands in movies is that with an actor riding bicycle, it can also induce cycling among people.
For every 1,000 people, India has just 90 bicycle users, compared to 520 users in Germany and 149 in China.
