TVS to tune up brand building for rollouts

TVS Motor Company is going to step up its promotional activity starting this quarter. Venu Srinivasan, chairman and managing director, said at the launch of TVS Victor GLX 125 that the company will work on its promotional activities in a big way.

R Chandramouli, vice president (sales and marketing), however, said this will not involve an enhancement of marketing budget but just a rejig of allocations.

"Last year we spent on sales promotion. This year we will turn to brand building," he added. TVS took a beating in the market last year with the demand for two-strokes dying out. This year has already been heralded as the year of launching new models.

"We will launch the four-stroke version of Max in August," Srinivasan told the media. This is expected to prop the sales of Max, whose sales had dropped to 1.8 lakh in 2003-04. The target for Max in the current year has been set at 2.50 lakh.

The company, which hopes to cross the one million mark in its two-wheeler sales in the current year, sees itself selling 2.5 lakh Centras, the 100 cc bike, the first model fitted with TVS' variable timing intelligent (VT-i) engines. But its biggest bet is Victor, which is expected to clock sales of 4 lakh-plus.