Manmeet Sabharwal's Marketing Blog

PAL(Premier Automobiles Limited) has decided to make a comeback.PAL as a company has a long history in India.Their Padmini(Popularly known as Fiat),NE etc were part of Indian roads not so long ago,but today only cities like Mumbai have a PAL product on roads that too in a form of Taxi.
In my last post on PAL,I had discussed how PAL had caused poor brand image for Fiat in India which is still bothering Fiat a lot.But what about PAL as a brand ?
Where were they ? What were they doing all these years ?
I don’t know about that but what we…

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From past few days we have been seeing ads of Mahindra scooters on TV.Initially it was Rodeo then came Duro.
Mahindra 2 Wheelers(Business Unit) has 3 products in its stable.Flyte being the third apart from the above two.
Mahindra had actually acquired Kinetic in 2008.Flyte was originally a Kinetic product which has been retained.I liked the Rodeo ad very much.The rodeo has been positioned as a power scooter.It is shown as an alternative to a motorcycle which is assumed to be powerful.
A few years back scooters were the obvious choice in India but the things changed when Bikes became the favorites Honda Activa and few other scooterettes could only…

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People talk a lot about Harley Davidson and how big it is as a Cult brand.I have seen and read case studies on it in my course.But whenever i read about Harley,one brand related to India comes to my mind i.e. Bullet motorcycles from Royal Enfield.
Royal Enfield started as a British Brand of motorcycles in 1890.In 1955 Enfield of India started assembling Bullet motorcycles under licence from UK components, and by 1962 were manufacturing complete bikes. The original company dissolved in 1971, but Enfield of India, based in Chennai, continued, and bought the rights to use the Royal Enfield name in 1995. Royal Enfield production…

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Bajaj is one brand which is known by any single person living in India.Its brand awareness can only be matched by the likes of  TATA,Maruti etc.
Every indian belonging to any class or group knows about bajaj.Bajaj has a heritage which has served generations.
It has given many sub brands to India-From Chetak,Priya,Super to Pulsar,Discover,Platina.
I still remember the lyrics of this ad by heart.
Hamara Bajaj (Old)

This ad is close to everyones heart.Bajaj had a monopoly in 2 wheeler markets at this time.And Chetak was every one’s choice .But then things changed and other players started to come.
The Indian consumer preferences changed and Bikes came…

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FIAT is the 6th largest car maker in the world.Its based in Italy.Its a brand that is well known around the world.Its present in many countries including India.
FIAT has had a very strange relationship with India.We all do remember the Premier Padmini which was on roads till 2000.Even today majority of the TAXI’s in Mumbai are Padmini.
Premier Padmini is a word that sounds a little lesser known and lesser recognized.Many would think,Which Padmini,Which premier car is he talking about ? Now when i say majority of the TAXIs in Mumbai are FIATs it makes a lot more sense.

Both sentences are somewhat…

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