Reaching the top in the Indian market, which is huge in terms of demand, potential revenue and customer base, is not a tough thing but staying there is incredibly tough. Many vehicles, both cars and bikes, have recorded exceptional sales initially but found it difficult to sustain that level, one such example being TVS Victor, which has not done well in the past few years.
India is a tough market to crack in terms of creating brand awareness and making a vehicle click due to people’s preferences and demands, especially when there are numerous competitors who have been present for a long time. TVS Victor is one such product that clicked wonderfully well when it was launched, mainly due to its newness and Sachin Tendulkar as its brand ambassador. Customers were looking for a new bike that offers great mileage and is priced aggressively.
A few years back, the market for 100 cc bikes was at its peak as the country was moving quite forward in terms of economy and there was a boom in the market. It was difficult for TVS to make a foray into Indian market because it was a company that used to manufacture tractors, which made differentiation of products quite tough, especially when there were so many bikes with a lineage and brand value, such as Splendor and Passion.
TVS Victor, being a 100 cc bike, offered excellent mileage at a low price but the lack of innovation and development did it in. While on one hand, Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto kept moving forward with their respective product lines, TVS was not able to do the same for Victor. For starters, rather than making Splendor and Passion models, Hero MotoCorp and Bajaj Auto have turned them into series of bikes, thereby giving customers the chance to buy the same model in different ways, an excellent strategy according to industry experts.
Secondly, the market in India requires companies to keep introducing new features and technologies in old products to keep them going. TVS Victor did not get any upgrades to the engine or the technology, thereby losing the plot to all its competitors. What had initially worked due to differentiation later turned out to be a negative factor for TVS. Though the company has performed well in catering to demands of automatic scooters, it has not managed to make any sort of push in the market.
Lastly, there is a certain loophole in which TVS marketed the Victor to its customers. While Indian captain MS Dhoni did advertisements for TVS Star City, the limelight shifted from Victor, making it fall behind in the market. According to reports, TVS plans to re-launch Victor in India in a new form but it has been delayed due to certain reasons, mainly the increasing demand of other products. Even though making a comeback looks tough for TVS Victor, the Indian market is full of surprises and nothing can be said is final.
