Hero Motocorp

The Evolution of a brand

 Overview of the brand
• Hero Motocorp Ltd ( formerly Hero Honda
Ltd.) is the world’s largest two wheeler
manufacturer based in India.
• World number 1 two wheeler company in
terms of unit volume sales in a calendar year.
• The company was a joint venture India’s Hero
Group and Honda Motor company,Japan that
began in 1984 later in 2011 it became Hero
Motocorp Ltd.
 Brand History
• "Hero" is the brand name used by the Munjal brothers for their flagship company,
Hero Cycles Ltd. A joint venture between the Hero Group and Honda Motor Company
was established in 1984 as the Hero Honda Motors Limited at Dharuhera, India.

Munjal family and Honda group both owned 26% stake in the Company .
• Hero Honda started its operations in 1984 as a joint venture between Hero Cycles of
India and Honda of Japan.[7] In 2010, when Honda decided to move out of the joint
venture, Hero Group bought the shares held by Honda.[8][9]

• By December 2010, the board of directors of the Hero Honda Group had decided to terminate the
joint venture between Hero Group of India and Honda of Japan in a phased manner.] Under the
joint venture Hero Group could not export to international markets (except Nepal, Bangladesh and
Sri Lanka) and the termination would mean that Hero Group could now export.
 Brand Evolution
The Evolution of Hero Motocorp is approached as
mentioned below-
1. Brand communication ( ad campaigns) depicting
the change in brand focus with changing times.
It gives the reader an idea about how brand
evolved itself insync with times
2. Product launches- depicting how products
reflected the changing demands of the
consumer which became the driver for brand
evolution
Brand evolution with changing
decades
 1960s
• Here you can talk about cycles- show some
print ads. Then talk about their joint venture
with Honda
 Mid 1980s

Product
Cultural truth-
Truth- Bike
Frugality at Fill it, shut it
with fuel
the core of forget it.
efficiency (
India
CD100)

India in 1980s was living in frugal times. Every resource must be

optimized to maximum use and Hero tapped into this mindset of
target group by launching CD 100 which created a buzz with its ad
campaign ‘ Fill it, shut it, forget it’.
• One slide for ad and another slide for CD 100
model with its own ad
 1990s
• Please find out what happened , I have no
idea
 2000s
• This was the decade when Hero Motocorp
emerged from the very functional route of ‘
Fuel efficiency’ to ‘ broadening its emotional
appeal’ through following campaigns-
1. Desh ki Dhadkan
2. Dhak dhak go
 Desh Ki Dhadkan

Culture ( winds Product truth-

of change) - Bikes with
Desh ki
Liberalization advanced
Dhadkan
leading to features and
confident India technology

India began the long and painful process of liberalization in 1990s

and by 2000s India was confidently striding ahead with ‘ can do ‘
attitude. Consumers were seeking products that are not just
functional but also are high on aesthetics and technology. Hero
Honda took the new role of ‘ Heartbeat of India’ which is moving
‘New India’ not only physically ( transportation) but also emotionally
through its design and features.
• After this slide please put one slide for ad
campaign and another slide for product
launches with emphasis on visual appeal of
the product and advanced features
 Dhak dhak go

Target group truth

- Youth are no Product truth-
more defined by Bikes high on
constraints but by aesthetics, Dhak Dhak go
their technology and
unconstrained features
dreams

The task for Hero Honda brand was to connect and become
relevant to Indian youth in the midst of dynamic India with values
like ‘ ambition, determination, enthusiasm’. Indian youth were no
more defined by constraints but by their ‘ unconstrained dreams’.
Moreover, it was reflected in their bikes which also was no more
constrained by functionality and made a leap into aesthetics and
advanced features
• After this slide please put one slide for ad
campaign and another slide for product
launches and product ads to show how they
were stylish and advanced
 Learning till now-

• Hero Honda stayed in synch with the cultural

insights and target group mind-set and
evolved its brand and products accordingly
from ‘ functional’ to ‘ emotional’.
• Brand evolution- Functional-> Emotional
 Targeting women
• Pleasure is a 102 cc scooter targeting the
young ladies.
• The launch made sense because the
scooter segment was growing and was
expected to touch 1 million units. In the
scooter segment , the ungeared scooter
segment is growing very fast.
• Hero Honda wanted to have a pie of this
segment
 Breaking Why boys
Pleasure
the gender have all
scooty
divide the fun?

To connect with the women and create a brand that will be loved by
females, Hero Honda created this brand on strong insight that there
exists a strong divide between the genders. Women are always
suppose to take a back seat or compromise. The role of the scooty
therefore was to break these barriers.
• Please put the ads here
 And then came the split

• Hero and Honda decided to split and exist

Independently
• It raised challenges for Hero.
• People started questioning – Does Hero have
enough technology and know-how to survive
without Honda? Will it flourish or flounder?
 How to convince people?

• With the support of its ad agency Law and

Kenneth and consulting firm Wolf Ollins, Hero
Honda embarked on a journey which gave
birth to a new logo and a new ad campaign.
Target group- I
Brand truth-
am succeeding
Hero group is
despite of all Hum Main hai
ready to take on
the obstacles hero
the world
due to my own
independently.
efforts
• Qualitative research wanted to understand what is the meaning of Hero in India.
• During interviews, the big theme that emerged was that people consider
themselves to be their own heroes because they were making their dreams come
true despite of no/low support from government or others. It was their confidence
that helped them.
• Hero brand saw a parallel in themselves because the brand also have inner
confidence to take on the world without the help of anyone.
• This two truths- target group and brand came together to result in ‘ Hum Main Hai
Hero’.
• Please put the ad here.
 Use one or two slides to write about
logo
• Logo description
 Future plans
• Please put future plans like collaboration with
racing teams etc.