(1) Marketing Warfare
Deciding your strategy is crucial for any business. The organization’s approach to the strategy will decide its future. According to Rajiv Bajaj, being better (in terms of product) is a defensive strategy, being different is an offensive strategy, being opposite of the market offering is a flanking strategy, and being unique is a guerrilla strategy. To gain a competitive advantage in the market, the organization should use the perception of people about its product as an advantage, and the same should become the positioning of the product. Engineers often get confused between Replacement and Displacement in features of a product, in reality, they are opposite. As per Rajiv, the perception of people towards your product won’t change if you improve your product by 10% – 20% but a change of 23% – 30% will lead to a change in perception. When Bajaj Auto brought 10% – 12% efficiency in fuel, consumers didn’t show any excitement, but when Hero MotoCorp brought 15% efficiency in fuel, the market praised them. This is because consumers will accept marginal improvement from the leader but won’t accept the marginal change from the challenger. If a company wants to adopt a guerrilla strategy, it will have to create a new segment in the market.
(2) Avoid the trap of generalization
To launch unique products, companies can go for either individualization i.e. being unique or differentiation i.e. being different, but the majority of the companies prefer generalization. The principle of individualization led Bajaj Auto to foray into motorcycles. In 2007, Bajaj Auto shut operations of manufacturing scooters to start the production of motorcycles.
(3) Immunity of the organization
Being an ardent follower of Homeopathy, Rajiv Bajaj claims that the business climate i.e. the external market that the organization operates in does not affect the organization in a bad way but the organization’s immunity to the climate affects it. The immunity of the organization is based on its R&D, marketing, and supply chain. For instance, Bajaj launched a quadricycle called Qute that is exported in all markets except India, due to market regulations.
(4) Building a strong brand
Creating a new product only increases the product line of a company, but creating a story behind a product builds up emotion and eventually creates a Brand. A product is just a part of a brand. When we think of coke, we think of many other stories and things that come to our minds. He quoted
As a brand strategy, Bajaj Auto acquired the metal of India’s first aircraft carrier INS Vikrant and used it in the production of Bajaj V. This is a perfect example of Nostalgia marketing.
(5) Marketing is counter-intuitive
According to Rajiv Bajaj, “what your customers want is important, but what your competitor’s permit is even more important”. In order to be ahead of competitors, it is important to attack the weakness in their strength rather than the weakness. For instance, Hero Motocorp’s weakness in their strength was/is that consumers consider Hero to be high on mileage but not the powerful bike. Bajaj Auto attacked its weakness and launched the brand Pulsar, a powerful bike with a fresh design and decent mileage.
(6) Doing less can be more
For Rajiv, narrowing the focus or doing less is a successful marketing strategy. In order to communicate the product to the target market, a company must give a reason to buy the product. Bajaj Auto’s reason for its customers was a stylish motorcycle. In order to be successful in marketing, it is better to be quiet and observe the environment and then make decisions and act on those decisions. Do one only thing, but make sure you are the best in that one thing.
