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India Co-creates > Two Wheeler Industry
India Co-creates is a series of reports that analyze how companies of India's key business sectors are using social media to co-create business value with customers and other external stakeholders.
A Long Way to Go
We monitored and analysed the social media networking activities and social media initiatives of the following leading two wheeler companies:
Some of these companies are market leaders, others are new entrants, and a few do not seem to have heard of social media, for good or bad - we could not find them in Facebook, Twitter or Youtube, and they do not appear to make use of Web 2.0 tools.
We took into account only four major social media platforms (the presence of India Inc, leave alone the two-wheeler industry segment, in Google Plus or Pinterest appears to be negligible at present): 1. Facebook 2. Twitter 3. Youtube 4. Web 2.0 tools Industry OverviewJust to give an overview of the two-wheeler industry, India is the second largest two wheeler market in the world, next to China. The two wheeler industry segment largely comprises motor cycles, mopeds, and automatic scooters. The yearly sales is pegged at around 13.5 million units.
India is home for Hero Motocorp, the world’s largest two wheeler manufacturer with the total production capacity of about 7 million units per year. Apart from Hero, other leading domestic players in the market include: Bajaj, Kinetic, and TVS. These domestic players are increasingly facing intense competition from foreign entrants: Honda and Suzuki. For instance, Honda has already become the market leader in the scooter segment. Status UpdateBusiness Priority: Brand PromotionWe first tried to find what are the key objectives of two wheeler companies in the social media space. From the business perspective, there could be as many as four broad goals: increasing revenue/sales through brand promotion, sourcing product ideas, providing support to customers, and promoting/evangelising a cause.
In the backdrop of the increasing competition, the leading players as well as new entrants in the industry are keen to use social media for brand development. We are yet to find an idea contest to crowd source ideas or the setting up of a community to provide customer support, and so on. For instance, take the case of the market leader, Hero MotoCorp, and the new entrant, Piaggio. Hero Motocorp has launched a massive brand promotion campaign - Heroes Songs - that is extensively based on social media channels like Facebook and Youtube. This on-going campaign is inviting the public to sing the lyrics of “heroes song”, capture it in a video, and upload it to their portal www.billionvoices.in. We do not have official figures as to the number of videos uploaded, but with the incentive of getting the chance to appear in the TV commercial of Hero Motocorp with A R Rahman, we can guess that the rate of participation is going to be phenomenal.
Creating Content and ConversationA status update at TVS Apache Facebook Page
User generated content, interactive content, multimedia content are the holy grail of social media. As pointed out, the Heroes Song or Billion Voices campaign, Hero Motocorp is generating video content from its fans. It published lyrics in all major local languages. Users can sing the heroes song, shoot their hi-res videos, and upload them at www.billionvoices.in.
Best Facebook coversations happen at Hero MotoCorp's fan page. Undoubtedly, the social media team of Hero have got the hang of the new, social media. They post not the typical "where are you going to take your Hero bike this weekend?" or "Did you know that Hero bike is..." but also interesting photos, news, and conversations around two-wheelers. Equally impressive is the performance of TVS Motors in the generation of content and conversation. The company has exclusive Facebook pages for all its flagship products: TVS Wego, TVS Apache, TVS Jive, and Scootygals. Besides, the company also has a corporate Facebook page. Apache encourages the community to post on its Facebook wall, but it re-publishes select status updates and seeks the comments from communities - a nice way to use user-generated content.
Community BuildingFans of Harley Davidson with tattoos
Only few products that seem to form a natural platform for building passionate user communities. The real world two wheeler communities of Harley Davidson are widely quoted for their success and vibrancy.
Invariably all two-wheeler brands are engaged in community building around racing. They use all community building tools like event calendars, options to upload photos & videos of race bikes, racing events, and so on. Naturally, the most active racing community builders are motor sports vehicle manufacturers. Companies like Royal Enfield, KTM, and Ducati are doing a great job. KTM, a leading international manufacturer of motor sports vehicles, which owns Duke brand of racing bikes, uses Facebook to let others know where the Duke Owners clubs are opened in Indian cities.
Customer SupportSocial media differs from the rest of the media channels, primarily in the opportunity it affords for companies to build one to one relationship with their customers. But, India's two wheeler companies are not using social media effectively in this regard. You can find many customer complaints unanswered, and blissfully ignored.
There is a lack of understanding of the potential use of social media in building relations and in providing customer support. Here is an example that comes from a motor bike company. In its Facebook page, it puts out an announcement: "The Facebook page serves as a platform for interaction and communication. In case you have any issues or concerns please send them to" [email protected]. "Posting on this page may not be the best way to get the information across." "Please note that this page is not intended as a place for receiving consumer complaints. Although we try to forward most of your complaints to our customer care department, if you have any questions about your motorcycle, you can reach us at: [email protected]" This is another way of saying, use Facebook to talk something nice about us, so that all others can see them, but if you have any complaints send us a mail or call us or use any other means that is private.
Customer Support through CommunitiesRoyal Enfield's Forum
Social media teams of most companies are answering customer queries like: whether they can increase the rear size of their bike, where will they get spare parts, and what's the price of a particular model, and so on.
But the real benefit of using social media comes from the opportunity the company provides for existing customers to handle the queries of other customers. In the four wheeler segment, Hyundai’s After Market website is a good example. This is one of the active customer-driven customer support portals in the automotive industry that has a large customer base and most of the customer queries are answered by other customers. Yes, there are some formal community building initiatives taken by a few companies. One example is Royal Enfield's "Bullet in Board", a bulletin board-styled forum, where customers can share their knowledge, post technical queries or just showcase their passion for Royal Enfield with like minded folks. They can be a part of these discussions or browse through debates packed with loads of information, from the experts themselves in archives. Small StepsAt Younomy, we are propounding that there should be a strategy behind every social media activity so that there is going to be some business benefits. Someone said, "Without strategy, tweeting is just typing."
Our P6 Framework, a pioneering and comprehensive ideation platform, starts with "priority", and urges companies to identify the "co-creation hot spots", which are the areas that have appeal to both the producer and the customers. When companies know what their co-creation hot spots are, they can introduce conversations, content, and co-creation projects around those areas to get maximum result.
What's your rules of engagement
Provide a page for rules of engagement in all your social media channels, and at relevant sections of the website, so that you can moderate social conversations transparently. Royal Enfield’s facebook page has a model. When you have the rules, it helps you take decisions whether to delete a post that is written in nasty language or a spam. Have a Customer Support Page Even if you are not going to open a customer support portal, you still can have an exclusive facebook app or section where customers can post their issues. Have a style guide Just because you are targeting younger audience, you cannot use your language in a way that is not widely accepted. One Facebook poll of a two wheeler company asks its fans: "What do you feel on a Monday?" and one of the options to select reads, "what the f...!!!" Even if companies are not going to open a portal, they can have an exclusive facebook app or section where customers can post their issues. Big JumpsSet up a holistic social media team
Companies have to set up social media team that should be represented by people from all functional groups and not just marketing or public relations. Do not ask your customers to contact your customer care department. This way, you are telling them that we the social media team is not in touch with the customer care or any other department, and it is not our job to follow up with your complaints. A social media team is a corporate communication team, investor relations team, customer relations team, product development team, and what not. Provide a product configurator Start finding ways to treat your customers as co-creators. Setting up a product configurator can be a good start. Product configurators let users pick and choose components. For a model, check out Ducati's website. Here, customers can find configurable accessories grouped under “touring”, “picnic”, “sports”, and so on. Customers can select or unselect - in short, configure - the colors, electric and electronic components, engine performance upgrades, touring (soft tank bag, soft rear bag, rider seat, etc), sundry accessories (bike cover, carbon fuel tank protector, rear stand, etc), chasis and brake systems.
Companies can target the students of engineering colleges, whose innovative prototypes are regularly featured in newspapers. Ask them to submit their designs and engineering drawings on sustainable solutions. Commit a certain prize amount or product development commitment to the contributors.
Build a customer support portal Going by the current scenario, where Indian two wheeler market is witnessing ever increasing competition, one thing can become the top priority area: "support to customers". Forums and online communities should aim at encouraging customers to handle the support function to the maximum extent possible. Download Entire Report in PDF
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