The Hindu Business Line : Taking women on a ride

THE automobile industry is in a sudden rush to cater to the transportation needs of the fairer sex. Vying with one another, the current bunch of scooterette manufacturers and potential players are trying to roll out products for women across age groups as their central focus.

The special requirements of two-wheeler riding women; the features that will help ease their riding experience; and accessories that can be showcased as unique selling propositions are now driving innovation in designing scooterettes for this burgeoning class of riders.

Women were always in the radar for manufacturers of these two wheelers, but only they were not projected as the primary focus. This was the case with the marketing strategies that Bajaj and Kinetic had adopted for the earlier versions of the Safire and the Zing respectively.

The primary targets for these two-wheelers were college-going students, middle-income households and men and women alike. Now, with the category showing signs of growing faster than the other two-wheeler segments and with the growth coming from the surge in purchases by women, manufacturers such as Bajaj, TVS Motor and Kinetic are keen on rolling out the red carpet to woo the divas.

And, so, after revamping its scooterette, Bajaj has now relaunched the Safire as the new Wave and also come out with the new `when-you-are-happy-and-you-know-it' advertising campaign to attract women buyers. The new Wave is easier to ride, more powerful and, yet, more fuel-efficient and has attributes that are women-friendly.

This partly redesigned scooterette that is also more trendy and good looking irons out some of the nit-picky engine and transmission problems that had bugged the erstwhile Safire.

Not to be left behind, both Kinetic and TVS have now launched new, snazzier variants of their scooterettes and will try to hit back at Bajaj's attempt at a comeback into the premium scooterette segment.

Small Kinetic

Of the two, though, Kinetic's Kine (a.k.a. Zing 80) only features cosmetic enhancements that give the scooterette new looks and a marginally better finish than the Zing 80, on which it is based. It continues to feature the same 71.5cc, two-stroke engine that puts out a maximum power of 4.2 bhp and a peak torque of 5.7 Nm. The kerb weight of the Kine is a feather-light 82 kg and fuel tank capacity is four litres.

The additions and special features in the Kine is the new three-tone colour that gives the scooterette sportier looks and further highlights its design lines, the cola-can holder in the front, mobile charging point in the under-seat storage area, puncture-resistant tyres and the new headlamp. Some of these, such as the mobile charging point and can-holder, were also available in the Zing and these have been retained based on customer feedback, according to Kinetic.

Kinetic has also used feedback from customers to come up with the new name — `Kine'. The idea behind the new name being that for many years the good old Kinetic was being referred to (by users themselves) as `Kine' — a nickname that the vehicle acquired on its own.

Kinetic's research is also said to have shown that `Kine' as a word in itself has many characterstics of a popular brand, including instant recall and identification. As this scooterette is a smaller, lighter package with a lower price tag, Kinetic has decided to make it into a full-fledged brand of its own.

Peppy plus

Unlike the Kine, which features cosmetic changes, the new TVS Scooty Pep+'s alterations run deeper. For one, the new Pep+ sports a brand new, more powerful 90cc four-stroke engine that delivers a peak power of 5 bhp and a peak torque of 5.8 Nm.

The engine feels refined and is said to be peppier compared to its 75-cc predecessor, which will continue to be available in the Scooty Pep.

Dual tone colours and new racy graphics adorn the new Scooty Pep+'s body panels; a new stylish dash with an easy-reading speedometer cluster and a fresh new range of body colours has been added. The new Scooty Pep+ also gets a few neat touches that should make it more likeable for women riders.

The LED lighting in the under-seat storage area, the cell-phone charger below the dashboard, the flourescent ignition key slot for better visibility at night and the innovative, patented centre-stand design with extra leverage that makes parking the scooterette a breeze, will all be features that will not only be appreciated by women of all age groups, but also by the men folk, who will invariably also be the users of this scooterette.

The Bajaj Wave's advertising overtly focuses on women riders, but its other communication material and the scooterette's actual attributes do not reflect that specific focus.

Unlike the Bajaj, the TVS Scooty Pep and new Pep+ clearly focus only on the growing population of women two-wheeler users, though market research has showed that about 35 per cent of the current users are men.

The Scooty Pep's brand ambassador is Preity Zinta and the new ad campaign for the Pep+ will attempt to focus on the improved power and playfulness of the new version. Kinetic, meanwhile, will continue to position the Kine (like it did for the Zing) as a practical, fuel-efficient and attractive two-wheeler for the college-going public.

The new TVS Scooty Pep+ has been priced at about Rs 33,000, ex-showroom in Chennai. The new Kine, on the contrary, will be available for about Rs 5,000 lesser, but will not be able to offer similar build and finish quality and as many features as the TVS Scooty Pep+.

Fuel efficiency numbers, however, are unlikely to be much different between the two at about 50 kmpl (in city conditions), despite the Kine's two-stroke engine.

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