DO YOU HAVE A HERO IN YOU?
- ILIYAS SHAIKH,
I YEAR, MBA++

Finally, the marriage between HERO & its Japanese partner HONDA is over. The erstwhile automobile company now has a new avatar: Hero Motor Corp. And the occasion selected to make this announcement couldn’t have been more apt. The 64th

The campaign, which features the maestro A. R. Rahman, is focused on the central idea that every person has a hero within himself/herself. This focus is aptly conveyed through the lilting song that accompanies the TVC. A. R. Rahman does a beautifully job again, as expected. Independence Day was the perfect moment for HERO Motor Corp to proclaim its independent existence and establish a new identity sans its terminated partnership with HONDA. And boy have they done it in style.

HMC has very strong competitive advantage - it knows INDIA and the values of India. It has had a long standing relationship with the Indian customers, and it promises to continue the same. Even with its “DHAK DHAK GO” campaign, the former company, Hero Honda had targeted the entire Indian masses. A similar focus has been maintained by HMC.

Well one thing is for certain: The Hero Group definitely knows how to get India going. It has taken up ‘being a HERO’ as the quality which every Indian inherently possesses and also displays, in the minute aspects of life. In doing so, they have created a winning formula of relating the campaign with the brand HERO. They have clearly mentioned about how the new Hero Moto Corp is merely a rechristening of the erstwhile Hero Honda. Though to match the success of old tag lines and ads the new advertisement has a long way to go but it seems like a step in the right direction at least. It seems on the whole that the company has managed the brand transition very meticulously and with precision as otherwise it would have not been able to fill in the shoes left vacant by the end of the partnership between Hero and Honda. The campaign has been launched through nearly all possible media vehicles, and has garnered positive response.

What remains to be seen is whether Hero Moto Corp is able to cater to the needs of the Indian consumers with the same amount of success and as was done by Hero Honda. But the start has certainly been a positive one. And like the saying goes: “Well begun is half done”.