TITLE OF PROJECT: -NATIONAL SCOOTER

OF INDIA: 20 YEARS OF SCOOTRERING BY

HONDA ACTIVA

PROJECT DONE BY: -PRINCE YADAV

2K21/DMBA/91
YASH JAISWAL
2K21/DMBA/143

GUIDED BY: -DR. RAJAN YADAV

DELHI SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
DECEMBER 2021
 INTRODUCTION TO TOPIC
The Activa is a great scooter for urban riding. It looks smashing, it’s
easy to ride, peppy, and has ample storage space to take it shopping.
Added to this is the Honda name and expertise and the wide dealer
network. Twenty years have passed and, in the time since, Honda
went on to sell a staggering 2.5 crore units in India. Honda
Motorcycle and Scooter India (HMSI) managed this because the
Activa was a masterstroke. The company did its homework with
market research and arrived at the conclusion that the Indian
scooterist’s biggest demands at the time were ease of riding, an
electric starter and an automatic transmission. While that’s quite
prevalent now, it wasn’t at the time. And to add to that, there weren’t
many options, with the primary rival being the two stroke Kinetic
Honda scooter.

India saw the entry of its first scooter in 1972 when Moped India Ltd
launched ‘Suvega’ which was soon followed by Kinetic Engineering
Limited introducing their moped – Luna. How can one forget the
mighty Chetak aka ‘Hamara Bajaj’. Slowly, the nearly dead scooter
segment caught the eye of ‘Activa’ which has been synonymous with
any type of scooter in the country for two decades now. Thus began
the Honda Activa advertising journey. A big contributing factor to this
scooter’s success story is the fact that Honda didn’t change the
formula. Being an automobile giant, they could have rolled out minor
updates every year but they didn’t. In fact, the Honda Activa
remained unchanged for eight years! It was only in 2009 that it
witnessed a big update, where its bodywork and engine underwent
changes. Honda increased its capacity slightly to help bump up the
power and torque figures. A more noticeable update, however, was
the addition of a combined braking system. Yes, the same safety tech
that is now mandatory was first introduced as an innovative feature on
the Activa.
 HISTORY OF ACTIVA
As per the company, Honda made its solo entry in India with its first
two-wheeler when the scooter market in India was fast declining. It is
said that while the production kickstarted in 2001, the roots of the
scooter brand germinated in May 1999 with 109/125 cc scooter, 7 bhp
(5.2 kW) range highlighting the concept of ‘kick and self-start’ and
later the production began in Mexico, in 2004.

In the face of rising competition from motorbikes and cars, masses’

favourite Chetak lost ground in India, which put a full stop to its
production in 2005 as Bajaj Auto stopped manufacturing scooters
altogether. Activa, in the meantime, was ready to take on the market
which was then ruled by the long-standing Hero Splendor. Cutting the
competition ahead, Honda Activa, in just 3 years of its debut in 2001,
became the leader in the scooter segment by 2003-04.

Adding a new chapter to the scooter sale segment in India, Honda

Activa harped onto many firsts of features in the category.
For instance – featuring the dual options of a kick as well as self-start.
The Honda Activa advertising journey, though is minimal and not
quite aggressive, has been consistent in launching campaigns for each
of its Activa ranges with a clear objective and message for its
consumers driving the ‘Power of Dreams’. In 2001 the marketing
mostly revolved around the Honda Activa 1st gen’s user-friendly
specifications and was pegged as an easy-to-ride two-wheeler. The
timely launch made it highly reliable when the industry witnessed a
swift movement from heavy manual scooters to lighter, automatic
ones. Eight years post the launch of its first Activa range, Honda
decided to upgrade and introduced the 2nd generation of Activa amidst
roaring competition. It came with one of its kind and an industry-first
combi-brake system which added to the safety of the scooter.
 ACTIVA SALES DATA AND ADVERTISEMENT

Activa’s cumulative sales breach the 5 million sales milestone during

2012-13 as monthly sales crossed the 1 lakh units mark in 2012-13. In
April 2014, Honda began an upgraded model of Activa with a 125 cc
engine and rebranded the model as Activa 125. Activa 3G swept into
the market when the company launched its 1st 125cc scooter in India
– Activa 125.

The introductory campaign ‘Step up in Life’ where the makers

revived the famous ‘Congratulations’ soundtrack with changed lyrics
to suit the product portfolio highlighted factors such as power,
comfort, and style. The auto major, sensing the rising demand and the
whole new pop culture wave, introduced flashy colour variants of
Activa to make the scooter look trendy. It was also the time when the
JV of Hero and Honda came to an end.

The launch of Activa 4G with the least number of updates in 2017

brought a slight change in the advertising approach. The brand so far
concentrated more on having a ‘foreign’ tone in its narration with the
English language, the campaign for Activa 4G had Piyush Mishra’s
voiceover in Hindi and targeted the new generation. Conceptualised
by Dentsu One, the TVC was all about how India is doing things
differently and how the new Activa 4G is their ride of choice. It was
launched with the world television premiere of Jolly LLB 2 starring
Akshay Kumar and ran on air across popular channels.

In October 2019, the brand roped in the power couple of Bollywood –

Akshay Kumar and Twinkle Khanna, to feature in its ‘Quiet
Revolution’ campaign for Activa 125 BSVI – Honda’s first two-
wheeler in the BSVI era. The campaign aimed to highlight the feature
of esp. technology i.e., Silent start.

he film shows Kumar through different stages of life, starting from a

flashback of his childhood, his youth to this day. Cut to today, when
Akshay tells his virtual digital assistant to “Keep Quiet”. That’s when

he sums up the premise that since childhood “Keep Quiet, Keep

Quiet” is what we have all heard.
After revolutioning the scooter segment for almost two decades,
Activa brought its 6G revolutionary variant equipped with the new
esp. technology along with features like the revolutionary silent start,
telescopic suspension, double lid external fuel fill, Front 90/90-12
Tubeless Tyre, and 10%^ more mileage. When the BS6 emission
norms were introduced, Honda upgraded Activa in order to meet the
new guidelines and requirements. The 360-degree marketing
campaign celebrated India’s first choice of mobility on two wheels –
the Activa 6G BS-VI, Conceptualised and executed by Dentsu One,
the campaign salutes this ‘Power of 6’ with a celebratory kick-off to
commemorate the beginning of 2020 and was rolled out across TVC,
Print, Outdoor, Digital and Cinema.

Marking the 20th anniversary of its flagship product – Activa, in

December 2020, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India launched a
campaign where it unveiled Activa 6G 20th Anniversary Limited
Edition. The campaign aimed to celebrate 20 years of priceless love
and togetherness between Activa and its customers. Capturing the
precious relationship of a husband and wife on their anniversary when
the husband surprises her by bringing home the all-new
20th Anniversary Edition of Activa 6G.
 CONCLUSION

Here we are in 2021 and Honda has sold 2.5 crore Activas. It has a
number of accomplishments under its belt, like frequently being
India’s highest selling two-wheeler and also the world’s at one point.
The Activa certainly isn’t the most exciting thing out there, but it
helped change the Indian two-wheeler landscape, and 20 years later, it
has cemented its significance in the Indian automotive history book.
Activa has achieved massive growth from his starting to till now and
it seems promising scooter for India for future also.