"Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating, and satisfying customers' requirements, profitably.

" Chartered Institute of Marketing. The marketing guru Philip Kotler defines the Marketing Concept as: "The marketing concept holds that the key to achieving organisational goals consists in determining the needs and wants of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors" This Kotler breaks down into four components; Market Focus, Customer Orientation, Coordinated Marketing and, Profitability. Some alternative definitions of the Marketing Concept include: "Your business will perform better, if you know what people want in the first place." Anon. "Marketing is not only much broader than selling, it is not a specialised activity at all. It encompasses the entire business. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the customer's point of view." Druker.

Two Wheeler Industry The Indian two wheeler contributes the largest volumes amongst all the segments in automobile industry. Though the segment can be broadly categorized into 3 sub-segments viz.; scooters, motorcycles and mopeds; some categories introduced in the market are a combination of two or more segments e.g. scooterettes and step-thru's . In the last four to five years, the two-wheeler market has witnessed a marked shift towards motorcycles at the expense of scooters. In the rural areas, consumers have come to prefer sturdier bikes to withstand the bad road conditions. In the process the share of motorcycle segment has grown from 48% to 58%, the share of scooters declined drastically from 33% to 25% , while that of mopeds declined by 2% from 19% to 17% during the year 2000-01. The Euro emission norms effective from April 2000 led to the existing players in the two- stroke segment to install catalytic converters. All the new models are now being replaced by 4-stroke motorcycles. Excise duty on motorcycles has been reduced from 32% to 24%, resulting in price reduction, which has aided in propelling the demand for motorcycles. Within the two-wheeler industry, motorcycle segment grew at a phenomenally high rate of 35% as against a deceleration of 3% for scooters and 27% for mopeds. In fact, motorcycle has been taking away the share of scooters and mopeds in a 4.3 million two-wheeler market and surging ahead with its market share of 68%. The increasing demand from semi-urban and rural segments

may have caused this positive shift towards motorcycles. Also, easy credit coupled with low interest rate regime, constrained personal transport, increasing income levels in middle class and higher aspirations of young people all seem to be the factors responsible for such high growth in two-wheelers. The growth in two-wheelers has been robust enough to counter the slow down and other factors constraining the overall business activity in the country. Also, rationalization of excise duty in the Union Budget 2002-03 had a positive impact on the demand for motorcycles. We also expect the motorcycles to continue to lead the two-wheeler segment like in all other Asian countries. Available forecasts suggest that this trend would continue for another couple of years and the industry would record nearly double-digit average annual growth up to 2006. During the year, there have been important developments in two-wheeler industry. The competition has strengthened though there are hardly any new entrants into the industry. There is an increasing emphasis on price and this has led to cost cutting efforts all across the industry, thereby, making the customer an ultimate beneficiary. The trend also saw introduction of new motorcycles with capacity ranging from 100 to 180cc bikes. We anticipate that many more new models will be launched during the year and provide customers plenty of choice at competitive prices. Businesses cannot consistently grow at 25-30 per cent. Each business has a tendency to taper and plateau after attaining a particular size. An annual growth rate of 10-12 per cent over a period of time is extremely healthy. The TCS study rankings are conducted at the motorcycle segment-level to provide comparisons among similar groups of motorcycles. Motorcycles ranking highest in their respective segments for TCS are: Hero Honda CD100 SS (best standard motorcycle segment); Hero Honda Splendor (best executive motorcycle segment); Bajaj Pulsar (best premium motorcycle segment); and Royal Enfield Bullet Electra (best cruiser motorcycle segment). "The relatively low score for the premium segment indicates that most manufacturers have fallen short of meeting the high expectations of these buyers," states Mr. Lochan. "Bajaj Pulsar is one exception with segmentleading ratings across all aspects of ownership experience, particularly on areas related to vehicle styling."

The feeling of freedom and being one with the Nature comes only from riding a two wheeler. Indians prefer the two wheelers because of their small manageable size, low maintenance, and pricing and easy loan repayments. Indian streets are full of people of all age groups riding a two wheeler. Motorized two wheelers are seen as a symbol of status by the populace. Two wheelers in India are the second largest producer and manufacturer of two-wheelers in the world. It stands next only to Japan and China in terms of the number of two-wheelers produced and domestic sales respectively. Indian two-wheeler industry has got spectacular growth in the last few years. Indian two-wheeler industry had a small beginning in the early 50's. The Automobile Products of India (API) started manufacturing scooters in the country.

Bikes are a major segment of Indian two wheeler industry, the other two being scooters and mopeds. Indian companies are among the largest two-wheeler manufacturers in the world. In the initial stages, the scooter segment was dominated by API; it was later overtaken by Bajaj Auto. Although various government and private enterprises entered the fray for scooters, the only new player that has lasted till today is LML. The motorcycle segment was initially dominated by Enfield 350cc bikes and Escorts 175cc bike. The two-wheeler market was opened to foreign competition in the mid-80s. And the then market leaders - Escorts and Enfield - were caught unaware by the onslaught of the 100cc bikes of the four Indo-Japanese joint ventures. With the availability of fuel efficient low power bikes, demand swelled, resulting in Hero Honda - then the only producer of four stroke bikes (100cc category), gaining a top slot. The first Japanese motorcycles were introduced in the early eighties. TVS Suzuki and Hero Honda brought in the first two-stroke and four-stroke engine motorcycles respectively. These two players initially started with assembly of CKD kits, and later on progressed to indigenous manufacturing. In the 90s the major growth for motorcycle segment was brought in by Japanese motorcycles, which grew at a rate of nearly 25% CAGR in the last five years. The industry had a smooth ride in the 50s, 60s and 70s when the Government prohibited new entries and strictly controlled capacity expansion. The industry saw a sudden growth in the 80s.

The industry witnessed a steady growth of 14% leading to a peak volume of 1.9mn vehicles in 1990. In 1990, the entire automobile industry saw a drastic fall in demand. This resulted in a decline of 15% in 1991 and 8% in 1992, resulting in a production loss of 0.4mn vehicles. Barring Hero Honda, all the major producers suffered from recession in FY93 and FY94. Hero Honda showed a marginal decline in 1992. The reasons for recession in the sector were the incessant rise in fuel prices, high input costs and reduced purchasing power due to significant rise in general price level and credit crunch in consumer financing. Factors like increased production in 1992, due to new entrants coupled with the recession in the industry resulted in company either reporting losses or a fall in profits. Marketing Mechanism Promotion

Promotion concerns the message the firm sends out to potential consumers. It provides information and persuades people, it creates awareness, stimulates demand and differentiates the product and influences public behavior. Promotion wont make a bad product that no one wants a success; although the absence of promotion might htat a good product is not successful, promotion includes all the activities or tools a company uses to communicate or promote its product in the market. Promotional tools or promotion mix

1. PERSONAL SELLING: It involves personal confrontation either by phone or face, it is an expensive and time-consuming tool of promoting the product. 2. ADVERTISING: It is defined as a paid non-personal communication with a target (usually mass) market. It is cost effective and can reach a large number of people. It can also be used for long term or short term objectives.

There are various forms or mediums through which can advertise. A. Broadcast Media: B. Print media: C. Outdoor media:

3. PUBLIC RELATIONS AN PUBLICITY: Public relations are an umbrella term and refer to the totality of the organizations behavior with respect to the society in which it operates. The maybe regarded as good or bad and is reflected in the companys reputation and image. 4. SPONSORSHIP: Sponsorship can be seen as a part of public relations and it is certainly the case that some sponsorship goes on to generate positive publicity for the organization. 5. DIRECT MARKETING: It is an interactive system of marketing which uses one or more advertising media to affect a measurable response at any locations. 6. DIRECT MARKETING INCLUDES: Direct mail. Telemarketing. Door to door selling. Direct response advertising: phone now or fill in the coupon ads Home shopping of various types.

Factors that guide a marketers decision in selecting a promotion mix: a) Nature of product b) Overall marketing strategy c) Buyer readiness stage d) Product life cycle stage

7. SPONSORSHIPS: The company has not left any stone untamed in sponsoring the major events both globally and domestically. The biggest of all is the sponsorship of the WORLD CUP for which Hero Honda has the credit of being the only two-wheeler company in the world to do so. Besides this, the company has also sponsored events like Master Golf, television academy awards, etc, Thus the company has gained a lot of reputation by doing so. 8. DISCOUNTS/OFFERS: The company has started giving discounts and other offers to the customers on the purchase of a new bike, for instance, with the World Cup offer, in which the consumer was to get a 1 gm gold coin with every purchase. But after all these schemes and benefits may be because of cut-throat competition in the segment with heavyweight competition such as Bajaj, kinetic, Yamaha, and TVS the company (HERO HONDA) officially says: Our aim is to proactively and consistently deliver value to the customer. We are giving back to the customer after becoming successful. Most companies give discounts only when their products are not doing well in the market. There is lost of competition in the segment, especially from Bajaj. But the reason for Hero Hondas success it that we are consumer-focused while other companies such as Bajaj tends to be more competitor-focused.

PROMOTION POLICY:

Company gives advertisement in different media vehicles time to tome. Like in TV. Magazines, newspaper, etc. Hero Honda also organizes free service camps every year. Hero Honda also takes art in trade fair. Hero Honda with the help of ICICI Bank provides loan to the customers & also provide easy monthly installment scheme to customers.

 Hero Honda gives huge commission to their dealers.

No. of players in the two wheeler automobile sector (India): Hero Honda motors ltd. Bajaj auto ltd. TVS motors company ltd. Yamaha motors India Honda motorcycle and scooters India Royal Enfield Suzuki Motors LML