Why Nokia should keep an eye on Hero Honda & Bajaj or vice-versa?

One a mobile phone company,the other two India’s largest motorcycle companies.

In 2006,Bajaj launched a 100 cc entry level bike called Platina targeting the budget buyer.The USP of the bike was it’s style.In a segment where durability was the primary need,the design of other bikes were sturdier(larger) like a CD Deluxe or a TVS Star City.At an aesthetic level,they spoke to a man whose conventional ideal of masculinity was a rugged masculinity.However the Platina defied design convention and styled a slender bike.A sparse, slender looking bike.

Bajaj Platina

The bike sold like hot cakes for a couple of years after the product design and communication hit home.

In 2008,Nokia,in it’s effort to market phones to first-time buyers at a low  price point launched the 2630 at roughly Rs 3000/-,without compromising on style however.In effect,demographically & psychographically targeting the same guy who rides a Platina.A small shop owner,field salesman who is looking for something affordable and yet stylish.A person whose expression of style is very different from a Pulsar rider or a N Series user.And this is what the Nokia 2630 looked like.

Slender,relatively uncluttered(sparse) and stylish.

Sold like hot cakes.My guess is, to the same people who would have found the Platina stylish.Because the design codes are essentially the same.Slender,uncluttered(sparse) yet not underloaded with features.The phone had a camera,was a color phone while the bike had DTS-i technology,alloy wheels.

In 2007-08, I was in Sehore ,a large village just outside Bhopal, conducting  a research with bike owners and intenders.I met a young farmer who seemed to be fairly rich.He also looked like a normal lad of 25,wearing jeans and a t-shirt.He was  quite the talker and seemed keen to show his urbaneness,his sense of style,when he took out his N-series which took me by surprise.An N-series user in an Indian village.An N-series is a chunky phone,overloaded with features and emanates a different design code altogether.

Strong,masculine and loaded.Just like the bike he rode.The Bajaj Pulsar.

The point is that the design trends of these industries reflect in each other or  even lead the other,much more deeply than just a fashionable color but in things like form factor also. Perhaps the Nokia guys should keep an eye on every new bike thats rolls out of the Bajaj/Honda factory and the Bajaj/Honda guys on every new phone.