[texmonster]

Originally Posted by Geo_Ipe

So currently the whole of Tamil Nadu has ONE Big Wings dealership? That may suffice for the 20L Africa Twin, but not for the 2L CB 350.
...
Till then it shall remain a niche product, which is not going to worry Royal Enfield..

Honda is not intending to beat RE sales volumes with CB350 is my point. A series of products and good network of dealership will come in few years. Till then, if CB350 makes 5K numbers per month, I think Honda will be happy.

Also initial buyers will enjoy a bit of exclusivity- which, especially in last few years, has gone in the case of RE Classic 350 due to sales in huge numbers.

Btw, TN has 3 BigWings currently.

[gthang]

For a good bite, why go fast and spread it too thin when you can go slow and lay it on nice and thick?

Cheers

Ride Safe

[neil.jericho]

Covid is wreaking havoc with our economy. I agree that not all expected cities have Big Wing dealerships today, but some things are out of even Honda's meticulous hands. Maybe getting the right local dealer in certain cities was proving to be a challenge for Honda? Would it have been better for Honda to just give a Big Wing dealership to any and all dealers and then face the wrath of owners complaining about the local SVC being shut while another one comes up? Or would it be better for Honda to get the right dealer instead?

The dealers have had to make huge investments to become Top Line dealerships. Look at the amount of commercial space that any of the new Big Wing dealerships occupy. I would venture to guess that just the rentals would cost a few lakhs per month.

The sales and service volumes of the CB350 should act as a subsidy for the bigger Honda bikes that should be incoming within the few quarters. We have all repeated this time and again and it has started sounding like the gospel truth. The pricing of the new Fireblade though doesnt fall in line with what we expected. But look at it from the dealer's side, they have put in all this money and need to recover it. So what could be the plan for the dealer's profitability?

Which brings us to why such a low dealership footprint? Hypothetically, what if Honda's research showed them that they had a far far higher chance of success in metros and urban cities (Tier 1 and 2) as compared to smaller towns all around the country? What if research showed them that Honda could get 150 sales a month for the CB350 in Bangalore but only 8-10 a month in Mangalore? Is it worth trying to convince a dealer in a small town to invest a huge amount for a new Big Wing dealership in this Covid day and age, when the said dealership will deliver just 1 bike every 2 - 3 days? Wont the dealer prefer to take up more commercial space and just sell Honda Activas instead?

What if Royal Enfield's brand value is too strong outside of big cities for Honda to break it overnight all around the country?

Maybe Honda just wants to sell 5,000 - 10,000 units of the CB350 in year one through its fledgling Big Wing dealership network.

Maybe Honda wants to use India as a manufacturing base for the export of the CB350 to other markets.

Maybe, as I predicted earlier on another thread, Honda's plan was to coexist peacefully with Royal Enfield, in the grand scheme of things in the 350 cc segment. I mention this specifically because Royal Enfield is going one way in displacement and that is up. Which brings me to ....

Maybe the investment numbers really start making sense for Honda dealers once the 500cc bikes and above are launched in the next couple of quarters.

Maybe the CB350 was just the appetizer and the main course is on its way.

[1.2TSI7DSG]

It is not so much about the distribution strategy. I have observed that people who buy such bikes can't be handled by the same people selling activa and shine. If I want to shell out 3 big ones I definately want a more polished discussion.

This was the learning of Mahindra XUV when the toilets for the customers were shared with people who bought the bolero... People have walked out of the showroom because the toilets were paan stained.

That aside, Honda should have had more showrooms to deliver.

[9nikhil]

I think Honda strategy is spot on!
For maximum Indians buying a bike for 2 lacs, service expectations are high.
In the last 20 years, I have owned a variety of two wheelers - from CD100 to Splendor to Electra to Classic 500 to KTM390 (present ride). Just like any other family, we have a Honda Activa as well. One thing I learnt is that real ownership experience of a two wheeler starts when you visit the service center for regular service.

Honda's normal service network is operating at maximum utilization level & adding another two wheeler would have put further strain to it, resulting in bad customer experience. Hopefully Big Wing will be able to provide the missing service link to customers.

I am planning to swap my KTM 390 with CB350 now

[arjab]

Honda's Dealer Development team should double down and ensure their regular dealers have at least one Big Wing outlet under their, (pun intended), e-r-r "wing"
It's the same thing Maruti did with NEXA.

The faster the ramp up is done, at least, in Tier - 1 and Tier - 2 cities the better it is for Honda.
Also the allocation of Big Wing cities seem to be a bit odd.
For example, Kolkata does not have a Big Wing outlet but Siliguri, in North Bengal - a Tier 2 City has got one !

Honda seems to have got a good product on its hands. Hope they do not lose the opportunity to popularise it due to a lack of retail outlets.

[naj]

Originally Posted by aravind.anand

What's even more bizarre with this 'Big Wing only' strategy is that the Big wing retail outlet itself is not complete. There is not a single dealership in Chennai for example. Options for Chennai - as suggested by Honda themselves is to get the bike either in Erode or Bangalore with a temporary registration. This is not a luxury car, to take all this trouble to acquire one. And if someone really takes all the trouble to get the H'ness, what about service support?

This makes me think that the whole idea of retail is a last-minute affair. Where no significant planning was done to cover all the bases. I am sure it wouldn't take more time to establish a dealership than to develop an all-new motorcycle!

Hello ,
Indeed a bizarre strategy . For someone living in Pune , the bike has to be either ridden or transported from Thane or Kolhapur . Plus registration paper work falls with the buyer. Added expenses.
Service will be a challenge unless local Honda showrooms are willing to assist .
These limitations will work in favor of new RE 350 bikes scheduled for Nov launch. Easy dealer accessibility with good pricing of the RE Meteor will be a good option for many buyers.
Thanks-

[srini1785]

I am not able to find the share holding pattern of Bigwing Honda. Is it a fully owned subsidiary of HMSI?. In that case probably HMSI has some kind of agreement in place which restricts Authorized dealers to only mass market products (like Activa) while the premium products are retailed by Honda themselves. It makes sense with premium products like CB500R , Africa Twins and the rest. Lest they are screwed by shoddy after sales service. Although i fail to understand why a product like single cylinder 350cc should feature in premium category.

[jas_mirage]

I do believe they are doing the right thing, giving it a premium experience for the buyers at this price range. The sales executives selling mass market scooters are in no way equipped to provide a premium experience for a customer willing to shell out 2 big ones for a bike. And each one of us will crave that experience when you are the one paying those 2 big ones.

Also the service experience that we want will be more better in terms of parts availability. The regular dealers would not want to park their funds stocking premium bike parts, which are not sold on a regular basis or in enough numbers to justify the same. Also in terms of the experience we get while we wait for our bike to get serviced will be different.

And finally i think they have 2 different dealership models for the premium bikes. One is the big wing dealerships and the other will be top line dealerships. With the top line being in metros and big wing being in tier 2 /3 cities. They differ only on the range of bikes you get, with the goldwing and the VTwin likes being in the top line dealers along with the CB350 and the big wing excluding the likes of the goldwings.

[swapnil.awate]

I loved this bike.
The nearest dealership for me is in Thane situated 150 kms from Nashik. If quality of sales and service is good, I don’t mind riding 150 kms. Rather it will be a good reason for a 300 km trip!
Only thing I will be worried about is, what if, I face some niggles in Nashik? Whether local Honda dealer be able to fix it?

[abhi_tjet]

So no BigWing yet in Pune means Pashankar Honda has been stripped off from selling the expensive ones?
Also, irony is Tier 3/Tier 4 city Bhilai has a BingWing dealer but not Pune.
The capital city Raipur gets one as well. Great for enthusiasts in these cities though.

[unmesh]

If they are targeting RE Classic 350, Tier 2 cities and rural regions should be their target market. IMO, penetration is the key here.

[rajshenoy]

Bigwing is a great strategy by Honda. From what i understood, they have Bigwing Topline(or something like that) and Bigwing(for 300-500cc offerings). Topline will mostly cater to Niche market and may not make it to all the cities. Only one in karnataka(Bangalore) but we might see plenty of the regular Bigwing's coming up.

Second reason could be that Honda wants to iron out all the niggles before the production ramps up and dealerships mushroom across the country. Any wrong step here can jeopardise the battle with RE which Honda can't match as of date.

My only concern with this CB350 is service network(or lack of it). Agreed Honda is known for reliability and all that, but time will tell on the spare availability, ease of repair etc.

I had made up my mind for CB350 but delaying due to Covid situation.
I hope this succeeds and we as consumers have a healthy rivalry between brands(with multiple 300-500cc entry models coming from Hero-HD, TVS-Norton, Indian?? etc.)

[Sebring]

I wouldn't have picked up this bike if it was broad-based and available at just any Honda showroom. Why? Because we also own the Activa. Check with anyone how Activa buyers are treated, both at the showroom and at the overcrowded service centers. Like cattle, to be precise. The sales team would have made mincemeat of the premium customer. This is the key reason why Honda big bikes were not selling. It could be a slow start but I got the exclusivity I wanted. In fact I loved it when the CCO was all ears and attended to me personally. Every update is coming in as soon as they receive it. They surely made it memorable. Would this happen at say a ... Dhruvdesh Honda? I'll surely go back for a bigger CB500, when it's launched!

[yesyeswe]

If i was a Honda dealer, i would have been disappointed with this news, finally Honda launches a premium product which would result in good margins and sell in good numbers and then comes the news that you are in eligible to sell!

The same thing happened with maruti as well, the existing dealerships were disappointed as they were not allowed to sell baleno and other models.

One of the major factors behind any manufacturers good sales is its presence in every city and town, no matter how good the product is if it's not available near to the people, people won't buy. So Honda should sell this bike across all its dealerships.