Did 'God' get bigger?

“Did you see it?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Your Bike. Ad. Its being aired now.”“But we don’t have TV, buddy.. No youtube either.. but I’l try to see it somehow.”

“ok, Jus wanted to say ‘keep your expectations low’, that’s all.”

“I know Dood. That Avenger ad was a masterpiece. Hope they carry that GOD theme further”.

We hung up after a few more minutes of inconsequential talk.

All this happened a week or two ago. I am a proud owner of Avenger 200, and based on its predecessor (the 180 cc version)’s ad, had lots of expectations about how the new 200cc version would be marketed.

After seeing the ad, “I’m disappointed” would be an understatement.

First things first; Bajaj has a (pseudo) Cruiser on their hands, a fantastic opportunity to cash in the absence of any other product of its type- and they are just blowing it off.

Ok, I have to give credit to them for realizing the fact that not everybody in the country wants a high- performance street-fighter or a 125 cc commuter. I have to praise them (and Lowe, for getting that refreshing ad) for hitting the right chords at the right time with the right people.

It’s the people who love the image of bikers, want to be one someday, but have no time to do so- are the major customers of Avenger. You know, the ones who cant fix a flat tyre, have no intention of learning how to do it, but still want to be called a ‘Biker’. 180 ad hit the nail right on its head; no other ad said “grab this, and shoo worries away” in a better way.

But 200? The ad has an arrogant air (Why listen to the music of humans?) The 180 ad had it too, but it was more like “I care about all those going on, but lemmie worry about them after this ride”. Bajaj could have used the old ad- with small indications of the rise in cubic capacity. And a small change in tagline- maybe “The Bigger God” instead of that old “feel like God” would have worked better.

I still believe this bike can spark off the (pseudo)Biker generation. Some official equipments, few merchandises, a niche run of print ads, some biker blogs on the official site.. hope someone realizes this soon enough.