Yes Sir.....     Vinay Punnoose                                                                                                                                                     

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Tuesday 24 February 2004

Gimme a scooter company I'll turn it around..

Its been an all bikes show the last few years, and almost all the companies have shifted towards motorcycles. And it looks really absurd, when I say...............  Gimme a scooter company I'll turn it around. 

Had I said it to my Asokan Sir, (who taught me Python, Java, and almost every bit of professional life) he would have said, "Young Man! I'll tell you one Tamil short story." And he would start with, there was a young man, who once lived in a village.... Well the story I liked a lot, so I'll just continue with his story for a while.The villagers had one big problem, it was the mountain standing tall over the road. And it would have made the lives of the villagers a lot easier, had it not been over there.. or if somehow it is removed from that place. So this young man, lets call him Chandu was one of those intelligent ones, who impressed people with his rhetoric. One day, Chandu goes to the Village elders and asks them to feed him for a month. For what!! when asked, he replies.. that after a month I'll remove that bloody mountain. The Sarpanch (Village head) finds it a very good proposition, after all what it takes to feed a person for a month. So our Chandu is fed for a month, and finally the day arrives. People from all over the village come to see Chandu doing this almost miraculous job for them. Chandu true to his undefeated spirit, gears himself up for the job. He bends over as if ready to carry the whole goddam mountain up his back.. and then he asks..

    " Can anyone just pull it up my back so that I can take it away"

Well my claim is in a way similar to what Chandu does to the villagers, I'll just say gimme a scooter, good enough so as to be sold. Asokan Sir knows about me a lot, after all he had taught me for 6 months. But seriously if we give it a logical thought, is it so difficult to sell a scooter these days. Some points to ponder upon.

  • The scooters have been so bad in improving upon their designs and looks.
  • The males are shifting on to bikes not because bikes are good, but its the other way round.. the scooters are bad.
  • Marketing done for scooters is terrible, besides I see a tremendous potential in Lamby/Lambretta kind of scooters which would take up very quick with the fashionable youths, if priced, placed correctly. (probably as vintage.)
  • Come out with new scooters for females, light/less powerful ones. And that would be almost 50 percent of the driving population in coming 10 years probably.

Having said that, I believe scooters are at an inherent disadvantage with the males, because of their smaller wheels, and lesser power. But then its all about placing the product. I won't mind driving the Italian scooters or the vintage scooters designed well for an effortless driving. Rather finding scooters up on the Italian ramps shows just how well scooters can be, when even Armani finds it a very fashionable, and very metallic just like 'Royal Enfield'.

 

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