100cc bikes:evolution

Evolution of Bikes in India

In 70s we had Bajaj Vespa, Bajaj Chetak, Bajaj cub... And i remember an exciting booking session for a new model of scooter Vespa XE and a failed launch of the same brand.

Then came the launch of Hero Honda, Kawasaki Bajaj, Yamaha RX100, Kinetic Honda, Ind Suzuki, Enfield Explorer.

Ind Suzuki later became TVS Suzuki and then we saw the birth of Suzuki Samurai ( The no problem bike!).

Suzuki launched a much more powerful five gear bike in Suzuki Shaolin.

Yamaha launched Crux in the late 90s to capitalise on the lost Yamaha franchisee.

TVS launched Victor

Hero Honda was the only consistent player in this whole game till 2011. As they parted ways with Honda. Now its just Hero.

Kinetic Honda was the only button start, now we have almost every 100cc bike/ scooter with a button start

KRD Rice

Packed Curd Rice 

Hatsun launched a very interesting product "Curd Rice" in the market and attempted distributing it across all Arun Ice cream parlour outlets and later on into other retailers. The product was very tasty  as Arun's milk strength was leveraged very well. The product had a good media support with actor "Prakash Raj" endorsing the product named as "KRD rice".
I think product distribution issues and later on manufacturing bottlenecks pulled the product down from the markets. If i could recall specific issues were:

1. Arun Ice cream outlets were closer to colonies and not close to office areas, as the product was targetted at Bachelors / office goers etc., the availability was critical

2. Freshness of the product was questioned as consumers wanted it to have packed that day and hence it couldnt go beyond chennai. However in the rural and semirural, making  a consumer to buy curd rice would have been a bigger challenge.

3. 
I dont remember exactly, but i felt there was a pricing issue where in it was charged at Rs.25 per pack.
http://www.buzzar.tv/product/hatsun_krdrys

"Arjun Amma yaaru (who is arjun's mom?)"

4.5 Milk

Tamilnadu was taken by storm with this interesting set of teasers that flashed around during the early part of the millennium. The story was, Arjun is a very bright kid and an allrounder so to say... everyone wants to know who is his mother? 

An interesting take and a great introduction for a celebrity "Radhika". She comes in and does the product introduction of Arokya 4.5% fat milk. This communication was very fresh for the milk category. Bates was the agency that conceptualised this and the brand owner Hatsun Foods ( Arun Ice Creams). Arokya became synonymous to high fat milk. So much so that consumer still refers it as 4.5 milk (nallarai paal).

The downside was Arokya's other milk variants like low fat milk, 2% fat etc., couldnt succedd as consumers branded Arokya with 4.5%. Hatsun later launched the other milk variants under the brand name "Hatsun".