The Honda Airblade, a fuel-efficient motorbike, targets young 20-somethings, while the updated version of Honda’s popular Civic marque — the 2007 Civic — eyes a more upscale, status-conscious audience.
For the Airblade, Honda has split above- and below-the-line creative duties between Dentsu and BatesAsia, respectively. The motorbike’s key brand idea is ‘See the new air’, which has been executed in TV and print.
To reach younger consumers, Honda sponsored a series of ‘laserman shows’ in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and staged performances by a rock band and a Vietnamese version of dance troupe, Stomp. “Honda has top-of-mind awareness in Vietnam, but needs to build its brand image as ‘fashionable’ and ‘cool’,” said BatesAsia 141 GM Tue Nguyen.
“Product launches tend to be very similar and generic here — such as the lazy use of celebrity endorsements. But there is confusion over which celebrity represents which brand. Celebrities become more famous, not the brand.”
Honda sold 250,000 motorbikes in Vietnam in Q1 this year. With the Airblade, the company is hoping to sell more than one million units by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, BatesAsia’s campaign for the Honda Civic launch targets white-collar professionals with the key proposition ‘Realise your dream’, and covers TV, print and events. Nguyen said the Civic, first introduced in 2006, is the market leader in the mid-sized sedan category and has sold more than 2,000 units since the beginning of 2007.
Motorbikes are the most popular form of transportation in Vietnam. A report from the Ministry of Transport and the Japan International Cooperation Agency showed that last year, motorcycles served 65 per cent of drivers in Hanoi and 80 per cent in Ho Chi Minh City. Meanwhile, cars made up only four per cent of drivers in Hanoi and six per cent of drivers in Ho Chi Minh City.
