Letting Go of Legends: When Emotions Clash with Business Sense - Bajaj "Scooter", HUL "Pureit" and "Pawan Kalyan Hari Hara Veera Mallu"

In 2005, I witnessed a press conference that still lingers in my memory. A composed Rajiv Bajaj stood before the press and announced the discontinuation of one of India’s most iconic products, the Bajaj Chetak petrol scooter. Next to him sat Rahul Bajaj, crestfallen and close to tears. It was a moment that marked the end of an era.

Hamara Bajaj was not just a brand campaign. It symbolized middle-class India’s aspirations. In the 1980s, owning a Bajaj scooter was a dream so strong that families waited for years to get one. Sometimes, the only way to get a Bajaj allotment was through a foreign relative wiring USD 500 back to India. 

Along with an HMT Kanchan gold-plated automatic watch, the Bajaj scooter was the ultimate wedding gift and status symbol. However, with the arrival of cheaper and more fuel-efficient four-stroke motorcycles, the decline began. Despite its legacy, Bajaj couldn’t keep up with the changing market dynamics. As Ravi Bajaj himself later admitted, letting go of such a legendary product was like losing a family member. That’s the emotional price of being in business. Marrying memories to markets doesn’t always make sense.

A similar example comes from Hindustan Unilever (HUL). The company had a vast portfolio of FMCG products in India. However, Pureit, their water purifier brand, was an exception to the rule. It wasn’t sold through regular kirana stores or supermarkets. Instead, Pureit followed a medical distribution model, marketed directly to hospitals and doctors, with its own separate sales force and supply chain.

In 2024, HUL decided to offload Pureit to A.O. Smith, signalling a smart move to refocus on their core categories. Again, a difficult but strategic decision. Proof that sometimes, cutting emotional ties is essential for future growth.

Even the entertainment industry isn’t immune. The recent film Hari Hara Veera Mallu, with a reported budget of ₹300 crore and over five years in the making, faced a major setback. Starring Pawan Kalyan, the movie received heavy backlash after its regular release, particularly for poor visual effects. As a reaction, nearly 22 minutes were cut from the film post-release. But the damage was done.

The question arises. Why weren’t rational decisions made earlier? Why not test the film with a sample audience beforehand? Why wait for public backlash before making drastic edits? It’s a classic case of creators becoming too emotionally attached to their vision, blinding them to objective feedback.

As the saying goes, common sense is not so common, especially when emotions, legacy, and ambition take over reason.

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Keywords: Bajaj Chetak history, Hamara Bajaj, Rahul Bajaj emotional moment while discontinuing Bajaj Scooter, Discontinued Indian products. Hindustan Unilever Pureit sale, Emotional marketing decisions, Hari Hara Veera Mallu movie failure, Rationality in product decisions, Letting go of legacy brands, Indian business nostalgia

#HamaraBajaj #BrandLegacy #IndianIcons #BusinessDecisions #HUL #Pureit #MovieFlops #NostalgiaMarketing #LettingGo #RationalVsEmotional

Vespa Scooter - Positioning Strategy

                                           Vespa Scooter The Ultimate in Positioning

What does Vespa mean in Italian? Most students don’t give the correct answer. Vespa in Italian means a wasp. An insect that can string and get away fast.

That was what the original Vespa was, a nippy beast that aimed and ruled the world of scooters. Made by the Iconic Piaggio & Company Vespa the scooter was elegant and designed as a unisex transport option for men and women. The dead giveaway is the design that allows women especially women who wear skirts and sarees to easily mount the vehicle and drive it.

The brand started to popularize itself as a style icon after Audrey Hepburn side saddled Gregory Pecks Vespa in the movie Roman Holiday. This resulted in catapulting the sales to over 1,00,000 in that year.

So, the initial ads had mostly women proclaiming their allegiance and singing paeons of glory about its ease of usage. Later it slowly started showing both men and women using it with the positioning tack being a twosome vehicle. Later on, it became a family vehicle.

When Vespa was introduced in India Bajaj faced a peculiar problem. Not many women rode scooters (in fact in the initial stages women were not driving any mechanical contraption except the bicycle).

Bajaj quickly changed tracks and projected Bajaj as the ultimate vehicle for the “Indian Man”. The motorcycle was for the rugged Indian and the Bajaj Vespa was the sophisticated urban equivalent driven by the man of the house and the wide and children demurely sat behind him.

The promotion was so spot on that Indian men took the persuasion seriously to the heart. And the product supported their beliefs. Bajaj Vespa was heavy, quite cumbersome, had unwieldy gears and it was not easy to master. And the master stroke. Bajaj scooter must be bent and shaken vigorously everyday morning for it to start. Something that only the akkada trained female wrestlers’ Indian women wrestlers could attempt. It was not for normal women. 

Thus, the unisex positioning was completely abandoned. First, it was Kinetic Honda that took the position and in later years it was Hero Activa that completely dominated this mind space. 

Today the unisex choice for scooters is firmly the Hero Activa and in that category, Bajaj has no product offering either in the male scooter category or in the unisex category.

Of course, Bajaj Chetak is trying to come back in an electric version and it remains to see if its ploy succeeds.