Honda ropes in Akshay Kumar to make your dreams true

Its amazing to hear that Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India has roped in Akshay kumar for a whopping 50 Crores for 5 years. However, my personal opinion is that the brand association does not fit too much. I mean a Pulsar or a CBR can have Akshay Kumar. But not Honda Yuva.

Akshay Kumar has been known to portray tough characters in his commercials, especially Thums up or to have a superb comic timing.  However, Honda historically has been known to target the hearts of its audience through emotional marketing. Thus, neither of Akshay kumar’s advantages will be exploited by Honda. And on top of it, the opening ad is not that great. Akshay Kumar’s narration sounds a bit slow and the ad shot does not bring anything new to the table. Its just what Honda has been doing over the years – Value focused ads to build its brand.

There has been no out of the box effort from HMSI as it is especially necessary now that HMSI has to establish its own brand equity and create a good brand recall. For this HMSI needs to think of some really creative ways to advertise its product. Just by changing the celebrity, changing the wordings but keeping the same theme of winning the consumers heart is not going to work every time. Nowadays, customers are more used to a sense of humour in ads or an ad which is unique.

In the end, whether or not HMSI will be able to get its ROI after such a big investment in Akshay kumar will depend on the products it launches in the next 5 year as well as the message it sends to its target audience.