Royal Enfield: Preserving and leveraging legacy appeal while revamping brand imagery

Abstract

By the turn of the 21st century, Siddhartha Lal won the opportunity to revive Royal Enfield (RE), the fading iconic motorcycle brand of Eicher Motors. The challenge was to turn around the motorcycle division of Eicher Motors and achieve sustainable growth in sales and market share, while maintaining profitability. Eicher Motors worked on improving the brand performance and perception by modernising the RE bikes, in terms of technological advancements, superior functionality and overall driving experience and feel. With this RE re-emerged as a major player in the mid-size motorcycle segment. Post 2019, however, RE was grappling with decreasing sales and stagnating market share, owing to changing customer expectations and increasing competition in this product category (Table 1). RE now had to work towards extending and enhancing the customer base by wooing the new-generation customers. But this would entail certain modifications in terms of its exceptionally unique brand imagery and association of RE. Although the revamp of RE’s brand imagery and association can appeal to and resonate well with new-generation customers, it might also compromise the cult emotional appeal, established over the decades. Above all, the probability of gaining major headway in new-generation customer base — at the cost of adulterating the legacy ‘cult emotional appeal’ — could be uncertain because of rising competition in this segment and product category. This scenario created a catch-22 situation and RE had to employ strategic options to deal with it. This paper discusses the challenge of infusing freshness into the brand’s image without losing the essence of its legacy.