Says Siddartha Shriram, chairman, HSPPL, ``We believe that changing the brand name to Honda, as it is sold all over the world, is going to be beneficial.'' Adds R P Mehrotra, general manager marketing, HSPPL: ``Honda enjoys tremendous brand equity in power products, motorcycles and automobiles. The new branding exercise will also lead to faster inflow of technology from the $45 billion Honda Motor Company Ltd (HMCL), Japan.'' The move comes as a sequel to HMCL's acquisition of a majority stake (67 per cent) in Honda Siel in 1998.

The new range of portable generators is priced between Rs 19,000-Rs 44,000; the general purpose engines: Rs 10,000 to Rs 14,000; water pumpsets: Rs14,000-Rs 18,000; outboard motors for fishing boats: Rs 26,000; lawn mowers: Rs 34,500; and agri-appliances like tillers and reapers: Rs 30,000-Rs 50,000.

In the last three years, HSPPL has made an aggressive drive to penetrate into semi-urban and rural markets. Says Mehrotra, ``We've been able to reach out to all towns below two lakh population. By the end of this year, we'll be present in all towns below one lakh population.''

Since the market is predominantly catered to by electrical pumps, Honda's water pumps are competing in niche markets, where portability of the product is important and the land-holding is as small as five acres.

With a marketing budget of around five per cent of sales, Honda will be intensely pursuing a new corporate and product campaign. Handled by Mudra, the print and electronic media campaign will unfold soon. This will be complemented by an aggressive promotional drive involving a field force of 130, coordinated through 14 offices and 800 dealers.

``We'll be going tosocieties, street corners and villages for demonstrations,'' says Mehrotra. On an average, Honda conducts over 3,000 demonstrations a year-which means, each dealer on average conducts three to four demonstrations in a month-through which it educates the target audience about the product's USP: portability, environmental-friendliness, fuel efficiency and reliability.

For outboard motors, HSPPL will promote the product in Kerala, Tamilnadu, Bengal and Orissa through fishermen societies, while on the Gangetic and river banks it will target individual buyers. The lawn mowers will be aimed at golf clubs and farm houses; while on agri-appliances Honda is working with OEMs to develop market-specific products like sugar-crushers.

HSPPL claims to have captured a 65 per cent share of the gensets market in the 0.5 KV to 5 KV range. With the newly launched range, Honda aims to target a wide spectrum of applications for Honda engines in households, agriculture, amusement parks, construction, and the marine industry.However, for the current year, it seesvery little contribution from the new range, to its projected turnover of Rs 200 crore in 1999-2000.