Hero Honda has upped the advertising ante in the last couple of years. When it decided to chase market share and not profits, it also decided that it would offer no discounts on its motorcycles.

(Even when the Cenvat rate was cut 4 per cent late last year, it did not cut prices of its models uniformly - well-entrenched models were left untouched, prices of some others were dropped more than 4 per cent. Clever!) The money saved by plugging the discounts was ploughed back into brand promotion.

And there was some aggressive planning. Last year, the company launched a three-minute advertisement on television to mark its silver jubilee. That would have cost a bomb. But Dua and his team worked with channels for six months. They were able to bring the air-time price down by half against firm commitments.

Research showed that Hero Honda's target customers (age bracket of 18 to 35 years) relate to four subjects: Cricket, music, movies and adventure. Thus, it roped in film stars Hrithik Roshan and Priyanka Chopra, joined the Indian Premier League sponsorship bandwagon, and got associated with television shows like Sa Re Ga Ma Pa on Zee TV and MTV Roadies.

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