Well, its been few days since I've been obsessed with selling gas to the whole nation. And there are a few good surprises and a few bad surprises in the way.
Good ones first. Firstly, I don't see any car or tyre or two wheeler manufacturer talking about nitrogen in tyres and stuff like that. (I'm quite surprised though. I always had a lot of reverence towards the automotive industry) anyways, so that's one. Two, there are machines in place which can convert the normal atmosphere air into nitrogen with 95% purity, which effectively is 93% in trucks and heavy vehicles. Smaller vehicles may have better purity levels of nitrogen. So yes there are I believe better and cost effective ways to get nitrogen to the masses. Oh and by the way, from now on I shall refer to it (it as in nitrogen) as performance air. Sounds better. And besides, that's what it is for the normal dude who owns a Hero Honda Splendor.!
Coming to the bad things. Well first of all Ceat Tires is planning to install these performance air outlets as a part of its brand revamp strategy! And they've paid a whopping INR 20 crores to O&M to figure out how to go about it. So technically I'm putting up a fight against Ceat and O&M…! Sheesh! (Must…not…pee…in my pants…!). But a more pertinent question is why the hell are they setting up nitrogen stations at tyre outlets? From the India I know of, people fill up air at petrol pumps, not some swanky tyre shop! But that's their take and their 20 crores so why should I care?
This is the problem with all MNC type companies. They're so indulged in serving high value customers that they completely forget the 'real' high value customer, and that's the truck drivers. I mean Indian road terrain is so hopeless, that anything that will elongate tyre life, increase mileage and less hassles regarding air pressures is welcome. I've commuted via buses for nearly a quarter of my life and there have been umpteen times when there are issues with bus tyres. There's a lot to be expected that remains unfulfilled. Performance air can change that.! J
And as for machinery, well yes there's this company called Parker Hannifin something something, which produces nitrogen compressors. These babies produce 95% pure nitrogen like I said earlier, and are stand alone units like normal air compressors. Just formulating a proper strategy to contact those dudes.
And yes, I showed a dummy presentation to the class on Performance Air in a Strategic Brand Management class, using a fake brand called Air2. The people liked the concept until they found out that what I showed was a hoax. But it was fun doing a small trial run on the response of people. And I also fancy the brand name Air2. I like it for a Performance Air brand. What do you say?
More in the next run.
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