Update on me selling gas…!

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.

If we have performance tires, performance breaks, performance fuel, why not Performance Air?

I’m going to talk about Performance Air. For people who don’t believe in ideas, buzz off, and for people who do, you are free only to appreciate my ideas and if you choose not to, the same rule about people not believing in my ideas applies to you as well.

Talking about Performance Air, there are many vectors based on which you can perceive the whole thing. But before that let me give you a little bit of background.

Normally the air that we pump in a tire (be it 2 wheeler or 4 wheeler) is called compressed air. Composition-wise the compressed air is made up of nitrogen (78%), oxygen (21%) and other related gases (1%). The figures may vary a little bit, but the point here is that this is the ratio of the gases we have in our tires. Also, in worst case scenarios you also get moisture as a part of the composition which worsens the tire wear and induces rust (that is if you are not running on alloy wheels).

Now get a load of this. Had we filled the tires with pure nitrogen (that’s 100% nitrogen filled tires) instead of the usual compressed air, you would have no moisture (which means your frames don’t rust) and slower air gas diffusion (since nitrogen is heavier than oxygen, it won’t diffuse out of the porous tire walls that easily). Plus, nitrogen is lighter than air, so you save on weight and increased performance. Nitrogen is not a catalyst to combustion, while oxygen (which is present in compressed air) is a catalyst to combustion. So if your car’s on fire, make sure your tires aren’t leaking, unless you want the car to go up in flames! Also, filling up your tires with nitrogen will ensure better and uniform tire wear, and better performance.

I just talked about 5 advantages of nitrogen filled tires as compared to the normal compressed air. The only drawback perhaps is the fact that I might have to pay 10 Dhs or INR 10 to get my tires filled with nitrogen.

Now lets look at this from various vectors. If you are a high value customer who owns a sports car with Pirelli tires or something like that, quite naturally Performance Air makes quite a lot of sense. I mean you spend a ball buying a Porsche lets say, you squeeze your credit cards to the limits to get Pirelli tires and set of Brembo break systems and the likes. Finally what do you fill your tires with? Compressed air. That’s what the whole world uses. Its kinda low class ain’t it? For a performance vehicle, you definitely need Performance Air.

Now let’s take another vector. A normal dude with a Bajaj Discover or a Hero Honda Splendor might not have many performance tweak options available to him. One, because the engineering limitations doesn’t permit him to do so. Two, there is no 'do-it-yourself' kind of stuff available for the rider to tweak. But with the same given set of equipment he surely can have Performance Air in his bike. Dandy ain't it?

Another vector for the Performance Air can be women. Since women are regarded to be lithe and nimble, the sight of a woman dragging a flat two wheeler seems quite pitiful. Mind you, I’m not a male chauvinist, but let’s not get into all that.

The point is two areas where women and vehicles are at a cross is when there’s a flat tire, or when it comes to vehicle handling, especially in the case of two-wheelers. Both are areas which Performance Air can address.

Flat tire probabilities can be reduced since Performance Air has lesser gas diffusion since it has larger molecules than air, plus, handling is improved since tire print on the road is better.

There might be other vectors yet unexplored like children and the safety aspects or something like it. The point is, I’m trying to sell air, at a premium and yet make consumers believe that it’s worth every penny you are paying for. How do I do that, or whether this blog remains only on paper is still a question mark.

(note: it’s been just 2 days since this idea has been haunting my mind, and given a chance I’d put all my money into this idea; for sure. There are very few brainwaves that really make sense to me. Rural stuff is one, this is another. If any venture capitalist is reading this blog, do drop me a line. I’m game. Just one condition. Please let me complete my MBA! Or else my dad will kill me.! :-)