Why Dominar Has Not Achieved the Desired Sales Figures

Dominar 400 was launched in December 2016, the first gen was good but yes, the sales were low. Bajaj estimated a monthly sale of 10,000 units in India!!!

The Dominar is targeted as a sports tourer however, the ad campaigns took a massive dig at Royal Enfield.

It was funny but it did not strike the right chord with the Royal Enfield user base and prospective Dominar buyers.

Why?

Here, we have to understand the mindset of Indian customers. Royal Enfield looks old school, feels old school, rides old school and is basically old school. But this old school motorcycle has a charm of it's own. It appeals to a certain base of customers. My apologies - It appeals to every base of customers.

(Image Source: Google)

You can ride the current Royal Enfield models from as early as 25 years of age to 60 if you are up for it.

The Dominar is tech advanced, feature packed, fast, agile and more dependable than a Royal Enfield. The bike looks outright mean and means business on the road. But, it does not have a charm. Not yet at least.(Apologies if anyone gets offended here, I am a proud owner of Dominar myself).

Now the most important question is - which category of people will buy a Dominar?

In my understanding, 2 set of people - 

One who has been living their life with a mid-range commuter motorcycle with decent power figures (Pulsar, Apache, Karizma, R15, etc.) and no desire to own a Royal Enfield.

Next is that category of buyers from whom the anything apart from Dominar is too extreme for their taste. 

For example: 

KTM Duke 390 - A bit outlandish but amazing and outrageous power

Mahindra Mojo - Good touring bike but questionable service network and spare parts

Benelli TNT 300 - Feature packed but unstable market presence, questionable service network and pricey

Kawasaki Ninja 300 - Fully Faired motorcycle, very expensive

Yamaha R3 - Another fully faired motorcycle, expensive with insane amounts of power

Royal Enfield - Outdated design (Termed as Retro), Noisy, Slow, Lack of features. Surprisingly, these are also the very reasons for which RE motorcycles have enjoyed an undisputed market share for more than a decade

BMW G 310 GS - Very Expensive purchase and maintenance

(Image source: Facebook)

So, why is the sale of Dominar not what Bajaj expected?

There is no denying the fact that Dominar has seen steady month on month growth since its launch. But what put the motorcycle on the back foot was the ad campaign. You don't just enter the ring and challenge the alpha male and that is what RE motorcycles are. All the competitors only have a chunk of market share but RE has the biggest share of the pie.

Since 2018, sales of Dominar had spiked. 2019, it spiked a lot more. 

Bajaj had Target of selling 10,000 units every month but that is exaggerated expectations on their part. But yes, considering current economy, it is a not easy for someone to own a bike worth 2.21 lacs and then maintain it. Moreover, the competition is growing faster and Bajaj seems to be doing nothing about it in India. Though their exports give them more revenue than Indian sales.

The Dominar is already a street bike and it is devilishly handsome.

It is already a sports tourer (a segment created by Bajaj in India) and it can smoothly operate for daily city commutes.

With the onset of the 2020-21, Bajaj should expand the portfolio.

A proper touring motorcycle with revised suspension height, adventure or all weather tyres, increased fuel-tank size, cosmetic changes and voila! comes a competitor for RE Himalayan, Hero Xpulse200, KTM Adventure 390, BMW G 310 GS

Remove the excess body, keep a clean and classy body with of course, a rounded headlamp, add black spokes wheels and offer an old school scrambler. The market was untouched until the end of 2019. But now it will still be a good competitor to Leoncino 250 & 500, RE Interceptor 650 (not so much, TBH)

Bring in a retro or a modern looking cruiser in the 400cc segment, that space is literally empty, except for RE again.

Now that would be a complete portfolio that will appeal to a much larger customer base and thus increase sales.

While Bajaj figures out its strategy, I urge all riders in India and the whole world to wear your helmet and safety gears and ride responsibly.