Ola: The hot-selling meme that confuses everyone
Wheel in motion?
The Internet is full of memes on Ola founder, Bhavish’s claims that Ola is the world’s fourth largest EV company in the world* (* = excluding China).
This has become a meme, but here are some harsh truths about Ola business
The main product, i.e. Ola cabs is literally a non-existent one now.
Ola EV had a very high burn rate. Most of the earlier incidents around EV catching fire were from Ola (curious: what’s the latest data?)
Ola’s customer service is really a fictitious story. The Internet is full of tweets/videos about one’s bike being lying idle and no help from Ola’s customer care.
Ola is being sued by MapMyIndia for copying its data
Ola is accused of copying images from Hero Tech’s Germany website (btw, this isn’t anything new for the company - they even copied their splash screen in the first version of the product)
Krutrim / AI stack is..meh
(though I like the fact that Bhavish is moving away from consumer play, i.e. chatbot to infra play - i.e. Krutrim cloud).
But in spite of all this:
Ola sells well.
Ola EV’s market share is bloody good (~50% market share / has beaten the early movers like Ather, the incumbents like Bajaj, Hero etc)
And the share price is nearly double of its debut (as of today)
Deeply integrated with its product stack - right from UX (one app does the work) to its fintech arm, i.e. Ola finance.
So, what gives?
Why is it that a brand which is being laughed upon by everyone - still sell? Well, here is what is happening:
Nationalism as a GTM play always works
Right from ‘Make America Great Again’ (Trump) to ‘The Chinese Dream’ (Xi Jinping), nationalism card has always worked and Bhavish has been playing this very well. But unlike others who just do a lip service, he seems to be acting on it as well - moving out of Azure to Krutrim is a great case study on that (I don’t know how real/practical was this entire transition so won’t comment).
The nationalistic sentiments works best to get free PR / media coverage + build a nationalistic brand (top of the mind recall) - which creates a positive sentiment among customers (of Ola products + stock).
While competitors are playing the feature-benefit game, Ola has definitely upped the play with its nationalistic game
After all, what do you recall about Bajaj or Hero’s EV promos?
I am sure: NOTHING.
Ola has cracked the price point
The real buyers of Ola are value-for-money seekers. They may not care much about nationalism or burn rate - they just want a great looking bike at an affordable price point (and of course, should work as expected).
No doubt, Ola has figured out the right pricing strategy - unlike Ather, which is too premium (simply put, Ola is enjoying the lower BoM (Bill of Material) and is passing the discount to customers).
Importantly, it is present in all 3 segments - commuter, mid-market, and super premium (which were literally owned by Bajaj Auto, Hero MotoCorp, and TVS)
Even the recently announced bike Roadster is priced at a crazy price point (75K), which I am sure will disrupt other’s plans.
Single-Category focus
Imagine this. You are sales manager at TVS, Hero or Bajaj’s showroom. You have two options
Sell what you know (i.e. petrol vehicle)
Sell EVs.
You will always be confused which vehicle to sell/promote - and that reminds me of Siebel (yeah, the CRM OG) which badly lost to salesforce because the sales team was often confused which product to sell - the on-premise CRM (huge $$) or much cheaper, CRMOndemand product (subscription product)- selling the latter meant very lesser incentive$$.
This confusion is very much rampant in dealers, and they often end up selling what gives them better margins (translates to better incentives) and importantly, closes the deal better - i.e. petrol vehicle.
Being an EV native brand helps Ola build a clear narrative as opposed to the incumbents.
Face of the brand - always works.
Bhavish has done a remarkable job of PR and that too, driving the PR machinery on his own name / personality.
Given the new age audience they (probably) relate better with Bhavish than no-face-Bajaj or TVS or similar companies. Others like Ather have been executing silently ( that’s Tarun’s style, each founder has his/her own personality, and I am not judging).
What’s your take?
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