Brands
Covid effect: TVS Motor’s domestic sales plunge 33% in April
NEW DELHI: After holding steady on the road to recovery, TVS Motor Company sales plunged 26 per cent to 2,38,983 units in the month of April 2021. This is a significant downturn from the 3,22,683 units the company sold in March 2021.
The company’s total two-wheelers sales in April stood at 2,26,193 units compared to 3,07,437 units in March. Domestic two-wheeler sales of TVS Motor stood at 1,31,386 units last month, as against 2,02,155 units in March this year.
Though the company has seen an overall drop of nearly 33 per cent compared to its performance in March, it is nevertheless a massive growth if one considers its performance during the same period last year, when sales crashed to zero in the domestic market due to the nationwide lockdown.
“Domestic sales in April 2021 are lower due to lockdowns in many states, but retails continue to be ahead of despatch. We have reduced dealer stocks to support the channel partners and will produce to maintain adequate inventories for customer demand when it reopens,” TVS Motor noted.
The company’s total exports registered sales of 1,07,185 units in April 2021 as against 9,640 units registered in the month of April 2020. Two-wheeler exports recorded sales of 94,807 units in April 2021 as against 8,134 units in April 2020.
Three-wheelers manufactured by TVS Motor recorded sales of 12,790 units in April 2021, compared to 1,506 units in the same period last year.
Brands
Godrej clarifies ‘GI’ identifier after logo similarity debate
Says GI is not a logo, will not replace Godrej signature across products.
MUMBAI: In a branding storm where shapes did the talking, Godrej is now spelling things out. Godrej Industries Group (GIG) has issued a clarification on its newly introduced ‘GI’ identifier, addressing questions around its purpose and design following a wave of online criticism. At the centre of the debate were two concerns: whether the new mark replaces the long-standing Godrej logo, and whether its geometric design mirrors other corporate identities.
The company has drawn a clear line. The Godrej signature logo, it said, remains unchanged and continues to be the sole logo across all consumer-facing products and services. The ‘GI’ mark, by contrast, is not a logo but a corporate group identifier intended for use alongside the Godrej signature or company name, and aimed at stakeholders such as investors, media and talent rather than consumers.
The need for such a distinction stems from the 2024 restructuring of the broader Godrej Group into two separate business entities. With both continuing to operate under the same Godrej name and signature, the identifier is positioned as a way to differentiate the Godrej Industries Group at a corporate level.
The rollout, however, triggered a broader conversation on design originality. Critics pointed to similarities between the GI mark’s geometric composition and logos used by companies globally, raising questions about distinctiveness.
Responding to this, GIG said its intellectual property and legal review found that such overlaps are common in minimalist, geometry-led design systems. Basic forms such as circles and rectangles appear across dozens of brand identities worldwide, the company noted.
It added that the identifier emerged from an extensive design process and was chosen for its simplicity, allowing it to sit alongside the Godrej signature without competing visually. While acknowledging that elemental shapes may appear less distinctive in isolation, the group emphasised that the mark is part of a broader identity system that includes a custom typeface, sonic branding and other proprietary elements.
Following legal and ethical assessments, the company said it found no impediment to using the identifier, reiterating that the GI mark is a corporate tool not a consumer-facing symbol.
In short, the logo isn’t changing but the conversation around it certainly has.
