Brands
The secret sauce to Royal Enfield’s success in India
MUMBAI: Royal Enfield or RE as it is popularly known has been one of the secretive brands that have forever been tight-lipped; never wanting to talk about its advertising, structure or business model. But it was a rare sight at Zee Melt 2018 where Royal Enfield president Rudratej Singh engaged with the audience for the first time to talk about why the brand stays away from advertising and its brand philosophy.
First produced in 1901, Royal Enfield is the oldest motorcycle brand in the world still in production, with the Bullet model enjoying the longest motorcycle production run of all time.
Singh kicked off his session with a short film that showcased how its consumers are not just consumers but rather a community who believe in the true spirit of riding. “We are a bunch of riders, for riders. We do not sell motorcycles but what your motorcycle can do in terms of experience,” he said.
Singh thinks that the entire team at Royal Enfield is a bunch of storytellers trapped in an automative company and they like to express themselves via its motorcycles. Although RE is the world’s fastest growing automative company today, Singh modestly calls it a small organism that is trying to become an organisation.
While other brands spend millions on advertisement and production, RE likes to keep it in-house and authentic. “Most of the communication and films for Royal Enfield are produced and directed in-house which saves us a lot of money rather than having an agency do it for us which would charge us nothing less than a few lakhs,” he says.
While everyone’s guessing the secret sauce of RE’s success, it is simply a balance between keeping it aspirational and accessible. The former in being authentic for what the brand stands for and the latter in terms of cost, cost of ownership, availability and usability.
Although the company sells motorcycles, it believes that it can motivate people to undertake travelling, something that RE owners definitely love to do, and self discover.
RE doesn’t believe in being omnipresent. For it, context matters. Singh said, “We would rather be visible on contextual events and gathering which are relevant to us rather than being present everywhere.” Royal Enfield spends a major chunk of its time and money on creating events, experiences and products. Singh said that the company has rejected several associations where it could have had front page coverage but did not do that since it was not relevant to them and it doesn’t believe in “that kind of marketing”.
The core of RE is to build meaningful relationships with its customers. This is done by sending frequent messages about joining its rides, attending events, being a part of the community and so on. This, in turn, has helped the brand in gaining consumer trust which is a huge asset for the motorcycle company.
Although the company has always refrained from television commercials and major advertisements on any platform, it has always been dragged into controversy, if not by its own will then by its competitor’s statements and ads. On this, Singh said, “We always knew that we are here to expand our own market and not snatch somebody else’s market. We analyse ourselves rather than nitpicking on other companies in the segment.”
Automation industry is all about product-led innovation and coming up with new products and launches but RE thinks of itself as a brand-led company which can do various things without being product led since brands tend to have a larger impact. Calling the company a zero GRP brand, Singh stated the reason for it being this way was because it has no money or time left and it becomes inauthentic the minute it tries to reach a large number of audience with similar communication. He said that a lot of focus for advertisers and marketers today is perennially on marketing and advertising. What you see now is only the lag of what has been happening in the industry for 15 years and the industry needs to buck up and do something about it. Marketers are trained to go for reach and frequency but the result of this approach is that people stop caring about the brand after a point of time because every communication they see around them is the same.
“We believe in getting across our message with minimum content and minimum cost. We don’t want to blast the internet and television spots with visibility. We always struggle with having little communication with a large group of audience at RE but we are okay with that,” he concluded.
Brands
YES Bank hands the keys to SBI veteran Vinay Tonse as it bets on a new era
Former SBI managing director appointed as YES Bank’s new MD and CEO
MUMBAI: YES Bank is done rebuilding. Now it wants to grow. The private sector lender has appointed Vinay Muralidhar Tonse as managing director and chief executive officer-designate, with RBI approval secured and a start date of April 6, 2026 confirmed. The three-year term signals the bank’s intent to shift gears from crisis recovery to full-throttle expansion.
Tonse, 60, is no stranger to scale. Most recently managing director at State Bank of India, he oversaw a retail book of roughly $800bn in deposits and advances, one of the largest in the country. Before that, he ran SBI Mutual Fund from August 2020 to December 2022, a stint that saw assets under management surge from Rs 4.32 lakh crore to Rs 7.32 lakh crore across market cycles. Add stints in Singapore and four years leading SBI’s overseas operations in Osaka, and the incoming chief arrives with a genuinely global CV.
His academic grounding is equally solid: a commerce degree from St Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bengaluru, and a master’s in commerce from Bangalore University.
The appointment follows an extensive search and evaluation process by the bank’s Nomination and Remuneration Committee. NRC chairperson Nandita Gurjar said the committee unanimously backed Tonse, citing his leadership track record, governance credentials and ability to drive the bank’s next phase of transformation.
Non-executive chairman Rama Subramaniam Gandhi was unequivocal. “I am certain that Vinay Tonse, with his vast experience as a senior banker, will propel YES Bank to its next phase of growth,” Gandhi said, adding that the bank remains focused on strengthening its retail and corporate banking franchises and expanding its branch network.
Rajeev Kannan, non-executive director and senior executive at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, the bank’s largest shareholder, said Tonse’s experience across retail, corporate banking, global markets and asset management positioned him well to lead the lender. SMBC said it looks forward to working with Tonse and the board as YES Bank pursues its ambition of becoming a top-tier private sector lender anchored in strong governance and sustainable growth.
Tonse succeeds Prashant Kumar, who took the helm in March 2020 when YES Bank was in freefall following a severe financial crisis, and spent six years painstakingly stabilising the institution, rebuilding governance and restoring operational scale. Gandhi was generous: “The bank remains indebted to Prashant Kumar, who is responsible for much of what a strong financial powerhouse YES Bank is today.”
Tonse, for his part, struck a purposeful note. “Together with the board and my colleagues, I remain deeply committed to creating long-term value for all our stakeholders,” he said, pledging to build on Kumar’s foundation guided by his personal motto: Make A Difference.
Beyond the balance sheet, Tonse played cricket at college and club level and represented Karnataka in archery at the national championships — sports he credits with teaching him teamwork, situational leadership, discipline and focus. In quieter moments, he reaches for retro Kannada music, classic Hindi songs, and the crooning of Engelbert Humperdinck, Mukesh and Kishore Kumar.
YES Bank has its steady-handed rebuilder in Kumar to thank for survival. Now it has a scale-obsessed growth banker at the wheel. The next chapter starts April 6.
