Why Would Anyone Buy a Chetak? A Layer-by-Layer Audience Breakdown

Suppose, I have a brand and I want to sell my products or services, for this I want to find potential customer who will buy my product, so I will think of how my potential buyers might look like, I will identify what gender will be interested in my product, where he or she lives, what beliefs they have, what fears they have. 

This is what we called Audience Segmentation – Identifying and categorising the customers persona into groups to target them effectively rather than targeting all the people. 

How to Approach Audience Segmentation

I analysed the Audience of a well-known Indian Electric Scooter brand – Chetak.

And here I will explain not just what I analysed but how I analysed and came to each conclusion.

A brief overview of Chetak – Chetak is sub-brand of Bajaj Auto, in 90s, it was one of the large

Market share holder of  scooters. At that time, there were multiple variants – all petrol driven as there was not much hype of electric vehicles then.

Now, Chetak is rebranded and relaunched as a premium Electric Scooter brand which is competing with brands such as Ola Electric, Ather Energy, TVS and Vida World.

Audience Segmenting is all about asking the right questions and stress testing the answers you get to.

The first question that comes to my mind while creating audiences for any brand will be “Why Someone will Buy Y product from Brand X”, in this case  its – 

“Why Someone will Buy Electric Scooter from Chetak”

Here, lets reverse engineer a bit and ask questions from scratch –

“Why would anyone buy a scooter”

Then move to – 

“Why would anyone buy an Electric scooter”

Then comes – “Why Would Someone Buy an Electric Scooter from Chetak”.

This layered thinking is highly important to get into the deep of analysis.

Let’s answer 1st layer – 

The answer to this is simple – Someone buys a scooter because they want –  

• Short-distance travel – scooter works perfect for short distances
• They are looking for affordable options to commute – a bike is expensive than the scooter
• Scooters are easy to drive for anyone – for females and elders

This layer was simple. 

Also, in the first layer we will skip the “Who” part, because that will be very exhaustive and won’t add much value to the analysis.

Layer 2 – Why would anyone buy an electric scooter?

The first reasons that I came up was –

• Save money
• Light weight 
• Government Subsidies
• Eco-Friendly. 

Let’s stress test these. 

Electric scooters are often more expensive than petrol scooters, Active costs around 90,000 and Chetak mid range models start above 1,20,000. But the consideration here is even though the upfront cost of an electric scooter is more, the running cost of the electric is way less than the petrol. 

So this reason refines from saving money to save scooter running costs.

Light Weight – I discovered all scooters eclectic or petrol weights around 103 – 108 kg. TVS Jupiter weighs around 108kg and Chetak’s C2501 around 107 kg and Chetak’s other 30 series models weigh around 125-134 kg, heavier than the petrol scooter. 

Let’s remove this from the list.

Government Subsidies – Surely, the Government does provide subsidies for buying the Electric vehicles, this is not convincing enough for the buyer to opt for an electric scooter when it has cheaper petrol scooters as options. Still I’ll keep this as the reason. 

Eco-Friendly – How much do you think that Indian Customers  think about eco-friendly products while buying automotives or even in any purchase, there will be very less and keeping them as target audience won’t be worth the effort.

So let’s think more – 

What are the actual irritants of owning one day to day?

• Going to the petrol pump
• Servicing, oil changes, engine maintenance

Electric Scooter  removes most of these.

There’s also a status/modernity signal. In certain segments, owning an EV is a forward-looking identity statement. Especially relevant for Chetak because Bajaj has deliberately made it look premium and retro-modern. The person buying it is also saying something about themselves.

This also highlights that understanding the Brand and its products are very important before audience segmenting.

Finally these are the points I got to –

1. Low Running Cost 
2. Convenience 
3. Identity Signal – modern and premium
4. Subsidies (supporting factor)

Let’s go for the “Who” of the Layer 2

For how, I’ll use 4 why’s as a lens to find the audience –

Who is the person for whom the running cost matters more than the upfront cost of the scooter ?

Who cares about the identity signal of owning an EV?

Who Prefers Convenience like not going to petrol pumps?

Some answers are – 

A daily commuter as he/she may care more about the running cost.

business owners as they have money and can afford to buy these scooters and also think in the long term to save money.

Females of the family as they rarely go to the petrol pumps and they may require it for short-distance travels.

Elders of the family may also require it for short distance travel.

Salaried Employees earning a decent salary who may want an electric scooter but also think in long term savings while also maintaining their standard and comfort.

Stress Test:

A daily commuter is way too broad, we need more specifics to write the messaging and allocate the resources. Can’t take this.

Business owners also seem vague – a business owner can be a small kirana shop owner and a startup founder, both come under the same bucket and if we just take this as an argument that they have money, then they do not even care about buying an electric scooter as many times they may not care about the money.

A better refinement can be – small business owners, they have money and they also care about the long term ROI.

Salaried Employees earning decent salary who also think long term – I will take this, they fit into my “Whys”, they care about running cost, identity signals, but by being more specific I will keep an age bracket of 25-40 years. We are good to go.

Females and Elder of the family are good to go, I will explain more of these in their audience – driver mapping.

But here comes a question – 

Why Map the Audience (Small Business owners, females)  with the Drivers (Identity, Running Cost etc)

Because the end goal is to understand who Chetak is specifically targeting. If I just list segments without mapping to drivers, I have a list of people – but you don’t know why they’d choose electric, which means you can’t evaluate whether Chetak’s messaging is reaching them with the right motivation.

The mapping also helps you see which segments overlap and which are distinct. If two segments are driven by the same combination of drivers, Chetak can potentially reach both with the same message. If they’re driven by different things, they need different approaches.

Let’s Start with the Females of the Family –

Females may need an electric scooter for convenience, as we discussed above that she may not go to petrol pumps, but here more Indian women need it for independence, to go to local markets for the groceries, to meet her near friends. 

The scooter itself is the independence tool. Electric adds the identity layer on top.

Also the feeling of having something premium and different to her makes it stong emotional signal.

So the key drivers are –

• Identity – It’s not just a “premium product.” It’s “I made a smart, modern choice for myself.” That’s a stronger emotional driver.
• Convenience – home charging fits because in many Indian households she’s not the one going to the petrol pump anyway. Charging at home is within her domain.
• Running cost – secondary, but relevant if she’s contributing to household finances or is financially independent.

Let’s move to Elders of the Family –

Elders mostly need a scooter for short distance travel – going to the temple, the bank, a nearby clinic. My first instinct was to put them under Convenience, since they’re not going to be the ones fussing over running cost math.

But I stress tested this one hard, and it doesn’t hold up the way I expected.

A few questions I asked myself –

Are elders comfortable with new technology like charging, app-based features, digital dashboards?

Is the higher upfront cost acceptable to someone who may be retired or on a fixed income?

Does range anxiety even matter to someone doing short temple and market runs, or is it a non-issue?

The honest answer – an elder is not a strong fit as a buyer. But as a consumer (the person who actually rides it), they absolutely matter.

This is an important distinction in audience work – the Customer (who decides and pays) and the User (who rides it daily) are not always the same person. For elders, the real buyer is usually a son or daughter. 

The elder doesn’t go searching “best electric scooter,” but the son might search “electric scooter for elderly parents” or “easy to ride scooter for senior citizens.” 

That’s a real search behaviour, and a real content opportunity – it just means the messaging is about the elderly, but aimed at the younger buyer.

Think of it like a diaper ad – the brand messages the parent, not the baby. The baby’s needs shape the product, but the parent is who the brand is talking to.

So elders stay in the picture, but with this nuance – User, not Customer. 

Drivers that matter for them: Convenience (ease of use, simple controls) and a bit of Identity by extension – does the family see this as a thoughtful gesture, “I got my parents something safe and modern.”

Now, the 25-40 Salaried Employee –

I already locked this one as my strongest who for layer 2 – they sit right at the intersection of all four drivers. But let me actually walk through why each driver fits, instead of just asserting it.

Running Cost – this person is in their prime earning years but is also EMI-minded. They’re fine with a higher upfront cost if the monthly math works in their favour over time. That’s a considered, long-term-thinking buyer.

Identity Signal- this is the one I had to dig into the most. At first I just said “feels premium, feels different.” But that’s surface level. The real question is – what’s actually happening in a 25-40 year old’s life that makes them care about feeling premium?

Two things, I think –

Status among peers – this person has a social circle, colleagues, a visible lifestyle. A vehicle is a visible purchase.

Self-image – beyond what others think, it’s also how they see themselves. Owning an EV says “I’m forward-thinking, financially smart, slightly ahead of the curve.” That’s an internal identity layer, not just an external one.

This is why Identity hits harder for this segment than it does for, say, a Small Business Owner

Convenience – conditional, same as before. Works if they have home charging access (own flat, dedicated parking), doesn’t work the same way if they’re in a PG or shared housing.

Subsidies – a supporting factor, reduces the upfront sting, but doesn’t drive the decision on its own.

Now, Small Business Owners –

Mapping them to drivers –

Running Cost – primary. This is a pure numbers decision for them. Upfront cost vs running cost, plain and simple.

Subsidies – supporting, it reduces the upfront barrier further, which matters because this segment is calculating payback period, not making a lifestyle purchase.

Identity Signal – doesn’t apply. I stress tested this directly – does a small business owner care about looking premium or modern through this purchase? No. It’s not relevant to how they think about the buy.

Convenience – also doesn’t really apply in the way it does for the other segments. They’re not buying it for ease of life, they’re buying it as a cost-saving tool.

So Small Business Owners are the most rational, least emotional segment in this entire layer. No identity play, no convenience story – just running cost and subsidy, full stop.

That gives me a clean Layer 2 who, mapped to drivers –

25-40 Salaried Employee – Running Cost, Identity (status + self-image), Convenience (conditional), Subsidies

Small Business Owner – Running Cost, Subsidies (purely rational, no identity or convenience play)

Female of the Family – Identity (independence, self-expression), Convenience (home charging), Running Cost (secondary)

Elder of the Family – User, not Customer. Convenience and Identity-by-extension matter, but they don’t drive the actual purchase decision.

Layer 3 – Why Would Someone Buy an Electric Scooter from Chetak Specifically

This is where I stopped guessing and went looking for actual information. I didn’t have a real base of knowledge on Chetak’s positioning, Ola’s positioning, or how Ather is playing this market – so instead of inventing reasons in a vacuum, I pulled what’s actually true about how Chetak is positioned right now and reacted to that.

A few real things about Chetak worth knowing before forming any opinion –

It has a metal body across its lineup, even the budget-end C25 series retains it. Most competitors, including Ola’s budget models, use plastic or composite panels. This is a tangible, demonstrable difference, not a marketing claim.

Chetak carries petrol-era trust. The 90s Chetak was a dominant scooter brand in Indian households. Ola and Ather, by contrast, are EV-era startups with zero pre-EV history.

Bajaj has an extensive service network – 4,100+ touchpoints, which matters a lot outside metro cities where charging and servicing infrastructure is still patchy for newer EV brands.

Given this, my first instinct for the universal “why” – the one thing that holds regardless of which Chetak variant someone eventually buys – was Brand Trust, reinforced by the Metal Body as the tangible proof point.

But I didn’t want to just accept this and move on. I stress tested it against two real threats.

Threat 1 – Ather’s family-scooter push (the Rizta)

Ather isn’t trying to out-trust Bajaj. They’re trying to out-feature them – better range, better app experience, more “family-friendly” specs on paper. So does Brand Trust survive against a genuinely better product?

My answer – it depends on the buyer’s risk appetite. A more conservative, less exploratory buyer sticks with Bajaj regardless of Ather’s feature sheet. A buyer who’s more of an explorer, more open to a newer brand, may genuinely consider Ather on merit.

This told me something important – Brand Trust isn’t a flat, universal weapon. It’s moderated by how risk-tolerant the buyer is.

Threat 2 – TVS, a fellow legacy brand

This one’s trickier, and I’ll be honest, my first pass had no real answer here. TVS isn’t a startup. TVS also has decades of trust. So Chetak’s “we’re more trustworthy than a newcomer” argument doesn’t even apply here – both brands are carrying similar legacy weight.

When two competitors carry the same strength, that strength stops being the deciding factor. Something else has to break the tie.

I considered four things that might decide it in this specific matchup – Price, Design/aesthetic preference, Service network density, and Salesperson influence at the point of sale.

My honest conclusion – it really depends on the buyer type underneath. A price-conscious buyer goes wherever is cheaper, regardless of brand. A buyer driven more by aesthetic/identity sticks with Chetak for the retro design language. Service gaps don’t meaningfully exist between the two right now, so that’s mostly neutral. Salesperson influence acts as a tiebreaker only when the buyer is already on the fence.

So when Brand Trust gets neutralized between two legacy players, the decision reverts back to the same segment-driven logic from Layer 2 – it’s not a new force, it’s the old forces resurfacing once the trust advantage cancels out.

One correction I want to flag honestly – my first instinct was to conclude “Chetak’s trust moat works against startups (Ola, Ather), fails against legacy brands (TVS).” That’s too clean, and it’s wrong. Ola and Ather have built real brand equity of their own – tech-forward, design-led, founder-driven storytelling that resonates with a specific kind of buyer. I was underestimating them just because they’re newer companies. The more accurate version –

Chetak’s brand trust advantage isn’t about who the competitor is. It’s conditional on the buyer’s risk-orientation. Conservative, legacy-trusting buyers lean Chetak regardless of competitor. Risk-tolerant, novelty-seeking buyers may genuinely prefer Ola or Ather because of what those brands stand for, not in spite of it. Against TVS specifically, even the conservative buyer’s trust gets neutralized, since TVS carries the same legacy weight – and the decision comes back down to price, design, and the salesperson in the room.

The “Who” of Layer 3

Here’s where I almost made a structural mistake. My instinct was to find a brand new segment – “the conservative buyer” – and add it as a fifth audience alongside Salaried Employee, Business Owner, Female, and Elder.

But that’s not right. Risk-orientation isn’t a standalone group of people you’d run a separate campaign for. It’s a lens that sits on top of the segments I already have. 

A conservative 25-40 Salaried Employee and a risk-tolerant 25-40 Salaried Employees are the same demographic segment, but they’ll behave completely differently when choosing between Chetak and Ather.

So Risk-Orientation is a modifier, not a fifth segment. Applied on top of Layer 2 –

Conservative Salaried Employee – leans Chetak (trust) or even TVS (trust + better price)

Risk-tolerant Salaried Employee – may lean Ather/Ola, drawn to the tech-forward, design-led identity they offer

Conservative Business Owner – Chetak/TVS, purely on reliability and service network, no emotional pull either way

Risk-tolerant Business Owner – might actually go Ola if it’s cheaper, since identity never mattered to this segment anyway

Conservative Female – Chetak, for trust and also family comfort – parents or husband are more at ease with a known, established brand

Risk-tolerant Female – Ather, since Ather’s own design and tech positioning also signals modernity and independence, just through a different brand story

This is a more honest model than a flat segment list, because now I have a 2-variable grid – segment crossed with risk-orientation – and I can roughly predict where each cell lands competitively, instead of pretending one segment behaves one way across the board.

A quick note on what I deliberately left out – I considered “legacy ownership” (someone whose family owned the original 90s Chetak, buying the new one out of nostalgia) as a possible driver here.

I don’t think it carries real weight as an active buying motivator today, so I’m not forcing it into the model just because it sounds like a nice narrative. Better to leave a soft idea out than include something I don’t actually believe.

Closing Thoughts

This is roughly how I approach audience segmentation for any brand – start with Why, layer by layer, before ever touching Who. Each layer gets stress tested, not just accepted on first instinct.

A lot of this analysis didn’t end where I expected it to. Convenience almost got dropped entirely, then came back conditional. The “trust moat” claim looked clean at first and turned out to be wrong. That’s the actual work – not arriving at a tidy answer, but being willing to break your own conclusions before someone else does.