Chapter #2 : TATA NANO - Ek Fail Katha

It is no denying the fact that , Mr. Ratan Tata, is one of the most sought after pioneers in his field of action and he has proved the same time and again with the glorious past that he has had. In 2003, he made one such announcement that got the whole world talking :- A Car in just a Lakh !!! A Car for Everyone!!

The Hype:-

• They say that the best and intriguing form of marketing that is seldom taught in any marketing class , is the word of mouth marketing; and that’s what happened in NANO’s case.
• Right from 2003, when the announcement was made till 2009 when the first unit was sold, the "Car worth a Lakh" epigraph , was sold like hot cakes in and around the country.
  
• NANO news was everywhere. It had become the blue eyed boy for the media and adverts, had its out and out presence in the banners and posters and a fair share of controversies as well.
• It also collected lot of international accreditions for numerous defining features.
• It was fuel efficient,had low weight and at that point of time had the lowest emission levels in the country and complied with all the international safety regulations .
• During their initial years of launch, the sales of its nearest competitor, Maruti 800 fell almost by 30%.
• This brain child of Ratan Tata, got no less than 2.03 lakhs pre bookings, making it a huge success , even before the launch.

What went wrong?

• Jumping locations:-Farmers’ uproar in Singur, West Bengal(where the plant was to be set up) alleging land acquisition , led by Mamta Banerjee, forced TATA to initially delay the production and later to shift its entire plant to Sanand, Gujarat.Due to high demand and no production for about 18 months , people started losing faith.
• Nano on fire :- I mean literally!! Several NANOs within year or two, reported fire incidents. Although the company did rectified the glitches and offered extended warranty, but I guess, the reputational damage was done!!
  
• Ye to bada toing hai :-As a small car, it did had a lot of room, it was robust, was driven at highways and even upto 10,000 altitudes , but in an attempt to shrink and combine everything into a closet, comfort took a huge hit!!The design was also under the scrutiny, as it looked less a car and more of a covered auto!!
• A Lakh is not enough:- It was never really a 1 Lakh car, as it was being puffed up in the media. Apart from the initial few months, the on road price was somewhere close to 1.5 Lakhs, and by the time it got discontinued, it was being sold at Rs 2.59 Lakhs, while Alto 800 at Rs 2.88Lakhs.
• Oh it’s a miss!!! :- The aim to target scooter and bike drivers was a miss by a mile!!! Reason being, the car was much costlier than bikes/scooters that point of time and even those who were planning to buy a car, were considering other options given the design of the car didn't restored any confidence in them. 

The Marketing Mistake:-

•  It was never a case of technical blunder with NANO, but apart from few glitches here and there , something was terribly going against NANO, what was that?Its own marketing gimmick the cheapest car!! The Lakhtakiya!!
  

The Great Indian Soch:-

• Indian commons, feel proud in getting a high priced product at low bargained price, but they are not so keen on buying a product whose USP is itself is being cheap.
• Indians look at a car as a prized possession. Owning a car is just down below, having owning a house, in the list of “where do you see yourself in next 10 years”.
• For millions, it is once in a life time buy, and they would not risk it with anything that’s branded as cheap.
• Car in India is more of an aspirational and status symbol, and people won’t want to compromise their aspirational goals with buying something cheap.
  

My 2Cents:-

• I certainly believe, that if you haven’t marketed your product well enough you might fail, but if you have done too much of it, you are doomed to fail.
• The marketing team at NANO did not foresee, the increasing self-publicity of NANO, they did not have to do much, yet it was at everyone’s discussion table.
• Huge publicity and the brand name associated, created high hopes, and the issue with high hopes is that, they are highly volatile. One small error and ashes all around.

I guess Bangur Cement learned quickly from NANOs failure, and came up with their new jingle :-)