Tata Nano Case Analysis
Tata Nano Case Analysis
Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Motors Ltd., hoped to raise the status of Middle class families in India by offering the Tata Nano. Expectations were increasing amongst the customers regarding the product features and its efficiency. Competitors were eagerly waiting for its arrival to find out what they were going to be up against. It had strong and convincing features and was actually a good product. Unfortunately there were too many strategic marketing problems that kept it from being as big as they thought it was going to be. We will explain the problems it met and showcase some alternative solutions that could be implemented.
Strategic Marketing Problems
Tata Nano tried to position itself in the two-wheeler market. Tata Motors thought they should go after the young college kids or anyone who currently owns a motorbike. They believed that if they created a car that could match the qualities that make the motorbikes so attractive: the fuel efficiency, low purchase and maintenance costs, and small size. What they didn’t realize was that they priced themselves out of the market. While the Nano was set at the lowest price for an automobile it was still expensive compared to the motorbikes.
They were never effective in their efforts to target or market to any group and never seemed clear on who they were really going after. They had so many options to choose from when trying to position itself in the market. But in the end they went half way and never fully committed to a single group. They tried to go after the two-wheeler market but priced themselves out of that market, while they marketed themselves as “the world’s cheapest car.”
Which brings up the next problem it was marketed as a cheap car. It’s hard to understand the reason they marketed the Nano this way. Why would anyone want to buy a car they thought was cheap? They should not have played up the “cheapest car in the world” sound bite that the chairman loved to say. In a country
Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Motors Ltd., hoped to raise the status of Middle class families in India by offering the Tata Nano. Expectations were increasing amongst the customers regarding the product features and its efficiency. Competitors were eagerly waiting for its arrival to find out what they were going to be up against. It had strong and convincing features and was actually a good product. Unfortunately there were too many strategic marketing problems that kept it from being as big as they thought it was going to be. We will explain the problems it met and showcase some alternative solutions that could be implemented.
Strategic Marketing Problems
Tata Nano tried to position itself in the two-wheeler market. Tata Motors thought they should go after the young college kids or anyone who currently owns a motorbike. They believed that if they created a car that could match the qualities that make the motorbikes so attractive: the fuel efficiency, low purchase and maintenance costs, and small size. What they didn’t realize was that they priced themselves out of the market. While the Nano was set at the lowest price for an automobile it was still expensive compared to the motorbikes.
They were never effective in their efforts to target or market to any group and never seemed clear on who they were really going after. They had so many options to choose from when trying to position itself in the market. But in the end they went half way and never fully committed to a single group. They tried to go after the two-wheeler market but priced themselves out of that market, while they marketed themselves as “the world’s cheapest car.”
Which brings up the next problem it was marketed as a cheap car. It’s hard to understand the reason they marketed the Nano this way. Why would anyone want to buy a car they thought was cheap? They should not have played up the “cheapest car in the world” sound bite that the chairman loved to say. In a country