Why did Tata Nano devised for burgeoning middle classes fail?
Tata Nano popularly known as people’s car, nine years ago came as a highly expected car to roll under success. It was exactly launched when Maruti Suzuki was pondering on discontinuing the than cheapest car of Indian product Maruti Suzuki 800.
Undoubted Tata Group is a prestigious Indian multinational. Tata Motors Limited an enterprise of Tata Group entered passenger vehicle market in 1991.
When the company launched Tata Nano in 2008 it received very much publicity calling it world’s cheapest car, but did not live up to expectations. Though the idea of Mr. Ratan Tata was innovative, we are sure still the idea refuses to die.
Exactly this is when the Indian automobile sector was flooded with the high-priced cars of multinational brands. Many thought Nano would fillip high in the growing market replacing the affordable car brand.
When NANO was launched it was beyond the business opportunity, with the motive to improve the quality of millions of Indians facing the dangers of road accidents due to non-affordable four wheelers.
Tata Nano was billed as a cheapest car in the world, costing just 1 Lakh. The car was designed with affordable transport solution for a family of four. But things started going downhill highlighted with bitter spats.
Why? In country like India, everyone can’t afford a car there are certain exclusivity and social status and symbols associated with the cars. But why didn’t Nano meet up the expectations. Everybody loves to own a car.
With such a strategic approach Nano still failed. When People opted Marathi Suzuki 800 why not Nano? Did Tata Nano fail to fit the images embedded in minds of the public?
Nano was a car with mixed opinion. It was all on the wheels of high success. But the marketing campaign of Nano was a biggest blunder ever that is where Nano failed. The company tagged Nano as ‘cheap’ in the market.
Buying a car in India is associated with social status and prestige unlike in the west. So is the marketing blunder of Nano a perfect lesson for every cooperate sector.
Was poor perception of the launch price yet another blunder? Was it too shabby for upper middle class and too expensive for the lower middle class? Apart from this Nano still faced the problems of production delays of shifting the plant location that further raised the price of the Nano.
The launch price and later price was changed. The product deficiencies, market research, branding and the technical problems with the reports of Nano catching fire weakened the brand completely.
Yet again Tata Nano failed by tracking at least on proper PR management to address these issues at last it failed drastically.
Do you agree every brand requires proper corporate ideologies/systems to follow?