DECISION

SHEET ON
MARKETING
THE NISSAN
MICRA AND
TATA NANO IN
SOCIAL MEDIA

BY
MArketing MAnagement SHYAM
SHRINIVAS R
2228357
1 MBA R
Marketing the Nissan Micra and Tata Nano Using Social Media

Date: 2012

Title of the case: Marketing the Nissan Micra and Tata Nano Using Social Media

Topic: Social media marketing, promotion, marketing strategies, Advertisements

Key decision maker: Sharada Deshpande (Social Media Director, Tata Nano), Karl Slym
(Former head of GM India)

Case Facts:

 Nissan had virtually no foothold in India until 2008, when it partnered with Renault
to build a plant in Chennai. In July 2010, Nissan began selling the Micra, its first
locally produced vehicle, and began the laborious work of developing its brand.

 Hatchbacks dominated the Indian vehicle market and were categorised as A, B1,
and B2 from least costly to most expensive. B2 hatchbacks sold the most units in
2011-2012.

 The Tata Group is well-known in India. It began as a trading corporation in 1868,

but over the next 150 years it expanded to include activities in engineering,
materials, services, energy, consumer goods, and information technology and
communication.

 As a result, the case investigates the parallels and differences in social media
activities done by Tata Motors and Nissan to promote sales of various automotive
models in India. Customers were offered the option to audition for a role in a short
film starring the Nissan Micra against Bollywood actor and Nissan Micra
spokesman Ranbir Kapoor. The Tata campaign introduced India's first social
streaming programme, in which a few select teams of viewers competed in a road
trip competition throughout the country analogous to the Amazing Race. Both
campaigns made considerable use of Facebook.

Dilemma/Conflict faced by the decision maker: On September 14, 2012, Karl Slym, Tata
Motors' new managing director, met with Shrada Deshpande, the company's social media
director. Deshpande left the meeting the previous month, with Slym's questions remaining
unanswered and less than a week to prepare. The questions are: How effective were these
social media marketing campaigns? Was the Nano campaign as successful as the Micra
campaign, and vice versa? Perhaps most importantly, can such campaigns' enhanced
consumer participation be sustained, and if so, how?
The comparable social media effort for Tata was effective, but not for Micra. This
divergence is what caused the monetary and social discrepancies in the sales and
profitability of the two firms' products.

Problem statement :

 How can Nissan and Tata enhance their market share?

 How do vehicle businesses ensure long-term profitability?

 Is it possible that a social media campaign will contribute to a brighter

future?

 Is it possible for Nissan or Tata to stay in business as competition grows?

 Because Tata is a well-known local brand among customers while Nissan is

an international name, how will Nissan overcome the gap in marketing
strategy among local consumers?

Causes of the problem:

For Nissan: Nissan, a worldwide Japanese carmaker, has used a similar method to enter
one of the most promising markets for its vehicles. Despite having a global presence, Nissan
was not a well-known brand in India. The company planned to enter a market where a
single company dominated. As a multinational organisation, Nissan had hurdles in bringing
its automobiles to the attention of the general population. They attempted to notify the
public about their presence in India and the existence of their autos through advertising.
Rather of embracing international brands and items, the bulk of Indians are accustomed to
utilising domestic ones. As a result, Nissan is having a difficult time capturing the market in
India.

For Tata: Tata Motors Ltd. was formed in 1945 and introduced the Indica, a mid-sized
hatchback that competed with the market-leading Maruti Alto, in the passenger car market
in 1991. In 2007, CEO Ratan Tata stated his aim to produce a low-cost automobile with a
starting price of 1 lakh4 that would allow many Indians who now drive motorbikes or two-
 wheelers to switch to the car category. His ambition was realised when the Tata Nano,
dubbed the world's cheapest automobile, debuted in April 2009. Delays and production
constraints, followed by incidents in which early units of the car spontaneously caught fire,
all led to the Nano's shaky start.

Criteria for an effective solution for the problem identified:

 Pricing policy
 Using campaigns
 The usefulness of social media
 brand positioning
 Car viability
 Promotion of a brand

Alternatives:

 Recognize regional demographic variances.

 Raising awareness among youths

 Customer Engagement

 Make use of big data and continuous analytics

 Monitor and track each follower's behaviour, and don't restrict to social
media.

Analysis of the alternatives:

Recognize regional demographic variances: People's income information can help us pick
which things to sell and how much to charge for them. Sometimes the target market's
income influences how much we charge for the items; other times, we can boost the price of
the same product by giving higher-end clients extra services because they want a more
upmarket shopping or using experience.

Raising awareness among youths: Nissan and Tata used conventional and social media
extensively to increase awareness and sales. They can also focus on workplace campaigns.
Customer Engagement: Customer engagement is a critical component of these initiatives,
but the amount of participation must be determined, since not every customer can be pleased.
Companies must recognise that customers do not comprehend technicalities, and it is their
obligation to help them grasp the need and how a product would meet it.

Make Use of Big Data and Analytics: Continuous monitoring of behaviour across time Tata
Nano and Nissan Micra both used social media to sell their goods, therefore I feel continuing
analytics are critical to determining their effectiveness.

Monitor and track each follower's behaviour, and don't restrict to social media:
Monitoring and tracking each follower's behaviour on their Facebook pages will provide
them an indication of which followers are active, allowing them to categorise their
following into groups such as "cold followers," "warm followers," and "follow-up
followers," among others. These followers may subsequently turn out to be warm or cold
prospective consumers in the future.

Decision/summary/learning:

The most important goal for both Nissan and Tata, in my opinion, is to increase their sales
in India. Separately, Nissan teamed with Bollywood's most well-known actor, Ranbir
Kapoor, to make a series of TV advertising that showcase the distinctive and competitive
attributes of the Micra to the general public in a bid to improve awareness of the unpopular
Nissan Micra. In order to attract younger clients and enhance sales, they teamed with
Kapoor to develop a film called The New Star of India in addition to the TV advertisements.
To attain major social media success, they collaborated with Facebook to choose co-actors
during the production process. Tata used advertisements to create awareness among India's
young, who are a large prospective market. Therefore to overcome these dilemma and
conflicts and to solve those problem aroses when they follow the listed alternatives above.