POSITIONING IS INEVITABLE –

A CASE STUDY OF TATA

NANO

Presented By:
Rishi Raj(15201018)
Sadananda Tadingi(15201022)
Netra Majhi(15201036)
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 The TATA Group : Company History
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Founded by Jamsetji Tata in 1868 as trading company

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First steel mill, power utility, luxury hotel and international

airline
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By 2011, 98 companies over 7 sectors.

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Company seen as Inspired trust & a strong commitment to

ethics
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By TATA Code of Conduct, TATA promised to improve the

quality of life and Nano is a prime example.

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 Objectives of the case
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To comprehend the positioning strategy adopted by Tata

Nano in India
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To determine the reasons for failure of positioning strategy

adopted by Tata Nano in India
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To understand the rationale behind the repositioning of Tata

Nano

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 Tata Nano -History and Origin
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Nano was unveiled in the 9th Annual Auto Expo on 10th January 200 8 at
Pragati Maidan in New Delhi, India
Awards Awarding Organization Year
Indian Car of the Year (ICOTY) Instituted by leading automotive magazines in India, in association 2009
award. with JK Tyre
Business Standard Motoring Business Standard 2010
Indian car of the year

Good Design Award Museum of Architecture and Design together with The European 2010
Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies

Gold prize in the Best New Edison Awards. 2010

Product segment
Best Car Advertisement of the Bloomberg UTV , Autocar India Awards 2011
Y0ea9r/2A3w/1ar6d
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 Tata Nano –Positioning Strategy
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The target customers for Tata Nano were lower and middle income families, who
aspire to upgrade to 4- wheelers from being 2-wheeler users.
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Management at Tata Motor’s tried to focus on the price factor and developed
“Price Positioning Strategy” for Tata Nano.
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Tata Nano tried to position itself as the most Affordable Car in the world.
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The former Chairman of Tata, Mr. Ratan Tata, has envisioned Tata Nano to
become a “People’s car.”
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The car was positioned as a people’s car since it offers comfort and affordability
to every person but inadvertently Tata Nano got positioned as the “Poor Man’s
Car” and “Cheap Car”.

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 Failure of Positioning Strategy
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Tata Nano was positioned on the price attribute dimension and was
widely publicized as the world's cheapest car at ₹ 1 lakh.
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In India price serves to signal quality i.e higher price serves to signal
higher quality and lower price serves to signal lower quality to the
customer.
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Nano catching fire, which further weakened the trust for the brand
‘Nano’ .and people further believed that low price is because of low
quality.
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Tata Nano’s distribution system was not also consistent with its
positioning strategy .The Nano did not have a large enough dealer
network in the rural areas and smaller towns .

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 Nano catching fire(New Delhi)

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 Tata’s Strategies for Revival
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Tata Motor’s tried to correct its 4P’s , Firstly Tata Nano was re-engineered to fix
the issues related to the fire and customers were offered free safety upgrades for,
their Nano.
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Secondly In September 2010, Tata Nano tried to reach its target segment through
electronic media channels but the advertisements have unfortunately been
featureless and catering again to the theme of affordability.
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Tata motors also placed a new and unconventional distribution system, Tata
Motor’s set up 210 'F Class showrooms', each only about 500 sq ft in size and
stocking just one car in smaller towns, and hired 1,200 people to man them.
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Management at Tata Motor’s tried to correct mistakes like promotion, distribution

and financing.

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 Repositioning Strategy
Tata Nano, decided to create a new niche for itself in august 2013 , by
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managing to move away from tag like the “world’s cheapest car to "smart city
car“
1. Visual artistic and basic features positioning strategy :
Tata Motor’s have repositioned Tata Nano by boasting of some “intelligent
features” like power steering option, improved interior and exterior of the car
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and improved fuel efficiency and additional features like remote keyless
entry, twin glove boxes, and a four-speaker Amphi Stream music system with
Bluetooth, USB and auxiliary connectivity.
The new Nano is available with new personalization kits- Jet, Alpha, Remix,
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and Peach.
2. Promotional campaign positioning strategy:
Tata Nano’s new campaign called ‘celebrate awesomeness’ is becoming
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popular among youngsters.

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 Conclusion
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Nano's positioning as a "cheap" car killed the aspirational

element in the car and the performance of the model has been
terribly underwhelming over the years.
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Although Tata Motor’s tried to correct its 4Ps it could not

help Tata Nano to get the success.
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So finally after four years of it commercial launch,

understanding the inevitability of positioning management
repositioned Tata Nano as a "Smart City Car“.

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Learning’s and Implication for the
Automobile Companies in India
1. Learning-1:
A sound understanding of consumer behaviour is essential to the long
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run success of the brand.

Tata motor failed to understand the emotional need of their customers
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since India's middle class want cheap cars, but they don't want cars that
seem cheap.
2. Learning-2:
Developing an effective positioning strategy is inevitable nowadays for
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any organization.
Tata Motor’s failed to develop a proper positioning for Nano as a result
of which it got wrongly positioned as world’s cheapest car.
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 Thank You!!
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