Tata Motors is India's largest automobile company that was founded in 1945. In 2008, it acquired Jaguar Land Rover. Tata launched the Nano in 2008 as the most affordable car, but it failed due to being perceived as cheap and low quality. It caught fire which damaged perceptions. Tata repositioned the Nano in 2013 as a "smart city car" with improved features to change its image from a cheap car. The lessons are the importance of understanding consumer behavior and developing effective positioning strategies.

1. - Arnav Pareek

2. Introduction
 Tata Motors Limited (TML), a $42 billion organization, is India’s largest
automobile company and is a leading global manufacturer of cars, utility
vehicles, buses, trucks and defense vehicles. Incorporated in India in the
year 1945, Tata Motors is a part of the over $100 billion Tata Group founded
by Jamsetji Tata in 1868. Recognized for its world-class quality, originality,
engineering and design excellence, the Company is on the path of shaping
the future of mobility in India. Sustainability and the spirit of ‘giving back to
society’ is our guiding philosophy and good corporate citizenship is strongly
embedded in our DNA.
 With a large global footprint, the Company has consolidated its position as
the Tata Motors Group through mergers and acquisitions. It has a network of
76 subsidiaries in India and internationally, which provide a host of
engineering and automotive solutions.
 Some of the world’s most iconic brands, including Jaguar Land Rover in the
UK and Tata Daewoo in South Korea form part of the automotive operations
of the Group.

3. History
 Tata entered the commercial vehicle sector in 1954 after forming a joint
venture with Daimler-Benz of Germany.
 Tata launched the Indica in 1998, the first fully indigenous Indian passenger
car.
 In 2008, Tata Motors acquired the English car maker Jaguar Land Rover,
manufacturer of the Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford Motor Company.
 In June 2010, the company inaugurated the factory for the Nano mini car at
Sanand, in the western state of Gujarat.
 On 8 March 2017, Tata Motors announced that it has signed a
memorandum of understanding with Volkswagen to develop vehicles for
India's domestic market.

4. Objectives Of The Case
 To comprehend the positioning strategy adopted
by Tata Nano in India.
 To determine the reasons for failure of positioning
strategy adopted by Tata Nano in India.
 To understand the rationale behind the
repositioning of Tata Nano.

5. Tata Nano – Positioning
Strategy
 The target customers for Tata Nano were lower and middle income
families, who aspire to upgrade to 4-wheelers from being 2-wheeler
users.
 Management at Tata Motor's tried to focus on the price factor and
developed "Price Positioning Strategy" for Tata Nano.
 Tata Nano tried to position itself as the most Affordable Car in the
world.
 The former Chairman of Tata, Mr. Ratan Tata, has envisioned Tata
Nano to become a "People's car.“
 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".

6. Failure of Positioning Strategy
 Tata Nano was positioned on the price attribute dimension and was
widely publicized as the world's cheapest car at 1 lakh.
 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.
 Nano catching fire, which further weakened the trust for the brand
'Nano' and people further believed that low price is because of low
quality.
 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.

8. Tata’s Strategy for Revival
 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.
 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.
 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.
 Management at Tata Motor's tried to correct mistakes like promotion,
distribution and financing.

9. Repositioning Strategy
 Tata Nano, decided to create a new niche for itself in august 2013,
by managing to move away from tag like the "world's cheapest car
to "smart city car"
1. Visual artistic and basic features positioning strategy:
o Tata Motor's have repositioned Tata Nano by boasting of some
"intelligent features" like power steering option, improved interior
and exterior of the car 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.
o The new Nano is available with new personalization kits- Jet, Alpha,
Remix, and Peach.
2. Promotional campaign positioning strategy:
o Tata Nano's new campaign called 'celebrate awesomeness' is
becoming popular among youngsters.

10. Conclusion
 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.
 Although Tata Motor's tried to correct its 4Ps it could not help
Tata Nano to get the success.
 So finally after four years of it commercial launch,
understanding the inevitability of positioning management
repositioned Tata Nano as a "Smart City Car".

11. Learning’s and Implication for
the Automobile Companies in
India
1. Learning-1:
 A sound understanding of consumer behaviour is essential to the
long run success of the brand.
 Tata motor failed to understand the emotional need of their
customers 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 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.