[StepUP!]

I am quite amused to see people quickly getting into TATA Motor's CEO's shoes and coming up with a turn around strategy!
If you see TATA has been pioneer in segments. It created compact sedan segment. It created NANO segment. It created indigenously developed car. It defined cult SUV segment. But where are they now? Taken over by other competitors.

The TATA Safari Dicor advertisement - "Reclaim your Life" is still the best one.

I find TATA sincere in their efforts. They always try to give value for money. They never compromise on safety aspects by manufacturing tin cans like Maruti, Honda, Toyota does.

And I feel Indian customers are way behind in being "informed" while buying a car. That is why you see tin cans like Alto is the highest seller, no dent in Swift's selling even after it failed in crash tests and the list is endless.

I respect TATA and wish they really turn around their car business; get out of their beaten image.

[Raikkonen]

As always it is easy to find flaws when the chips are down.

Agree wholeheartedly with StepUp, what they have achieved over the years is nothing short of commendable. Start with Sierra, Tata Mobile, Sumo, Safari, Indica and Nano- they all arrived in the market a tad too soon, but TATA were brave enough to offer them to Indian public, knowing well that they could fail. What they attempted to do is to create a market, where as majority of the Businesses aim to address a market gap.

Ex: M&M went after the market gap addressing the pitfalls of TATA. Yes, they need to be commended for their efforts with Scorpio and XUV500, but they knew the market before they took the plunge. This is an important point. With Maruti and Toyota - they are established companies still fleecing people off offering substandard vehicles. Maruti took advantage of Govt regulations and Toyota - well what to say (rejects in other countries are sold in India). Hyundai is another commendable performer. Anyway this is OT.

Obviously, TATA is notorious for after sales and service, but I am sure the wise heads at TATA will fix this. Afterall, everyone wants to offer increased dividends to shareholders.

[Nissan1180]

Originally Posted by StepUP!

I am quite amused to see people quickly getting into TATA Motor's CEO's shoes and coming up with a turn around strategy!
If you see TATA has been pioneer in segments. It created compact sedan segment. It created NANO segment. It created indigenously developed car. It defined cult SUV segment. But where are they now? Taken over by other competitors.
And I feel Indian customers are way behind in being "informed" while buying a car.

To be honest, there seems to be something strange going on in the domestic passenger car division at Tata Motors.
The recent Nano Gen-x advertisement is an exemplification of this. How can you not have a tagline, either for the brand or the individual product? The Zest had a similarly bland advertisement that appeared to have been created by (and for) robots and not human beings to appreciate. The Honda Amaze, with its ''Amazingly Indian'' tagline appeals to so many middle class Indians... they connect with everything that is shown in the advertisement. Somehow I feel that in the recent years, after the retirement of Mr. Ratan Tata, the company has lost understanding of its own product strengths and the realization of the weaknesses.

A senior of mine from college was working with the company and shared his experience of selling the Sumo Gold in UP as a part of his induction training. The dealers had given a feedback that people wanted a different looking vehicle and the car had few takers. Customers preferred the Bolero because they thought that it lasted longer in the road conditions in rural areas. The Sumo is in fact a much better car than the Bolero in terms of comfort and running costs, but most people judge the book by the cover. What I'm trying to say is, despite knowing that very few dealers and customers found a favor with the aesthetics of the Sumo Gold, no improvement was made in the same. In a market like India, the initial presentation of the product is very important in deciding its success. People have so many choices today and this makes them reluctant to give you a second chance.
Also, I cannot help but think, if there is a customer who owned the first generation Indigo / Indica/ Safari/Nano, would he again go for a Tata vehicle? Especially when the exchange quote given by the dealer for the existing car is a five digit figure?

[GTO]

Originally Posted by StepUP!

I am quite amused to see people quickly getting into TATA Motor's CEO's shoes and coming up with a turn around strategy!

This is an open discussion forum after all .

If you see TATA has been pioneer in segments. It created compact sedan segment. It created NANO segment. It created indigenously developed car. It defined cult SUV segment.

Do they make any money today? Being an innovator isn't enough. You have to 'sell' what you 'create'.

They never compromise on safety aspects by manufacturing tin cans like Maruti, Honda, Toyota does.

How many of Tata's cars have successfully cleared international crash tests?

Originally Posted by Raikkonen

they are established companies still fleecing people off offering substandard vehicles.

Fleecing? Come on, no one is holding a gun to anyone's head in today's open, highly competitive market. End of the day, the only thing that matters is the one who is ready to put his money where his mouth is.

Obviously, TATA is notorious for after sales and service, but I am sure the wise heads at TATA will fix this.

Question is: WHAT are they waiting for? It's been 25 years since they've been selling passenger cars .

[Raikkonen]

How many of Tata's cars have successfully cleared international crash tests?

The questions should be, how many of other manufacturers cars have cleared international crash tests, when compared like to like. For EX: All of Suzuki-Maruti Alto 800. The Tata Nano, Ford Figo, Hyundai i10 and Volkswagen Polo all recieved ZERO ratings in the recent NCAP tests. Link at: http://www.globalncap.org/crash-test....kjXOhrLJ.dpuf

In that view, TATA are no different. If you lookup, some vehicles have received a good crash rating. Another Ex: Tata Xenon recently received a respectable 4* here in Australia recently. Am sure others would fare well, also recently heard of Nano receiving a good enough rating in UK. So the argument that others car manufacturers are better off than TATA for safety is not true at all.

With regards to other car manufacturers offering substandard products - and asking a premium for it is in my view "Fleecing" customers off. Just that Indian customers are complacent and look for things quite different to western counterparts and happy to pay a premium does not mean the offerings made by car manufacturers are any good.

Take Toyota for example: Corolla still uses a Stone Age suspension design, low-power and relatively low-mileage engines, obsolete drum brakes, and a transmission familiar to 1980s - still people buy it at a premium. Is this because they are (a) ignorant or (b) quite happy with the offering in comparison to other products in India.

Fortuner and Innova still uses basically a Hilux platform. The engines used in these vehicles for its size is about 66% as powerful as its international competitors. Still they outsell other cars and at a premium too. Toyota knows this and this is the reason its global sales are falling. If it is happy to offer these outdated products to Indian customers and ask a premium and get it too - it would certainly be fleecing in my books.

Agree with you comment on the last point. God knows what is stopping them from addressing their ASS.

[Jakku]

Originally Posted by Raikkonen

....
Obviously, TATA is notorious for after sales and service, but I am sure the wise heads at TATA will fix this. Afterall, everyone wants to offer increased dividends to shareholders.

Not only their ASS, their sales itself is notorious and is screwed up to the core. I had enquired for Aria atleast 6 times, but there is not even a single call back from them on the time they could bring a vehicle for test drive. What I was looking for was a top-end 4X2, but with the infotainment from top-end 4X4, is this feasible? No idea, no answer till date. I stopped enquiring on seeing the scoop on Hexa and waiting for that to launch (again, when, no idea !!!). I would be a different customer as I have decided my next ride which is going to be an Aria (or Hexa, if I can afford), but any other customer would have by now walked off.

What I mean by saying "I am a different customer"?
I own an India Xeta which is their own petrol engine and I am totally satisfied with the car. The ride quality it offers, the space it offers, the ease with which I can get in and out of the car (my current ride at Chennai is Accent and Xeta is at my native). More over, I have a good FNG who does the work for me at good value. The niggles that everyone associates with TATA cars have not bothered me much. Now, when I consider I got all this for an on road price of 3.02L, I am totally satisfied and I am sure, my next car which ever it might be, will be a TATA.

I wanted an SUV and considered a lot between Scorpio/ XUV/ Storme & Aria. One trip from Bangalore to Kerala in a Scorpio took that out of the list. One Sabarimala trip (from Thrissur) in XUV took that also out of the list. One trip in Storme from Palakkad to Palani made it stay in the consideration list. No long trip in Aria other than test drive, so cannot comment on the pleasure/ satisfaction/ dis-satisfaction/ irritation that it offers.

To add to this, my most recent experience in a Tata Manza last Sunday. My family was in a Fastrack car which was a Manza. My driver was clearly speeding to ensure he moved past the signal at Chromepet (in Chennai), but the Amaze in front stopped when the signal turned Red (right action), but my driver expected he would jump and before the traffic from other side reach the junction, he also could move ahead. When Amaze stopped, this guy frantically braked and hit Amaze from back with good speed. Amaze's rear bumper dented and came out, but the Manza withstood all this and there was no indication of this incident. (Now this car had lot of scratches and dents all around, might be the new dent/ scratch was not visible!!!). Amaze on its part also withstood of the incident. The car even if hit with considerable force from behind, did not move an inch forward as I assume his leg was still in the brake and that is really great. Had it moved front on the impact, he would have hit by vehicles from other side in the junction.

TATA cars are a huge mass of sheet metal, so minor crashes will not impact the safety of people inside (purely my thought, no offense meant to anyone.

[prashanthyr]

Looks like Tata is finally getting serious about filling vacant CXO level positions across the group, including MD and CFO at Tata Motors.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...w/47494193.cms

Sometimes, I feel they need to follow the model of JLR at Tata Motors' domestic business - put a crack team of professionals in charge of PV business and give them a free hand to turn it around. Remember, they put an almost completely German team headed by Dr Speth to run JLR , with no interference from the mother ship and the results are there for everyone to see.

http://blog.caranddriver.com/tata-br...uarland-rover/

[StepUP!]

Originally Posted by GTO

Do they make any money today? Being an innovator isn't enough. You have to 'sell' what you 'create'.


Question is: WHAT are they waiting for? It's been 25 years since they've been selling passenger cars .

Agree. They don't make money. But the top selling car or the money making OEM isn't the best one always.
Take example of MS. Give me any one car from MS stable today which can stand without Maruti A.S.S.
NONE of the products have class leading power, engine, technology, handling, steering, space, interiors, safety, build quality.
What they all have is MS badge and A.S.S.

And IMHO comparing a product with the service is like comparing the apples with the oranges. MS as a products is none. As A.S.S. they are the number 1 since decades.

Recent example of Maggie ban. People are concerned about Rs 10 Maggie. But they are blindly buying Rs 4 lakh Alto which is a coffin on wheels.

[RavenAvi]

Tata Motors is planning a series of strategies to regain it's position in the market, and also get back into the profit-making stage.

For this, they are completely revamping their showrooms and recruiting aggressively which is followed by an extensive training programme. This will be backed by network expansion, dealer development and product repositioning in the times to come.

According to Mr. Mayank Pareek, president, passenger vehicles business unit, Tata Motors, the new strategy has already helped Tata Motors gain 1 percent market share in the first five months of this fiscal.

He added:

For the past 7-8 months we have been outperforming industry. Part of the reason is that the company has launched new products after a hiatus of 4-5 years. With Zest and Bolt, we are getting the right type of customers. Earlier, there were no new products, so we had to rely only on fleet customers. Now were getting young executives and young families.

A repositioning of products has also helped the sales turnaround. Historically Tata Motors has been known for its diesel engines. but after the launch of the Revotron gasoline engine, both Bolt and Zest are now clocking 45-55 percent sales in petrol variants. The company's older products have also been given a positioning tweak. Our new models have grown, but re-segmenting and repositioning has also helped older models to grow in sales.

For instance, in August, Indica grew 100 percent and in the April-August period it has grown 70 percent. We re-segmented the Indica to target smaller towns. Although it may be a bit dated for bigger towns, its a perfect fit for smaller towns. Both the Indigo and the Indica are being repositioned for smaller markets.

That apart, the company is revamping its dealer development strategy and rapidly expanding its network to tap new markets including rural areas. First, it is completely revamping its showrooms and recruiting aggressively. This is backed by an extensive training programme. To expand our presence, we are also experimenting with our retail format.

We are introducing the small dealership format for smaller markets where the customer gets the same experience but the showrooms are smaller. We are also working on virtual showrooms where customers can have 3-D experience. We will introduce these digital showrooms in a year.

To add to that, Tata Motors is also upping the game in terms of service infrastructure. We are introducing the mobile workshop and the pilot will be complete middle of this month. Our target is to have 1000 mobile workshops this year.

We are targeting hinterland markets where there are no dealerships close by but we also want to take car service to the customers doorstep. We feel thats the way to build long term competitive edge.

That apart, Tata Motors has launched an aggressive retail expansion plan that will see it treble its dealer outlet count to 1500 in three years. Last year we added just 29 new dealers but this year, so far, 63 have been activated and 185 appointed.

ET Auto

[devarshi84]

Some of the biggest car makers are struggling to make money right now. We need to be in the shoes of their CEO's to know what the company is going through.

Peugeot Citroen, FCA and even the Renault Nissan Alliance are going through a rough phase worldwide. Suzuki and Mitsubishi have tasted dirt in the US market already.

Losses during a downtrend doesn't mean the company's strategy is not working.

The AT Nano, Safari Storme II, Zest/Bolt, upcoming kite and Hexa are all steps in the right direction. Also, Tata Motors is quickly ramping up dealer and Spares Quality levels. But people have a long memory and Tata needs atleast 5 years to clear its name up. I wont swear by their efforts though.

Tata has been working hard in overturning brand perception and while the job is hardly done, its effects are evident.

Not every corporation can be turned around like Carlos Ghosn did with Nissan or Sergio Marchionne did with Chrysler. Bigger the size of the company, bigger the efforts needed.

Either they will flourish if they keep up their attempts or they will vanish. It's the survival of the fittest afterall.

PS: Let's not forget that it was Tata motors which made JLR profitable in record time when the biggest and best of the carmakers like BMC and FORD failed.

[ssambyal1980]

There are certain factors which contributed towards the current crisis in TATA MOTORS:
1. Firstly its small car experiment in the form of Nano back fired. This happened due to two main reasons. One was delay in production due to relocation from West Bengal to Gujarat, which bled the company financially mainly due to resetting up of infrastructure from scratch. Secondly as the Nano project got delayed, it came as a blessing in disguise for the competitors to aggressively market their small cars like Maruti did in case of Alto 800 and ultimately tasted success. Also the prospective entry level customers didn't find it wise to spend on Nano, when they can get a far better deal in the form of Alto 800 by spending a lac rupees more which they don't mind.

2. Both Zest and Bolt are decent cars from the TATA's stable but they came too late in the scenario when most of the market in the segment had been occupied by the likes of Swift & Dzire from Maruti, i10, i20 & xcent from Hyundai etc. Had these TATA models been launched earlier, things would have been different.

3. Although in utility vehicle segement the TATA did a good job in sprucing up the SAFARI from time to time but still it couldn't attract desired number customers who got diverted towards more compact SUV's of the likes of Ecosport, Duster, Scorpio and Innova etc.

4. TATA tasted initial huge success in the diesel car market around more than a decade ago with Indica and Indigo primarily because there were no other diesel cars in the offing from the established manufactures like Maruti and Hyundai. So when Maruti & Hyundai entered the diesel market, the prospective customers started deviating in large numbers.

5. Not to forget with the current global economic slowdown the TATA's top segment vehicles i.e Jaguar and Land Rover sales have take a good beating, especially due to economic crisis in China.

To conclude the only saving grace for the TATA MOTORS is the HCV sales, in which it is still the market leader, albeit with growing competition from Mahindra & Ashok Leyland.

[rohansachar]

Originally Posted by devarshi84

The AT Nano, Safari Storme II, Zest/Bolt, upcoming kite and Hexa are all steps in the right direction. Also, Tata Motors is quickly ramping up dealer and Spares Quality levels. But people have a long memory and Tata needs atleast 5 years to clear its name up. I wont swear by their efforts though.

While I agree with you on the point of heading in the right direction, being the last to enter the right direction has next to no advantage. Being a Storme owner, the Storme 2015 or even the Storme I have is miles behind in terms of what the competitors offer. Same goes for even the Zest. While within the TM stable it might be a massive overhaul, it's just caught up to the offerings of the overall market. That's not the formula for success, that's just poor R&D.

To even mention why I have the Storme is purely the emotional want to own a Safari.

Originally Posted by devarshi84

Tata has been working hard in overturning brand perception and while the job is hardly done, its effects are evident.

While the perception is slowly shifting agreed, the shift in the number of sales is further towards the negative end.

Originally Posted by devarshi84

PS: Let's not forget that it was Tata motors which made JLR profitable in record time when the biggest and best of the carmakers like BMC and FORD failed.

The success of JLR is a highly debatable topic. I for one, would only attribute 20% of the success of JLR to Tata Motors.

Regards,
Rohan

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by Nissan1180

The recent Nano Gen-x advertisement is an exemplification of this. How can you not have a tagline, either for the brand or the individual product? The Zest had a similarly bland advertisement that appeared to have been created by robots and not human beings to appreciate. The Honda Amaze, with its ''Amazingly Indian'' tagline appeals to so many middle class Indians... they connect with everything that is shown in the advertisement.

It was obvious from the Tata ad's that they are an Indian player trying to position themselves internationally and target the young crowd, nothing wrong in that at all. As for Honda it did the reverse, it is an international brand that positioned itself as Indian, however, the buyers still know about its Japanese roots and that's the key reason it sells & not due to the Indian-ness of its adverts. The Indian buyers typically are a complicated lot, they want something international that's Indian or vice versa. The only 2 places where Tata fails are the design aspect & after sales (as reported here). Also I feel that no manufacturer is complete until they make their own engines, as far as diesel engines (& also AMT technology) go Maruti & Tata borrow from Fiat as a result heavy royalties have to be paid. Own JLR they might, but that has had little effect on the mother-brand.

Originally Posted by GTO

Fleecing? Come on, no one is holding a gun to anyone's head in today's open, highly competitive market. End of the day, the only thing that matters is the one who is ready to put his money where his mouth is.

Exactly, customer awareness is only increasing these days, there are always 2 sides to any brand. While each supporter of a brand is fully within rights to reject other brands due to their shortcomings, he/she cannot forget that the automobile they own has its own share of demerits as well. In the end its all about matching requirements. Its my opinion that Tata must first fully move away from the Indica-esque design to taste success in the sub-4m market.

[Prafful_Rathod]

Originally Posted by rohansachar

The success of JLR is a highly debatable topic. I for one, would only attribute 20% of the success of JLR to Tata Motors.

Regards,
Rohan

Turnaround of JLR can largely be attributed to Tata Motors. Yes JLR had the product portfolio, Brand, Heritage, but Tata Motors invested heavily in R&D at a time when both the brands were making Huge losses. Plus good part on Tata Motors is that they allowed enough freedom to the CEO without interfering too much into day to day business. Last of course keeping cost structure under control.

[n.devdath]

Originally Posted by Prafful_Rathod

Turnaround of JLR can largely be attributed to Tata Motors. Yes JLR had the product portfolio, Brand, Heritage, but Tata Motors invested heavily in R&D at a time when both the brands were making Huge losses.

Quite the opposite actually.

Most of the product development had been completed by Ford by the time TML bought JLR.

TML played it smart on the marketing and pricing front and made their gains there.