Should the TATAs spin off a new brand for passenger cars?

[MaserQ]

luxury branding from Tata? Not yet. they havent quite reached the refinement levels required of upmarket marques. It could be disastrous if things start falling off a supposedly 'upmarket' tata brand!!

[kvish]

I think I made a mistake by quoting Acura and Lexus..... as of nowTATAs are nowhere close to the luxury segment that those two brands target...
but I am not too sure brands should matter only for luxury segment.

Basically, if I go to a TATA service center, all I see is indicabs and sumos, bruised and battered. Taxi drivers are napping in reception (atleast some solace for those overworked guys) There is a glaring difference from a normal service station. Yes there are lot of Ikon taxis in Ford service stations too, but not in this proportion.

Even when I took the delivery of my FIAT in concorde motors, there were 4 cabs being delivered. probably to some big travel guy, the owner wasnt even to be seen. On the other hand when I took delivery of my M800, it was entirely different. A lot of new owners, lot of excitement.....

In all, there is a sea change in the business of selling and servicing commercial vehicles and passenger vehicles.... and I feel TATAs may be able to themselves a world of good if they try to seggregate this as much as possible...

Imagine what would happen if 1L cars start rolling out.... now imagine the same treatment is given to a 11L 4x4 safari dicor....

[Desert fox]

Perhaps,to dig deeper into what TATA can do,it is better to speak to a few dealer's/TASS,officials who are close and are willing to speak to us and all possible sources to understand why TATA is a classic case of "so near,yet so far' with their products.

In fact i suggest a small study on their "beauracratic" workings which do not enable them to take such innovative ideas to the market.

[Karandeep81]

I think this a great idea, but it would mean a lot of investment in terms of finance, design, quality to build a superb product. Dont think TATA should do this as of now

[madhav]

It would be great if Tata came up with a new "upmarket" brand and made cars with better finish and with a bigger price tag. But let us think seriously for a minute... Let us say for example Tata came up with a car costing around 15 lacs. Now you have options like the Skodas, Hondas etc with some great products which are proven. Will you as a customer pick up a re-badged Tata or go with one of the existing manufacturers?
Anything above the Rs. 10 lac is still reserved to very few people in India and those people will never pick up a tata for that price.
So it is better tata sticks what they are doing now!

[Whenasked]

The idea behind TATA-FIAT strategy to acheive the same as in this title of thread :- to get cars like PUNTO, LINEA in near future.

TATA will get FIAT cars in India where as in FIAT will market TATA vans, other utility vehicles to South America, Europe etc..

A WIN WIN for both..

[salilpawar1]

Hey kvish, that's a nice idea.

By the way, Tata already uses this strategy while marketing watches in two different brands viz. Titan and Sonata.

Sonata aims for rural market and Titan is for urban market.

Titan Industries, The Tata group watch major, will soon vend its second major brand, the sonata, under the Tata name.
This, along with a campaign to introduce the concept of multiple ownership of watches, form Titan's new blueprint to increase market share. "We were not optimising our brands effectively. Both the Sonata and Titan brands have strengths of their own. They need to be marketed separately to boost their sales, "the newly-appointed deputy managing director of Titan Industries, Bhaskar Bhat, said. "Sonata by Tata' will surely appeal to the customers," he said.
Bhat, who is also the chief operating officer of Titan, said in future, there could even be two business models for these brands. Sonata has a market share of around 20 per cent in the less than Rs.1,000 price category, while titan has a 50 per cent market share in the Rs.1,000 - Rs.6000 price category. Henceforth, the Sonata brand of watches will be advertised as a Tata product and will carry the Tata logo too. The Sonata will also be aimed at the unbranded segment. "The potential in the unbranded market is huge. Our strategy is to give the customer a branded watch with the assurance which comes along with it," Titan Industries vice-president for sales and marketing, Bijou Kurien, said. The company had also some time back announced its plan to acquire brands to boost growth. "Yes, we are also on the lookout for acquisition of a brand," Kurien said. Kurien sees growth for Titan coming from multiple ownership of watches. "We have to accelerate replacement. It is necessary to induce single-watch owners to go for the second one the idea is to sell a watch for every occasion," Kurien said.

For original article, click below....
tata.com : Titan pens Sonata 'By Tata'

[sajo]

Originally Posted by Zappo

Here Tatas can trump the practice (if they at all want it that bad) by adding a disclaimer to the warranty statement that any vehicle (except for the cab variants) that has a yellow board or is otherwise used to rent out as a taxi will not be covered by any warranty or free services. I think this will immediately stop this practice.

They already do it to some extent. The Indigo manual states that the warranty is 18 months unlimited for everyone except for those running their vehicles with yellow plates. In that case the warranty is limited to 50,000kms.
But has that deterred people from buying Indigo Taxis?

Also,though I am not an expert, I dont think the law permits the sale of something like a car without a warranty.

As for another brand, I hope Tata builds their normal vehicles perfectly first, and then think of going higher up.

[GTO]

As for another brand, I hope Tata builds their normal vehicles perfectly first, and then think of going higher up.

Truer words aint ever said. There is yet a LOT of scope for improvement in the current cars. Let them improve them first, and then think of a premium product / brand.

[dicorex4x4]

Originally Posted by kvish

Even when I took the delivery of my FIAT in concorde motors, there were 4 cabs being delivered. probably to some big travel guy, the owner wasnt even to be seen. On the other hand when I took delivery of my M800, it was entirely different. A lot of new owners, lot of excitement.....

Imagine what would happen if 1L cars start rolling out.... now imagine the same treatment is given to a 11L 4x4 safari dicor....

Well, I took delivery of my 10L Safari along with a very happy gentleman taking delivery of an Indicab. We were both happy, congratulated each other and shared a tea.

I don't think this kind of snobbery will get us anywhere.

[Steeroid]

I think it should be the OTHER WAY around. They should spin off a new brand for Cabbies. Just like they did with Ginger for the budget hotels.

I have no issues with the 'Tata' nametag. The brand carries a lot of history and the vision of JRD. I am proud to use that tag.

They should come up with an alternate name for the Cabs, with a slightly different bodystyle or grille.

And like someone said, they should club that brand with the CV sales and service outlets. NOT with the Passenger Cars outlets.

Or at the very least have a dedicated fleet-sales channel (many companies have those) that features its own sales outlet.

[iraghava]

Maybe they can bring out a seperate brand for the new 1-L car & club the Taxi segment with it but then again bringing a new brand, dealerships, advertising etc. cost a lot of money & that is something most companies are not looking to do in our market.

As for a Luxury brand, well I can tell you that even with Hyundai's brand image the Elantra/Sonata/Tucson have been failures as the customers have not identified with them especially with regards to the Snob appeal despite the cars being very competent. So, it is going to be even more tougher for TATA which will be put down as the maker of cheap diesel cars or taxis.

Plus, I'm not sure also that TATA is upthere is the segment with regards to Fit-and-Finish, Quality, Reliability, NVH etc.

Originally Posted by sajo

They already do it to some extent. The Indigo manual states that the warranty is 18 months unlimited for everyone except for those running their vehicles with yellow plates. In that case the warranty is limited to 50,000kms.

That is standard practice for most manufacturers including MUL. If you use their vehicle for commercial purposes they automatically reduce the standard warranty.