Tata Ace

Marketing StatergyX MBA 18 – Vashi Core IIHerat Mehta Henry Ford said that customers could get cars of any color as long as it was black, while Tata Motors went to customers before designing Ace and asked them about the price and features that they wanted. Compare and contrast between these two approaches? 1. Both the cases are related to Automobile industries. Mr. Ford is talking about passenger cars & tata is talking about commercial vehicles. Main points can be argued as follows. Ford Cars| Tata Ace| Passenger Vehicles| SCV| Already made a huge market & business| Trying to make a new segment in the business| Going for Mass production| Product aimed at saving the entire business. | Almost monopoly business as 50 % of the requirement was fulfilled by Ford| Looking for the new customer or converting customers for their product. | Assembly line production planned. | Product for the people & by the people concept. | Production can be faster as black is the fastest drying colour| Not clear about the achievable sales from the target 30,000 units per year. Only colour becomes constraint for the prospective buyer. | The entire design concept is yet to be proved. | To summarise, both the approaches look fine at their own stages. Identify two activities done by Tata Motors while applying the marketing concept for developing Ace? 2. Implemented cross – functional teams which used 3P concept. (Production, preparation process) Extensive market study considering all possible factors like political, growth, devel opment and also customer need and requirements. Product was designed as the product from the customer, for the customer and designed it as a vehicle to service the last mile distribution. What are the different types of benefits or gratifications that consumers can draw from a product or a service? Discuss with respect to the case? 3. The Benefits that the customers can take from Tata Ace: * Better cost per ton for transportation. * Better fuel efficiency. * Safety * Durability * Weather proofing for the driver. * Additional payload. * Higher status in the community. * Personal motivation to start own business. Better manoeuvrability, can travel on all roads without restrictions, Can travel longer distance at a stretch and can reach smallest of the lanes or areas. * Self satisfaction of having or driving a small truck. What marketing lessons did you learn from the entire case study related to marketing? 4. Following points are very important for marketing a product * It is very important to involve marketing concepts while or prio r to design of a product. * Development of any product should involve all marketing factors for the success of the product. It is important to consider economical situations while doing marketing research. * Same marketing concepts may not work every time for different products or for similar products. * It is must to involve (consider) end users while designing a product. * It is also important to make a proper market segmentation and define target market for any product. * Emotional consideration while defining marketing strategy is very important. * To reach mass in India, marketing should be done in all languages & also in local media. The product should be supported strongly by local availability and after sales service. * It is important to avoid finance related issues of the prospective customers. marketing initiatives you would like to suggest for the future of Tata Ace? 5. Tata should take following Initiatives: * Give more models with different options like, powerful engin e, air-conditioning, option of more colours and body size. * Tata should target further into business specific models. * Reinforce service centres with educational drive & free services. Should make Ace at different geographical plats so that the supply is faster and cheaper. * Tata should launch a higher capacity version on the same platform again naming Ace + or equivalent. * To conduct a survey on the parts which are most unreliable & work on them. * To reduce cost of parts & make them easily available so that the duplication market can be avoided. * A new & fresh team to work on future actions required & again go back to the customers for further input. (This time should go to existing customer showing the commitment from the company)