QUALITATIVE MARKET RESEARCH

Re-positioning of Tata Nano

A qualitative a!"et !esea!#$ %esign
Vikas Sarangal (2012 PGP 437)

Re-positioning of Tata Nano Case background

Vi"as Sa!angal &'()'*+*,-./

Tata Nano was launched in 2009 and was positioned as worlds smallest and cheapest car and most fuel efficient which would be known as peoples car at Rs. 1 Lakh price1. The traditional segmentation was demographic based on factors such as age, gender and income2. The primary target segment was the middle class families who drive two wheelers but aspire to have a car2. Nano units sales never reached the expected value, in fact the monthly units sales numbers has been declining continuously (21,652 units were sold in September,2012 and only 9,291 units were sold in June, 2013)3. This all made the marketing team of Nano think if they have positioned Nano wrongly. On November, 30 the former chairman and the father of Nano, Mr Ratan Tata also admitted that positioning of Nano was wrong4. On August 22, 2013 the marketing team of Tata Nano declared the re-positioning of Tata Nano from cheap and affordable car to smart city ride5. To achieve this, the company has introduced features like power steering, improved interiors and fuel efficiency. They also plan to launch CNG version of Tata Nano in near future. The target segment is young car buyers. The new TV commercial titled Celebrate Awesomeness with Tata Nano was launched in July, 2013, which highlighted the efforts of marketing team to target youth as their primary market6. Research problem The aim of this market research is to evaluate the perception that youth carry about Tata Nano and hence to evaluate the effectiveness of the re-positioning strategy. We also seek to determine if the new features and modifications offered by the company is of any value to young buyers. Qualitative techniques to be used for obtaining data 1) Projective Technique (Cartoon test) 2) Focus group discussion Rationale for using above techniques 1) Projective Technique (Cartoon test): The idea is that some people especially youth may hesitate to criticise their friends/classmates who own a Nano. With the help of cartoon tests they can project their own thoughts, attitudes and desires into the drawn characters. Test persons are therefore encouraged to express the thoughts and feelings that they otherwise might withhold. Further, test cartoons are interesting too work with and respondents will enjoy giving inputs. This

http://nicheiima.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/tata-nano-celebrate-awesomeness-once-a-peoples-car-butnow-it-is-for-the-urban-youth/ 2 http://www.livemint.com/ ndustry/l3t!"##3w8c$%&'(un)*+ /$ill-,ata--anos-ma.eover-clic.-with-urbanyoun+-buyers.html 3 http://carsalesdata.in/tata-motors-sales-slump-by-33 / http://www.thehindu.com/business/ ndustry/mar.etin+-nano-as-the-cheapest-car-was-a-mista.e-ratantata/article*/0*80/.ece * http://www.livemint.com/ ndustry/l3t!"##3w8c$%&'(un)*+ /$ill-,ata--anos-ma.eover-clic.-with-urbanyoun+-buyers.html 1 http://motorbash.com/celebrate-awesomeness-tata-tar+ets-youth-with-this-new-nano-tvc/

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Re-positioning of Tata Nano

Vi"as Sa!angal &'()'*+*,-./

part of the research will help us in gaining a basic understanding of how the respondents perceive the Tata Nano. 2) Focus group discussion: Focused group discussion is used because our aim is to know the collective perception of a specific market segment (young car buyers). By encouraging a constructive interaction within the group, we will be able to find the appropriate insides about how the Tata Nano is perceived among the youth. After cartoon test FGD will allow us to dig in deep and will give us a collective perspective. Profiles of respondents for the study 1) College goers: ,he primary set of respondent of the study would comprise of colle+e students who commute within city to +o to colle+e. ,he a+e of the respondent may vary from 18 years to 30 years. 2) Recently joined job: ,he second set of respondents could be from the set of people who have recently 2oined 2ob and commute within city to +o to their office. ,he a+e of the respondents should not e3ceed 30 years. Sample size ,he sample si'e would vary for both the 4ro2ective techni5ue 6&artoon test) and 789. Projective technique Cartoon !est": n &artoon test we can have as much as 200 to 300 respondents as described by 4hilipp :roec.elmann in the readin+. #ocused group discussion: 7or focus +roup discussion we would have 3 ; 1 different +roups each +roup comprisin+ of 1 to 12 participants. (s described by (nthony <. =nwue+bu'ie et al. more than 1 +roups would result in repetition of the findin+s and more than 12 participants will ma.e each of them uncomfortable in sharin+ their views. "oreover> natural of pre-e3istin+ +roups should be used in 7ocus 8roup 9iscussion 68roup of friends> class mates of office collea+ues)#. $uide for Projective !echniques Cartoon !est" ,here are three pictures in total. ,he faces of cartoons are intentionally left blan. in order to not influence the participant?s pro2ections. 4articipants should be informed that there are no wron+ or ri+ht answers. 4articipants should be told that in each picture cartoon characters are interactin+ and they have to +uess what should be the character that is left ban. must be thin.in+/sayin+. nstructions to be +iven before each picture are +iven below. Picture %: &ere' on the right side there is a character (ho goes to college and on the right side his parents are sitting)

http://www.lse.ac.u./media@lse/research/A)Bids=nline/:est4ractice8uide/7(C03.asp3

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Re-positioning of Tata Nano

Vi"as Sa!angal &'()'*+*,-./

Picture 2: Here the character drives his Tata Nano to his college and shows it to his friends

Picture 3: Here a group of friends is just hanging out.

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Re-positioning of Tata Nano $uide for #ocused $roup *iscussion General Instructions:

Vi"as Sa!angal &'()'*+*,-./

Thank you for agreeing to participate. We are very interested to hear your valuable opinion on Tata Nano The purpose of this study is to learn what do the young people like you think of Tata Nano? The information you give us is completely confidential, and we will not associate your name with anything you say in the focus group. We would like to tape the focus groups so that we can make sure to capture the thoughts, opinions, and ideas we hear from the group. No names will be attached to the focus groups and the tapes will be destroyed as soon as they are transcribed. We are not trying to reach consensus, we just want your views.

Start with some warm-up questions like asking about their age, studies, job etc. Also, Talk about yourself to break the ice. Before starting make sure that every participant know about Tata Nano and has watched its recent TV commercial. Questions: 1) How many of you would like to buy Tata Nano as your first car? Probe: a) To people who have said yes, Why would you like to buy? b) To people who have said yes, why not? Let the discussion flow, if there is a healthy debate among the participants on the reasons for not buying or buying, closely observe and interfere to keep the discussion on track. 2) According to you what are the 5 good things about Tata Nano that makes it a good car? Encourage active contribution from the participants who has said no in previous question. 3) According to you what are the 5 things about Tata Nano that makes it an inferior car? Encourage active contribution from the participants who has said yes in first question. 4) Does owing a Tata Nano enhance your stature among your friends? Probe: a) Why or why not? b) If participants say no: Would you rather have a bike or no personal mean of transport? Be careful when you are asking probe (b). Ask this question only if the participant highlights that he/she would rather have a bike or something similar. 5) Tata is offering new features in their new model of Tata Nano, like power steering, Better interiors and better fuel efficiency. Do these features have any influence on your decision? Probe: a) Out of people who said no, does this offering make any difference? b) Do these features appeal to them to buy Nano?

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Re-positioning of Tata Nano

Vi"as Sa!angal &'()'*+*,-./

6) Did you like the new TVC of Tata Nano? What did you like about it? Probe: a) How your views have changed about Tata Nano after watching new TCV of Tata Nano? b) Can you imagine yourself and your friends in place of characters in the ad? 7) Would you like to add anything else to the discussion? Thank you all for the participation, we really appreciate you being here today. Plan for carrying out data analysis Projective technique Cartoon !est": (fter +atherin+ the responses of all the participants> we would perform content analysis and fi+ure out /-* cate+ories under which the responses of a particular picture fall. ,he number of participants in each cate+ory of the 3 picture would determine the perception that our tar+et +roup carries about ,ata -ano. #ocused group discussion: ,he recorded 7ocused +roup discussions should be transcripted 6since the no of such 789?s are less in our case 63-1)). 9urin+ the first sta+e the data is chun.ed into small units> attach a descriptor or code to each unit. n second sta+e +roup these codes into cate+ories. ,hese cate+ories are then counted and dependin+ on that a trend would emer+e when we do the same e3ercise for each 789. ,hereafter> we can outline the results of the study. +,pectations from the study ,he study will help us understandin+ the view of the youn+ car buyers about ,ata -ano. t will further +ive us the factors that positively as well as ne+atively influence the youth to buy ,ata -ano. ,he study will also help us understandin+ the effectiveness of the re-positionin+ strate+y of ,ata -ano and its success in persuadin+ the youn+ population to buy -ano. 7urther> the perceived value of new features 64ower steerin+> better interiors and fuel efficiency) amon+ the tar+et se+ment would also be evaluated.

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