Marketing Research Project

Marketing RESEARCH PROJECT

Tata NANO’s Perception

Group Name- “Nano- But NOT”

Group Members-

1. Research objective

To find out the perception of Tata’s NANO among the Young Generation Executives

studying at IILM.

2. Research Design

Information Available

About Tata

Tata Motors Limited is India's largest automobile company. It is the leader by far in

commercial vehicles in each segment, and the second largest in the passenger vehicles

market. The company is the world's fifth largest medium and heavy commercial vehicle

manufacturer, and the world's second largest medium and heavy bus manufacturer.

Established in 1945, Tata Motors' presence indeed cuts across the length and breadth of

India with over 4 million vehicles, since the first rolled out in 1954. The foundation of the

company’s growth is a deep understanding of customer needs, and the ability to translate

them into customer-desired offerings through leading edge R&D.

About Tata NANO

Tata Motors has recently launched the Tata Nano – World’s Cheapest Car, priced at Rs.

1,00,000. Ratan Tata, the chairman of Tata Group and Tata Motors, promised India to

build the 'Worlds cheapest car' and now it done. It was define by the corporation as 'a

comfortable, safe, all-weather car, high on fuel efficiency & low on emissions'.

Characteristics of NANO

Cheap:

It is the world cheapest car: 1 lakh for the standard model. Due to this, it is considered as

the “People’s car”.

Fuel-efficient engine:

Its mileage is 20km/litre. The luxury model has a diesel engine.

Safe:

Nano features feat with all safety requirements. The car contains a strong passenger

compartment with crumple zones, intrusion-resistant doors, seat belts, strong seats,

anchorages… It had passed a full frontal crash tests. Moreover, it’s a safer way of

transport than motorcycles and rickshaws.

Comfortable:

Nano has been conceived for four persons. Its space is adapted according to this. Four

doors enable the entrance in the car. Seating space is generous and quite comfortable. It

permits the driver to manoeuvre easily.Besides, the car will be available in two models:

standard and deluxe.

Ecological:

According to Ratan Tata (chairman of Tata motor), Nano meet all current legislative

emission norms and could be upgraded to meet euro IV norms. It is less pollutant than

two-wheelers being manufactured in India.

Trendy:

Both versions of Nano (standard and deluxe) will be available in several colours. The

customer will also have the possibility to choose additional accessories to adapt the car to

its needs to make it look trendy and stylish.

Information Needs

Our marketing research problem is to find out how Tata Nano is perceived by potentials

consumers. To discover Tata NANO’s perception we needed to know what respondents

think about Tata Nano. We identified some characteristics as rural, trendy, safety,

ecological and trendy which can define Tata Nano and respondents need to be asked if

they agreed. We need to also know some information about whether the respondents

perceive NANO as the car for young generation or people’s car or both. Besides, they

need to be questioned about social class target for Nano. They have to choose between

upper class, upper middle class, middle class, lower middle class and lower class.

Moreover, we identified the following criteria: price and affordability, fuel efficiency,

good design, quality, comfort, after safe services, Tata’s brand name, as part of the

reasons why people will buy Nano. Respondents need to choose the reasons according to

their preference ranging from most likely to least likely

Then we need to know the purchase intention of the respondents and whether they think

Tata NANO will be successful or not. For this we asked some of the respondents what

they understand by a successful brand. According to them, a successful brand is one

which fulfills the promise of quality, which can be easily recalled by people, which has a

name and reputation in the market and focuses on customer satisfaction.

If we get all this information, we will be able to analyse Tata NANO’s perception.

3. Sampling

We choose the sample on the basis of Non-Probability Sampling. We decided to use

Convenience Sampling technique by taking the students of IILM Institute as a sample,

which represented the whole population of young executives, to conduct our marketing

research. Although there are many potential buyers of Tata NANO, but for this particular

research we decided to focus only on the young executives.

4. Data collection

Exploratory Research

We opted for the exploratory research to explore the first hand information about the

people’s perceptions for Tata’s Nano. It was necessary to know the key elements which

could be handy in judging the perception for Nano. To get the insights and understanding,

we showed the picture of Nano to the respondents and asked them what they think about

Nano. We also asked them to define Nano in one word. The responses varied from being

trendy to rural, from safe to ecological, cheap to people’s car.

Secondary Data Analysis

We also did secondary data analysis by getting information from the websites of Tata’s

Nano. We also searched throuth some blogs and interviews on the websites to find out

people’s perception about Tata’s Nanos.

Survey

We selected the questionnaire survey for the course of action, to get the new ideas and

insights about the perception of the people. We targeted the young executive as they are

the key potential buyers of Nano.

We decided to go for a closed ended questionnaire with a rating scale (in most questions)

so that it become easy for both the respondents and us to administer it and easily tabulate

and analyse it. We also pre-tested it two times within the group so, as to make the

questions error-free and accurate so that it can reveal relevant and accurate information

that we require to analyses the problem.

We surveyed in cafeteria, classes and in the college premises with the young excutives.

5. Data analysis

Results

We interviewed 50 students of the school in order to complete the survey. As we can

observe in the chart below, 44% of them were female and 56% male. We have a balanced

proportion between both genders in our sample. That enable this survey to be more

representative of the target market we choose to analyse.

Gender

56%44%

male female

Nano: trendy?

6%

54%

14%

24%2%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

strongly

agree

agree don't know disagree strongly

disagree

Nano: a rural car?

10%

54%

8%

24%

4%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

strongly

agree


disagree

General perception of Nano

Thanks to this survey, we tried to get people’s perception about Nano on several

parameters. These are given as under-

Nano as a rural car:

It clearly appears that the majority of the respondents disagree with the affirmation that

Nano is a rural car. Only 28% of them agreed with that fact. Nano is most perceived as a

“city” car.

Nano as a trendy car.

Nano: People's car?

22%

70%

0% 6% 2%

0%10%20%

30%40%50%60%

70%80%

strongly

agree


disagree

Nano: an ecological car?

10%

32%

42%

16%

0%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

strongly

agree


disagree

Nano: a safe car?

10%

34%

44%

12%

0%0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

strongly

agree


disagree

These results illustrate that most of the respondents we surveyed agreed that Nano is trendy

(60%). People who want to be fashionable will be tempted to buy this car.

Nano as “People’s car”.

According the chart, we can say that Nano is “People’s car”. More than 90% of the

respondents agreed with that affirmation. Nano is considered as a car that suits with

“everybody’s” needs. It is a product of mass consumption.

Nano as a safe and ecological car.

Nano: made for young generation?

6%

32%

12%

40%

10%

0%5%

10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%

strongly

agree


disagree

We can observe that an important percentage of persons (more than 40%) choose not to answer

to that questions telling they didn’t know. It illustrates people have some doubts about these two

characteristics of Nano. This is probably due to the fact the car has not been launch to the market yet.

However, the respondents seem to feel more comfortable with the affirmation that Nano is an

ecological car (42% agreed with that statement) than with the one that Nano is a safe car (just 12%

agreed with this).

Nano as a car for young generation.

Most of the respondents disagreed with that affirmation even we can not clearly discern a

general tendency for that question. Respondents have mixed responses about Nano only as a

car for young generation.

Target market

Tata Nano is for...

42%

54%

4%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

upper

class

upper

middle

class

middle

class

lower

middle

class

lower

class

The respondents of our sample consider Nano as a car for middle or lower middle class. Its

price, its size and its features are probably the reasons of such an affirmation.

Interest in buying a Nano

26%

52%

22%

yes maybe no

Buying a Nano

First, we tried to see in which measure students of the school would be interested in

buying a Nano. The results of the survey didn’t prove a great enthusiasm of the respondents to

that idea; perhaps because they didn’t consider belonging to middle or lower class. Most of

them (52%) answered they will maybe be interested by such a car.

Reasons to buy NANO

Reasons for buying a Nano:

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

Price Tata's brand

name

Fuel

efficiency

Good design Quality Comfort

Rank 7

Rank 6

Rank 5

Rank 4

Rank 3

Rank 2

Rank 1

This chart shows that price is the principal motivation of purchase. Tata’s brand name is

coming just after. This is given in detail as under

Impact of price and affordability on purchase

96%

0% 2% 0% 0% 0% 2%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

120%

rank 1 rank 2 rank 3 rank 4 rank 5 rank 6 rank 7

Most respondents think that price is the most important factor which people will consider

while making a purchase decision about Nano.

Impact of fuel efficiency on purchase

2%

27%

20%

16%13% 13%

9%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%


Impact of Tata's brand name on purchase

4%

50%

17%

9% 7% 9%4%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%


Impact of good design on purchase

4%

11%

29%

22%

16%

7%

11%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%


Impact of quality on purchase

2%

7%

13%

27%

20%22%

9%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%


Impact of comfort on purchase

2% 2%

13%

20%

7%

18%

38%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%


NANO- A Sucessful car ?

Nano: a successful car?

0%4%

29%

52%

15%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

strongly

agree


disagree

From the above chart, 67% of the respondents think that Nano will be a successful car and

just 4% of them consider it will not be a successful brand. That is quite encouraging for Tata’s

brand!

Correlation

We also found out the coefficient of correlation between elements to understand whether the

relationship between them is positive or negative. It is explained as under.

Rural and Trendy -0.209

Trendy and Young Generation 0.248

People's car and Safety 0.086

Young Generation and people's car -0.037

Rural and young generation -0.087

Rural and people's car -0.213

1. The coefficient of correlation between rural and trendy is negative, shows that people

who say Nano is a rural car disagrees that it is trendy and fashionable and vice-versa.

2. The coefficient of correlation between trendy and young generation is positive, shows

that the respondents who believe Nano is trendy also believe that is it made for young

generation.

3. The coefficient of correlation between “people’s car” and safety is positive, shows

that people think it is safe that is why it is people’s car.

4. The coefficient of correlation between the young generation and people’s car is nega-

tive, shows that the respondents who think Nano is for young generation dont agree

that it is people’s car.

5. The correlation between the rural car and the young generation car is negative, shows

that respondents who think Nano is a rural car don’t think it is for young generation

and those who think Nano is for young generation do not agree that it is a rural car.

The degree of correlation is not very high. It shows that respondents are not really sure

of the conclusion given above.

6. The correlation between the rural car and the people’s car is negative, shows that re-

spondents who believe Nano is a rural car do not seem to accept it as People’s car, and

vice-versa.

7. The correlation between the trendy and people’s car is negative, shows that it is either

trendy or a people’s car. But the low degree of correlation suggests that respondents

are not really sure of this thing.

6. Conclusion and report

Key Findings

i. Nano is not really perceived as a rural car. 64% of the respondents disagree with

the fact that it is a rural car. Despite being the cheapest car in the world people

accept and see it as a city car. From secondary data analysis, we found that Nano’s

main target segment is rural India. But our findings tell us that apart from rural

India, it has a huge market in Tier1, Tier2 and Tier3 cities in India. So Tata’s

strategy should be to do good branding in order to attract large customer segments,

especially youth of India.

ii. 60% of the respondents agree that Nano is trendy. People perceive it as a

fashionable car. So, as Nano is perceived as trendy, it has potential to make huge

business apart from rural part. It should tap the untouched cheap A-category car

market in urban, semi-urban and towns of India. It must also attract people who

buy motor bikes. Negative correlation between rural and trendy clearly suggest

that most of the respondents are bifurcated between those who think Nano is a

rural car and those who think it is trendy. So this thing itself seems to increase the

customer base for Nano.

iii. More then 90% of the respondents agree that Nano is People’s Car. We got mixed

responses about Nano as a car for young generation. It is a car which fits to the

needs of all types of customers. It is a product of mass consumption.

iv. In terms of safety and ecology, we have got fairly mixed responses. Most

respondents said they don’t know whether Nano is safe and ecological or not.

More than 40% respondents did not know whether it is safe and ecological. This is

probably because they have not really driven Nano.

v. The respondents perceive Nano as a car for middle or lower middle class. Its price,

its size and its features are the reasons of such an affirmation. It also confirms that

it is a car for masses.

vi. The research has shown that price and Tata’s brand name are the most important

reasons for the people to buy Nano. 96% respondents gave price as the first reason

to buy Nano. We believe the company should keep up its brand leverage on the

people. It must keep the promised price. The other reasons like design, fuel

efficiency, after sale services were not considered important because Nano is yet to

be launched.

vii. 67% of the respondents think that Nano will be a successful car and just 4% of tem

doubt this. That is quite encouraging for Tata’s brand! This also suggest that

people trust Tata as a company. They think very positively about Nano despite the

fact that it has not launched

Issues in the Research

i. In the questionaire, in a question where the respondents had to rank the choices

from 1 to 7, they ticked only one choice, instead of ranking them. So, we had to

narrate that question to most of the respondents in order to get accurate informa-

tion.

ii. The term ‘ecological’ in one of the questions was not very clear. So, we had to ex-

plain it to respondents. We defined the term as ‘environment friendly’ to get their

responses.

iii. Another issue while selecting Sample is Convenience sampling. We decided to go

for convenient sampling in order to make the process simple.

iv. Our sample does not represent whole target market for Nano. We have choosen

only one segment, i.e. young executives.

Learnings:

This project was useful because it has completed the theory that we learned in class. It al -

lows us to use the whole market research process and to understand each stage of it.

Thanks to this study, we learned how to conduct a survey through the collection of sec-

ondary and primary data and the elaboration and administration of a questionnaire to a se-

lected sample.

Marketing Research Project

Documents

Transcript of Marketing Research Project