The Nano Effect

By Prabeer Sikdar
Thursday, 30.04.2009
Since the days of Nano’s teething problems in Singur till now, the People’s Car, has become the darling of the media and the middle classes in India (as well as the lower middle classes).
What makes Nano phenomenal is that it has changed the way the advertising world behaves, i.e getting your products advertised free of cost. This is what is being done by the electronic and print media including reputed business journals, news blogs, etc., who are in a frenzy over the Nano.
As four-wheeler crazy people lined up at the Tata showrooms in various parts of India to book the small wonder, it reminded one about the diehard fans of Harry Potter, who did not mind waiting for hours to get a copy of the boy wizard’s adventures. Meanwhile, from the media, the Nano Effect has also spread over to books related to the car, which are reportedly doing good business. Pradeep Thakur’s abridged book on Nano – Tata Nano: The People’s Car (Rs 99) deals with the car’s journey from Singur to Sanad.
The next in the pipeline, with backing from the Tata Group, is said to be a book giving tips on trouble free maintenance of the car, i.e., a sort of Do’s and Don’ts. Those in the book business say that the sale of books related to Nano would not be dependant on its success.After the introduction of Nano, another point that bewildered many was why the Tata Group kept the price of the car so low when profit motive is the sole concern of every businessman. Was it to build the Tata Brand?
One major implication of Tata Nano’s success (depends on the feedback given by the 1 lakh customers) would be a spill over effect on Tata Group’s other vehicles. Presently, Tata Motors produces 11 models of passenger cars (including Nano), Utility Vehicles (four models), Commercial Passenger Cars (three models) and Trucks (six models). Ironically, despite this, nobody is talking about Indigo XL, Indigo Marino, Indica V2 Turbo or Xenon XT…
If Tata Nano is as qualitative (also affordable) as is being claimed, then why restrict it to just one lakh customers? Will, those who could not get lucky in the Nano lottery, be psychologically forced to go for other Tata products with some interesting loan schemes thrown in?
Ultimately, if things go according to what Ratan Tata thinks, car lovers would be divided into groups in India: Those who own the Nano and those who don’t. However, for four-wheeler lovers, the dilemma would remain: Those who could not own Nano, would not stop dreaming about cars, while those few lucky one lakh Nanowallas, would pray that it functions properly without any side-effects.
http://www.garhwalpost.com/index.php?mod=article&cat=GupShup&article=736