The Tata Nano has not reached the goal that its manufacturer has set for it. The car despite a big sales push continues to lag behind more expensive rivals such as the Alto and Wagon R from Maruti Suzuki despite it being substantially cheaper than the latter two cars. A lot of damage has been done to the image of the Nano thanks to the politics of Mamata Banerjee who drove the Tatas out of Singur and later the media hyped a few cases of the Nano catching fire and that meant that the car failed to take off in the manner in which it was expected to. Another factor was that its inexpensive pricing was understood as “poor man’s” car and this kept people away from buying it.
Tata have been doing some intensive market research and have now decided to reposition the car as a youthful one, something that is very evident from the commercials that one sees on TV. Keeping in line with this line of thinking it has now come to our notice, that Tata will be tying up MTV which is again one of the most recognised youth brands of India to organise a Tata Nano MTV drive that will cover four different routes by four different teams (of four members each) in four different Nanos over a twenty day period. This will culminate at one point and the most ardent fan of the Nano will be gifted a Nano. So much for the story of a family on a motorcycle on a rainy day. But then the car deserves to sell in big numbers and this is good thinking by Tata.