How Tata came in with a Different POV and changed the category narrative. And What's in it for B2B SaaS.
My dad and I have been discussing replacing our old Maruti for a month now. Every Sunday we jam over it, browse a bunch of options, and then break for brunch where the topic fizzles out for the next Sunday. I love having this boy-bonding-over-vehicles with him, however, this post is about something else.
During the entire discovery and consideration exercise, we have eliminated almost all reigning leaders and rising superstars like Maruti, Hyundai, and Kias of the world based on just one factor - their safety ratings. While that is a pivotal point to consider, it didn't even feature in our list when we bought our last car, as recent as 2014. And there's one brand to thank for this tectonic shift in consumer preference - Tata Motors.
Tata has forever been a loved brand in almost every category. Tata salt is literally called Desh ka Namak (nation's salt) albeit borrowed from its own campaigns but thoroughly justified by their monopolistic market share. Everything (almost) from salt, steel, to software, Tata is either the leader or one of the most loved brands in the market.
Not with Tata motors though. A series of lukewarm launches, positioning blunders, and market momentum pushed out Tata far beyond the middle-class purchase consideration set.
In 2015, Tata stood in 6th place with a market share of 3.5% behind Maruti, Hyundai, Mahindra and Mahindra, Honda, and Toyota.
The state of the market was such where Maruti was leading the market and the narrative around automobiles in India around full efficiency and mileage with their "Petrol Khatami Mahi hounda' and 'Kitna deti hai' ads.
No one even talked about safety features.
And then things changed. In 2021, wholesale volumes at Tata Motors in the last quarter reached the highest in 33 quarters. So, the market share of Tata Motors rose to 11.3% in September 2021, compared with 8.2% in FY21, whereas due to lack of availability of parts, Maruti's market share has slipped.
Tata came in with a Different Point of View
What is Point of View Marketing?
It’s the way your brand looks at the world—your values, your unique perspective, your issues. It’s a stance.
A POV tells the world you’re a company on a mission, not a missionary company looking to make money any way it can.
The old way of thinking was everything about the cost of ownership of a car. While that manifested in the campaigns in terms of fuel efficiency, it was a part of the overall strategy. The story is strategy after all.
Tata Motors was creating competing cars but a jack of all trade in all departments. Good enough fuel efficiency, good enough build quality, good enough space at a good enough price. Nowhere near to beating Maruti Suzuki's unmatched supremacy in cost efficiency, build quality, fuel, spare parts, and service.
The sad part about the strategy and positioning of Tata Motors was it was fighting to be better than Maruti Suzuki. And that's a problem. Better reinforces the power of the category king you’re trying to beat (who by definition is not you). If customers think two companies are tied in the better wars, they just choose the category king—or the lowest price if there’s no clear king. In this case, the category king was the lowest-priced one. The perfect double whammy.
Tata Motors took the riskiest but the only choice that could have turned things around. They chose Different.
Different is better than better. It tells the world why this category and the company creating it are different. Different sticks. Different forces a choice between what was and what can be.
In 2018, they came out with their first Nexon campaign with their 'safest car' positioning. The product cashed the campaign. Nexon was the first car in India to score a full 5 stars on the Global NCAP tests, the global standards in safety.
Tata has always been the brand that would care about its customers, employees, and the nation overall. They're called the nation-builders for a reason and they've proved the term justified by years and years of responsible capitalism and social work. Hence, when Tata said they care about their customers' safety above anything else, it just fit. The POV should be something that fits the brand personality. Something that would make the customers go - Of course, the brand would do something like this.
On the other hand, it also made the customers feel that the brand cared about things that are more than money (either the purchase transaction or the fuel economy positioning). It made them feel something. And that's a tenet of a great POV.
A POV has to shift people’s minds so they reject an old way of thinking and come to believe in something new. The POV has to reach people on an emotional level. No one remembers what you say—but they remember how you made them feel.
In 2014, Maruti Suzuki Chief, Mihir Mishra commented that: "Additional safety features on cars will make them unaffordable for many Indians."
In 2021, the tables have turned. Maruti is focussing on SAFETY (in bolds, for real) both in their communication and their products.
Can this happen in B2B SaaS?
That's not even a question anymore. If you're an early-stage brand taking on the giants, changing the conversation is the proven way to establish yourself.
Salesforce did this with on-premise CRMs with 'No-Software'. Snowflake did this to on-premise data warehouses. Drift did this to Old-Marketing-Automation with 'No-Forms' and we at Insent were doing this with Drift with 'Human-first Conversational Marketing'.
Further reading on Salesforce: Behind the cloud and Drift: This Won’t Scale.
As far as my dad and I are concerned, we had the same discussion this weekend as well. We haven't still bought or even selected a car. We want to continue the discussion for a few more weekends. However, we both have moved our stock investments from Maruti Suzuki to Tata Motors, and we are going long on it.
Sources
Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets
Tata is making more money per car than Maruti for the 1st time in a decade
New Maruti SUV Developed With Toyota Aims For 5 Star NCAP Safety
Maruti Suzuki Hits Back at Tata Motors' Safety Jibe With ‘Dil Se Strong’ Post
Maruti Suzuki vs Tata Motors: New customer choices could lead to a change of guard
Point of View Marketing: How Taking a Stand Wins Raving Fans