DISTRIBUTION & MARKETING PLAN-SLP WK4

Introduction

Tata motors were established in 1945 with annual revenue in the excesses of ten billion. Over time, the company has grown to become one of India’s all-time leading motor vehicle manufacturers. It has equally been ranked among the top ten motor vehicle manufacturers in the world. Based on the nature of the operations and the quality of its vehicles, it has an impressive export record history thus marketing the services and the products of the company at the international arena. In its strategic growth, the company has launched Tata Nexon in its line of production and it’s expected to achieve the desired market penetration upon its launch. Its noteworthy that the competition in this area of concern has grown so immense that the there has to be a well laid down strategy through which the company is made capable of adapting to the changing market forces which shake up its market share from time to time. To effectively handle this, a SWOT analysis of the Company’s operating environment is necessary. Available evidence has pointed lack of SWOT analysis to the failure of the Company’s City Rover Model when it tried to enter into the British market. Comment by Todd Senft: Please be sure to cite the source(s) of information.

Strengths

Based on the fact that Tata Motors is enjoying the largest share of the market, it has got a number of strengths which should be worked on to ensure that the company achieves the market penetration for its new model of luxury to be launched. These include:

· Strongest Brand equity and share of the Indian Market.

· Good Legacy coupled with Dignity of the Tata Brand is almost as old as Ford Motor Company

· Global recognition in trucks and light buses.

· Sound fundamentals in turbo diesel engines that they developed in joint venture with Cummins

· Effective control over the Indian Market.

· Ownership of the heritage of British motor brands – Land Rover and Jaguar

· Strategic approach and collaboration with Mercedes Benz which is leading seller in premium car marketing segment of the Indian Market.

· Boasts some World class quality and product accreditations which are ISO 9001, ISO 20000 and ISO 14001

· Boasts Excellent and effective cost management framework which is Ariba Spend Management

· Excellent Supply Chain Management which utilizes SAP framework

· Has experienced, high quality, very productive and low cost work force

· Brags ownership of some of the largest automobile manufacturing plants of the world

· Strategic orientation through diversification strengths due to other conglomerate businesses of Tata Motors.

· Has high returns and excellent financial strengths totaling to about $10 Billion of annual revenues

· The parent group of the company has an annual turnover of over $30 billion thus making it stronger.

Tata Motors Weaknesses

· Product failure and has never ranked well in countries such as US, UK and European car markets (although done reasonably well in light trucks and buses) , thus failed miserably in their City Rover launch in Europe.

· Not yet prepared fundamentally to handle the global markets of Land Rover and Jaguar

· Suffers weak technical competencies thus ranks low compared to companies like Ford Motor Company

· The Company’s current Manufacturing capacities proves inadequate to meet the demands of Nexon thus the company has already taken a risk of over commitment and under delivery may hurt its reputation.

· Poor perception of being viewed as too Indianized thus taking too long to become a global brand acceptable by all.

· Do not possess localization skills outside India markets.

· Focus is more on cost thus their car models usually lack advanced features which are common and frequents other markets and the western world. This denies it effective competition on these markets.

Opportunities for Tata Motors

· By gaining control over the European markets through re-enforcing the heritage of Jaguar or the

Land Rover models.

· Deep roots of British style manufacturing processes given their own heritage of the

British rule in India; thus this can help them do better with Jaguar and Land Rover models.

· Introduce Asian variants of Jaguar and Land Rover by promoting their “Power Icon” branding this may work very well with Asian politicians, Capitalists and Bureaucrats

· Develop more joint ventures and strategic collaborations like Tata -Mercedes Benz and introduce their cars in the Asian markets. This increases the acceptance of the car in other markets.

· Tata Nexon has taken the world by surprise whereby many economy car manufacturers of the world are yet to even think of such a cheap car, yet so luxurious to its standards.

· Excellent test drives and experience reports of Tata Nexon can invite attention of urban middle class at global level if they build their manufacturing and supply chain effectively, they have the opportunity to virtually capture the market segment which doesn’t even exist in the world a market of $2500 cars (many bikes are more expensive than this car which is spacious enough to accommodate four six feet tall people)

Threats for Tata Motors

· The initial costs of funding this innovation and expanding to the new markets prove to be expensive and could drain the finances of the company.

· Many companies across the world are busy developing their own models of Economy Cars – they may launch in competition with Tata Motors giving them tough time in the market that currently seem to be monopolistic in favor of Tata Motors.

· Rapid changes in the tastes of the consumers makes it difficult to accurately determine the exact need of the consumers, thus difficult to predict their tastes adequately.

· Rapid technological advancements in this area of production makes it an unfriendly mark thus barring competitors,

The SWOT Table For Tata Motors

Based on the SWOT analysis

References

Babu, H. S. (2012). SWOT analysis for opening of FDI in Indian Retailing. European Journal of Business and Management, 4(3), 55-65

Barney, J. B. (2014). Gaining and sustaining competitive advantage. Pearson higher ed..

Becker-Ritterspach, F., & Bruche, G. (2012). Capability creation and internationalization with business group embeddedness–the case of Tata Motors in passenger cars. European Management Journal, 30(3), 232-247.

Sammut‐Bonnici, T., & Galea, D. (2015). SWOT Analysis. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management.