What about a company like Titan? It’s a successful company. Why isn’t it called Tata Titan?
It’s a legacy. And don’t forget that the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Ltd, owned by the Tamil Nadu government, is still the single largest shareholder. No one wants to offend the Tamil Nadu government. And Titan has developed a good brand of its own.
What about a brand like Trent?
I was told that when Trent was first established, Tata had never really gone into retail before and so it was perceived as a bit risky. So it was decided to kind of keep it on the edge. Trent, as you know, stands for Tata Retail Enterprises. And it took off and became a very successful brand in its own right. And there is again no reason to change it. At the moment it works, so why mess with it.
How is the brand perceived abroad in different parts of the world?
How long have you got? It’s a very simple question with a very complicated answer. It depends where in the world you are talking about. In South Africa, where they have done a lot of brand promotions, the awareness of the Tata brand is very strong and has very similar perceptions to those in India.
China is at the other end of the scale —- the understanding and knowledge of the Tata brand is very weak even amongst the government people, journalists and educators. Stop a hundred ordinary Chinese on the streets of Shanghai and ask them if they have heard of Tata and the answer will most certainly be ‘no’. In North America, Britain and parts of Western Europe, the perception is somewhere in between.
It also depends on whether we are talking about business-to-business side of Tata, like steel, chemicals and so on, or the consumer side, like Tata Motors. In the business-to-business side, the awareness is also very high. Almost anyone in the steel business is aware of Tata Steel. Anyone in the soda ash business is aware of Tata Chemicals. But much fewer people have heard about Tata’s consumer brands.
In the United Kingdom, there is a lot of awareness because of the lot of publicity surrounding Jaguar and Land Rover. Even to this day, few people know that Tata owns Tetley Tea, although Tetley is one of the largest tea brands in the UK. So, awareness of the Tata brand is very patchy: it depends on the sector or country that you are looking at and on whether you are talking about business-to-business or consumer.
Has the ruckus created in West Bengal because of the Nano controversy impacted the brand?
I see no evidence. There is some evidence that the impact has actually been positive. Possibly not in West Bengal, but some of the information that I have seen suggests people in other parts of the country have reacted positively. They saw the Tatas taking a strong and a principled stand and refusing to cave in. And I think that on the whole, the impact has been very, very little… if there has been an impact, it’s just marginally positive.
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