Monday, December 6, 2010

Why is Nano not selling?

This question has been bogging me ever since I read the news that they have been able to sell only 500 odd Nanos for the month of November. This is a figure which has surprised many, including me given the fact that Nano is the cheapest car in the world. Nano had in fact brought India and the Indian automobile industry into highlight as no other event had dine earlier, there were worries that Indian roads will soon be full of Nanos and the already congested road infrastructure would fall apart . I myself has written a post earlier in how Nano is perhaps a car for the BOP consumer..

I tried speaking to a few others to understand the possible reasons for the low sales, I will just briefly list the possible reasons ,

Price on road is much higher than the initially 1 lakh tag and many consumer feel that they can always upgrade to a Alto by stretching a bit more.
Not being seen as a car , because of it's looks and the fact that it cannot be driven beyond a certain speed..
The fire incidents have only added to the perception of quality and safely issue with the car.
Inadequate credit facility to push the sales of the car, especially to be upgrade the two-wheeler owner to upgrade (he is the target consumer)
Maybe the car buyer in India has upgraded, they don’t want to buy a low-priced car and would want to start with the next level of cars.
The issue of low-price itself could be the one which is hampering the sales, as a car is seen as a status symbol and a low-priced car defeats that basic purpose of owning a car.
Even the issue of delayed deliveries may have added to the problems and many consumer have felt disheartened by the long waiting periods initially..

I might have left out some more reasons, but still find it very difficult to come to terms with the fact that in country of our size a product like Nano could not find more than 500 buyers, I think there is bound to be some thing is not getting covered, and perhaps in the coming days we will be able to understand the issue better...

Even Carl-Peter Forster, managing director and CEO, Tata Motors said “These are new ways of marketing the Nano. To be frank, we are learning as we do. We market a passenger car to customers that are either never there to dream of a passenger car or they couldn’t afford a passenger car. It’s a very different way of marketing. It means new channels for the dealers.”

8 comments:

  1. Sir.. Marketing is one area where nano failed. Initially it got an enormous publicity. But the hype faded after few months. I have not seen any TVC for nano, which they should have done. Also, except for the price the users are not happy with nano because of no hand brake,uncomfortable seats, slow pickup etc.,These are unstated needs of a customer. Nano is now attracting bad mouth from unsatisfied customers. To revive the sales, Nano should work a little on product features and come up with a marketing campaign to remove the negative image it had built.

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  3. Dear Sir,

    Long time since I visited your blog... Good to read your perspectives on Nano and its sluggish sales...

    Well, I believe Indians have an emotional pride attached to the act of buying a car. For any Indian family, a car is a precious possession. For a family which currently has a two wheeler and is willing to purchase a car, they will not get the satisfaction of being the 'proud owners' of Nano... Nano has been positioned such that it is a car for people who cannot afford cars... Probably that is a major turn-off for a lot of buyers.

    If I am a bike owner and I want to buy a car, I would rather wait for a few years, save some money and buy an Alto or a similarly priced car rather than going for a semi-performer like Nano.

    Do share your views...

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  5. In a country where even the lower segments are aiming at a lifetyle imaginable by higher class, telecom companies were able to capitalise on this with their high end qurty keyboard handsets priced lesser than the earlier vintage models of premier handsets, but you have pointed it out well that Nano which was to eat on this theory failed terribly

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  6. When nano came to the market it seems to be good because od its low cost. But later peoples gone to know that the performance of the car is also low as its rate. This is the main reason for its low selling.
    SPX India

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  7. Instead of positioning Nano as a substitute to two wheelers, they should have positioned it as the 'SECOND' car. :)

    Cheerz!
    DN

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