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1 lakh. The five figure “one”der. Can come up with any number of metaphors, phrases to describe this creature from Tata Motor’s stable!
The whole car is about a single word - innovation, right from using aerospace adhesives instead of welding to its distribution strategy. A little about the distribution strategy from Mr Ratan Tata:
“So we looked at a new kind of distributed manufacturing, creating a low-cost, low break-even point manufacturing unit that we design and give to entrepreneurs who might like to establish a manufacturing facility. We looked at different ways of servicing the product, at the customer’s location, and through a concept adopted from the insurance industry, wherein self-employed people are trained and certified by us.”
Sounds like franchising in part to me - the “entrepreneur” bit hints at that don’t you think? It is one of the fastest way to scale up, which makes sense for a product riding on thin margins.
The competitor-responses to the Nano have been pretty “Me-too” with GM, Toyota talking about bringing out their own versions of the same. Guess they didn’t expect the Tata’s to deliver on their promise eh? Of late, the car industry has seen quite a bit of crossing-over from other automobile category-users. What with the Mahindra’s Scorpio positioning itself as a car (SUV–>Car), the Nano positioning itself as a safer alternative to a bike(Car<–Bikes).
Besides the “common Indian”, the Nano could appeal to a very different set of consumers. Considering it is the 1st and currently the only one of its kind, why can’t it evolve into a fashion symbol of its own? True, the elite would rather have something exclusive, but wouldn’t the Nano qualify as a collector’s piece? Who thinks about usage - its all about attitude! The Nano symbolizes the uber cool-Chak De! attitude. Think politicians. Sounds totally er.. wacko, but well, couldn’t this be a new symbol of a young politician who wants to straddle all classes of Indian society? Move over Laalten (hurricane lamp) come Nano. Ridiculous, but well aren’t political gimmicks just that? 
Let’s wait and watch 
As a part of Strategic Marketing, we played the acclaimed “Beer Game”which demonstrates the Bull-whip effect on supply chain. A simple, charming exercise that underscored the importance of information flow in supply chain management.
What is Bull-whip effect? Typically refers to the increasing levels of inventory or back-logs that surface up and down the supply chain from consumer to factory, both of which would naturally increase costs. The aim of any organization would be to keep the delta between forecasted-actual demand as small as possible through faster,accurate information flow through the system.
What was fun was the tension that built up through the chain of Retailer–>Wholesale–>Distributor–>Factory. The demand had fluctuated only twice and very slightly (by 2 points) through the exercise, but the anticipated demand roughly doubled at each step (From 1–>2–>4–>8 ) with the “let’s save for the impending rainy day” attitude. Now you know why it’s called the Bull-whip! With relatively stable demand, the huge inventory at the factory side implied no work for factory employees for days on end. This would’ve resulted in labor issues, strikes etc. Amazing!
Was just thinking about Dalal Street’s Bulls n Bears. The state of mind, that drives up stock prices is the same -one of anticipation- price/demand upward movement. Though this one’s by greed and the other by fear. And moolah is ploughed by playing on these two emotions. Hah!
