A tale of two brands

I am making specific references to the situation faced by Tata Motors today. And a sharp contrast is available in the form of Mahindra & Mahindra, to bring out some inherent contradictions.

Let me go back a few years when Indica was launched. A car with a fresh design, technology, no lineage and more importantly accurate positionig (that of a family car, remember the tag line “more car per car”). Maruti, at that point of time, already was an established competition. But there was something more/different Indica had to offer, and the rest is history.

But things have changed sufficiently since then. Every segment today will have at least 10-15 competing cars in India. The need to differentiate your products is further more today. I doubt if the very same Tata Motors does seem to comprehend this. I rather assume that some kind of uncertainty and insecurity has set in. If you check with any auto enthusiast, you will come to know that both Manza and the Vista are the next generation products from Tata Motors and are quite competitive vis-à-vis the other offerings in their respective segments. So what is ailing them in the market place is nothing but poor positioning and communication. The Vista was launched as Indica Vista and Manza as Indigo Manza, clearly indicating that Tata Motors wanted to play it safe with established brand like Indica and Indigo. So when you play safe, you can only play as much. Again, both these products were launched much before their respective segments got crowded, thus giving Tata Motors a clear advantage. But they lost the opportunity as they were scared of taking the big step initially. Eventually, only when the Plan A failed, Plan B did promote Vista and Manaza as brands with separate identity. But it was too late in the day, as initial association with economy brands like Indica and Indigo has significantly diluted the premium images of Vista and Manza respectively. Clearly there was some kind of fear and insecurity, and not business sense, driving this.

This blog would be incomplete without the mention of the great Indian dream, “the Nano”. The initial assumption that Nano will not require any promotion and every family on a 2-wheeler will automatically shift to Nano, was a psychosis of a different kind. The initial positioning of the Nano as an aspiration car for the lower middle class has given way to being a “cool to have a car with the GenY”. The new tag line, “ Celebrate Kickasssomeness” will have no appeal whatsoever to the previous segment of customers. In the absence of any logical connect between the two propositions, it is obvious that the Plan A has been shelved and Plan B has taken over. With an ambitious project like Nano, a bit more homework was desired.

A close look at their communications would reinforce the above theory. The new Manza advertisement features a Japanese spy in India, trying to understand the secret technology that drives the new Manza, and ending up with a complex. This is an age old concept of selling a technology product in India, playing on the collective complex of a technologically inferior nation. May be only a patriotic brand like the Tata can come up with such a proposition. I can’t help but remember the Voltas (a Tata group company) advertisement, “India ka AC, Korea ka nahin”. Looks like the problem is rooted deeper in the larger organization. While it may appear to be patriotic to most buyers, it is only reflective of a deep sense of insecurity on the part of the brand.

Even the Nano communications were no different to start with. The advertisement would show families on 2-wheelers aspiring Nano while getting wet in the rain, and contrast it with a family feeling lucky to have escaped the rain while inside their Nano. Another advertisement would show a couple in a Nano accusing the wind for stealing their romantic whispers. It really took them time to understand that they are better off celebrating youthfulness than exploiting lower middle class insecurities.

While the leading car manufacturer was gradually going down, their Indian peer Mahindra & Mahindra was rapidly climbing its way up. Now this is a company with no history; in fact the historical image of being a tractor manufacturer was rather a lag. With competencies narrowed in the Utility Vehicle segment and a setback in the car segment (broken partnership with Renault), M&M had its task cut out. They did the exactly opposite to Tata Motors, brilliant positioning and communication. They focused on a competency based strategy and came up with competitive products, across price points, in the utility vehicles category. Bolero, Scorpio and XUV are all leaders, and the likes of Xylo and Thar are no less. This was a company conscious of its limitations and decided to focus on its strengths. Hence, the clarity and confidence.

Again, a close look at the M&M communications would reinforce the above theory. The M&M communication clearly says “Live Young, Live Free”, backed by an excellent video capturing the Gen Y free spirit and youthfulness. Unlike Tata Motors, this proposition is not only more aligned to the targeted segment, but also reflective of the changing values of the contemporary society. M&M were quick to drop the stereo typical – style, technology, service, etc. as differentiators - and focus on the identity of the brand as the differentiator. Needless to say, there was risk involved in trying to ride on the pulse of the nation, rather than the stereotypical. But only a brand, as confident as the M&M, could have felt the pulse right. And as they say, the rest is history.

Raising Your Spiritual Quotient

The common belief is that Spiritualism is a journey to be taken consciously, and the path is very different from the various paths we trace in our routine lives. As ordinary humans, we are less conscious of and more instinctual about most of the things that we do. Common human vices such as anger, violence, jealousy, competition, etc., are all deeply instinctual. I don’t remember anyone consciously choosing to be angry or jealous. As we commonly say, that is in his nature, purely referring to instincts. The question I ask is that, if we are all gifted with all such vices, deeply rooted in our instincts, then why doesn’t it work the other way. Why can’t we have some spiritual instincts rooted in us as well, so that we as ordinary humans don’t struggle with what the Buddha has gone through. Or are those instincts already there, and we haven’t realized them yet. Knowing nature’s miraculous ability to strike balance, the second possibility is more likely.

I am inspired by certain scientific facts to explore the possibility of such spiritual instincts. A certain species of the Cobra snake deep in the forests of South America is laying eggs in the middle of the tropical rain season. Over the next few days the rains are only going to increase and affect the equilibrium of the entire ecosystem. However, it is no coincidence that the breeding season of the Cobra overlaps the heavy rain months of the South Americas. The cobra carefully selects a bed of leaves with high buoyancy and an elevated platform to lay eggs in order to de-risk the dangers of flooding. The hatching period of the eggs can go up to 100 days, and that is enough time for water level to rise in the forests. Moving further the Cobra feeds itself properly, for it doesn’t know when the next meal is going to come. The Cobra literally hatches and/or guards those eggs for almost the entire duration of 90 days. Not even for a single moment does it go off the eggs for that would put its eggs under threat. The Cobra, like any other snake, can very much go hunting but it chooses not to do so as the security of its eggs are of prime importance. But the biggest of all threats to the eggs is the Cobra itself. Can we imagine a snake hungry for 90 days. Does it really matter whose eggs it is sitting upon.

 Although snakes are also cannibalistic, I haven’t heard of any snake feeding on its own eggs. This Cobra being no different either goes hungry for almost 90 days. The eggs still need another 10 days to come to life. But mother Cobra really cannot overcome its most primitive instinct (hunger) any more. It realizes the fact that, there is no more a bigger threat to the eggs than her. All these days the killer instinct that she has been able to overcome, will now be directed towards the very eggs that she has been protecting. You might call it a spiritual coincidence or whatever, the Cobra does overcome its most primitive instinct, and abandons the very eggs it has been protecting for all these days. On the very 90^th day the Cobra sets on a journey to never to come back again.

Not all of the Cobra eggs mature into full grown snakes. Natural selection precedes and only a few of the eggs do see the light of the day. The Cobra could have done well to feed on only one of the eggs to be able to take care of the others, but it chose otherwise. I have no option but to term this very instinct of the Cobra as spiritual. But for any spiritual instinct, it is unimaginable for a creature like snake to overcome its most primitive instinct of hunger. Darwin might approach this as the process of “natural selection”, wherein this species would have extinct had they not shown this particular behavior, I would argue that all species would have extinct had nature not packed us with similar spiritual instincts.

What amazes me is that, if a creature like snake with its mere cognitive capabilities is capable of demonstrating such spiritual highs, imagine the spiritual potential that higher order cognitive organisms are loaded with.  Assuming that human being are the ones with the highest cognitive capabilities, the vastness of this spiritual potential is only for us to discover. There are three parallels that are obvious:

a.       We are all programmed with numerous such spiritual instincts, irrespective of the fact that we are not conscious of most of them.

b.      Spiritual instincts are capable of and meant to counter all negative instincts and maintain the equilibrium within us and thereby in our ecosystem.

c.       If the Cobra can be conscious of such an instinct, then it is imperative and very much possible for us  to do the same.