Sumo Grande: Seeding Activity to the High-end Tourist Market.
Sudeep Kumar Biswas, Alliance Business School, Bangalore.
Paper Abstract
TATA Motors has segmented, targeted, and positioned selected products according to their features and brand equity in the market. Products such as the newly launched indigo CS, Palio MultiJet, Safari Dicor, and Sumo Grande are thus positioned exclusively for sale in the high-end tourist market, that is, for fleet operations only. Bangalore being the IT hub in the country, possesses a strong market potential for automobile brands heavily promote their products in the fleet operations space, given that a large number of employees in the IT and ITes sectors commute from home to office on a daily basis. This focus of the paper is to examine the market potential of the Sumo Grande – a repositioned product- in the commercial segment based on a product seeding approach. The findings of the paper test the market penetration strategy of the product by adopting a quantitative research methodology. The paper presents an analysis and interpretation of primary data collected through a sample survey of potential fleet operators based in Bangalore city. The research methods and business recommendations contained in the paper have been presented to executives at TATA Motors, which have been verified and approved.
Introduction
In the early 2008, TATA Motors launched its new improved product, which was a facelift of Sumo in the new version of Grande – positioned as both an SUV and a family car with. This paper focuses on designing and testing a market strategy to seed the Sumo Grande in fleet sales of the high end tourist segment. The paper, in particular, assesses the market acceptance and preference for the product among the end user segment. The location of the study is the city of Bangalore. The study aims at exploring the potential available in fleet operators segment, especially in tourist and taxi sub-segments for TATA SUMO GRANDE. The regional head office of TATA Motors in Southern region is situated in Bangalore, Karnataka, a key factor that has facilitated data collection and qualitative research based on company sources.
The objectives of the study are to:
1)Â Â Â Â Â Â Examine the success of seeding the Sumo Grande in the commercial segment.
2)      Study the consumer perception of the TATA cars across its competitors’ products especially utility vehicles for fleet purposes.
Sampling method
Since, the number of fleet owners and the drivers in Bangalore City is very large in number, doing survey of all the members in the population would be impractical as the cost and time involved would be really high. Hence, a sample of 95 fleet operators was taken across all the categories of fleet service. This was done in order to attain an unbiased feedback about the products. The sample taken was distributed across airports, railways stations, IT industries; bus stands etc in order to avoid the chances of opinions influence by external factors which would result in an improper learning. Â The group of drivers are not homogenous in nature as the opinions of drivers in each area are different according to the perception of the group of people in that location. The population is stratified into a number of non-overlapping subpopulations or strata. Hence, the sample method used here was a stratified sample method.
Data collection
The data collection was done by administering questionnaires to respondents, who in this case, were drivers of tourist fleets of utility vehicles. The objective of this questionnaire is to understand the perception of the drivers about the fleet vehicles including utility vehicles and passenger cars among all the auto manufacturers in India.
The questionnaire constituted of the following questions:
Personal details of the respondent  (Driver)
Perception of the best manufacturer with aspects of
Quality and Service
Value for money
Perception of the best UV and car with respect to the following aspects:Â Mileage, safety, comfort, cheaper spare parts cost, maintenance, better resale value
Scenario of Fleet operations:
Bangalore being the IT hub in the country has got a strong potential for fleet. Many IT, ITes, companies are situated in the city in various parts. The major chunk of the corporate are located in certain IT parks like ITPL – Information Technology Park Ltd, Whitefield, and Electronic city. These corporate organisations have a multitude of employees working under them. These employees commuted form their work places and to their residence. At a conservative estimate, the number of employees working in the IT and ITes industry who commute from home and office and back in Bangalore city is around 200,000 persons. This commuting service is offered by the company in two ways depending upon the convenience of the organization: either the fleet is outsourced or company owned fleets are used. Apparently, most of the information technology companies prefer for outsourcing the fleet operations to fleet operators or vendors. This is basically done in order to reduce the additional task handling activity. By outsourcing the fleet operation, the industry benefit from a reduction in overheads costs, a reduction in the data handling for large numbers of commuting employees and the fleet allotted for each employee, and no maintenance issues for the fleet operating vehicles
The Fleet operators
The fleet operators in Bangalore are high volume handling operators having even maximum of 3000 vehicles per vendor. This includes the bus, UVs, and cars. The fleet operators can be categorised in following ways:
Vendors are functioning for single company in a single area (Location)
Vendors are functioning for a single company in all the places where the company is located
Vendors are functioning for more than one or two companies simultaneously
The vendors can be also classified in the following way:
Vendors who own all their Fleet vehicles
Vendors who have all their Fleet vehicles attached from individuals
Vendors who further outsource a part of the fleet vehicles to small travel agencies
Hence the potential buyers of the Fleet operations vehicles (Sumo and Indicab) are:
Mainly the Fleet operating Vendors
Experienced drivers working for the Fleet operators
Drivers working for other individuals who have attached the service to the vendors
Entrepreneurs who search for new potential business
Tata Motors Sumo Grande – The Product
Tata Sumo Grande is a new generation multi utility vehicles and is a result of extensive research and development by Tata Motors Limited. This vehicle also incorporates all the well known and proven features of Tata Motors precision and advanced technology. Easy manoeuvrability and economic life cycle cost makes Sumo Grande ideal for operating in both urban as well as rural areas. This vehicle is powered by a new generation 2.2L DICOR BS-III engine which is in turn mated to a 5 speed fully synchromesh gearbox with overdrive for excellent fuel efficiency and tubeless tyres for better road holding and grip. Sumo Grande’s 2.2L DICOR engine is a refined power plant employing a sophisticated Common rail fuel system. The engine’s ECU (Electronic Control Unit), basically a 32 bit Micro-processor, controls the engine’s fuel injection, operation of the Variable Geometry Turbocharger (VGT) and other related parameters for it to perform optimally. An ergonomically designed vehicle designed that doubles up as a taxi with no extra modifications, the Sumo Grande has added features such as a collapsible power steering, central locking, power windows, highly effective HVAC for comfort, music system, state of art headlamp and rear lamps, good all-found visibility and easy access to areas of daily maintenance.
Pricing Strategy of the Sumo Grande
The pricing strategy of the Sumo Grande clearly reflects the product seeding operations by the marketer (Fig. 1.1). The pricing strategy also signals the arrival of a new and improved product to existing customers of the Sumo brand, in an attempt to upgrade high end users to the next generation of utility vehicle. The pricing strategy of the Sumo Grande has three components. First, in an attempt to upgrade high end users from older items in the product line, the Sumo Grande is positioned as a new and improved   product with higher ex-showroom price points than other items in the product line – the Sumo Victa, and Sumo Spacio+ – but offered at lower ex- showroom price points than the luxury segment vehicle, the TATA Safari Dicor. Second, the strategic price positioning of the Sumo Grande is aimed at filling the price gaps left open by products of competitors’ brands such as variants of Tavera and Scorpio. Third, the price points of the vehicle aim at communicating a value proposition to the buyer by targeting customers from the high end segment by offering higher value and from the lower market segments by offering better features and aspirational benefits.
Fig. 1.1 Sumo Grande: Strategic Pricing
Seeding of TATA SUMO GRANDE in high end tourist segment.
Fig.1.2 The Process for Seeding Operations.
The process for the product seeding operations is given in Fig. 1.2. It can be seen that the process closes follows the sequential steps that are present in the process of personal selling. The paper has added refinements to the process of personal selling to arrive at a methodology that is best suited to the research objectives of the study. The results of the seeding process of the product in the high end tourist market in Bangalore city led to the examination of the acceptability of the Sumo Grande among the target market based on twelve decision variables. These are analysed below and are  the shape of the vehicle, the quality of interiors, engine power and performance, mileage, body vibrations, stability at high speeds, braking effectiveness, visibility of the product on roads, vehicles seen on roads, Sumo brand association, resale value, Tata engine has low credibility, preference for other products. A factor analysis of the product seeding data collected from over 95 respondents indicates important variables that would discourage an immediate adoption of the product. The finding of the seeding process of the Sumo Grande in the high end tourist market in Bangalore city indicated that while TATA Motors is strong in passenger car fleets (Indica), the brand has witnessed weak sales in the utility vehicle fleet and with the Sumo Grande in particular. A strong competitor for TATA Motors in the utility vehicle fleet segment is Chevrolet’s Tavera, Toyota’s Innova, and Mahindra and Mahindra’s Bolero. Also, it was learned that as much as 48% of the utility vehicle fleet owned by travel operators surveyed consists of the Tavera vehicle.
Interpretation
Fig. 1.3 Fleet operator preference for the Sumo Grande vehicle
Fig. 1.4 Reasons for consumer dissatisfaction with the Sumo Grande
The fleet operator’s response from the market in Bangalore city indicated that TATA Motors has a weak presence in the fleet sales of utility vehicles. An analysis and interpretation of the survey data shown in Figures 1.3 and 1.4 serve to substantiate and corroborate this perception. The consumer survey was conducted in January 2009, which is the point of reference for assessing buyer decisions. Fig. 1.3 shows that 41 % of the respondents were not interested in the purchase of the Sumo Grande as a fleet vehicle while only 1 percent of the respondents were decided on immediate purchase. Further, a large portion of respondents preferred to defer the purchase of the product:  29 % and 20 % of those surveyed showed a preference for purchase during the last quarter of 2008-09 and during the calendar year 2009, respectively. A mere 1 % and 3 % were interested in immediate purchase and within 30 days of responding to the questionnaire. The primary reasons attributed to the sluggish fleet sales of the Sumo Grande in the tourist segment originated consumer dissatisfaction from anomalies in product design (fig. 1.4). While 41 % and 19 % of respondents surveyed cited the poor ergonomics of the body interiors and the presence of body vibrations as reasons not to purchase to purchase the Sumo Grande for fleet operations, another 16 % and 12 % of respondents stated that driving mileage and body shape were key deterrents to purchase.  6 % of those fleet operators surveyed cited engine output and performance as a dissuading factor while and the respondent size ranked stability at high speeds and ineffective braking systems and brittleness of plastic parts on an equal scale of importance.
Factor Analysis
A factor analysis on SPSS software was conducted to arrive at the structural essentials of the product seeding data set, which revealed major factors that would discourage the target segment from making a decision in favour of the product.
Table 2 Communalities
Initial
Extraction
Body Shape
1.000
.907
Interiors
1.000
.877
Power and performance
1.000
.689
Mileage
1.000
.796
Body vibrations
1.000
.787
No stability
1.000
.544
Poor braking and plastics
1.000
.652
No vehicles seen on roads
1.000
.716
Sumo brand association
1.000
.772
Resale value
1.000
.558
Tata engine has low credibility
1.000
.679
Preference for other products
1.000
.676
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
Table 3 Total Variance Explained
Component
Initial Eigen values
Extraction Sums of Squared Loadings
Rotation Sums of Squared Loadings
Total
% of Variance
Cumulative %
Total
% of Variance
Cumulative %
Total
% of Variance
Cumulative %
1
2.051
17.091
17.091
2.051
17.091
17.091
1.984
16.532
16.532
2
1.657
13.812
30.903
1.657
13.812
30.903
1.544
12.863
29.395
3
1.384
11.532
42.435
1.384
11.532
42.435
1.319
10.989
40.384
4
1.260
10.502
52.937
1.260
10.502
52.937
1.308
10.904
51.288
5
1.193
9.942
62.878
1.193
9.942
62.878
1.301
10.845
62.134
6
1.107
9.228
72.107
1.107
9.228
72.107
1.197
9.973
72.107
7
.775
6.454
78.561
8
.738
6.148
84.709
9
.684
5.698
90.407
10
.639
5.328
95.735
11
.368
3.063
98.799
12
.144
1.201
100.000
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
Table 4 Component Matrixa
Component
1
2
3
4
5
6
Body Shape
.891
-.321
.039
-.007
.083
-.034
Interiors
.865
-.303
.096
-.003
.165
-.026
Power and performance
-.198
.108
.053
-.784
.087
.113
Mileage
-.041
.010
.002
-.060
.765
.453
Body vibrations
.122
.022
-.573
.353
.043
.562
No stability
-.479
-.293
-.106
.445
-.041
.134
Poor braking and plastics
-.212
-.430
.416
.357
.143
-.319
No vehicles seen on roads
.176
.647
.080
.409
.213
-.217
Sumo brand association
.151
.782
-.100
.061
.224
-.272
Resale value
-.246
-.077
.574
.037
.389
.096
Tata engine has low credibility
-.085
-.281
-.609
-.120
.141
-.434
Preference for other products
.241
.257
.376
.059
-.524
.365
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
a. 6 components extracted.
Table 5 Rotated Component Matrix
Component
1
2
3
4
5
6
Body Shape
.948
-.049
.057
-.016
.033
-.042
Interiors
.934
-.020
.008
-.023
.033
.046
Power and performance
-.180
-.177
-.105
.039
-.769
.149
Mileage
.045
.038
.160
.094
-.095
.865
Body vibrations
.012
-.036
.826
.002
.268
.178
No stability
-.399
-.279
.075
.087
.534
.091
Poor braking and plastics
1.618E-5
-.161
-.585
.095
.515
.103
No vehicles seen on roads
.010
.815
-.009
-.116
.188
.043
Sumo brand association
-.052
.854
.066
.037
-.183
-.019
Resale value
-.107
-.040
-.475
-.184
.080
.528
Tata engine has low credibility
.014
-.082
.103
.789
-.012
-.198
Preference for other products
.068
.000
.092
-.781
-.046
-.226
Table 6 Component Transformation Matrix
Component
1
2
3
4
5
6
1
.933
.207
.194
-.162
-.069
-.131
2
-.303
.829
.178
-.303
-.309
-.044
3
.083
-.017
-.748
-.624
.027
.208
4
-.035
.267
.130
-.123
.946
.014
5
.154
.277
-.115
.429
-.013
.837
6
-.074
-.348
.584
-.541
-.063
.486
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.
Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization.
Given the density and complexity of the data set, a factor analysis was conducted to isolated the structural essentials of data and arrive at influential factors working against the purchase of the Sumo Grande by the respondent size of fleet operators. The output of factor analysis is obtained by requesting Principal Component Analysis and specifying a rotation. We assume that the Eigen value of all factors as 1 or more than 1. From Table 2, the 6 factors extracted together accounts for 72.10 % of the total variance. We lost only 27.90 % of information content (72.10% is retained by 6 factors extracted out of 12 original variables). From table 5 in factor 1, shape, interiors have a high loading of 0.948 and 0.934 respectively. So factor 1 is a combination of 2 variables .This factor can be named as DESIGN. In factor 2, no vehicles seen on the road and the association of the Sumo brand have a high loading of 0.815 and 0.854 respectively. So factor 2 is a combination of 2 variables .This factor can be named as NAME AND FAMILARITY. In factor 3, body vibration has a high loading of 0.826 so factor 3 is a combination of 1 variable. In factor 4, the Tata engine is less credible and preferences for other products have a high loading of 0.789 and 0.781 respectively. So factor 4 is a combination of 2 variables .This factor can be named as LOYALTY. In factor 5, power and performance have a high loading of 0.769 .so factor 5 is a combination of 1variable.This factor can be named as POWER AND PERFORMANCE. In factor 6, driving mileage has a high loading of 0.865, so factor 6 is a combination of 1 variable. This factor can be named as ECONOMICAL. These are the six factors for which the company should focus on changes to be done, so that the Tata Sumo Grande has better sales in fleet services.
A rejuvenated marketing strategy for the penetration of the Sumo Grande in fleet sales
In a passenger car market, the competition is intense and a customer changes his or her buying decision from one product to the other in a short span because the entry of the competitors in the market with user friendly products offered at wide range of price points. Hence, marketers of passenger cars aim at reducing the gap between the product range available at the dealer showroom and the customer decision to buy.
The Prospect
Fig. 1.5 Buying Process at a TATA Motors Dealer’s Show room
The usual procedure that the buyer undergoes before the purchase of a new car is shown in Fig. 1.5. In this process, the physical and virtual distance between the buyer and the seller is high. It is imperative that the marketer shorten the buying process to reduce the distance between the buyer awareness and purchase. Three effective promotional strategies are recommended in this regard:
1. Direct marketing pamphlets, posters, and mailers to the target segment would solve the buyers’ problem of searching for information about the products and would bring him/her more closely to the purchasing stage.
2. Present a competitor analysis of products with their nearest competitors and portray the unique selling proposition to the buyer via promotions in the media.
3. Identify and prominently highlight features during road shows on which aspect the buyers would compare the products (price, safety, comfort level, and fuel economy)
The Prospect
Fig. 1.6 The shortened buying process of Sumo Grande
The shortened buying process is seen in Fig. 1.6. The above strategies can serve to facilitate the buyer to easily pass to the purchase decision stage in the buying process and covert the realization need for a car to an early purchase. This would strategically reduce the time interval for the dealer to get confirmed customer orders at the showroom and help to speed up conversion rates all around. Reducing the time interval and decision distance between the awareness stage and the product trail stage can significantly aid the process of closing a sale and even result in a stronger penetration of the Sumo Grande in the fleet segment.
Conclusion
The market dynamics of the automobile fleet sales of utility vehicles in Bangalore city indicates a strong preference among fleet operator (the tourist and taxi segments) for competitor products of TATA Motors, viz., Tavera, Innova, and Bolero utility vehicles. The research indicates that while TATA Motors hold a strong market position in the passenger car category (Tata Indica) for fleet sales, the market presence of the auto major in the lucrative utility vehicle category for fleet sales is weak. A survey of the end user indicates that the introduction of the Sumo Grande –a new and improved product – has been met with conservative optimism. The principal factor influencing a sluggish preference for the Sumo Grande is to be found in product design and comfort of interiors. This is despite the fact the TATA Motors has positioned the price points of the product accurately. This has been arrived at by positioned the price points of the products strategically in price gaps left open by competitors brands. The market dissatisfaction presented a strategy for improving the conversion rates for sale of the product resulting in the penetration of the Sumo Grande in the fleet operations market in Bangalore city.
The author gratefully acknowledges the inputs of Dr. Sudarshan Seshanna and TATA Motors in the preparation of this paper.
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