Vivek Srivatsa took over as head of marketing for Tata Motor’s passenger vehicle business after Delna Avari decided to quit for entrepreneurial pursuits earlier this year. Incidently, May to September has seen a growth that is above average for the brand. Since Srivatsa’s appointment has been the only major change of variable, he could very well be the factor propelling this. We take a closer look at what might be in play, in conversation with the man himself.

Q: What is the marketing mix of Tata Motors? Which channels are most preferred?
A:- Today’s consumer evaluates an average of 2.6 cars before making a purchase and Tata Motors wants to make every endeavour to be a part of this consideration set. We work with a set of different market mixes depending on the communication packages we plan. We are present on traditional mediums like TV, print, radio and are increasingly on new-age mediums be it Virtual Reality or unique concepts like ‘Tripling with TIAGO’ on the digital platform. Experiential platforms where the customer is able to touch, feel and interact with our products are our focus area.

Q: How have the marketing initiatives worked out? Which of these have you found most effective?
A: We plan our marketing campaigns on the basis of the need of the business and the product offerings. We cater to different customer groups with range of passenger vehicles. We use data to focus sharply on our customer target groups and define our marketing mix.

Tiago is our latest offering in the hatchback car market, for the youth. It is a peppy and contemporary car. One of the latest innovative initiative being the Tiago’s association with Tripling, a unique web series where we used the digital platform to encourage online viewers to go on road-trip through a unique story telling platform. TVF Tripling has been very well received by audiences - it is universally loved by people who have watched it. The trailer went viral, and has garnered 3.5mn views. With the finale approaching, the web-series is closing in on 10 million views. This has contributed strongly to enhance the Awareness and desirability of the Tiago brand amongst its Target Group.

Q: How important is experiential marketing for Tata Motors? Please share with us the latest experiential initiatives undertaken by the brand.
A: Experiential marketing is an extremely important platform for us as it allows the customer to get an interface with the car and understand the technology better. For the Zest, Bolt, GenX Nano and the recently launched TIAGO, we rolled out innovative and highly-engaging experiential campaigns like Zest Studios, Bolt Arena, Nano Campus Diaries, Tiago experience drives and the latest one being ‘Tripling with TIAGO’.

We are now gearing for our next offering- Tata HEXA and have kick started the pre-launch buzz with yet another innovative and engaging activity where we offered the Hexa drive experience to around 75 CEOs over a weekend in Jaipur.

Q: What is Tata's experiential strategy for its consumer vehicles category?
A: Our intent is to get our target customers to touch, feel and experience our products. With products like Tiago , Bolt and Zest we are ahead of the curve and competition in terms of Design and Connectivity and experiential marketing events give us an opportunity to take the product to the customer.

Q: Do you work with any specific experiential agencies?
A: We work with many event agencies on a project to project basis.

Q:What does Tata Motors look for in an event agency?
A: We work very closely with our agency partners and involve them early in our plans. We seek creative as well as strategic inputs from them and expect our agency to understand the brand deeply and deliver on timelines.