And its TAMO!

Brand Case Study #7

TAMO is Tata Motors sub-brand which has come into existence as per its new passenger vehicle strategy FutuReady.

TAMO is an incubation center for innovation towards new technologies, business models and partnerships in order to define future mobility solutions. It will act as an open platform to network with global startups and leading tech companies, to get access to trends, innovations and solutions, for the design of exciting future products and services.

Further, it will transform the experience of interfacing and interacting with customers and the wider community through a digital platform.

The whole purpose of TAMO is to adapt new technologies in the world of automobiles by partnering with new thought leaders.

The first product of TAMO, the RACEMO was unveiled at the 87th Geneva International Motor Show.

The RACEMO is a mid-engined sports car capable of producing 190 PS @ 6500 RPM and 210 NM of Max Torque. TAMO claims that the RACEMO can do a 0-100 Km/h sprint in under 6 seconds. Talking about the design, RACEMO is built on the patented MOFlex Multi-Material Sandwich (MMS) structure. This platform is famous for freedom in surface design, efficient large-scale part integration which leads to modularity and quicker time to reaching the potential customers.

Now what could be the marketing model of TAMO. Personally, what I feel is that, TATA Motors is following the strategy that was used successfully by the Japanese car makers in the US. The Japanese auto makers successfully built sub-brands like Lexus (Toyota), Infinity (Nissan) and Acura (Honda) to cater to the luxury auto market. This helped them break away from the image of a low-cost car maker. If you look at TATA Motors, the same is happening with TAMO. They have created a sub-brand with which they can launch niche products like sports cars, luxury sedans etc which will not have the image of coming from a low-cost utility car maker.

But is the sub-brand strategy really advisable? As a sub-brand, chances are that it will be used alongside the parent brand. With TAMO its TATA Motors. So if TAMO's main objective is to break away from the low-cost utility car maker image of TATA Motors, then this strategy wont work.

Now looking at this from TATA's point of view, if they want to sell niche products with a sub-brand strategy, I am betting big that customers will not be up for paying premium for a TATA car just because it comes with a different badge.

One right move that TAMO made here is that it was launched as an independent brand with no association or endorsement from TATA Motors. At least they got that part right. 

Only time will tell if TAMO will rise or flop and till then lets have our hopes up as its a step in the right direction for the Indian automobile industry as a whole.