Though I was tempted to buy the Nano by its look and price but resisted myself as society people will look down upon on me as a poor fellow not having enough money to buy any other car. Last year my brother (who is doing a moderate business in the village area) got an offer from his dealer that if he gives him the business of certain amount he will gift him a Nano. He achieved it but instead of Nano he has taken money from his dealer to purchase some other car to avoid the same stigma even in the village society. Tata’s advertisement as Nano the cheapest car for poor and lower middle class people has created the negative mindset. A person who will purchase a car, has to spend around Rs. 10000 to 15000/ p.m. (5000/- for fuel and maintenance, 1000-2000/- for hiring the garage space, 5000/- EMI for car loan repayment, 5000/- for driver etc.) irrespective of car model.
In a poor country like India this is not a meagre amount, poor and lower middle class can’t afford it. So a car owner does not like the tag of poor/lower middle class. They purchase the car to lift their status in the society. But Nano’s negative advertisement actually has gone totally against it. The cost of Nano has also gone up and touching 2 lakh. Even if Tata now stops this advertisement as poor man’s car or cheapest car, the irreparable damage has already been made. Few days back I read a market survey in Times of India. Which says... in the cheapest car segment, Maruti’s ’Alto’ scores high amongst all the car. It is because Maruti has never projected in the advertisement of ’Alto’ as the cheap car.
So it went off coolly. If you pay initially 40, 000/- more (than Nano) you will get a car like Alto (which is actually nothing in terms of monthly costs of maintaining a car) which people will not think as poor-man’s car like Nano. Recently one of my office colleague (initially decided to purchase a Nano and) took a loan from office and purchased another car as his wife and her friends felt the Nano won’t lift the prestige and status in the society, instead deteriorate it. His 12 year old son told him to purchase any other car other than Nano, as Nano is a ’Ek Lakhy car’ and can easily be purchased by anybody at anytime. I don’t understand what the hell Tata’s market research wing was doing and unable to understand the simple logic. If you call inhabitants of Bihar by the name ’Bihari’, ’Orissa’ by the ’oriya’, Bengal by the name ’Bangali’, or Kashmir by the name ’Muslim’. It create utter distress to the person. It follows the same principle of society.
Never call spade a spade, it hurts the ego who posses or belongs to it. Nano’s advertisement as cheapest car is not an exception. All these issues are not applicable to a person who already posses another car and buying Nano as 2nd or 3rd car for him/her or his/her family.
As in that case, the whole perspective is altogether different.