Its birth was tumultuous. Its positioning was confusing. It had to face criticism from both industry players and consumers because of its pricing and poor safety rating. However, despite all this, the Tata Nano is back with a bang.
Launched as the world’s cheapest car, the hatchback has repositioned itself as the car of the stylish youth. Nano has now topped the category by becoming India’s ‘Most Trusted Automobile’, as revealed by The Brand Trust Report 2014.
Nano makes a notable rise of 50 ranks over last year increasing its overall Trust Index as well and maintains its first rank in the category, the second year in a row. TRA, a Comniscient Group Company, is the publisher of The Brand Trust Report, India Study 2014 and lists 1200 brands from 284 categories.
N Chandramouli, Chief Executive Officer, TRA, said, “In the Car- hatchback category, Tata Nano, and among Sedans, Honda City, both continue their winning ranks of 2013. The latter is followed by Mitsubishi Lancer, a new entrant in the category, and Maruti Suzuki Swift Desire comes in third in the category. Further, among SUV/MUVs, Mahindra Scorpio replaces Tata Safari from last year, rising as the most trusted brand.”
Of the 26 brands listed in the category, 10 brands belong to the hatchback category, 7 Sedans and 9 belong to the SUV/ MUV category. Eleven of these brands are new entrants having been listed for the first time in 2014. Of the long list, six auto brands in BTR 2014 come from the stable of the Indian automobile behemoth, Tata Motors.
The Brand Trust Report, the fourth in the series, is the result of a primary research based on the proprietary 61-component Trust Matrix. This year’s research was conducted among 2500 consumer-influencers across 16 cities, and generated nearly 5 million datapoints and 20000 brands, making it the most intensive study on Brand Trust across the globe.