Acquisition Project | Tata Motors limited
The Product
Our product for the project is Ace EX2 - which is a small commercial vehicle manufactured & distributed by Tata Motors Limited in India. Outside of India, this product is sold via authorised distributors. Case in point is Bangladesh, where Tata Motors sells its commercial vehicles via Nitol Motors Limited.
Small commercial vehicles in Bangladesh are used largely for the purposes of logistics transportation by three kinds of customers: Owner/ Drivers (own and drive the vehicle), Fleet Owners (own a fleet of vehicle driven by others; put out the vehicle for rent) and Captive Customers (own a fleet of vehicles driven by others but for use in own business) .
TML is a market leader in Bangladesh for commercial vehicles with 40% of the market share; the market share for SCVs is 90%.
Ace EX2 falls under the affordable workhorse range used entirely for commercial purposes.
the product has high resale value - which is important for a market such as Bangladesh where quality is not of as much importance as durability & cost efficiency is.
More details of the product here - https://www.tatamotors.com.bd/small-commercial-vehicles/tata-ace-ex2
Fun Fact - this is the famed "Chota Hathi" in India
The User
Ideal Customer Profile
ICP | ICP 1 | ICP 2 - Fleet Owner | ICP 3 - Captive |
|---|---|---|---|
Name | Faruk | Abushaar | Mohammad |
Age | 25-45 | 30-55 | 30-55 |
Gender | Male | Male | Male |
Location | Migrated to urban from rural | Migrated to urban from rural | Urban |
Profession | Owner/Driver | Fleet Owner | Founder / Owner |
Industry | Market Load Transport | Market Load Transport | FMCG / Refrigerated Goods / Fishery/ Fruits & Vegetables |
Company Size | 12 - 15 Lakh | upto 1 Cr | upto 6 Cr |
Number of vehicles | 1 / 2 | 3 - 15 | 2 - 5 |
Financial Status | Lower Middle Class | Middle Class | Upper Middle Class / Rich |
Marital Status | Married | Married | Married |
Primary Caretaker | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Key Decision Maker | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Most time spent | On Field | Managing drivers/ other businesses | Managing Business |
Secondary time spent | With Family With friends & peers (social media / WhatsApp) | With Family With friends & peers (social media / WhatsApp) | With Family With friends & peers (WhatsApp) |
Current Product Awareness | Top of Mind | Top of Mind | Top of Mind |
Current Product Affinity | Preferred Brand (much like Chhota Hathi in India) | Preferred Brand (much like Chhota Hathi in India) | Preferred Brand (much like Chhota Hathi in India) |
Using Competitor Products | No | Yes | Yes |
Factors affecting buying decisions | Financing Availability + cost of spare parts | Vehicle Performance + TCO hence profitability Service Network + After Sales Service Availability + cost of spare parts | Vehicle Performance + TCO hence profitability Service Network + After Sales Service Availability + cost of spare parts |
Influencers | Peer | Peers + drivers | Peers/ Finance Head / Financer |
Blockers | Financiers Rental Service Provider | Rental Service Provider | Rental Service Provider/ Transportation Companies |
Current Pain Points | Working daily or low wage jobs; not enough funds for the family; not sure on ways of becoming independent (migrant work in foreign country; not getting to spend time with family) | | |
Preferred Solution | Starting own business using Ace EX2 with easy finance options | ||
| |||
Adoption Curve | High | High | High |
Frequency of Use Case | High | High | Low |
Importance of the Product | Yes | Yes | Marginal |
Appetite to Pay | Low | High | High |
Sizeable TAM | High | Low | Low |
Brand Recall as well as consideration for Ace EX2 is very high in the market. All of the interviewed customers claimed to have had heard of + known the product at the trigger stage. One of the owner/drivers saw YouTube video of Ace EX2 when working in Middle East, and had decided to purchase it for business purposes on returning to Bangladesh (migrant worker population returning to Bangladesh is growing).
Some organic review links of the product and its engine created in Bangladesh:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/IWaZ_65jJUo
The Market
- Improved quality of life: According to the Boston Consulting Group, between 30 and 40 million individuals are expected to join the lower middle-income class by 2025, with an additional 34 million moving into a higher middle-income category, thereby improving their overall quality of life.
- High potential for growth in Commercial Vehicle market in Bangladesh: Increasing number of people across lower to middle income category gives opportunity for business growth in this segment for commercial vehicles as a use case.
- Expansion of manufacturing and infrastructure development activities: Infrastructure development is high priority owing to current market conditions - where ~$2 Mn was spent by Government on maintenance. (driving is very rash & vehicles tend to overload)
- Government incentives and efforts: Reduced taxes on vehicles under 6 tonne (light commercial vehicle category) is bound to contribute to growth of this segment
Current Serviceable Obtainable Market (2024) - 3450
Core Marketing Pitch
JTBD ICP1 - Owner/ Driver
Job | Goal |
|---|---|
Functional | Use Ace EX2 for transporting goods from one location to another |
Personal | Grow my business and support my family using Ace EX2 |
Financial | Increase my earnings and get rid of my vehicle loan |
Social | Getting a new Ace EX2 (and not a used one) shows that I am doing well in business |
Channel Experiments
Ace EX2 boasts of a 90% market share in Bangladesh; therefore sits at a matured scaling stage.
Note: For the sake of this project I'm largely restricting to Digital Channels for Acquisition.
Channels | Effort | CAC | Flexibility | Lead Time | Suitability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Organic | High | Low | Low | High | Medium |
Referral + Partner | High | High(owing to requirement of system) | Low | High | Low |
Paid Ads | Medium | High | High | Low | High |
Product Integrations | High | Medium | Low | Low | Medium |
CAC
LTV = Average Order Value x Frequency x Retention
Frequency in case of commercial vehicles - usage is high but purchase is low. High usage of commercial vehicles leads to more frequent purchase of spare parts
Retention is usually very high - average of 10 years; retention here would also mean purchase of other products as an up-sell which is possible in case of fleet owners (rare for owner/driver and less for captive customer)
Keyword Search Volumes are very low for this to be part of the strategy; hence suitability is termed as medium. SEO is already part of hygiene activities.
Product Integrations
Listings on Aggregate Sites - such as Autosbangla.com; ClickBD, Bikroy.com
Paid Ads
Experimentation 1: Dissemination of Ad content via Workshop / Garage owners (these are significant influencers)
Experimentation 2: Paid Ad on Aggregator Sites
Ads on Competitor Page Listing on Aggregate Sites
Campaign Objective
"Book A Test Drive"
Increased traffic to website
Higher leads
Ad Groups
Age - 25-45
Gender - Male
Location - Higher spends on Dhaka, Chittagong (urban landscape)
Affinity - Vehicles & Transportation; Readymade Garment Supplier; Fishery supplier; FMCG transport
Ads
Product Testimonials: Audio-visual testimonials to be shot and promoted; below samples of written testimonials that can also be placed on the website for SEO
Ready-available content around "Hero Stories" to be promoted on social media and via Programmatic Channels to reinstate market leadership; this is not traditional testimonials but establishes users of the product as heroes in their own lives with Tata Motors as a catalyst (and not the reason) for their success.
Ad Creative 2
To reiterate that we are market leaders for a good reason and to eliminate consideration for any competition - these Ads could be run on aggregate sites, disseminated via WhatsApp and used for Retargeting customers who visited the website
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