The Product

Overview

Our product for the project is Ace EX2 - which is a small commercial vehicle manufactured & distributed by Tata Motors Limited (TML) 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 (NML) as its authorised distributor. TML is a market leader in Bangladesh for commercial vehicles with *66% of the market share; for SCVs it is 91%.

Product Use Cases

Small commercial vehicles in Bangladesh are used largely for the purposes of logistics transportation by three kinds of customers:

1. Owner/ Drivers (own and drive the vehicle),
2. Fleet Owners (own a fleet of vehicle driven by others; put out the vehicle for rent) and
3. Captive Customers (own a fleet of vehicles driven by others but for use in own business).

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Major industries using Tata Ace EX2 for transportation of:

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AHA Moment

Maintenance Cost: Commercial vehicles require heavy maintenance especially after rugged & frequent use. The urban market in Bangladesh often requires vehicles to be overloaded and subject to harsh traffic conditions.

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Customers often expect heavy maintenance cost especially after 3 years when warranty lapses.

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Customers are often delighted to find that is not the case - maintenance is often incurred on small ticket size items such as brakepad, oil & filter change, etc.

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Resale Value: Resale value of Ace EX2 is high in Bangladesh. Normally a 30% value is observed in the commercial vehicle industry after 5 years; Ace EX2 fetches around 40-50% of the original value.

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Product Stage

Ace EX2 is being sold in Bangladesh since 2005. In 2023, the market share for Ace EX2 in the Small Commercial Vehicle (less than 1 tonne segment) was 91%.

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The brand and product are both trusted and are the first choice for customers looking for a less than 1 tonne commercial vehicle.

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Our product therefore is in the Mature Scaling stage, where higher sales volumes can be achieved via Category Growth.

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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
• Traffic & Congestion in Metro Cities:  Dhaka's rapid growth has led to numerous problems, including traffic congestion, which has become a major issue for both residents and commuters. Dhaka’s traffic problem is notorious for its severity and the negative impact it has on the city’s economy, environment, and public health.

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Actual images of a bus and an autorickshaw taken by me in Dhaka during my recent visit - the vehicles often scrape against each other and drive closely because of narrow roads leading to damage. Almost all the vehicles had dents & scratches, especially commercial vehicles.

Competitive Landscape

The only other competitor in Bangladesh for the less than 1 tonne segment of commercial vehicles is Mahindra Maxximo.

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The User

Ideal Customer Profile

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Market Potential

TAM ICP 1:

Total male population between 25-44 years of age - ~30Mn

Male Population in Urban Cities - 37.4%* of the total population - ~11Mn

Unemployed Male Population in Urban Cities - 4.27%* - ~0.48Mn

Average vehicle cost (in INR) - 0.9Mn

TAM = 431Bn

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Reference Links -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Bangladesh#cite_note-Statista.com_age_structure_in_Bangladesh-6

https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/BGD/bangladesh/unemployment-rate#:~:text=Bangladesh%20unemployment%20rate%20for%202022

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SAM ICP 1:

% of population that holds land over 2.5 Acres = 10%

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Retail finance is available mostly to those who have assets as guarantee. Majority of the population in Bangladesh has historically been associated with agriculture as the main source of income. Considering the selected ICP, we are looking at the population of unemployed youth who have over 2.5 acres of land owned by families.

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SAM = ~43Bn

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Reference link -

https://www.land-links.org/country-profile/bangladesh/#:~:text=GOB%20MOA%202006).-

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SOM ICP 1:

% of population that works in "Industry" sector in Bangladesh = 22%

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The rationale here is taken from the employed population, and what percentage chooses to work in the industry sector, which could be Micro and MSME, Logistics & Transportation, Industrial Workers etc. We are considering all as potential customers.

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SOM = ~9Bn

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Reference Links:

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.IND.EMPL.ZS?locations=BD

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TAM ICP 2

Total male population between 30-55 years of age - ~25Mn

Male Population in Urban Cities - 37.4%* of the total population - ~9Mn

% of population working in industry - 21.88% - ~2Mn

% of population with over 2.5 acres of land - 4.7%* - 96K

Average vehicle cost (in INR) - 0.9Mn

TAM ICP2 = 86.33Bn​

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Reference Links:

https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/public/views/bangladeshs-rising-middle-class-myths-and-realities-1614610680#:~:text=A%20simple%20definition%20is%20to%20consider%20the,cent%20of%20the%20total%20population%20of%20Bangladesh.

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TAM ICP 3

Total male population between 30-55 years of age - ~25Mn

Male Population in Urban Cities - 37.4%* of the total population - ~9.3Mn

% in high income group - 10% - 0.93Mn

% of population working in industry - 21.88% - ~0.2Mn

% of population with over 7.5 acres of land - 1%* - 2K

Average vehicle cost (in INR) - 0.9Mn

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TAM ICP 3 = 1.84Bn

User Journey

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 right at the trigger stage.

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Core Marketing Pitch

JTBD ICP1 - Owner/ Driver

Ace EX2 is already a market leader with high Top of the Mind recall. The potential for volume growth therefore becomes category growth. Targeting the owner/driver category (ICP 1) for increasing sales would mean:

1. Establish Ace EX2 as an avenue of generating business
2. Make them realise how easy it is to get started with Ace EX2
3. Make them see the benefits of starting their own business - persona, social as well as financial

The campaign theme that can be focussed on to further this ideology - "Chase Your Dream"

Channel Experiments

Note: For the sake of this project I'm largely restricting to Digital Channels for Acquisition.

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Suitability of the channels in order of preference:

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CAC : LTV Ratio

For the ease of understanding, we will be calculating the values in INR

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CAC = Total Marketing Money Spent / Total Vehicles Sold

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CAC for Ace EX2 in Bangladesh = 2,50,00,000/ 3900 = 6410

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(The data above is based on actual numbers for FY24)

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LTV = Average Order Value x Frequency x Retention

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LTV for Ace EX2 = INR 9,00,000 x 1 (time) x 1 (lifetime)

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Here I cannot take a retention period of 10 years - as that increases the LTV incorrectly.

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CAC: LTV Ratio for Paid Ads therefore is 6410 : 9,00,000 or 1:140​

Paid Ads therefore become a suitable channel for Acquisition

Channel Selection

Facebook ranks the highest, followed by TikTok.

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Reference Links:

https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-bangladesh

https://www.similarweb.com/top-apps/google/bangladesh/social/

Audience Segmentation

Age Group - 25-45

Gender - Male

Affinity - Transportation & Logistics, Commercial Vehicles

Industry - RMG, FMCG, Beverages, Dairy

Interests - Small Business, MSME, business tips

Content Consumption pattern - Family-based content (popular TV shows / YT channels), family comedy, kids channels

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Target Markets

Largely the ICPs are concentrated in metro cities:

Dhaka, Chattogram, Khulna, Sylhet, Rajshahi, Mymensingh, Rangpur, Barisal, Cumilla, Gazipur and Narayanganj

Campaign Budget

Lead Target - 96,000 (SOM)

Average CPL of 280 (historical available data) sets a budget of INR 2.68 Cr for the year

Creative Strategy​

1. Highlight the compactness of the vehicle and ease of driving in crowded, narrow streets for load carrying applications

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Experimentation 1:

To reiterate that we are market leaders for a good reason and to eliminate consideration for any competition - below comparison Ads could be run on aggregate sites, disseminated via WhatsApp and used for Retargeting customers who visited the website

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​Experiment 2:

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A property called "Hero Stories" has been developed to showcase the real life success stories of our customers, with Tata Motors simply acting as a catalyst and not as the main reason for their success.

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Reference links below:

Idea is to create user-generated content further to this theme. We can ask customers to share their stories of success and get a chance to be featured on our YouTube channel. This video will also be hosted on the websites, and transcript shared below it adding fresh content. Promoting this content among customers would make others share their own stories of success using Tata Motors vehicles.

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Additionally, there could be an offline event every quarter where the featured customers are felicitated thus creating a platform for engagement with on-ground sales force.

A community of these "heroes" thus built can be further expanded to include knowledge-sharing, tips for business growth, even investment opportunities in other smaller businesses.

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The Hook: Recognise the 'hero' in you / Everyday Heroes

Content Creator: Existing Customers of Ace EX2

Distribution Channel: Whatsapp, YouTube (paid boost), Facebook (paid boost), Website

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Organic Pull or the SEO Strategy would not be a right fit for Ace EX2 in Bangladesh as a primary acquisition channel, as the keyword volume is very less. However, hygiene SEO best practices need to be followed to maintain brand presence & preference - such as refreshing blog content on the website.

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Some of the keywords in English & Bangla that can be targeted are as attached below

​Bangladesg LOB Kws.pdf

Sample blog content in English & Bangla (content translated into Bangla on Google translate for reference).Key Considerations For Choosing the Right Small Commercial V - Bangla.pdf

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Product Testimonials: Text based testimonials to be converted into audio (voice notes) and video (either by recording / have text based videos) to help with SEO.

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Below samples of written testimonials that can also be placed on the website in English & Bangla. Description of the testimonials to include necessary keywords:

Rubel (1).pdf

HANAY (2).pdf​

Thank You

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