TechInFo

The social networking site has become a great idea for the Tata Motors’ Nano sale buzz to flourish in the online world. The Nano campaign, prior to its release, has been intensified through its extension to networking sites like Facebook and Orkut making the ‘world’s cheapest car’ known to a larger mass.

The company targeted the online audience through its own portal, www.tatanano.com, but the networking sites triggered a gushy response with people from all over the world asking for a similar car in their land too, reports Mint. Darlene in Facebook said, “Please bring this car to Toronto, Canada!!!” while Luis recommends the manufacturer to make the car in Columbia. “You guys should make the Nano in Colombia since it would be a good place to produce them; we are in the middle of the American continent so it can be easily transported anywhere from Canada to Argentina at a lower cost,” Luis said.

The company however, said that it has no immediate plans to export or manufacture Nano in the overseas. “Tata Motors’ sales push on social networking sites makes for smart marketing even with India’s low levels of Internet penetration,” says Sandeep Singh, Business Director at Quasar Media, given that half of India’s online population of some 50 million users are touched by social media platforms. This reliance on the online media also will make their advertising budget come low. The only challenge that the social networking can trigger is the miscommunication of facts. Information on prices and features of the product if miscommunicated could kill the product itself.

On its own website, Tata’s marketers also discuss sales strategies for what the firm bills the people’s car. In the site, the firm is running a contest where visitors are asked to guess the price of different Nano models. The prize for the winner would be an invite to the Nano launch function on Monday. This is not the first time that an Indian firm has used online techniques to market wares and ideas. Indeed, the likes of Microsoft India, organizers of the Indian Premier League cricket tourney and, even, political parties such as the Congress and BJP have done so, some beginning as early as 2006. Even auto makers such as General Motors India (GM) or Yamaha Motors, took social networking as their marketing overdrive.