The Power Of The Name

TWO recent surveys highlight the power of the Tata brand name. A Financial Times-commissioned survey of 50 investment analysts in London, New York and Hong Kong involved in researching individual Indian companies, found that more of these men and women have heard of the Taj group of hotels than Tata Industries. Ninety-eight per cent of the respondents had heard of Taj and only 88 per cent had heard of Tata. In fact, Taj was the most familiar company to the respondents, along with SBI, and was followed by Reliance and Indian Oil (both 96 per cent).

However, the responses to all the other questions puts Tata Industries ahead of Taj (see table). And Tata Industries is the only company that appears among the top four on all the 11 parameters whose rankings are available with Outlook. It is seen as the most powerful, well-managed and profitable Indian company. The survey classifies Tata Industries as belonging to the ‘multinational models’ group, along with Reliance and the Birla group. HDFC, Taj, Bajaj and the likes are termed ‘Indian inspirations’.

The Survey of Consumer Attitudes, Lifestyle Trends, and Public Opinion, conducted by the Bangalore-based Gallup India—results of which were made public last week—shows Tata to be the most familiar Indian brand in the country with 66 per cent of the respondents (both urban and rural) familiar with the name. Tata is followed by Bajaj (58 per cent) and Thums Up (51 per cent). The Gallup survey is based on 5,122 interviews conducted in 84 towns and cities and 144 villages across the country. When the division among the brands as Indian and transnational were removed for urban respondents, Tata ranked fourth with 86 per cent. The top three: Colgate (88 per cent), Bajaj and Bata (both 87). Clearly, the Tata name is an extremely valuable commodity.