Introduction

Tata Motors is considered as one of the largest Automobile Companies of India having consolidated revenues and profits of $ 34.7 billion in the year 2012-13. Tata through its associated companies and subsidiaries is operating in different parts of the world like the UK, Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea and many more and is having a business joint venture with Fiat Company in India. The Company secures top position in passenger vehicles and is the market leader of commercial vehicles like buses, trucks, Tata cars which are being promoted and marketed in several countries namely Africa, South Asia, Europe, and South America and so on. 

Recently, Tata Motors unveiled new sedan car “Zest” in market which is considered as much awaited next generation Global car. The All New Zest Sedan has been designed on the basis of 3 key fundamental principles namely Drive Next, Design Next and Connect Next giving an expression of excellent styling, dynamic drive and a connect with outside world through smart infotainment device in car. Through this report which has been made from the contribution of four people, target market research, alternative ways of defining population, sampling framework and approach for Zest Sedan is being analysed. Along with this, the research outcomes of different Approaches are presented in an effective manner.

 

Target Market Alternatives for Zest Sedan

Tata motors is aggressively advertising and promoting Zest Sedan through different social media modes for the purpose of highlighting the different features of the car which makes it unique from the cars of same segment of different companies like Swift Dzire, Hyundai Xcent and Honda Amaze.  The varied and unique features of this first in class compact Sedan like high tech infotainment system, revotron engine for petrol variant, advanced Bluetooth, automated manual transmission (AMT) for diesel variant, voice recognition are attracting to almost every age group and category of people.  

Tata motors targets its market by keeping in mind specific benefits and quantified value gained by a particular customer by purchasing a particular product of a specific brand which results in solving customer’s problem and generates more value in comparison to similar offerings of other brands. The car is designed in such a manner that it could segment growing urban middle class people due to its cost effectiveness along with high tech features. Based on market segmentation, a number of target market alternatives which can be considered for this premium and compact sedan are stated below:

• Middle and Upper Class Women: Middle and Upper Class Women could be considered as one of the target market alternatives for Tata Zest Sedan. The attractive designing of the car, unique color themes, clutchless transmission and compact dimensions are the key features and elements for attracting the middle and upper class women. Moreover, the comfort in driving and a feature of compact sedan would be convenient for women to safely drive the car in narrow as well as broad roads and highways without any risk. Along with this, this would act as status symbols for business class and high society women.

• Young Working Professionals:  The slogan of Tata Zest Sedan “Zest up your life” clearly signifies the sense of excitement, energy, anticipation and enthusiasm for life which would be helpful in attracting the young working professionals in urban areas. Due to its unbeaten and attractive features like advanced ABS for improving braking efficiency, touchscreen access, phone enabled navigation, voice recognition and touchscreen access would easily attract the tech savvy young professionals. Along with this, the reasonable cost and AMT engine and Revotron engine in diesel and pertrol variants would be able to attract young professionals as such compact sedan car would be under their budget and would allow them to enjoy to fullest with its high tech Harman Infotainment System.

• Old Age People: Another alternative target market which Zest sedan could focus upon is Old Age People. The features which would definitely attract old age people are power steering facility, space of the car, premium interiors and its better mileage in comparison to other cars. With the help of such features, Zest sedan provides convenience and expediency to old age people by catering their needs of comfort and cost effectiveness.

Recommended Target Market Alternative

 Out of the above three target market alternatives, the target market which would be recommended for enhancing the sales and market share of Tata Zest Sedan is targeting and focusing on young working professionals in urban areas and different metro cities of India like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and others. The reason behind selecting this target market is that young working professionals are increasing due to increase of the MNC’s in India and the way car has been designed in terms of its design, engine, cost, advanced infotainment and various other factors perfectly cater to the needs and requirements of techno savvy people.

Alternative Ways of Defining Population

A research population can be defined as a large collection of objects or individuals which are considered as the main focus of conducting a scientific query. All the objects and the individuals within a certain or specific population have similar characteristics or traits. For the purpose of conducting the research study on Tata Zest Sedan, different alternatives for defining the “Population” which are taken into consideration by researchers are presented below:

• Target Population: Through target population method of research, researchers are required to focus on entire population interested in purchasing Tata Zest sedan by considering the recommended target markets and segments of young professionals located in different parts of country for drawing generalised conclusions.  Researcher would be able to draw generalised conclusion and not accurate conclusion as there is a definite possibility of variation in traits and characteristics due to the analysis being conducted on large populations of young professionals working in urban area. Such method is also known as theoretical population method as it is practically impossible for researcher to generate accurate results from large sizes of population and to test each and every individual of population as it would be very expensive and time consuming.
• Accessible Population: Through accessible population method of research, researchers are required to focus on accessible population or subset of target population of young professionals of urban area interested in purchasing Tata Zest Sedan for drawing specific and accurate conclusions. Through this method, researcher would be able to draw accurate conclusions due to less variation in traits and characteristics of the analysis conducted on accessible population and hence such method is known as study population.

Recommended Research Population Alternative 

After analysing both the alternatives of research population in context to Zest Sedan, it would be recommended that accessible population method would be able to draw accurate conclusion for defining the “population” for the research study on such sedan which would further helpful for Tata Motors to easily entertain the population of similar characteristics and thus gain goodwill and massive market share in automobile industry. Additionally, through such method researcher would be able to draw their sample for young professionals effectively.

Sampling Framework for Zest Sedan

A sampling frame can be defined as a source of material or people forming a population through which a sample is drawn. It comprises of a list of all those sources within a population who could be sampled like individuals, institutions or households. The major difference between sampling frame and population is that sampling frame is specific and population is general. For conducting research study on the Zest Sedan, it is imperative to define the interested population i.e. young professionals with the help of sampling frame and thus different alternatives for defining such population taken into consideration are presented below: 

• • List Sampling Frame: Through list sampling frame, researcher would be able to collect a list of observational unit i.e. young professionals of urban areas using Zest Sedan from a population census. Such sampling method fits appropriate for single stage sampling and data collected through such sampling frame could be used by researcher only for initial stage and not for second or later stages of sampling.  

• Area Sampling Frame:  Through such sampling, researcher would be able to get the complete enumeration of selected population of young professionals of urban areas using Zest Sedan. In other words, researcher would be able to collect the list of geographical units of the country in hierarchical arrangement like list of urban areas and list of young professionals using Zest Sedan in those urban areas.

Recommended Sampling Frame Alternative 

Out of the above two sampling frame alternatives, area sampling frame would be recommended for Tata Zest Sedan as through such sampling frame researcher would enumerate the upto date data in organised and systematic manner which would further helpful in drawing and defining accurate results for selecting appropriate sampling approach.

Defining Sampling Approach for Zest Sedan 

Sampling can be defined as a technique of choosing units i.e. organisations, people from the population of interest with the aim of generating specific and fair outcomes and results. Through sampling approach, the members of interested population are chosen for the purpose of including them in research study. In relation to the research study on Zest Sedan, different sampling approaches alternatives are considered and sample of 100 (i.e. 25 each) young professionals of 4 metro urban areas namely New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai using Zest Sedan for conducting survey through questionnaire would be taken by researcher.

• Random Sampling: Through random sampling, researcher would have to give equal chance to each member being selected for research study and therefore it is imperative for researcher to conduct survey of 100 young professionals using Sedan Zest located at 4 different metro cities which would be a time consuming and expensive process. It is optional for researcher to use stratified or simple or cluster sampling method to conduct such research study.

• Non Random Sampling: Through non random sampling, researcher would choose the sampling population member in systematic manner; therefore not each member of the population has an equal opportunity to participate in research study. Further, researcher could choose purposive non random sampling through which accurate and relevant amount of data would be collected in relation to the young working professional using Zest Sedan located at urban metro cities and the same would be convenient, less expensive and less time consuming.

Recommended Sampling Approach Alternative 

After analysing the different Sampling Approach Alternatives, purposive non random sampling approach would be suggested for Tata Zest Sedan as through such approach researcher would be able to select the sample based on knowledge and subjective judgement about the population rather than just doing a random selection. 

 

Research Outcomes of Different Approaches 

A number of different alternatives in context of target market, population, sampling frame and sampling approach for conducting research study of Tata Zest Sedan are being considered and evaluated with the aim of framing constructive and beneficial approaches, methods and practices according to the need and requirements of new compact Sedan of Tata Motors.  A brief analysis of different target market analysis is presented in above section wherein young working professionals, women of upper and middle class and old age people are targeted and among them, young working professionals is recommended as perfect target market for Zest Sedan as the cost, designing and techno savvy features completely cater the need of such target market which would further increase the scope of company launching such cars for this segment in future. Out of two population research methods, accessible population would be helpful for drawing accurate conclusions for research study of Zest by focusing on subset of target population of young professional of similar traits. Through Area frame sampling and non random sampling approach, researchers of Tata Motors would systematically collect the sample data and select the sample on subjective judgements.

Thus, constructive research outcomes are derived by analysing the different variables helpful for Tata Motors to gain competitive advantage and large market share with the help of the All New Next Generation Compact Sedan Car.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it has been concluded that an in-depth analysis of target market and different research methods and approaches like sampling frame, population and sampling approach by deriving information from different journal articles in context to the article topic “Tata Motors unveils new Zest Sedan” it would become easy and convenient for Tata Motors to focus upon its target market by applying the recommended approaches into practice with due efforts. Furthermore, it has been concluded that the prime target of the company is to cater the need of young professionals in an effective manner so as to stay ahead of its competitors like Honda Amaze, Swift Dzire etc in long run.

References

Appendix

Participant 1 Information

Participant 2 Information

Participant 3 Information

Participant 4 Information

Screenshots of journal articles