Tata drops to 6th in ‘attractive brands’ ranking; LG tops

Once among the top five most attractive brands in India, the venerable house of Tatas has fallen off that perch this year, according to a study of the country's most attractive brands released on Thursday.

The annual study by TRA Research, a brands insights company (formerly Trust Research Advisory), comes out every October-November. This is the third in the series and is based on the proprietary 36 traits of attractiveness matrix.

Tata is ranked at seventh position, a drop of three spots from last year when it was ranked fourth. The fieldwork for this study was done in August-September this year, before the boardroom battle erupted between ousted Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry and interim chairman Ratan Tata.

N Chandramouli, chief executive of TRA, says the findings indicate the mind-set of working professionals, males and females in the age-group of 21-50 in the country's top 16 cities, who are considered key influencers for most brands. TRA has spoken to 2,500 such individuals in these cities to arrive at the results.

"The Tata brand was among the top five in 2013 and 2015, the last two times we released the (attractive brands) report. The drop now indicates that key influencers no longer consider the Tata brand to be aspirational. This has partly to do with the issues that the Tata group has been grappling with for a few years now, which is showing up in how key influencers perceive the brand," he says.

Another reason for the fall in Tata's ranking was the Nano fiasco. There was a gap in the promise of the Rs1 lakh car which was not available at the price after the company sold the first one lakh cars at that price.

''The gap in what was announced and the price at which it was actually being sold eroded consumer trust. The incidents of the car catching fire eroded that trust even further,'' says Chandramouli.

TRA assigns values to brands based on their attractiveness quotient. Tata's attractiveness quotient has seen a 20-per cent drop this year over last year, Chandramouli says.

Besides legacy issues that have dogged the Tatas, the brand appears to have not done enough in terms of its external communication to mould appeal among influencers. "In order to influence and inspire their consumers, brands have to mould their outgoing communication to constantly and proactively accentuate their brand appeal. That has not been adequate enough in the case of the Tatas," Chandramouli says.

The Tata brand is not the only one to see a drop in ranking this year.  Samsung mobiles, which topped the list last year, has dropped to third spot, making way for durables major and fellow-Korean rival LG to emerge the number one. Sony, also a durables major and rival to Samsung, has come in at number two this year. Both LG and Sony have moved up a notch this year in terms of rankings, Chandramouli says.

While the Note 7 fiasco was not covered in the fieldwork for the study conducted this year, the drop in Samsung's ranking reflects a sense of fatigue that key influencers feel about mobiles as a category. "The mobile phone space has become cluttered in the last few years and the fall in ranking of Samsung this year is a reflection of that," Chandramouli adds.

Apart from durables and mobile phones, the top ten list of attractive brands this year is dominated by automobiles (Honda, Maruti Suzuki), telecom (Airtel) and conglomerates (Bajaj and Tata).

TRA Research is an actionable brand insights company that analyzes stakeholder buying propensity, which is made of its proprietary matrices of brand trust and brand attractiveness. The company conducts primary research with consumers and other stakeholders to assist business decisions and give brands insights on solutions to consumer behavior.

Reports are mined from its 11 million data points on brand intangibles of 20,000 brands. It publishes the Brand Trust Report as well as India's Most Attractive Brands.