‘Udaan’: Tata Salt’s Endeavour to Grow Market Leadership by Kapil Tuli, Havovi Joshi, Jyoti Patankar Discipline:Strategy, Marketing

Description

This case is set in September 2007 and revolves around Parag Gadre – the head of sales and marketing at Tata Chemicals Limited (TCL) – wondering how he can best boost the market share of Tata Salt, one of the flagship products of TCL. The dilemma is particularly interesting, as Tata Salt has been ranked as the ‘Most Trusted Food Brand in India’ for the fourth year in a row. It has very high brand equity – and yet its market share, at about 40%, did not appear to grow in reflection of that high brand equity. Some of the key factors that Gadre needs to consider while devising a strategy are the complexities of the different markets within India across geographical areas. Furthermore, competition from other brands and types of salt is intensifying.

The case provides a brief synopsis of some of the alternatives that are available to Gadre for boosting market share, such as promotional pricing and launching an advertising push to strengthen the consumer pull for the brand.

This case provides the students an opportunity to understand the pros and cons of specific key performance indicators, such as boosting market share. It also explains some of the implementation challenges of product, price, place and promotion decisions. This case study can be used in a class that covers marketing strategy, brand management, commodities marketing and line and brand extensions.

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