Tiago to pave way for Tata Motors' new strategy: CEO Butschek

Tata Motors' much awaited compact hatchback has been launched. The erstwhile Zica, now known as Tiago, is the first product to be launched under Tata Motors' turnaround strategy under the leadership of new CEO Guenter Butschek.
Speaking to CNBC-TV18's Farah Bookwala on the sidelines of the launch event, Butschek said Tiago will pave the way for Tata Motors' new strategy, and other products. This is the first product to combine a new design and technology strategy, he said.

He is confident of Tiago doing well and making a difference in the hatchback market.

Tiago has been launched at an introductory price of Rs 3.2 lakh to Rs 5.54 lakh ex-showroom New Delhi. Tiago will be launched in 5 models across petrol & diesel variants. The car is set to compete with Maruti Celerio and Hyundai i10.

The company is not yet ready to communicate their new brand statement, said Butschek.Below is the verbatim transcript of Guenter Butschek’s interview with Farah Bookwala Vhora on CNBC-TV18.Q: What do you expect from Tiago?A: This product, we are going to take our competitors for a challenge in an incredibly competitive market environment. Coming to your question, what do we expect from this product, we expect that this is going to work because we have put all of our passion, we have put all of our technology, we have put all of the level best as far quality is concerned in this single, tiny product. We believe this is going to rock the market and is going to make the difference.Q: The problem with Tata Motors that you have also acknowledged in your first meeting with reporters last month is that there seems to be a larger brand issue, that the right message is not getting communicated across. So, the question I really want to ask you at this point is that you were to come out with a brand statement, a unified brand statement. Is that going to happen anytime soon, is it happening today, is it going to happen tomorrow because we were really expecting that to come about with the launch of the Tiago as well?A: It would have been too early because as I said at the beginning, I have just joined Tata Motors some seven weeks ago. I believe in the necessity to redefine the brand, we need a brand statement that actually wraps around what we are doing and serves as a reference point for all what we are doing and how we position ourselves and our products in the market and it is in these both - there is a company dimension and there is a product dimension.Tiago to a large extent is in-line with what I have in mind but we are not ready yet to communicate what we as a team have on mind. First we would like to internally stress test what we have identified as a proper approach for the brand into the future and we said as long as we have not stress tested it we are not going to talk about it and if, then we first talk to our people, before we go public.