‘Brand Tata is bigger than an individual’

Tata Consultancy Services tops Kantar's 2024 brand list, with Tata brands valued for trust and ethics, outlasting individual leadership, experts say

Research firm Kantar’s September 2024 report on India’s 75 most valuable brands saw IT services firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) top the list for a third year in a row. In 2023, global brand consultancy Interbrand also listed TCS at number one among the country’s 50 top brands. Interbrand featured another Tata group brand Tanishq among the fastest growing brands in India in the last decade.

The group houses several strong brands such as Taj, Tata Salt and Tata Motors, among others. (Reuters)

Over the years, the presence of Tata group brands on prestigious lists has been a given. The group houses several strong brands such as Taj, Tata Salt and Tata Motors, among others. But what does the umbrella brand Tata mean to Indian consumers and will it get impacted by the passing of Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of the salt-to-software conglomerate?

Group brand Tata doesn’t derive its strength from the magnetism of its patriarch Ratan Tata, said branding and marketing expert Lloyd Mathias, who worked at Tata Teleservices between 2008 and 2011. “Brand Tata is not owner or personality-driven. Tatas have built a strong corporate foundation and will outlast an individual,” Mathias said.

Tata brand’s aura of respectability and trust cuts across income classes, Mathias said. Samit Sinha, managing partner, Alchemist Brand Consulting said though Indians spontaneously associate the Tata name with ‘trust’ and ‘respect’, there are other nuanced associations which they may not always articulate. “Tata name stands for ethicality as well as for putting people above profits,” Sinha said.

Ashish Mishra, CEO, India and South Asia at Interbrand agreed: “The Tata brand is essentially about good business done in a good way. Its businesses are mostly aligned to what the nation and the society need. It doesn’t just ride the India story to get rich quick through opportunistic businesses, it helps create the India story,” Mishra said. Tata has led manufacturing, transportation, retail and tech businesses at different times, mirroring the country’s evolution, he added.

The second part of doing business the ‘good way’ is with integrity, ethics and social welfare -- notions practiced by Tata much before they became fashionable, Mishra said. “Its promoters lived these values. This created a symbiotic equity flow between the business brands and the personal brands. The personal brands of Tatas led the equity foundation and the strict adherence to it across businesses helped transference to the businesses,” Mishra added.

Besides, Tata Sons is owned by trusts and significant profits go back to the society, Mathias said. The group supports research institutions and educational establishments including the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, or, the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru. “They incubated the Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) which is now independent. But all this gives them that soft power of being more than just a plain business entity,” Mathias said.

Another subtle, but significant, association that distinguishes the Tata brand from most other Indian homegrown business house brands, is its Parsi heritage. “That certainly lends the Tata name a touch of somewhat westernised class and sophistication that are not associated with traditional Indian business houses,” Sinha said.

But how does branding work in such a diversified group? For starters, the Tata name is used across all entities though it may not always be the lead like in Tata Steel, Tata Motors or TCS. “Very often, it is used as an underlying factor, as a kind of trust reinforcer. While Taj, Tanishq or Titan may not have Tata branding, the Tata symbol and signature runs across organisations,” said Mathias.

In airlines, retail, fashion, watches, jewellery, hospitality etc. Tatas have created a brand architecture comprising sub-brands, said Sinha. “But even here, the Tata brand is omnipresent. So, the relationship between the parent brand Tata, and the progeny brands like Taj, Titan, Tanishq, Westside, Croma etc. or brands like Jaguar, Land Rover and Tetley that they acquired, is two-way that reciprocally helps feed the other’s image,” he said. Sinha said Tata’s strong brand image has remained undented despite the monumental failure of Nano and the unseemly boardroom fracas with the late Cyrus Mistry.

“I believe that the brand’s trajectory will remain unaffected unless there are major missteps from the new leadership,” Sinha added.