TATA NAMAK - Desh Ka Namak

TATA SALT

I was having my lunch this afternoon and realized that something is wrong with the food .And you know what it was?? The SALT!!  This kept me wondering for long that how salt is an inextricable part of our lives. Upon recalling the Brands of salt I know, the first brand that came to my mind was “ TATA SALT” . I repeated the exercise with few of my friends and the first brand they could recall was “TATA SALT”. This shows how deeply ingrained the Brand is in our minds or if I put it in the words of Al Ries & Jack Trout, TATA SALT holds a higher ground in our minds, if we see our mind as a battlefield which brands are competing to conquer. For  a low involvement and a low value product like salt ,Tata  made best use of  first mover advantage along with the effective campaign  run by the government of India at that time to promote iodised salt  in the wake of increasing iodine deficiency related cases in India.

Tata is a name associated with Trust in India ,India has seen pioneering and entrepreneurial spirit of TATA’s right from the period of Jamsetji Nusservanji Tata who founded the Tata Group in 1848 to the present Chairman of Tata Sons Ltd- Mr. Ratan N. Tata under whose leadership Tata group has become a global player. the Tata group has spawned several industries of national importance in India like steel, hydro-power, hospitality, airlines. So when India was facing the problems of good quality iodised salt ,Tata gave India it’s first branded Iodised salt  “ Tata Salt”.

History of Tata Salt

Tata has the largest integrated chemical plant in Mithapur from where Tata salt was launched in 1983, the story behind this plant and salt is very interesting and goes like this, In the early 1920’s a Chemical Engineer from England named Kapil Ram vakil saw the potential of developing salt works in the Okhamandal region of Gujarat, the Maharaja of Baroda gave him the permission and Okhamandal Salt works was established but after a decade later when he wanted to expand and set up a soda ash plant, Tata’s were approached to back the project of national importance which they willingly took up and set up Tata chemicals in 1939.They cracked the code of manufacturing Soda ash which was closely guarded secret among 6 giants and scaled up the production and now has become second largest producer of soda ash in the world

What’s fascinating is that Tata never intended to manufacture and sell salt. The soda ash plant needed fresh water for their boilers. Hence to supply fresh water, the company started purifying sea water and it created high quality salt as a bye product in the process. This coincided with the government campaign with the support of UNICEF for promoting iodised salt since iodine deficiency was a serious issue haunting the children's health. So, this scenario and willingness of Tata’s to take up any project of national importance gave birth to one of the super brands and a classic case of branding a commodity in the Indian market.

Positioning of Tata Salt

Initially Tata salt was associated with purity , hygiene and best quality and as people had trust in the brand name of Tata , they embraced the product willingly and it became the household name. Tata also  sticked to it’s commitment of delivering the quality product to Indian masses, many competitors entered and exited the market but Tata  never compromised on quality and delivered best product at best price. But later Tata Salt was repositioned on the platform of emotion. The brand owners felt that they should rise above the rational differentiation and try to emotionally influence the consumers and create high involvement of consumers in a low involvement product like Salt. The initial 'Namak ho Tata ka — Tata Namak' and path breaking taglines 'Desh ka Namak' and ‘Tata Salt- Desh ko arpan’ and most recent 'Gulmil ke' ad campaigns are creatively tapping into this emotional connect, reinforcing Tata Salt's leadership position in the marketplace as well as in the consumer's mind.

Keeping pace with changing times.

With the changing needs of the consumer and to differentiate its products , Tata has come up with variants like Tata Salt Lite - a low sodium salt , Tata Salt Plus- an iron fortified Iodised Salt, and in 2012 Tata Salt  came up with Flavortiz 'Ab Lao Taste mein Twist' which offers three exciting choices of flavoured salt — Lemon Coriander, Red Paprika and Onion Garlic along with black pepper powder to add variety and fun to the nation’s most trusted salt Brand.

So, Tata Brand is  all set to take new challenges that may come in it’s way and retain it’s position in the Indian market as top selling brand of iodised salt. Tata salt will continue to retain  higher grounds in the mind of Indian consumers in decades to come. Respect to Tata’s from my side for their entrepreneurial spirit, vision and philanthropic nature. After all “ Maine Desh ka Namak khaya hai!!”