 Hello and welcome to the Euphorum Talk Show. Our guest today is Rajan Amba, Vice President, Sales, Marketing and Customer Care, Tata Motors. Welcome to the show, Rajan. Thank you, Kanchan. It's a pleasure. Mr. Rajan, while inflation and joblessness are still affecting the consumer's sentiments to some extent, but almost all car makers, they have been able to block huge growth over the past few months, even Tata Motors itself registered more than 50% growth in passenger vehicle sales in August compared to July. So how do you view this kind of conflict and how much growth you are expecting in this festive season? So I think it's not so much a conflict as much as the environmental situation post-COVID. I think the whole COVID situation when we were all locked up in our houses or in our cities, etc., for long periods of time over two years, I think it was a time of introspection for all of us as human beings in that sense. And I think it fueled the need for private transportation so that you could protect yourself and your loved ones from exposure in public transportation because being exposed in public became the area that people were most afraid of. And that just kind of fueled that sentiment. And it so happened that during those periods, there was a lot more saving because there was a lot less spending. And that kind of made the decision for anybody who was not thinking of a car or for anybody who was having an older car that just made the decision to move to a car or a newer car or a bigger car that much more easier. And I think that aspect of safety became the number one most on top of people's bucket list of purchases to be done. I think we all realized that at that point in time, we had too many clothes, we didn't need more clothes. And I think consumer goods in terms of white goods went up as well because there was a lot more usage of the home appliances and a need for a grid, etc. But I think the priorities kind of shifted and that kind of elevated the whole situation around the automobile buying. So how much growth you are exactly expecting in this festive season and what exactly are your festive marketing plans apart from the campaign on which we are going to talk about later? Yeah, I think that we don't like to read any crystal ball on these kind of questions. But I think it suffices, two or three things I would say that first of all, this is what I call the silly season or the funny season where auspicious dates play a very, very key role in moving huge amounts of product in those small windows of dates. And those dates are going to open up from 26 onwards. So it's only when we look back at the data points somewhere around the 10th of October will they get a better perspective of how the season has gone. Having said that, I think it's sufficient to say that inquiries are very strong. Bookings are also strong. There's sufficient interest. There's been a lot of new interventions and launches in the market by everybody, including us. And I think that's been fueling the interest. And now it's just a question of that, we're at that tipping point or the last stage where from the next few days from the 25th, 26th onwards to the 5th, there will be a huge amount of pressure on our retail partners, on our dealer partners, because people will come in during that period and will want deliveries because they're auspicious or we want booking and deliveries within the short periods, which is what we are preparing for from the inventory perspective as well as from a production cycle perspective. So we are pretty much ready for this. And we're keeping our fingers crossed as the signs are good, signs are positive, very positive. So your latest campaign around Durga Pooja that is yet to be released seems to be quite powerful. And I feel that it conveys the message that generosity and kindness are at the core of our festivals. So I would like to know from you, what is the whole idea behind this campaign on Durga Pooja? You know, I just want to give a context to you and your viewers. I think first of all, the campaign that we have done for Durga Pooja has been released just a few days back on the back of another campaign that we launched two weeks ago for Tamil Nadu. And these are specific campaigns for those markets or those cities or that community or population. Because two years back when we embarked on our new forever initiative, which is if I would put it, I would simply say it was about reinvention across the board in terms of car, in terms of product, in terms of the way we sell, etc. One of the things we realize is that there are many markets which have a lot more potential for us where we are underserving the consumer. And that's because we've had some challenges in the past on the brand and so on and so forth. And West Bengal was one of those markets and Tamil Nadu was one of those markets among many other markets that we chose to focus on. And two years back, we started the initiative in West Bengal by signing a personjeet as our brand evangelist. And at that point in time, we did a lot of work with him in more static media and it paid off very well. Where we saw, we closed the year with an average market share of 8% in West Bengal. And that helped us to build it up to 14% that we have today in West Bengal in just that one year. And of course, prior to that, it was much, prior to that 8% was much lower. And with the confidence that we built up from last year, looking at the way our brand has been or the business has been growing in West Bengal, we wanted to do something even a notch above that what we had been doing in the past. And our relationship with personjeet serves as a beautiful foundation. And of course, the culture of Durga Puja and the nature of Durga Puja and the nature of the Bengali consumer doing Durga Puja is wonderful fuel for the creative juices and minds of our agency partners. And as you rightly pointed out, it's largely Durga Puja is rightly about the celebration of good or evil. And the core of Durga Puja is about doing good and being good. And I think the film that we have put out there wonderfully leverages this sentiment and seamlessly integrates doing good using the various aspects and features of our cars to do good from a community perspective as the various instances in the commercial clearly highlight. I think suffice to say that the whole film from both the sound and music and the examples in that has been accepted extremely, extremely well, not just in West Bengal, but I think throughout the country it's a film that doesn't require translation, which is why we have not translated it because very often we lose the essence and ethos when you have such beautiful languages, Bengali and then you're trying to translate into English, you're not going to get and you're going to probably insult a few people by trying that. So I think we've remained true to that, kept it pure and it didn't require any translation, honestly. Do you have more such campaigns lined up for Diwali? Well, we're running, we're also having a similar campaign for Tamil Nadu, which is not as I would say which it's in a different way because the challenges for Tamil Nadu are very different. That's a campaign that again beautifully done and short and scripted and visualized and articulated through the music and the words of the music there, but that's a little quite different. It is basically the celebration of the roots of the rich cultural roots and heritage of Tamil Nadu just opposed or relating to the roots of the deep roots of Tata's in the country and how while we're both similar, we're also old in our roots, we're also very progressive and when you see the film you'll see how we've looked at the consumer in Tamil Nadu today, the younger consumer, how while they are younger and they have newer age ideas and thoughts and values, they're also still sticking to many parts of their culture which are deep rooted in their psyche and we are celebrating all of that in that film. As you mentioned that West Bengal and maybe Tamil Nadu were underserved till now, so I would also like to know which new markets and new categories you are targeting for growth at present, apart from these two. Yeah, I think there are about there are 12 core markets for us, I can't disclose those details at this point in time, we've been working on them for the last couple of years and as in when we have material like we have today to share with you, then we will talk about that, we'd rather act first and then talk later, I would say, so but it's something which we really looking forward to because one of the things that one has to realize as a market here is that there are regional nuances and there is such a richness of culture and opportunity for brands like us that we speak to people in their language, closed and very close to them as opposed to applying a cookie cutter approach where we have so-called national campaigns and I think both the puja film and the Tamil Nadu film kind of I think validate what we're talking about and we look forward to more such work in building a brand over the next few years. This is not just a one-time thing or an expectation that now magic will happen, it's not something that's not the way things work, but I think that certainly if we continue to put our head down, put our nose to the ground and continue to work hard and find those insights which we can relate to our consumers at regional levels, I think that there is so much more for us to achieve. So compared to the last two years, how much edX allocated for this festive season? Is it more compared to the last two years and if yes, then can you please tell us in terms of percentage? I think I would just say that it is substantially more than last year as a brand, we've been growing at a revenue level and at a unit level as you're all aware, even this year we're growing at about 65% year-to-date. So you can well imagine that the company and the management is bearing no expenses to make sure that the work that has been done last year that we continue to build on that. This is not the time for us to be cutting down on these initiatives and efforts because there has been so much return for that investment so to speak and so much love from the consumers which has given us the strong number three slot and occasionally in a few periods, even the number two slot from a brand which two to a half years ago was five or six or seven in a very competitive industry and environment. So I think that we were as a company and as a management we all acknowledge that that there are miles to go before we can rest and flatline those budgets. How is your EV segment growing? I mean what are your new targets and if you can give us its share in the total car sales? So EV is about 8% of our business, CNG is another 11% so between these two alternate fuel options we do 20% of our business. We have been hitting consistently now 4,000 units a month on the EV side and I think it's suffice to say that this year by the end of this month we will cross the last year's full number. So we are poised to more than double our numbers as far as the EV business grows. So in a growth in excess 100% should be expected from over last year at the current round. Is it going to be called calendar year or financially? Financially, which of course we would also translate into the calendar in that sense. Now my last question after the death of Cyrus Mistry, former chair of Menoptera Group, consumers as and the government's focus has again shifted to the safety of passenger cars. Are you planning to make any changes in the design that offers better safety to the passengers also to the driver? I think we are talking to the pioneer of safety in the automobile segment if I may use that phrase. I think our cars in any survey or in any kind of article you will know that we have the most number of cars with the highest safety rating. So I think that we have well established that I think the consumer has also acknowledged that and I think they have rewarded us with that in terms of the business and growth that we have achieved. So we are very much there. I think a lot of it was started already by us and there's been a lot of initiative by the government to educate consumers on safety through regulations as well and we have always been either ahead of those regulations or have been one of the first to adopt to them and welcome them and we will continue to do the same because safety is our mantra. We will be proactive on that front as much as possible and of course look forward to whatever new initiatives that come down from the government as well and be the first to get off the mark with that. Thank you so much Rajan for talking with us. Thank you. Thank you. Very nice speaking to all of you. Thank you. Bye-bye.