In a sense, Tata Motors is now a force to reckon with?globally.

The largest manufacturer of vehicles in India has long-harboured the desire to make its presence felt in the global arena. It did fulfill this ambition to a certain extent when it acquired South Korea?s second-largest truck-maker Daewoo Commercial Vehicles Company in 2004. The company since then has inked a number of key international pacts, but much of this has happened in the commercial vehicles and bus space?a category that has been its core area of strength for the last six decades or so that it has been in existence. The passenger cars segment, in contrast, is a newer category, also one that has been fraught with challenges for it. The first batch of the indigenously manufactured Indica passenger cars, for instance, had technical glitches, which were rectified slowly but steadily by the company. It has over the years attempted to improve its automotive engineering capabilities on the passenger car front, but, at some level, it has yearned to do something big, really big in that segment. It did manage to achieve that with the announcement of the Tata Nano?the Rs 1-lakh car?earlier this year. But that is a vehicle for the masses, something that the Tatas can handle quite effectively. It is the luxury-end, which is a challenge, making the acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover by Tata Motors significant.

Both Jaguar and Land Rover were brands that Tata Motors pursued fervently. The race really began in 2007, when the shortlisted bidders for the two brands, put on the block by the Detroit-based Ford Motor Company, were announced. These included Tata Motors, archrival Mahindra & Mahindra and US-based private equity player One Equity Partners. Tata Motors eventually stole a march over its rivals to emerge the preferred bidder for the brands, which is manufactured in the UK. After multiple rounds of negotiations with the management and workers? union, the company finally clinched the deal this year, agreeing to pay $2.3 billion for the two products. The transaction will take another quarter to be completed, but there is no denying the fact that Jaguar and Land Rover will occupy a place of pride in the Tata stable. With the acquisition, Tata Motors has come a full circle, making the jump from a commercial vehicles and bus manufacturer to a maker of sports utility vehicles then indigenous passenger cars and now holder of brands considered to be the ultimate in luxury. The road to success hasn?t been easy, but the company is known not to give up. Explains a senior automobile analyst with a national-level advertising agency, ?The acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover completes the picture for Tata Motors. It is now a holistic automobile company.? Says Gangadharan Menon, creative director at the Mumbai-based Octane Communications: ?In one stroke it has pushed the company into a different league altogether. The acquisition in a sense has helped the company shake off the tag of being an indigenous manufacturer. It now controls brands that are not only great to have, but are also technologically superior.?

No doubt Tata Motors? brand equity has been lifted a few notches with the acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover, but as the dust settles, the question emerges: how is the company likely to manage a diverse set of brands in its portfolio? Above all, how will it manage these just-acquired luxury brands? ?It won?t be easy,? says Piyush Pandey, executive chairman and national creative director, Ogilvy India & South Asia, the agency that has done the advertising for the company?s sports utility vehicles such as Tata Safari and Safari Dicor.

?The Tatas have never promoted the company, they have promoted individual brands,? he says. ?They are not likely to deviate from this even as the company emerges as a force to reckon with on the global stage. The idea will be to try and keep each of the brands apart, identify their individual needs, their target audience and tailor the communication accordingly.?

But with no experience in managing luxury cars, would the company even attempt to take stock of its advertising. The answer to this can be found in the statement by Ratan Tata, chairman, Tata Sons and Tata Motors, following the acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover. He said, ?We will endeavour to preserve and build on the brands? heritage keeping their identities intact.?

This implies that the company is not likely to prefix the word Tata to either Jaguar or Land Rover. Because if they did so, say marketing analysts, it would impact the equity of the brands significantly. ?Even Ford didn?t do anything like that,? says Anmol Dar, managing director, Superbrands India. That is something that the Tatas don?t want to do either. In fact, the latter are making sure that nothing untoward happens to the brands as ownership changes hands. This they are doing by keeping the original management of the UK-based company intact. As company officials indicate: ?It is a change of ownership. That?s all. Everything else remains the same.?

Keeping the luxury brands separate from the others under a different company altogether will ensure that there is no cultural conflict, say analysts. As Anand Halve, co-founder of Mumbai-based advertising and brand consultancy Chlorophyll explains: ?You cannot have a brand manager driven by a mentality to drive down costs to take charge of brands that are about making a style statement. The Tatas will want to avoid a situation like that.? In fact, most automobile conglomerates across the world make sure that the management of their luxury brands is not mixed with the management of their entry-level, mid-level or premium-end vehicles. This way clarity of thinking, strategy and communication is maintained. As Mahesh Chauhan, president, Rediffusion DY&R explains, ?When Toyota launched the Lexus, it did so under a different subsidiary altogether.

I don?t think the Tatas are reinventing the wheel here. It is required to maintain the sanctity of the brands.?

On a roll…

1945: Established

1954: Entered into a partnership with Daimler Benz AG for manufacture of medium commercial vehicles. Partnership ended in 1969

1961: Began exporting trucks to Sri Lanka

1983: Manufacture of heavy commercial vehicles begins

1986: Begins manufacture of light commercial vehicles. Indigenously designed Tata 407, followed by Tata 608 rolls out of company plant

1994: Multi utility vehicle Tata Sumo launched

1998: Sports utility vehicle Tata Safari launched. Also the year when the company launched Indica

2001: Indica V2 launched

2002: Tata Indigo launched

2004: Acquisition of Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Company. Indigo Marina launched

2005: Goods carrier Tata Ace launched in the sub-one-tonne payload market. Also launches Safari Dicor

2006: Indica V2 Xeta launched. Total vehicle sales of the company crosses 4 million

2007: Indigo XL launched

2008: Unveils the Tata Nano. The company acquires Jaguar and Land Rover.

Also launches Sumo Grande