Could Empathy Have Saved the Tata Nano?

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In 2015, after a massive decline in demand, the Nano team rebranded.

They scrapped their price-aggressive language and positioned the Nano as a fast, fun, easy car for free-loving young people (sound familiar?) Commercials featured young adults, laughing and carrying guitars, driving out of their way for their favorite street food. They drove to the beach, to parties, and cruised with friends down beautiful coastal streets. The ads focused on the experience of owning a Nano. But did it work?

The new campaign was a success from a creative standpoint, but it didn’t help the Nano’s sales. In 2018, Tata discontinued the Nano for good.

Marketing consultant Nauby Gupta thinks the new campaign was too little, too late. “[The Nano] has been positioned as a price-aggressive product,” he said in an article from Economic Times, “You can’t get away from that.”

The Nano’s last gasp teaches us one final lesson: you rarely get a second chance to make the right first impression. Negative emotions are like a tattoo on the heart—they stay with your audience, even if you later change your tone.

The Nano could have been India’s most iconic vehicle. Instead, The World’s Cheapest Car is no more.

Great founders, like great writers, put aside their ego and work hard to build empathy with their audience. And that’s exactly what empathy is: emotional work. Being rational is easy. Understanding what your audience really wants—what they need—is hard.

As a founder, empathy starts with you. Let’s look at how to build deeper relationships with your customers and audience.