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Tata Salt, India's first iodized salt brand, enhanced its market share in the Indian branded salt industry. Tata Salt was the first to introduce iodized, hygienic, and standardized salt
in the Indian market. It started its product positioning on the rational platform of purity. Through its communication campaigns, Tata Salt advocated the importance of pure, iodized,
and iron-rich salt in people's diet. Various promotional strategies were adopted by Tata Salt to capture the position of the most trusted brand in the Indian salt industry. Over the
years, the brand was successful in establishing an emotional connect with customers by tapping the nationalist and patriotic fervor through campaigns such as 'Namak ho Tata ka
Tata namak'. Desh ka Namak' and 'Ghul Milke'
Read through the above strategies. What are the various factors, apart from the above, that would create a strong brand loyalty using an effective means of
communication? Discuss possible options, strategies and improvements in communication platforms that companies can leverage for their benefit. [10]
Response
2010/
Answers
If Mahatma Gandhi’s Dandi march was all about making salt affordable to the masses, then Tata Salt went a step further with its vision by additionally emphasising purity, uniformity of texture, taste (saltiness) and iodisation.
Today, more than 75 per cent of the Indian population has received a sufficient dose of iodine, and Tata Salt has played a key role in this as the first iodised salt brand in India. Though iodine occurs naturally in the food chain, in places where the soil is iodine-deficient (like hilly areas), it has to be added to the diet to prevent a host of problems, from goitre to mental disorders. In India, where salt is essential for practically everything, iodising the salt was the best solution to prevent iodine deficiency.
First steps
India has deep-rooted relationships with salt, including essential dietary requirements and feel-good emotional associations. It is not surprising that even now a good chunk of the total salt market remains with the unorganised sector. What is surprising, however, is the fact that before Tata Salt entered the market, hygiene, purity and nutrition were never considered important for a product with such ubiquitous use; availability, affordability and tradition took precedence over them. Most of the salt obtained in this country till the 1980s was unbranded and unrefined.
It fell into this vague, ill-defined market, which Tata Salt took initiative to revamp. Tata Chemicals was set up in 1939 with a soda ash plant in Mithapur. And in the late 1970s, when availability of fresh water for its boilers became scarce, it took a decision to generate the same using sea water. This desalination yielded a natural byproduct — salt of excellent quality and high purity.
Although the Mithapur Salt Works was developed in 1979, it was only in 1983 that Tata Salt was launched. It was the first company to use vacuum-evaporated technology for boiling sea brine and evaporating it in steam-heated vacuum evaporators, to produce salt. This process helped in developing salt that was free of impurities, with a fine, uniform feel and consistent saltiness. It was priced higher than the unpacked, non-iodised, salt available in the market then, but it immediately caught the public eye as it increased the flavour of food and controlled the growth of micro-organisms.
Health-conscious brand
Tata Salt used its first-mover-advantage to a great extent after keenly observing consumer mindsets and the coming of health-conscious trends in the market. It launched its low-sodium, added iron and black salt varieties, as the situation warranted change. It regularly conducts surveys and discussions, using the feedback thus generated to keep improving and innovating its products. The factors that keep it at the top are loyalty to the Tata brand name and consistency in quality and purity.