Tata Motors powers personalised engagement by unifying 60M unique personas

Tata Motors Limited is a global automotive powerhouse and India’s No.1 commercial vehicle (CV) manufacturer. Present in 125 countries, the company sells over one million vehicles annually. 

Marketing strategies were complicated by a large and diverse customer base 

As India’s largest manufacturer of trucks and buses, Tata Motors’ CV business plays a vital role in keeping the economy moving. From ambulances transporting patients, and  tippers at construction sites, to buses ferrying employees - there’s a Tata Motors CV for nearly every sector. 

That kind of reach brings with it an incredibly diverse customer base. At one end are driver-entrepreneurs investing in a small truck to start their business. At the other end are large corporations running complex logistics operations with fleets of thousands. Each of these customer groups has its own preferences, use cases, and decision journeys - all of which can make customer engagement quite complex. 

Yet, engagement itself is critical because in the CV segment, product specs alone don’t win. The market is filled with near-identical CV models - so, customers naturally look beyond the basics. They want more ecosystem benefits and more relevant communication that speak to their specific needs. A simple spec sheet doesn’t convey how a particular vehicle will fit the customer’s unique use cases, business goals, and budgets. 

Realising this, Tata Motors CV decided to upgrade their marketing approach. Not only did they want to move beyond traditional brochures, posters, and banners - they also wanted to deepen customer connections at every touchpoint. That meant showing up even during the due diligence phase when customers go online to research CVs, talk to peers, browse influencer content, and read social media reviews. 

“Our goal was to engage customers in a more intelligent, contextually-rich, and personalised manner,” says Shubhranshu Singh, CMO, Tata Motors CV. “But first, we had to find a way of bringing together the massive volumes of customer data scattered across our dealerships, telematics, service records, fleet owners, and more. Salesforce was the key.” 

Unifying 60 million personas improves alignment across teams

Using Salesforce Data Cloud, Tata Motors CV has unified 60 million unique personas from over 10 data sources – including the company website, mobile app, CRM platform, lead management tools, spare parts portal, remote ordering app, warranty system, and service tools.

Teams now have a single, complete view of every customer. This helps them track and act on customer signals in real time, be it on the website or at a dealer showroom.

“The biggest impact we’ve seen with Data Cloud is alignment,” says Singh. “Everyone can see what the customer was browsing for on the website, or what their last purchase was. As a result, the service team knows what upgrades to suggest; the sales team is able to boost conversions; the marketing team is able to launch more targeted campaigns on-the-go, and so on.”

Contextual, omnichannel marketing campaigns achieve engagement rates of up to 5%

With Salesforce Marketing Cloud, every marketing interaction at Tata Motors CV is grounded in a rich context. Campaigns are no longer just about building awareness through vehicle specs or new launch promotions. Instead, they’re designed to drive consideration by connecting customers to the right finance offers, surfacing timely service packages, or nudging interest in vehicle configurators.

Teams can easily segment customers, and design connected journeys that align with the customer’s lifecycle stage. For example, a customer who earlier purchased an entry-level model might be targeted with an upsell campaign as newer variants become available. Similarly, a long-term customer with an expiring finance plan might be sent an exchange offer, while a lapsed lead might be reactivated with a festival season discount.

“With Salesforce, we’re able to target all our segments meaningfully, delivering the right messages at the right time,” says Singh. “Every campaign - from lead generation and onboarding emails, to service reminders and warranty renewals - is contextualised based on where the customer is on their journey.”

Campaigns are also designed to be omnichannel and connected across email, SMS, WhatsApp, and the website. An auxiliary stream of influencer content further enriches the customer journey, offering credible insights that build trust.

The results speak for themselves. WhatsApp campaigns have achieved an open rate of over 70%. Email/ SMS delivery rates have jumped from 22% to 89%, while engagement rates are at nearly 5% – all well above the industry average. 

Over 25% of Tata Motors’ monthly CV sales now originate from digital leads, demonstrating the clear business impact of smarter engagement.

Personalised web experiences increase leads and conversions

Gone are the days when personalisation simply meant adding a name to an email. Through Marketing Cloud Personalisation, web campaigns at Tata Motors CV are tailored to each customer’s browsing behaviour, purchasing history, vehicle type, location, and other parameters. Returning website visitors are shown personalised pop-ups, banners, and landing pages informed by their past activity – making each visit more relevant. 

“When CV customers need product information, they usually turn to aggregators and affiliates rather than OEMs,” explains Vinay Dholakia, Head - Digital Marketing & Media, Tata Motors. “But we’re bucking that trend by offering customers a personalised website experience - complete with custom banners, click-to-call features, and smart floating lead forms that connect to our call centre in real time. It enables us to convert high-intent visitors efficiently, and own the customer relationship from end to end.” 

Marketing automation reduces campaign deployment time by 25%

Automated customer journeys and campaigns have boosted marketing productivity. Campaign deployment time has reduced by 25%, while the number of customer journeys has increased by 1.5x - all without hiring new marketers. The marketing team now has more time freed up to focus on higher-value strategic tasks.

At the management level, Marketing Cloud Intelligence provides real-time insights on marketing performance across channels, sources, and personas. No longer do decision-makers have to guesstimate campaign ROI. All the metrics they need are available at the click of a button. This helps them optimise campaign performance and spend.

Tata Motors’ Salesforce implementation was both strategic and swift. Instead of a big-bang rollout, the company started small by piloting Salesforce in their small CV business where first-time buyers and individual intenders made it an ideal proving ground. Here, marketing transformation strategies were tested, iterated, and refined. Teams experimented with campaign framing, mapping, and launching to determine what worked and what needed improvement. Only then was Salesforce scaled up to other business units like medium and heavy CVs with large fleet owners. 

Supporting the entire implementation were Salesforce Professional Services and Comsense Technologies.

“Despite steep timelines, both groups worked together seamlessly to understand our needs, and accelerate our digital transformation,” says Dholakia. “With their help, our implementation process – from procurement to the first campaign go-live – took just seven months. That’s a huge achievement for a company of our size and complexity.” 

Next: Using AI to deepen insights, sharpen impact

With a strong Salesforce foundation in place, Tata Motors CV is now focused on scaling up intelligence, and deepening personalisation. 

Einstein will be used to improve marketing RoI through AI-powered customer segmentation and predictive targeting. Customer journeys will be hyper-personalised based on propensity and buying behaviour. Additionally, predictive analytics will help optimise media spend, as well as upselling and cross-selling outcomes. 

When faced with a customer base as large and diverse as Tata Motors, many companies resort to ‘spray and pray’ marketing tactics that sacrifice relevance for reach. But with Salesforce, Tata Motors CV is flipping the script. 

Powered by a unified view of customer data pulled together from multiple sources across the enterprise, the company is personalising customer engagement at every touchpoint. Highly contextual and omnichannel campaigns are served up at the right moments across the customer journey. As a result, customers feel seen, understood, and better served – leading to deeper satisfaction and long-term loyalty.

“Our NPS was already among the highest in the industry; but by transforming how we engage with customers through Salesforce, we expect to see a clear uplift in customer retention and lifetime value,” says Singh.