TATA vs TATA

I've always loved the TATA's. Apparently they stand for trust (which I was taught) and for IT, Cabs, Cars, Cheaper Cars, Expensive Cars, Luxury Cars, CDMA Telecom, GSM Telecom, Broadband Internet, Mobile Internet, Steel, Manufacturing, Engineering, Energy, Tea, Foods, Chemicals, Retail, Watches, Jewellery, Hospitality...ok, now this may go on, and maybe they have holdings some other billion companies, lets get to the point.

I recently made an interesting observation, where they stood for Confusion. Sometimes when a brand name is plastered across various segments/verticals/business domains or whatever it jus leads to confusion. With the every brand manager wanting his share of the Tata logo, the brand is probably most recognized. So yea, I was at a Tata Indicom store recently to settle my bill; there walks in a guy, about 45, who wanted to recharge his Tata Docomo connection. To his dismay the guy found out that he had to locate a Tata Docomo store and go there, boy was he pissed, here is a transcript of the conversation (translated from tamil):

Guy: Sir, I want to recharge my prepaid

Service rep: No sir, We're Tata Indicom, we deal with CDMA and not GSM, for that you need to goto the Docomo Store.

Guy: But you guys are the same Tata Company right? and its a mobile service? why do you have separate stores? Why can't you have it here?

S.P: Sir, we are different and they're, they're are tie up with docomo

Guy: So what? still u are TATA na? why can't all your Tata stores which offer mobile services be together?

S.P: Sir, I don't know sir, That only the company can decide, I just work here. You have to goto Tata Docomo sir.

Guy: what companies you guys run, people like me have to go there, here and everywhere. What kind of customer service is this?

Guy (mumbling): wat a useless company! they offer mobile services in separate shops...blah blah

Meanwhile, I had to leave, couldn't gather the rest of his mumbling.

On a lighter note, the best I can say is, confuse your customers, diversify, they'll never know where to complain :D