Monday, September 19, 2011

T Shirt Fail? T-Shirt Win?

Check out the black T-shirts and you tell me. I suppose it all depends on how you look at it -- but there's no convincing me the marketing department at a major Indian truck, tractor and other vehicle maker didn't know what they were saying when they offered these T-shirts to U. S. customers. Buy 'em quick, they're on clearance already!

(I was looking for their three-wheeler utility vehicles. Don't seem to be bringing them to the States.)

12 comments:

  1. Before I clicked the pic, I thought it would be from these guys.

    I mean, the jokes write themselves.

    It's still pretty funny to see 'ride me' on the shirts, though.

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  2. Karrde: That was my first thought too.

    Bobbi: I guess we know how you feel about them, you have Freudiantly referred to them as "t-shits". ;)

    As for the shirts, the double entendre is probably intentional. Hrm. I need some new shirts, but don't really have any good reason to own one from the Mahindra Tractor Company. Ah well.

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  3. As for Tata, I keep wondering if their Nano can be made to meet U.S. specs and still sell inexpensively -- it would be a category winner as a city car, but that's a very tiny market here.

    The Ace minitruck is appealing to me.

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  4. If marketing to Wall Streeters, lawyers, or other suit-wearers, then marketing fail.

    If marketing to rednecks and other regular working-class folk, then marketing win

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  5. Some things just do not translate well.

    Shootin' Buddy

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  6. Roberta, used Japanese minitrucks are fairly cheap, and shipped here regularly for sale as off road use(mostly to farms) because Japan is pretty hard regulation wise on older vehicles. The issue is their use on US public roads, due to such issues as EPA certification and meeting safety standards. 18 states currently permit them on some portion of public roads - unfortunately Indiana isn't one of them.

    Mini Truck Laws by State

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  7. The Tata's are a rich and powerful family like the Ford's once were, and maintain a controlling interest in Steel in India. The city that was once called Jamshedpur in the old state of Bihar was name-changed to Tatanagar during the re-Indiafication, and is now incorporated in the state of Jharkhand. That's ok I suppose, because it was named after a recent Tata anyhow: In 1919 Lord Chelmsford named the city Jamshedpur in honour of its founder, Jamshedji Nausserwanji Tata... I'll bet dollars to gulab-jamuns that Lord Chelmsford had a thing or two going on in Blighty with some of the steel works there...

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  8. I don't like to buy any shirt with a company ad on them, they should give them away for cheap advertising. No way would i wear one of those even if they were free !

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  9. I've been waiting for over a year for Mahindra to start selling (in partnership with Ford) their Diesel/Electric hybrid pickup truck. Can you imagine the weldy tooly goodness of that??

    Antibubba

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  10. It should be interesting; Mahindra is said to build fairly rugged trucks for the price.

    Indian vehicles are generally not designed with U.S.-type highway speeds in mind; it's a very different market.

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  11. Wait! Mahindra is partnering up with Ford? Really? Awesome!
    They're probably waiting for an Obama-free White House, considering that His Imperial Majesty has indicated about as much respect for the sub-continent as he has for Great Britain, Israel, or the United States, for that matter...

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