The tractor that is ahead of time: Escorts 

Escorts Limited:
Escorts Limited, a prominent engineering firm in India, is a preferred supplier of agricultural and construction equipment in the country. Escorts position in high-growth areas like Agri-machinery, construction and material handling equipment, and railway equipment has aided India's socio-economic progress over seven decades. Escorts is dedicated to contributing to India's growth narrative and delivering qualitative change to people's lives with the help of its in-house research and development centre and relationships with global technology giants.

Escorts Agri Machinery:
Escorts Agri Machinery is India's farm mechanization pioneer, has dedicated itself over the last seven decades to improving India's agricultural output and creating value for the farmer's life. Escorts offers a highly advanced range of 22 HP to 80 HP tractors under the Farmtrac and Powertrac names. Escorts Agri Machinery assures the pleasure of its over 14,00,000 customers and offers optimum uptime of their tractors and equipment through an expanding network of over 800 customer touch-points.  

Understanding Marketing strategy:

Product:
The Company provides agricultural tractors, spares & lubes, and engines & gensets. In the tractor segment, it offers a highly advanced range of 22 HP to 80 HP tractors under the Farmtrac and Powertrac names. Their product, Farmtrac is contemporary engineering and machinery that have exceptional power and traction and is recognized for pulling more traction with less effort. It's a high-performance, flexible, and robust motorcycle with excellent driver comfort. Also, Escort offers special series of tractors for Indian farmers under the brand name Powertrac which offers maximum power and fuel efficiency at an attractive value-for-money proposal.

Price:
The Escorts Agri machinery is a popular known value-for-money proposition as they offer advanced tractors at a low cost without sacrificing quality. Also, a few of the special tractor models of Escorts are expensive such as Escort JOSH 335. The price range of an Escorts Tractor starts from Rs. 2.60 and Rs. 2.90 lakh, this indicates escorts is a price strategy aiming to improve the standard of living for farmers.

Place:
To ensure customers the satisfaction of more than 14,00,000 customers, Escorts has a network of 800 customer touch-points for providing sale and after-sale service for tractor customers across India with help of more than 650 tractor and equipment dealers.

Promotion:
Escorts implements an integrated approach for marketing and promotion, such as TV and FM -across urban stakeholders and rural users- channel mediums were chosen according to the location to cater to all categories. Below the line, activation includes roadshows, single-screen theatres, and point-of-sale (POS) across busy intersections, as well as billboards, outdoor hoardings, and airport placement around India, as well as mobile branding. In-film spots for peripheral media channels and a wider reach are welcomed. Through camps and demonstrations, they extended their branding through distribution. Experiential marketing activity by the company with a distinct advantage over the competitors, such as racing, power lift, and terrain torque demonstrations.

Also, they maximize reach and interaction by utilizing social media and internet channels. Various channels were inundated with the contest and suggestion-based campaigns. Merchandise and collateral for a wide range of products were introduced. Strategic placements were made throughout trade forums and websites. The exposure of the campaign was used to engage cooperative banking and financing sites. Amongst the most appealing channels was direct messaging and mobile platform marketing.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths:

1. It offers a Value-for-money proposition.
2. Integrated marketing strategy.
3. Escort has established brand names in domestic as well as international markets.
4. Investment in technology and innovation.

Weakness:

1. More dependency on price-conscious customers.
2. Less number of outlets service as compared to competitors.
3. Franchises issues and operational difficulties.

Opportunities:

1. Opportunities to increase market share by targeting price-conscious farmers’ segment.
2. Extended Government support for the promotion of Agri mechanization.

Threats:

1. Indian tractor industry is dominated by big giants; thus, this will create an increase in close competition for Escort tractors.
2. Degrowth in revenue, operating cost, and profits is a major threat for Escort Ltd.
3. Lack of long-term contracts with the supplier is hampering production.

Upcoming Initiatives of Escort Limited:
Escort Ltd. is planning on lighthouse distribution centres with branding platforms -technology-led VR & AI platforms- virtual demo studios, virtual dealership experience, IOT based kiosks, and digital interface platforms, simulation technologies, machine learning data analytics-based platforms, and integration of predictive analysis tools for prospect pool and qualification.

Conclusion:
The Indian farmers are mainly concerned about the price of the product and, its performance. And the Escorts tractor can provide a solution for both concerns through their value-for-money proposition without sacrificing the product quality. Also, the Escorts tractor has a competitive advantage over its competitors, as it has low-cost tractors with a low maintenance cost, high performance, and high load pulling capacity. At present, Escort tractor has 12% of the market share and it has to have 15.5% of growth y-o-y. All these ensure the future growth of Escort Ltd. in India, as it has a low-cost product without sacrificing quality which is a unique selling proposition of the company.