Titan the country‘s largest watchmaker and the world‘s sixth largest brand manufacturer of watches.

Titan
previously targeted the upper class and the mid-segment with a range of models such as Edge, Raga, Nebula,
Steel, Classique, Royale, Dash and Fast Track for its consumers. Titan also entered the lower segment with its
Sonata brand. Titan has an effective and strong after sales service network with a distribution chain of 120 watch
stores, 56 jewellery boutiques and 65 distributors handling 6000 dealers countrywide. However, the watch market
is dynamic with cut throat competition, presence of multiple brands, low growth rates, high manufacturing costs
and low capacity utilisation. The total demand for watches in India is estimated to be about 25 million pieces
every year, out of which the organised sector supplies around 11 million. Low growth rates and availability of a
variety of brands have intensified competition. Imported watches and foreign brands too are slowly catching up to
set up exclusive showrooms, though in very small numbers. Their geographical presence is restricted to the
metros. Given this competition, how can Titan expand its market?
(a) Titan should count on its strong distribution network to tap the potential of the rural market
(b) Titan should manufacture new models of watches to counter the competition
(c) Focus more on the jewelry market selling watches that work as decorative jewellery
(d) Enter the communications industry
(e) Titan should reformulate its strategies for the urban market.

Answer

A As only one-fourth of the population owns a watch, there is huge untapped potential. How much
< TOP >
of this will actually turn into demand depends entirely on the creative capabilities of the various
companies. Most brands such as Titan and Timex currently focus on the urban markets. Only
HMT has a presence in rural segment. Its hand-wound, or non-automatic, watches are still
popular in the rural areas. None of the other brands has been able to penetrate this market. Titan
can penetrate this untapped rural potential market with the help of its strong sales service
network. Therefore option (a) is the correct answer.

Friday, July 9, 1999

Dash! Titan targets kids with trendy Rs 250-395 watches 

Mumbai, July 8: Titan Industries has made a serious attempt to change its `elegant' and `old'
image with the launch of a new children's watch brand called `Dash!'.

The brand is targeted at children in the age group of 6 and 14 years and is priced in the range of
Rs 250 to Rs 395.

The company aims to achieve volumes of around one million units from Dash! in a couple of
years, according to Titan Industries senior vice-president (sales & marketing) Bhaskar Bhat.

The launch is backed by an advertising campaign by Ammirati Puris Lintas which will kick off
in August 1999. Subsequently, the company plans to go in for various marketing promos like tie-
ups with other established children brands and schools, etc.
``We want to establish the brand in the Indian market before we go in for promotional tie-ups
with other brands,'' says Bhat. However, this is not the first time a watch maker is launching a
kid's watch in India.

In the past, HMT (with a brand called Zap) and Timex (Gimmick) have come up with watchesfor
children. These attempts, however, did not yield major results in the absence of mega advertising
promotions, industry observers point out.

``But, going by past experiences of other watch brands launched for children, Titan has made a
serious attempt to tap this unpenetrated segment which is understood to be as large as 35 million
urban children. A launch in such a segment requires adequate advertising and marketing
investments to establish the brand,'' says Bhat.

The only other competition that Titan's `Dash!' faces is the grey market and the smuggled goods
market.

However, the targeted market size of 35 million urban kids is across all strata of society. Says
Titan Industries marketing controller (watches) CK Venkataraman: ``The research conducted
revealed that 50 per cent of the targeted urban population has the purchasing power for a watch.
Thus, even if we take 50 per cent of the 35 million urban children, the volumes are immense.''

The company expects sales of Dash! to largely come from thegifting route and by tapping a
child's desire for direct ownership. ``Since `Dash!' is a kids brand, the company is required to
constantly innovate in terms of new products, colours, schemes, designs, etc. Titan would thus
bring out various products in the future,'' said Bhat.

`Dash!' has been launched in eight cities and will be available in exclusive Titan showrooms. In
addition to this, the company plans to make the brand available in select book stores and toy
shops frequented by children. The corner where Dash! has been displayed in a Titan showroom
have been specially designed to attract children. For instance, the peppy, fashionable and trendy
watches in vivid colours are exhibited on attractive tables which match the height of a 6-10 year
old child.

Titan is part of the Tata Group, and manufactures jewellery under the brand `Tanishq' and
clocks, apart from watches. Titan's products are sold in over 1,400 cities in India through 5,500
retail outlets across the country. Of these, 108 are exclusiveTitan stores, and 97 are Time Zone
outlets.

Other brands in Titan watches includes the Sonata range of watches. Titan commands market
leadership with a share of 58 per cent in the 10 million unit volume Indian watch market. ``Our
share has increased over the last two years on the back of launches in the lower end of the market
like the Sonata range,'' said Bhat.

Titan also has a presence in international markets like London, Dubai and Singapore through
sales offices in these countries. It has also penetrated markets like Europe, Asia-Pacific and the
Middle East.
...And woos youth by dropping Fast-Track's entry price

Titan Industries plans to lower the entry price level of the casual `Fast-Track' watches which are
targeted at teenagers, to popularise these watches. The company is planning to introduce a
number of products under `Fast-Track' by introducing a new entry price of Rs 600 instead of the
earlier level of Rs 850.

``While `Fast-Track' watches are targeted at teenagers from theage-group of 18 years onwards,
the lowering of the entry price to Rs 600 is likely to attract teenagers in the age group of 14 to 18
years to purchase these watches,'' Titan Industries senior vice-president (sales & marketing)
Bhaskar Bhat told The Financial Express. The strategy is expected to stoke volumes growth for
Titan, said an analyst.

A new advertising campaign to this effect will be launched around September to announce the
launch of the new range in Fast-Track. The brand, which comprises metallic casual-wear
watches, was launched in August last year. Fast-Track volumes in ten months have touched
80,000-85,000 units, which has surpassed the targeted break-even level of 50,000 units, said
Bhat. He said, that Fast-Track (positioned as `Cool watches from Titan') will also witness new
launches in chromographic watches at lower prices. Chromographic watches otherwise
command a price of Rs 7,500 at the high-end.

http://www.expressindia.com/news/fe/daily/19990709/fle09024.html

16th august,2009

Mechanical technology was the norm - Quartz had not really taken off in India. Titan
would go against that and build its line based on quartz. Accuracy would become a
selling-plank.
Styling was basic - This was a constraint imposed by the technology as well the
outlook of the manufacturers. Titan decided to make style a table-stake.
Choice was limited - You had 200 models to pick from, that was it. Titan decided to
inundate consumers with a wide choice in style, functions and price. The initial range
was 350 models.
Shops were dark, dingy and uninteresting - There was no importance given to
presentation, and therefore no attempt made at it. Titan brought in the concept of
retailing into the watch market, established a network of fine showrooms which
would later become the world's largest network of exclusive watch stores. These
stores not only helped Titan to gain leadership substantially, but also irrevocably
altered the retail landscape of the watch market through a demonstration effect on
the traditional dealers.
Advertising was expenditure - Titan saw this as a vital investment. Right from Day 1,
Titan invested significantly in advertising and in that process created a set of
memorable and effective properties over the years.
Today, in early 21st century India, it is taken for granted that a watch is a fashion
accessory. Titan dominates the market, with a 60% share of the organised sector
market (the total market, including the unorganised sector, is estimated at around 42
million units). Titan's quality record is impressive, its sales and service network is
wide and deep, and its network of exclusive showrooms, The World of Titan, is one of
the most prestigious and visible retail brands in the country, offering world-class
levels of shopping comfort and customer service.
What is truly amazing about Titan is the sheer scale of its offering and the consequent
choice it offers to multiple segments across taste, age and economic background.
Titan saw this approach as the foundation of its leadership strategy in the early days.
Even the early range had distinct offerings for different requirements: formal watches
(gold plated cases with fine leather straps) for the executive, dress watches (gold
plated cases with ornamental gold plated bracelets) for those with a preference for
jewellery, rugged watches (all steel watches with a skew to functionality) for those
whose usage demanded a certain durability.
Titan has built on this principle over the last 15 years, almost year after year:
In 1989, it was Aqura, the trendy range for the youth, colourful, smart and affordable
plastic watches for the youth: The other side of Titan for the other side of you.
In 1992, it was Raga, the ethnic range, with striking symbolism from ethnic India, for
the sophisticated India woman who appreciated such things.
In 1993, it was Insignia, very distinctive and international-looking top-end watches,
for those seeking exclusivity and status.
In 1994, it was psi 2000, rugged, sporty and very masculine watches with serious
sports features (200-m mater resistance, high precision chronographs) for those with
the penchant for adventure.
In 1996, it was Dash, the cute and colourful range for kids.
In 1997, it was Sonata, the affordable, good quality range for the budget-conscious.
In 1998, it was Fastrack, the cool, trendy, funky range for the young and young-at-
heart.
In 1999, it was Nebula, the sold gold and diamond-studded range of luxury watches
for those affluent people to whom gold is a precious acquisition.
In 2001, it was Steel, the smart and contemporary collection for the young 21st
century executive.
And in 2008, the brand has collections like the Octane, Diva, WWF and Zoop - each of
them unique and fascinating.
The underpinning of this entire market development and segmentation is Innovation.
Titan has kept innovation core to its strategy, realising fully that the only way to
sustain the fashion accessory perception is by continuously coming out with
collections that make the current ones somewhat dated, thereby creating a certain
discomfort in the consumers' mind, which leads to another purchase. This impact has
shown up in every one of the collections spoken of earlier. They were fresh and
distinctive, unlike what consumers had seen before, and thus created curiosity, walk-
ins and sales.
A stellar example of Titan's Innovation is Edge, the slimmest watch in the universe.
Titan's R & D talent created a wafer-thin quartz movement, a mere 1.15mm thin, over
4 years of development work. The immensely talented Design team collaborated with
the Manufacturing group to create Edge, a 3.5-mm watch, a gem of elegance, with
water-resistance to boot! Edge was launched in India early 2002 to tremendous
market acclaim and sales success. It is a design and technological marvel, which justly
received the Best Design Award in the Lifestyle Product Category in the first annual
design contest organised by Business World and NID.
Titan also chose to invest heavily into showcasing all this innovation to the consumer
through advertising. From Day 1, the 'catalogue" advertising of Titan became its
trademark as it was used regularly and effectively to merchandise new models. The
catalogue ads also helped customers to shop off the page and almost decide which
model they wanted to pick. Retailers also became used to seeing customers walking
into shops with newspaper "cuttings", asking for the models shown there. This
approach continues to this day, with mostly the same effect.
In the early nineties, Titan chose to develop the "Gifting" market. Watches had always
been favourite things to gift, and Titan had benefited from that. Titan was convinced
that there lay a greater potential in that segment. A set of 3 films were developed in
1991 around 3 relationships, where the gifting of a Titan culminated in a moving
personal moment and a strengthening of the bond between the protagonists. These
films became a big hit and created a genre of advertising films which lasted a good 8
years. During those years, a series of films involving a variety of characters (father,
daughter, teacher, boyfriend, ex-boyfriend, thief!) and with local flavour (for Onam
in Kerala, Puja in Bengal) were created and released. These not only helped build a
good-sized gift segment for Titan, but also became Titan's Theme Campaign, building
strong emotional values for the brand. One of the films in the series, where a man
and his younger daughter conspire to give his older daughter a Titan as a surprise gift
at her wedding, released around 1994, went on to become the most popular Titan
film ever, even voted by the viewers of Zee Television as the second most liked TV
commercial on the channel.
The most enduring part of the Titan advertising has been the music track. Chosen by
Xerxes Desai and the creative head of O & M in 1987 for its class and western vibes,
the segment from Mozart's 25th Symphony has arguably become Indian Advertising's
most memorable track (incidentally, and perhaps not coincidentally, this was the
most liked advertising track in the same Zee TV survey). Starting in 1987 in its pure
classical versions, with a single violin playing the melody, this piece has been
rendered in countless innovative versions over the years: Indian Classical, Indian Folk,
Operatic, Rock, Funk,.And has become such a powerful audio mnemonic for the
brand.
Another successful customer-facing aspect about Titan has been its stores. Organised
retailing did not exist in the late eighties. The concept of exclusive brand stores was
almost non-existent. In a pioneering effort that dramatically altered industry
standards, the World of Titan was born. Located in the newer parts of a city, with a
good frontage and layout, the showroom immediately stood out on the street and
attracted walk-ins. Once inside, you were totally impressed with the presentation.
You walked along the wall, where recessed "mood windows" showcased specific
collections in the appropriate context with the help of visuals, decorative props and
word (the place looked almost like an art gallery). You could get a better idea about
that collection through such a contextual presentation and could make up your mind
which collection was right for your requirement. Then you would walk along to the
selling area, where the entire range was displayed in style. Smart and helpful
salespeople waited on you there and helped you choose the best piece by giving you
information and suggestions. You walked away overwhelmed.
This experience now has over 255 branches and has penetrated the width and breadth
of India. Helping the brand increase sales, increase price premium, sell the more
expensive watches, improve image, keep competition at bay and keep the brand
name salient on the high streets of the country. Refurbished with a contemporary
look in 2001, this chain has become even more integral to the brand's destiny today.
Doing all this in style has earned Titan enormous goodwill and respect. Titan was
voted the Most Admired Brand (across categories) in India by consumers, in the first
such study by Brand Equity done in 2001. Titan was voted the Most Admired Consumer
Durables Marketer by industry professionals, 8 out of 9 times (the ninth time it was No
2), in A & M's annual survey done between 1992 and 1999. Titan was voted the Most
Respected Consumer Durables Company in a Business World Survey in 2003.
Consumers and professionals alike have resonated equally to Titan's successful efforts
in bringing international standards to India. And in 2008, it emerges as the 24th Most
Admired Brand in the ET Most Admired Brands survey done annually, it was also the
most admired Consumer Durable brand.
Titan has also done the seemingly impossible reverse thing: taking Indian quality to
international markets. Since starting export operations in a small scale to the Middle
East in the early nineties to exploit the resident NRI population, Titan has come a long
way. Moving into the European market in the mid-nineties and Asia Pacific in the late
nineties, Titan today sells in the UK, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Singapore, Dubai,
Malaysia, Oman, Philippines and many more countries. The customers are no longer
only NRIs. They are the Thais, the Greeks, the Arabs, the Filipinos - through a
combination of Contemporary Style, Great Quality and Great Prices, Titan has put
together an irresistible proposition for the people of these countries. With over 100
million satisfied consumers and a track record of breaking the rules, Team Titan faces
the 21st Century with a mix of passion, excitement and energy.

http://www.titanworld.com/titan_stories

16th august 2009

http://www.scribd.com/doc/8661127/Titan-The-Real-War

FASTRACK Watches

Titan entered into youth segment watches market with its sub brand christened as
Fastrack in 1998. The Company has changed the utility of watches in India from a
time device to fashion accessory. The launch of fastrack was to bring stylish, trendy
and affordable watches for young generation. It hit the market with campaign `Cool
Watches' from Titan’. Initially it came up with steel look targeting age group of 22-30
years. Next year the age bracket was reduced further to 15-25 years. Then Digital
collection was launched which was marketed as `Too Sexy for Your Wrist'. After this
fashion, collection was launched to attract more female audience. For this
communication was “Are You on It?’ With the new launch, company comes up new
communication mix to appeal to its target audience. This strategy was adopted by
company to lure new customers towards brand.

Initial two–three years the brand fastrack had shown positive growth. But in 2002-
2003 the growth was stagnant, price was a major concern as brand was targeting
youth and they don’t have so much disposable income to buy watches in the price
segment fastrack was catering to. That time company decided to target executive
class, which was a big disaster as watches didn’t possess executive looks. Therefore,
in 2005 company re-launched campaign to capture market. This was done as to
rebuild brand image that was diluted with the various experiments done previously by
the company. At that time Fastrack was marketed as India’s first youth oriented
watch brand.
Previously when titan fastrack was launched it was targeted to youth but in 2004
when company launched sunglasses their focus was diverted and fastrack’s revenue
declined. Then fastrack came into new “AVTAR”, (a new model) in which looks and
style were given more importance instead of material used in the watch. In their re-
launch, price bracket was reduced to Rs 500 – Rs 2000. Huge expenditure was spent
on advertising of brand promoting to youth. For brand building fastrack sponsored
many college festivals. This helped company in gaining popularity in youth. It also
carried out co-branding exercise with youth brand MTV. The new logo and new
watches truly presented picture of younger avatr of fastrack.

Recently company came with the campaign The ‘How Many You Have’ this was aimed
to target youth nature of seeking constant change, wants more. Then in 2008
company came up with campaign ‘Shut up and Move on’ which appealed to youngsters
of not staying committed towards one thing but ready to explore. These campaigns
showed how the youth segment is clearly targeted through these advertisements. In
this way, company is able to do proper communication to its target audience.

Youth market size of watches makes up to 70% in total of all segments. Therefore,
Fastrack is always in the process of bringing something new, stylish and innovative in
its segment .In January 2009 it came up with new Army Collection. Iin this segment 20
different styles are launched by company inspired by the grenade, tanks, the sniper
etc depicting truly Army image. The company correctly uses its communication
mix( use of TV, blogs and outdoor media) to appeal to its target base. By making its
watches more affordable, it has proved its corrective implementation of marketing
mix.

http://www.marketing-and-brands.blogspot.com/2009/02/fastrack-watches.html

16th august