Overview:

Titan Industries was established in 1984 as a joint venture between the Tata Group and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation. The company brought about a paradigm shift in the Indian watch market, offering quartz technology with international s ty l ing , manufactured in a s ta te-o f - the-ar t fac tory a t Hos ur , Tami l Nadu. Leveraging i t s understanding of different segments in the watch market, the company launched a second independent watch brand-Sonata, as a value brand to those seeking to buy functionally styled watches a t a f fordable pr ices . In addi t ion i t focused on the youth wi th i t s th ird brand –  Fastrack. It has also premium fashion watches by acquiring a license for global brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Hugo Boss, while. It has also in its portfolio its first Swiss Made watch brand – Xylys.

In 1995, the company diversified into jewellery under the brand – Tanishq to capitalize on a fragmented market operating with no brands in urban cities. In 2005, the company launched its second Jewellery brand, Gold Plus, for capitalizing on the opportunity in small towns and rural India. The company has now diversified into fashion Eyewear by launching Fastrack Eye-Gear sunglasses, as well as Prescription Eyewear. The Company leveraged its manufacturing competencies and branched into Precision Engineering Products and Machine Building from 2003.Today Titan Industries is India's leading manufacturer of watches and jewellery employing 3,800 people. Titan and Tanishq are among the most admired brands in their categories.

Products:

The company manufactures over 8 million watches per annum and has a customer base of over 80 million. It has manufacturing and assembly operations at Hosur, Dehradun, Roorkee and Baddi in Himachal Pradesh and an ECB plant in Goa. Its main products are:

Watches: Currently manufactures four main watch brands viz.Titan for the premium segment, Fastrack – focused on the youth and trendy fashion space, Sonata for the mass market and Xylys for the premium market . The Titan brand architecture comprises several sub-brands , each of which i s a leader in i t s segment . Notable among them are: Titan Edge– The world 's s l immest watch which stands for the  philosophy of "less is more"; Titan Raga – the feminine and sensuous accessory for today's woman, Nebula - crafted in solid gold and precious stones and several other collections like Wall Street, Heritage, Regalia, Octane, Orion, Diva, Zoop, WWF and the Aviator series, all of which form a part of the Titan wardrobe. Sonata is today India's largest watch selling brand and is priced between Rs 295/- and Rs 1200/-. The company's first Swiss Made watch – Xylys is for the hi-end connoisseur and new age achiever. It also markets Tommy Hilfiger watches under a licensing arrangement and is introducing Hugo Boss. Today, the Titan portfolio has about 65% of the domestic market share in the organized watch market.

Jewellery: Tanishq i s India 's largest and fastest growing jewel lery brand with a  premium range of gold jewellery studded with diamonds or coloured gems and a wide range in 22kt pure gold. Platinum jewellery is also a part of the product range Tanishq is one of India's largest speciality retailers and is transforming the jewellery market in India 102 boutiques in 72 c i t ies across the country . ‘Gold Plus ' i s the recent retai l o f fer ing for the mass market with p lain gold jewel lery se l l ing through 19 stores in 19 towns. The jewellery division has its own design studio.

Eye wear: Titan Eye+ is currently on a pilot mode with 5 stores in 2 cities and has sunglasses under Fastrack brand and prescr ipt ion eyewear consist ing of Frames , Lenses, Sunglasses, Accessories and Contact Lenses of in-house brands and other premium brands.

Precision Engineering: The Company’s Precision Engineering Division supplies precision components to the avionics and the automotive industry. It also manufactures dashboard clocks as OEM to car m a n u f a c t u r e r s i n E u r o p e a n d A m e r i c a . T h e d i v i s i o n a l s o p r o v i d e s f u l l y i n t e g r a t e d Automation solutions.

Brand Positioning

Since its introduction, Titan has been positioned as a premium brand, providing high quality products. With its numerous sub-brands catering to different segments, the challenge that Titan faces is to create a strong brand image. It follows different positioning strategies, these strategies can also be analysed as given below:

Attribute Positioning:  When the company launched its products, it was the first to bring quartz watches to the Indian market. The company successfully leveraged this to penetrate the market and gain a market share. Raga, Classique and Regalia come under this strategy. Classique has been positioned as elegant corporate wear that leaves a quiet, but definite impression and fusion of function and sophistication. Power dressing now has a new weapon! As Magic in gold and bicolour look , the 'Regal ia ' range represents the essence of dress-wear . Raga has been differentiated and positioned as exclusive watches for women. The Raga and Silver Raga collection is elegant, delicate and feminine with each piece being truly unique.

User Positioning:  Titan caters to several user groups- children (the Dash), sportspersons and adventurers (PSI4000 and Fastrack range). The Fastrack range is seen as being contemporary, sturdy and reliable. The advertising, packaging and merchandising of this range is young, vibrant and ‘cool’ (the ad line says “Cool watches by Titan”).

Competitor Positioning:  With the entry of several foreign watchmakers into the market, Titan had to counter  the threat. Most of the entrants are catering to the upper end of the market- Omega, Tissot, and Cartier etc. Titan already had the Tanishq brand in this segment. However, it has tried to reposition this brand by increasing the price range to encourage more customers.

Price Positioning: In the overseas market, especially in Europe where it is competing with Swiss and Japanese watches, it is positioning itself as ‘value- for- money’: reasonably priced (less than Swiss watches and higher than Japanese), attractively styled and of good quality. In Indian market, Sonata is a perfect example of Price positioning, titan came up with this segment when it was facing heavy competition from lower end segment.

Market Segmentation

Men’s segment:

With Titan positioning its range of watches as a life-style, the Indian market started viewing watch more as a complement to dress than just a time showing machine. They are also realising that, unlike other forms of art that are meant to be admired, high-end jewellery watches have that added bonus: practical luxury with a function other than beauty. Watches have joined the list of tie, deodorant and shoes to represent the occasion and flaunt your status.

Nebula:

Marketed as the “ Jewel lery col lect ion from Titan” , Nebula i s targeted towards affluent men who consider wearing gold jewellery a symbol of status. Magical blend of most coveted of metals, Gold and craftsmanship; Nebula is more of a connoisseur watch with the lowest pr ice model at Rs .5500. I t i s marketed as a “watch for d iscerning indiv idual”  positioned as a gold jewel.

Regalia:

“Incredibly eye-catching…. magic in gold”.

The watch uses the unique combination of gold and bicolour looks representing the essence of dress-wear. In India, gold-look is associated with status but at the same time, the silver-look is the

fashion of the day in international watches. With the combination of both, this watch is targeted towards affluent businessmen. The elegant looks and colours make it a strong competitor to the foreign brands like the Tissot, Piaget and Rado.

This i s a lso marketed as a watch for g i f t “Special Watch for special occas ion” ,  positioning this as a costly gift.

Insignia:

‘The World Watch from Titan.’ The watch with fascinating designs and precision engineering was targeted towards the European markets. The complexity of this watch is 10 times more than a regular titan watch. Though it didn’t meet with much of a success in Europe, this tag line and keyword International” are used to position this watch as a world-class watch for international traveller with European tastes.

Classique:

“Power dressing now has a new weapon!”

“Timeless elegance captured on the wrist.”

Classique' is marketed as a fusion of function and sophistication.

Classique with its looks fits the formal corporate image and is positioned as a watch for corporate employees. This also reinforces the importance of watch along with the dress worn. These watches are generic in their simplicity and find no real competitors except HMT.

Spectra:

“Designed for those who look beyond the ordinary”. This brand from Titan extends over wide range of pr ices from 900-7000. I t i s a classic premium watch with style, which boasts of combining the sturdiness of steel with richness of gold. The positioning of the watch is not very clear as it is targeted towards the salary earners

with its lower price point models and appealing models for the corporate executives at the higher end.

Sports Watches:

In the Indian scenario the sport awareness is not quite there. And the market is not mature enough that consumers buy special watches for sporting except in the super-premium and segments above that. A sports watch in the mind of an average Indian is a polyamide watch with stopwatch and trendy look. So there is no clear distinction between sport swatches and casual watches. But in the available market Timex, Casio, and Titan are major players and after the lifting of QR restrictions, world famous Tag- Heur has also entered India but in the Connoisseur segment of sports watches.

PSI2000:

Titan has introduced a range of contemporary Precision Sports watches. The brand is marketed as tough, outdoor, adventure brand. (Psychographically segmented) Ranging from800 to 7500, these watches are in direct competition with foreign brands like Swatch Irony.

Casual Wear:

The segment of watches that has a variety of brands and models to appeal to the youth and mentally young people is casual wear. The watches in this segment are mainly sporty watches, which are unconventional and typically symbolize the attitudes of younger generation.

Titan Fast Track:

“Cool watches from Titan”. The target audience for this watch, in the 20-35 age groups include working adults and postgraduate students of both sexes in metros and mini metros. The Fast Track user, in terms of attitude is one who wears an informal dress, wears branded jeans, shirts, sunglasses and branded informal shoes. The Fast Track personality is that of a young, energetic, achievement oriented person, who seeks to express his or her individuality by

braking free from constraints of formal environment, without being a rebel. Built around the Cool concept, this watch from Titan has virtually very few competitors because no one offers the feature combination and price but Casio (in digital range) and Espirit and Swatch (in the analog range) can be considered as competitors feature-wise.

Technology Watches:

Wrist Watches have changed a lot from the inception- a time showing convenience machine to a status symbol. But the underlying concept remained unchanged, convenience. Stretching this concept a bit with the development of technology are the technology watches available in the market. Watch for time, status has in the new technology era is looked for convenience of carrying data. In to the competitive market with people willing to pay a premium for that advantage, a good number of brands have ventured.

Women’s segment

Dress Wear

Titan has chiefly three brands in this category.

Nebula (6000-65000)-

“The Jeweller’s Collection” Nebula is a precious jewellery watch from Titan. It is marketed as ‘a magical blend of most coveted of metals and engineering excellence’. The Nebula range of watches is positioned as objects of ornamentation. A 21 carat gold watch, studded with gems it is targeted at the upper most end of the market in competition with brands such as Rolex and Cartier.

Regalia

Regalia range is positioned as “Essence of dress wear”. It is marketed as “Incredibly eye catching…magic in gold”. With the unique combination of gold and bicolour looks and sleek case, Regalia is targeted towards middle-aged women who consider watch

to be a status symbol and also representing their delicacy. It is available in many price points betweenRs.1800 onwards.

Raga and the Silver Raga

Raga and the Silver Raga collection are positioned as “Ethnic Indian styling for the sophisticated woman”. Each piece is truly unique and represents elegance, delicacy and feminine. The designs and the bracelets represent traditional Indian ornaments as well as contemporary style.

Fastrack

The woman's collection presents the all-new international 'Frosted' look, which is trendy and chic. The ad line: ‘Fastrack- ‘Cool watches from Titan’ aims at building the brand around the ‘cool ‘concept. Fastrack is targeted at a personality that is young, energetic, achievement-oriented, who seeks to express her individuality by breaking free from constraints imposed by formal environments, without being a rebel. The positioning of Fastrack for men and women is almost the same.

New logo and tagline - “Be More” Beyond style

Now, Titan wants to move from style statements to personality statements. According to Harish Bhat, chief operating officer, watches, Titan Industries, a watch ought to denote the wearer’s mood and personality. “With the explosion of options in a person’s life, our core consumer is changing. And to keep up with them, Titan has evolved too,” he says .On the adoption of ‘Be More’, Bhat says that that statement is supposed to denote the aspirations of consumers to make more of their lives and be whatever they want to be. “The watch allows for such imaginative travels,” he says. Titan’s agency, Ogilvy India, has devised a campaign featuring Aamir Khan that encourages people to find a new strand of their personality every day. It all started with a logo change a few months ago (the same font in a red and white combination), followed by a campaign rolled out now. The ad film opens on a shot of Aamir Khan sitting alone on a roller coaster, statin, ‘Be born every day’. Next, he is seen chasing the shadow of an aircraft on a beach, then, sitting beside a truck driver, in the middle of nowhere, with a trail of chassis trucks behind him. Here, he asks the viewers to try the adventure of getting off at an unknown station, of exploring unknown lands .

Consumer Awareness

It was found that around 72% of the consumers in the age group of 20-30 years possess Fastrack brand, 14% Sonata, 6% Raga, 4% Nebula and only 2% own WWF and Edge

Period of use

The respondents were asked to mention since how long they have been brand loyal to Titan. This was an open ended question and hence various responses were received. The minimum period of use was set as one year, as mentioned earlier, while the maximum period of use was determined. For convenience, the different responses are categorized into three: 1 year – 4years, 4years – 7years and 7years – 10years.64% of the respondents fall into first category, i.e., they are using Titan watch in the range of one to four years. 24% respondents are in second category and the rest 12 % are using it for more than seven years.

Reasons for brand loyalty

The respondents were asked to select the reasons from the options given for their preference for Titan watches. For this question, multi-responses were received from the respondents.

Reason % of RespondentAttractive design 78%Reasonable price 14%

Brand image 44%Good quality 50%

Titan’s advertisements

Titan advertises its watches in almost all media vehicles. The advertisements can be seen in TV, magazines, newspaper, hoardings, billboards, radio and so on. All the 50 respondents have seen the advertisements of Titan watches in various media. This was a multi-response question and the options given to select were restricted to TV, magazines, newspapers, hoardings and radio. The findings of the survey have been summarized in a table as follows:

Media No. of respondents (as %)TV 82%

Magazine 50%Newspaper 72%Hoardings 30%Facebook 40%

TV Magazine Newspaper Hoardings0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

Conclusion

The suggestions to improve consumer awareness about brand repositioning strategy of Titan are as follows:

• To increase its visibility, Titan Company can sponsor events similar to fashion shows in which all latest designs launched are displayed. This would have multiplier effect as the latest designs launched by the company get noticed by different segments of the customers in varied ways.

• Tie –up with FM radio channels for reminder advertisements and informing customers about various sales promotion offers from time-to-time.

• Invest more in R&D as customer expectations are changing rapidly. Though Titan has got more product collections, it should focus on introducing more varieties in already existing product collections. In other words, having a limited but more depth in product collections would be more advantageous.

• Introduce exclusive collection for working women which is more contemporary and complements both traditional and western wear.

• Majority of the population in India live in rural areas. So, showrooms should be set up at places nearer to them. Introduce cheaper and rough use watches for this segment.

• After sales service has to be improved. That is, the process of servicing and repairing of watches should be made faster. This can be done by ensuring the spare parts availability and training all sales personnel in Titan showrooms to undertake these tasks.

• Tie up with international watch brands and make them available locally.

• Make use of internet to spread awareness among consumers about the brand.

Kallol Kumar Sarkar

2011096

Sec- B

Marketing Management –II

Institute of Management Technology, Nagpur

TITAN