Titan marketing in india assignment

Recognizing the importance of the customers in the business structure, companies have started effecting brand repositioning exercises on a regular basis. In the recent times, a major brand repositioning exercise has been planned by Titan Industries Ltd. in order to provide more to its customers. The company has first gone for change in logo and tagline. Then the communication strategy has been revamped to convey its new position. The present study consists of reviewing the positioning strategies of Titan watches. An analysis of repositioning strategies of Titan also forms part of the study.

The main objective of the study is to find out whether the loyal consumers of titan watches are aware of the new positioning strategies of the company and how they perceive them. Primary and secondary sources of data have been made use of in the study. The first part of the project, i. e. , analysis of brand repositioning strategies of Titan Company has been completed on the basis of secondary data. For this purpose, internet, journals, books, magazines and so on have been made use of. The second part of the project comprises of conducting a survey with the help of questionnaire.

The purpose of the movement differs with regards to what the company wants to achieve. A company might want to reach out to a larger target group, or be involved in several different positions at the market. There is also a visible relation between price and quantity aspects. When a company perceives the market as a demand curve, the purpose is to down stretch or up stretch in this curve. When moving down it is often spoken of as an expansion down wards, and when moving up and there is a need for reaching the premium segment and expand up wards. Figure 2: The principle of repositioning New Position

Price Previous Position [11] Experienced quality When striving towards a new position in the market, it is important to understand that consumer’s minds are limited. People’s minds select what to remember and it is therefore significant to convince the consumers with great arguments. The market demand changes rapidly and therefore reposition can be necessary to meet these demands, newer and stronger arguments have to be established to convince them to stay as loyal customers. As stated in the literature, repositioning is a very complicated matter and therefore there are no detailed theories or models.

Liberalization in 1992 and the removal of quantitative restrictions due to WTO has opened the doors for many foreign brands in the [16] Indian market viz. Tissot, Swatch, Omega, Rado, TAG Heuer, Rolex and many others. The import duties on watches are falling which makes the Indian market look attractive for the global majors like Casio, Swatch and Citizen. 3. 2 Indian Watch industry: Figure 3: Porter’s Five Forces Model 1. Supplier Power: HMT has its own fully integrated operation for production of its watches. Titan has its own production facilities for which it has invested roughly 120 crore rupees over the ears, the manufacturing capacity of which is 6 million units. Also there has been a rise of low cost producers in China & Taiwan which has provided an opportunity for watch makers to outsource watches at low cost, just as Titan has done to outsource the components for Dash. Due to the large supply of watch movements available, there is little supplier power in the watch market. 2. Buyer Power: [17] SUPPLIER POWER No strong suppliers Lack bargaining power Rise of China, Taiwan as low cost suppliers BARRIERS TO ENTRY Cluttered Market Lack of Differentiation DEGREE OF RIVALRY Increased number of firms

Low switching costs Strategic stakes are high THREAT OF SUBSTITUTES No close substitutes BUYER POWER Price sensitivity , Buyers’ Preferences The Indian watch buyers are very price sensitive, especially in the lower end of the market. There is still a huge untapped market in India with market penetration of only 20 units per thousand people while the world average is more than 100. At the same time there are a segment of people who are willing to pay a premium for watches with good performance and with a recognized brand name. So understanding the buyers’ preferences is ery crucial in this industry in order to gain a substantial market share. 3. Entry Barriers: The Indian watch market in the recent years has shown a dramatic increase in the number of brands available in the market due to removal of quantitative restrictions. So the new entrant has to have an offering, which can be positioned and differentiated from the other players in the market. This could be either price or functional or emotional appeal. So the prime barrier for entry, in the current context, for a new entrant is to build a brand image and price competitively. 4. Threat of Substitutes:

Connoisseur segments (above Rs. 8000) Based on user category Men’s watches Women’s watches Youth watches Kids watches Sports watches Chapter 4 – Company Profile 4. 1 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 styling, manufactured in a state-of-the-art factory at Hosur, Tamil Nadu. Leveraging its understanding of different segments in the watch market, the company launched a second 20] independent watch brand-Sonata, as a value brand to those seeking to buy functionally styled watches at affordable prices. In addition it focused on the youth with its third 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 ompany 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. . 2 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 [21] comprises several sub-brands, each of which is a leader in its segment.

Notable among them are: Titan Edge ??? The world’s slimmest 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.

These watches are generic in their simplicity and find no real competitors except HMT. Royale: “ Collection of designs that suit everyday wear”. Royale with its gold plated case and golden straps represents a formal every day watch targeted towards the employees who can’t afford multiple watches for occasions. The [26] watch includes designs from simple to dressy eveningwear switching between informal and formal looks based on the place and situation. Spectra: “ Designed for those who look beyond the ordinary”. This brand from Titan extends over wide range of prices from 900-7000. It is a classic remium 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 sports watches 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 from 800 to 7500, these watches are in direct competition with foreign brands like Swatch Irony. Casual Wear:

It is marketed as “ Incredibly eye catching…magic in gold”. With the unique combination of gold and bicolor 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 between Rs. 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.

Both the watches are exclusively designed to appeal to women more as an ornamental possession than a watch. The Silver Raga has been crafted exclusively for the sophisticated woman who believes in value-for-money and who wears silver jewellery with elan. At the beginning, when the brands were launched, they were positioned as “ Watches for all dresses” with changeable dials matching the sari color. But the proposition was viewed with skepticism and hence didn’t meet with much success. Keeping in mind Indian women’s love for jewellery, both these brands are repositioned as a perfect accessory that completes a woman’s wardrobe.

To show the aspirations of children, a young girl was shown staring at an object and, later in the frame, you see the object is a butterfly ??? the girl wants to fly. “ Kids are freer in their thinking than adults and we hope this has been portrayed,” Pandey says. Even the last frame of the ad, which has Khan dressed as a mock warrior (with an impromptu utensil serving as his helmet), was made to look like the man had made use of things lying nearby in a spontaneous way. 6. 3 New Collections and Designs Sonata’s sub-brands Sonata has launched the Yuva 2008 collection, a series of colourful watches. They are vailable in both casual and formal styles to complement the young, new look for college or office wear. The collection has watches for both men and women at price s starting at Rs 645. They are available in both gold and steel looks, with both metal and leather straps. [33] Sonata, the watch brand from the Tatas, launched the Super Fibre, targeted at the sub-Rs 500 market in urban, semi-urban and rural India. The watches have been designed primarily for youth in the 16-30 age group, and will be available in a price range of Rs 275 to Rs 550. The tag line for this sub-brand is ‘ Super Strong, Super Style. ‘

The company announced 360-degree marketing campaign for the new offerings. It also unveiled its TV commercial featuring Indian ODI captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, “ in a brand new avatar”. Titan Raga ??? Hazel Collection Titan Raga has launched the Hazel collection, inspired by the hues of nature. Priced between Rs 2, 195 and Rs 4, 000, this range comprises five styles with versions in gold, steel and bi-metal finish. They are available as bracelets and kadas with textured or patterned look and mother-of-pearl dials. Octane Titan has launched the Octane collection of chronograph, multifunction and etrograde watches for the urban man. The range is described as blending style and technology. The collection has over 35 styles and is priced between Rs. 5, 000 and Rs 7, 500. Nebula Celeste It is a limited edition collection of jewellery timepieces. They are crafted in 18k white and yellow gold. Prices range from Rs 6 lakh to Rs 12 lakhs. Raga Crystals Titan Industries Ltd has unveiled its new Raga Crystals collection of watches in Kerala. The two new watches, called Venus and Fairy Dust, are available in yellow metal and bi-metal versions. Venus is priced at Rs 4, 450 and Fairy Dust at Rs 4, 750.

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. Figure 4: Titan sub-brands possessed by respondents [37] 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: 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. Figure 5: Period of Titan watch’s use [38] 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. Table 1: Reasons for brand preference Reasons No. of respondents ( out of total 50)

Attractive designs 39 Reasonable Price 7 Brand image 22 Good quality 25 Figure 6: Reasons for brand preference [39] Recall of Titan’s tagline Titan’s tagline, before brand repositioning exercise has been undertaken, was “ What’s your style”. This tagline was adopted during first rebranding exercise in 2004. The respondents were asked to indicate whether they remember the tagline in dichotomous way, i. e. , as “ yes” or “ no”. It was found that only 22% of the respondents were able to recall the tagline and the remaining 78% answered in negative. Figure 7: Recall of Titan’s original tagline 40] 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: Table 2: Major Advertisement media Figure 8: Major advertisement media [41] Types of media No. of respondents TV 46 Magazines 25