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Titan, a joint venture between Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) and
the renowned Indian business group Tatas, entered the watch market in 1984. Titan changed
the watch market in India completely by making quartz watch the centerpiece of its strategy.
Titan Company is the unquestioned leader in Indian Watch Industry. Titan is one of the most
powerful brands in the Indian market, scoring very high on brand awareness, brand image
and brand preference. Over the twelve year period of its existence as a manufacturer, Titan
has added considerably both to capacity and to capability. It has a highly integrated plant,
making virtually all the parts that go into a watch. Titan is today the sixth-largest
"manufacturer-brand" in the world, after Casio, Citizen, Seiko, Swatch and Timex of
America. ˜





 


Since its inception, Titan decided that it would be the shaper of the watch industry and not an
adapter. They created competitive advantage through differentiation. They first concentrated
on technological leadership. The Tatas took two decisions they will manufacture only quartz
(analog and digital) and not mechanicals, and they would set up state-of-the-art plant to
manufacture watches in a wide variety of designs and prices. HMT and local players had
always looked at the functional utility of the watch. Titan was first in India to introduce the
style concept. They projected the watch as a fashion accessory. They clearly identified that
their main competitor was not HMT, but the gray market. A firm differentiates itself from its
competitors if it can be unique at something that is valuable to the buyer beyond simply
offering low price. Differentiation allows a firm to command a premium price, to sell more of
its products at the same price, or to gain equivalent benefits such as greater buyer loyalty.
Differentiation leads to a superior performance if the price premium achieved exceeds any
added costs of being unique. At Titan the products were developed in such a way so as to
enhance quality and features to increase buyer value. This was the perfect example of
differentiation through technological leadership and product technological change. In the
initial years Titan chose to concentrate on the higher end of the market which was responsive
to the style element of the watch. Also this segment of the market was relatively price
inelastic. This was done so as to build the brand image of Titan as manufacturer of good
quality stylish watches. Over the years the Titan brand and its signature tune Mozzart¶s Fifth
Symphony has become one of the most recognised in Indian consumer durable goods
 segment. Company has shifted its growth strategy from adding to equipment and manpower
to one of obtaining increased production through innovative ideas and greater operating
efficiency by adopting global best practices. It has come up with two priorities
~
The first priority has been to resolutely drive down unit costs through product and process
modifications and aggressive sourcing.
~
The second priority has been to boost asset productivity - producing more with less: less of
men, materials, machines and time - and thereby securing the twin benefits of higher output
and lower costs.

Company sold 4.76 million watches in the domestic market as against 3.97 million in the
previous year. Growth came mainly from improved market penetration and from the newly
introduced Sonata brand (now Under TATA name), which now includes over 400 models at
prices which start from Rs350. Company has recently developed a new focus on several
market segments with large potential: women, youth, children, sportsmen, the budget-
conscious and, of course, the big spenders. A systematic programme of launching these has
already commenced and highlights of the year included the relaunch of Fastrack and Raga.
The current year has seen the launch of the children's range, Dash. A new, attractively
priced, solid gold line, Nebula, is also being rolled out. The Company now has 112 exclusive
Titan Showrooms called 'The World of Titan' across 69 towns and a chain of 101 Time Zone
outlets covering 59 towns in addition to being present in over 5545 dealer outlets in 1470
towns across the country.




Titan launched totally a new product, quartz analog watch was an entirely new product for
India in 1987. Titan¶s marketing strategy was initially built around five features:
~
A product of international quality;
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Indian designs;
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Competitive prices;
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An intensive advertising and promotion campaign; and
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Specialized retail shops to control the presentation, since the general quality of
watch merchandising in India was low.
This ambitious marketing program was intended to position Titan watches as high-quality,
fashionable timepieces, available in clean and comfortable surroundings, priced higher than
other watches then on the market but not beyond the reach of millions of potential purchasers.
It was not a program, therefore, that would place Titan watches in direct competition with,
say, mechanical watches from HMT. The marketing program would introduce to India the
type of promotional effort familiar in most developed countries. In order to be successful,
however, all facets of the program had to come together: attractive designs, high-quality
products, sufficient inventories, a logistical support system and, a well-timed promotional
campaign. Accomplishing these multiple tasks in a timely way was a monumental
undertaking for a new, untested company.





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 from Titan (Now sold under TATA) aims at the mass market and advertises itself as
"a Titan watch at low price". Sonata sold an estimated 0.8 million pieces (1998-99) within
four years of its launch. It is probably the largest selling sub brand from Titan. Titan entered
the watch market as a premium watch but competition from the unorganized sector and low
priced options from HMT forced Titan to introduce Sonata. Sonata was so successful that it
cannibalized the brand from the extension¶s low price connotation.
Titan's !, a rugged steel watch starts at the low end of the price spectrum but offers
high price versions as well. It is reportedly selling 1.0 million pieces per year because of the
constant upgradation in its models.
It is difficult to categorize Titan's 
"# as premium or popular.
Though they have a premium image they are available at prices less than Rs.1000. Regalia
(estimated sales - 0.2 million units) is at the higher end with dress watches for special
occasions. The Royale range (estimated sales - 0.6 million watches) caters to the gift
segment. There is also Royale Crown in the upper end of the Royale range. Classique is an
office wears accessory that is gold-plated and leather strapped (estimated sales - 1 million
units). Classique watches are targeted at the older, male segment of the market, and profess
timeless elegance through a combination of fine leather straps, clean classic dials and sleek
cases, thus making it, " 


  ." Classique is the embodiment of
everything that is everlasting yet contemporary. These watches tend to be generic in their
simplicity, and find no real competitors, except HMT. These watches are priced between Rs
550 to Rs 3000. Though there are very high priced watches in the above three ranges it is the
relatively low-priced ones that sell. They all target the upper middle class men and women in
their thirties. Royale, Classique and Regalia are the watches that gave Titan the popularity
and the prestige it enjoys.
The  range in this price band is a well-designed bimetal watch ("stylishness of gold
and ruggedness of steel"). It sold just 70,000 units in 1997-98. Titan Industries launched
(September, 2001) its range of watches in steel, targeted at urban men and women in the age
group of 25-35 years. The Titan Steel collection has a range of bracelet and leather strap
watches for both men and women priced between Rs 1,250 and Rs 6,000. The range will be
retailed through World of Titan, Time Zone and other retail outlets. The launch of the steel
watches, available in 90 designs, will be followed by an aggressive marketing campaign.
Titan's c #range initially targeted the European market with limited success. In India
also Tanishq faced resistance because Indian women do not treat watches as jewelry.
The company is exploring the possibility of filling up the gap in the super premium segment.
At present only Swiss brands have a presence in this niche. TIL, however, has its  
range for both men and women priced between Rs 6,000 and Rs 32,000. The new range is
expected to higher price than the Nebula range. In fact the company's focus would be on
niche segments to grow the market. By planning to launch a brand in the super premium
category, Titan perhaps hopes to be present across all categories.
Titan's  is an interesting product concept that offered to give dials that match with
designs on saris. This promise was unrealistic and Raga flopped (estimated sales - 20,000
units). Raga is now being launched in more mellow colors and its positioning changed. Raga
silver watch range also did not fare well because Indian dials.
Titan Industries launched its $ range of watches for women (For Men It is already
present). The ladies watches are available in different finishes frosted, polished and satin and
come in varied geometric shapes with trendy leather straps and classy metal bracelets. The
watches retail from Rs 995 to Rs 1,950 and are attractively priced. The watches which have
been designed at Titan's creative studio is the outcome of research that has highlighted the
need for a watch that is fashionable, bold, unconventional and designed to accessories
western wear. A collection of watches with contemporary styles those are young and
distinctive. Designs that go from the relaxed and informal to the definitely sporty. The
woman's collection presents the all-new international 'Frosted' look, which is trendy and chic.
The Fastrack collection has elements like cool mesh straps and features that include backlight
and dual time. Also presenting a range of fashion digitals in contemporary wrist hugging
cases with oversized displays and features that include countdown timers, chronographs, lap
timers, hourly chime, alarm and Hi-light glow.
 is Titan¶s reply to Gimmix and Zap. Dash is available in 3 new collections for kids -
Popeye, Digital and Lumibrite. Titan is the sole licensee of Popeye in India and this range is
priced between Rs 350 and Rs 395. Giving Popeye of the spinach-eating fame the additional
responsibility of keeping time, the Popeye brand of watches come in 6 different designs. The
Digital range in a collection of 10 digital watches has features like El-light compass and
Velcro straps for the sporty and is priced between Rs 425 and Rs 495. And Lumibrite, is a
glow watch that comes at Rs 325. The company has also brought out a collection of five
watches for the girls, priced at Rs 295.

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Titan entered the watch market as a premium watch. But the unorganized sector and low
priced options from HMT gave Titan serious competition. The unorganized sector grew very
fast ² almost 55% of the demand in the total market size of 20 million watches was being
met by the unorganised sector. With the import duty reduced to 25% (earlier 50%) and with
the import license for watch movement being easy to obtain, many smalltime players cropped
up. These small players offered competition to Titan on the price front. Thus Titan launched
low priced segment Sonata. Sonata was so successful that it cannibalized the sales of all Titan
watches across the board. Titan consequently is wary of Sonata diluting its premium image.
Even if we consider sonata as separate from Titan then it was second to titan in terms of
turnover, leaving behind Timex and HMT. Therefore Titan planed to drop its name and leave
the brand as Sonata under TATA thereby distancing the parent brand from the extension¶s
low price association.
Another problem for Titan can be reflected in terms of VP marketing¶s concern:
"For us, the main concern was: Does the sum of all our communication for Raga, Classique
and Regalia add up to Titan? We felt it didn't besides; building each of them as separate
brands is a very expensive proposition. So, instead of a multi - brand strategy here, we're
going to unveil a single-brand one.
Titan has been facing a dilemma that whether it should market these brands as independent
sub-brands or not, but it because of the high costs carried on with status quo but with more
emphasis on segments.
It is also putting in place a strategy to tap the rural market rigorously. Titan is currently in test
market in rural Andhra Pradesh. While has the product and the brand for this market in the
form of 'Sonata', and reach in terms of distribution, but in terms of Titan they don't have the
communication. Mistake companies generally make in approaching the rural market is to see
as one large lump, while in reality the market is very segmented and distinct.
Titan has been the first one to build upon style, but in terms of marketing if we consider
Classique or any other brand it was not targeting any particular segment initially with a focus,
whether it was the youngsters or the Children. Thus there was a need to foray into these
already present segments.


 


 
Titan is more a marketer than a manufacturer. The strategy has theoretical backing in the
context that products reach parity and people gain enough money to satisfy more than their
basic needs, the most prized assets start shifting from manufacturing know-how and factory
machines towards the consumer relationship section of the chain. This puts the emphasis on
need identifying, product designing and brand communication skills, with which there's
greater scope to stand apart. Titan has already made some admirable breakthroughs in this
brand-building area. As a brand, Titan sought ownership of the 'style' portion of the target
consumer's mind which was fine at the upper-end, but lacked direction towards huge price-
sensitive segment. Also the Mid-priced zone had been less exciting HMT and Maxima have
been crawling along, while Timex was recovering. But as all branded players have
discovered, the real action is at the voluminous lower end ± where the unorganized-sector and
grey-market players have been having a blast. The answer from Titan came was 
'

c (#)*+,

-'.
Titan Industries Ltd has posted an increased sales turnover during the third quarter of the
fiscal by 40 per cent from Rs 105.85 crore to Rs 147.97 crore in the current year while the
company's profit after tax has gone up by 28 per cent from Rs 1.37 crore to Rs 1.96 crore
During the nine month period, Titan's watch sales rose from 31.38 lakh pieces to 36.90 lakh
units marking a growth of 18 per cent, led by brands like Regalia, Raga, Fastrack, Sonata
(plastic) and its newly launched Dash labels
˜

 


The retail network in this segment proved to be a formidable barrier to competition. Its
strength here has helped Sonata, a relatively low-priced brand (starting from about Rs
350apiece); achieve annual sales of almost 3 million units within just four years of launch.
Indeed, it was because of this success that Titan needed to churn out 300,000 units more than
the capacity. But this we think was a tactical mistake made by the company. There was a dire
need for Titan to launch a watch brand for the lower segment. Now, Titan had a very strong
direct relationship with watch market than any other TATA Company, thus it initially
positioned it as a Titan sub-brand. This can be further strengthened by the arguments given
by one of the 22 immutable laws of ?
 Which says that the association with the company
name and product is a very important factor in brand building. If instead of Titan Sonata had
been under TELCO then the association with heavy machinery would have been awkward to
consumers.
TATA
TITAN
SONATA

The price differential between the two ranges -- Sonata and Titan -- was not very significant.
If Sonata was priced at Rs 845, a similar-looking Titan would be priced at Rs 1,200. What's
more, the look of the two watches was not very different either. They sold through the same
distribution outlets. As a result, very often, a value-conscious Titan buyer would end up
settling for a Sonata. Cannibalization between Titan and Sonata rose from 15-20% in the first
year to almost 30% by the end of the second year. Titan's initial reaction was to cap Sonata's
volumes at 2 million watches so that it did not cut into the mother brand's volumes. But that
meant that Sonata was unable to stem the onslaught of the unorganised competition. Now in a
change of tactic Titan has decided to take the grey market head on. Says vice-president, sales
and marketing, Bijou Kurien: "Earlier, the pricing and positioning of Sonata vis-a-vis the
grey market was tentative." As a part of the new strategy, Sonata, with an ad budget of Rs 5
crore which is double than last year¶s is being positioned as an aspirational watch for the grey
market consumer. In 1998-99 if we consider Sonata as different from Titan then this two-
year-old brand managed to clock sales of nearly 2.4 million units, marginally less than
numero uno Titan. To prevent cannibalization and drive distribution penetration, Titan is
creating a dedicated distribution infrastructure for Sonata. Now Sonata will be sold as under
the banner of TATA. For instance, earlier the same distributor salesman would go to sell both
Titan and Sonata to a retailer. Now that system has been changed. Two different salesmen go
on different days to the same retailer to sell Titan and Sonata as separate brands. That way,
instead of competing with each other for space, Titan and Sonata can hope to grab market
share away from other brands. Already, Sonata has also added 500 outlets in the last one
year, thereby pushing up the total coverage to 6,000 outlets. Sonata's next big opportunity is
to open up new markets. The company now plans to set up about 10 Sonata showrooms²
exclusive franchised outlets²this fiscal. The strategy, however, will be to go into smaller
towns, such as Bhopal, where it is opening its first Sonata showroom.. Within these towns,
Sonata showrooms will be located in µwatch localities¶ rather than µhot and happening
places¶. µµWe now have to get into smaller towns and make it an economic proposition,¶¶ Mr
Kurien said.
Further, to tackle the competition²primarily from the unorganised sector² Sonata will be
penetrated into the rural market. Currently, Titan and Sonata are available only in around
1,400 towns and they have no presence in smaller villages. Having sold 2 million units last
year, which is expected to touch 3 million units this year, Sonata will lead Titan's drive into
the rural market. Sonata is clear evidence of Titan's new brand strategy. It now wants to be a
full pyramid player addressing every segment in the market.
Titan by foraying into $ has made it apparent its strategy of identifying the
segments, sizing the market, and finding ways of penetrating it. From the earlier strategy of
catch all the strategy now is to focus on the different segments more sharply. Having created
the desire now Titan wants it to translate it into demand. Close on the heels of watch brands
for children and the youth, Titan Industries will launch an exclusive line for college girls.
According to Xerxes Desai, vice chairman and managing director, Titan Industries, main gap
in the portfolio was the target segment containing girls. To plug this gap, Titan has developed
a new line positioned at girls between the ages of 16 and 24. So far, Titan had treated this
segment as part of its youth brand µFasTrack¶ without producing products specifically for it.
The girls line may be priced within the FasTrack price band: Rs 850-Rs 1500.
The debate is whether to launch this new line under the µFasTrack¶ umbrella or as a new
brand altogether. So while keeping to the FasTrack brand field and imagery, Titan may
launch a ³different look´ one that would be more feminine and colourful in comparison to the
men¶s line which is more instrumental, sporty and macho. Once the product is with a
µfashion¶ tag, then the realisation of its fickleness and thereby, constant change is the only
way to survive. Titan Industries, which forayed into fashion watches in 1998 with Fastrack,
has recognised the greater need for upgradation in this segment more than any other, and will
come out with a new collection for men and women by the year-end.
Fastrack, though positioned for the 15-25 years age group, has a lot of older customers in its
net as well. In the Titan portfolio, Fastrack contributes to 4 per cent in value and the company
has decided to establish it as an independent brand because of its high penetration potential.
Titan earlier launched into several sub-brands, but it cared little to communicate their
meaning to consumers. Now Titan is changing the position with Titan as umbrella link brand
with clear differentiation of the sub-brands. Coming up with Fastrack Titan is using smart
new designs (for men and women) to counter Swatch and Esprit, which have won the
admiration of the style ± conscious Indian youngster. There is a fine example of this strategy
in form of advertising campaign for DASH As a marketing experiment at the showrooms,
Titan decided to have the Dash display at the height of 3.5 feet to make it more accessible to
the child. It also kept colorful stools for the children to stand on to have a better look at the
watches. Inspired by nightlife and urban lifestyle, a multimedia campaign will herald the
launch of this dramatic product-line. This includes television commercial, print ads,
billboards, in-store display material and web-based promotions.