Introduction :

In 4 continents, 40 countries and 1500 cities around the world, there is a new
brand to reckon – “ Titan “, the new world watch.

Established in 1987, titan is a part of the $8 billion Tata group, a diversified

business conglomerate with interest in automobiles, steel, information technology,
telecommunications, energy, chemicals, hotels, consumer products and tea.

In a short span of 13 years, Titan has clocked global sales of over 38 million
watches and emerged as a world’s 6th largest manufacturer brand with sales last
year touching 6 million watches. Currently Titan enjoys a nearly 40% share of the
domestic quartz market (more tan three times the size of its nearest competitor)
and close to a 50% share among the nationally recognized brands. Titan represents
a unique blend of high-end Japanese technology, legendary European design and
renowned Indian craftsmanship. It is a product of an extraordinary cooperation
between designers, toolmakers and marketers continents.

The Titan watch plant is a US $70 million state of the art integrated facility,
set in 40000 square meters of floor space, and employs over 2500 professionals.

A fierce commitment to excellence coupled with some of the most

sophisticated manufacturing technologies in the world helps Titan deliver world
class products in an incredible variety of designs and styles. Every Titan is powered
by robust movement, tried and tested in the hot and humid conditions of Asia and
sold with confidence of a unique one year guarantee and an unmatched two year
guarantee on the watch.

Titans renowned design skills have helped create an exclusive range of

jewellery watches…”TANISHQ”. In India, 35 world-class boutiques exclusively sell
Tanishq brand jewellery made by Titan. Product styling, which is truly contemporary
matched by superior finish and assured caratage, have helped tanishq establish a
leadership position.
 Offices in London, Dubai and Singapore and a significant distribution and
service base in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Australian drives the
company’s business across four continent and forty countries.

It is watches; however that have been Titan’s mainstay and that are perhaps
singularly responsible for building Titan industries in to a professionally recognized
corporate leader. Titan has been consistently ranked as India’s leading consumer
durables marketing company for the past seven year’s (1993-99) by the countries
leading advertising and marketing publication A&M.

Between the years 1994 and 1998, it was also ranked in Asia’s top 200
companies and India’s top 10 by “The Far Eastern Economic Review”. Finally, and
perhaps most importantly, the readers of the Economic Times also recently voted
Titan India’s most admired brand.

All of this has of course only been possible through the use of extensive (and
needless to say, effective) brand building techniques. In his book ‘Beyond
Branding’, Joe Marconi defines a brand simply as “ a name”, and brand equity as
the value of that name. He thus defines brand building as “ the process of creating,
managing and marketing brand equity by building brand identification, recognition
and loyalty”.

In order to truly gauge the extent to which Titan has built itself into a
nationally recognized brand, we need only refer to marketing guru “Al Ries”
definition of the word, which is “ a brand is a proper noun that can be used in
place of a common word”. By this he means such as Heineken, Rolex and
Mercedes, which can be used in place of words such as beer, watch and car
respectively. Can Titan be used in place of the word “watch”? we think it can (
in the Indian context ). This is what marks the difference between a mere name of a
product, and a brand.

COMPANY PROFILE
Titan Industries is the organization that brought about a paradigm shift in the Indian watch market when it introduced
its futuristic quartz technology, complemented by international styling. With India's two most recognized and loved
brands Titan and Tanishq to its credit, Titan Industries is the fifth largest integrated watch manufacturer in the world.
The success story began in 1984 with a joint venture between the Tata Group and the Tamil Nadu Industrial
Development Corporation. Presenting Titan quartz watches that sported an international look, Titan Industries
transformed the Indian watch market. After Sonata, a value brand of functionally styled watches at affordable prices,
Titan Industries reached out to the youth segment with Fastrack, its third brand, trendy and chic. The company has
sold 100 million watches world over and manufactures 12 million watches every year.
With a license for premium fashion watches of global brands, Titan Industries repeated its pioneering act and brought
international brands into Indian market. Tommy Hilfiger and Hugo Boss, as well as the Swiss made watch – Xylys
owe their presence in Indian market to Titan Industries.
Entering the largely fragmented Indian jewellery market with no known brands in 1995, Titan Industries launched
Tanishq, India’s most trusted and fastest growing jewellery brand. Gold Plus, the later addition, focuses on the
preferences of semi-urban and rural India. Completing the jewellery portfolio is Zoya, the latest retail chain in the
luxury segment.
Titan Industries has also made its foray into eyewear, launching Fastrack eyewear and sunglasses, as well as
prescription eyewear. The organization has leveraged its manufacturing competencies and branched into precision
engineering products and machine building.
With over 560 retail stores across a carpet area of over 7,09,000 sq. ft. Titan Industries has India’s largest retail
network. The company has over 300 exclusive ‘World of Titan' showrooms and over 740 after-sales-service centers.
Titan Industries is also the largest jewellery retailer in India with over 110 Tanishq boutiques and Zoya stores, over 25
Gold Plus stores and over 85 Titan Eye+ stores. The company has two exclusive design studios for watches and
jewellery
Backed by 4,514 employees, two exclusive design studios for watches and jewellery, 11 manufacturing units, and
innumerable admirers world over, Titan Industries continues to grow and sets new standards for innovation and
quality. The organization is all geared to repeat the Titan and Tanishq success story with each new offering.
FACTORS OR CONDITIONS THAT CONTRIBUTE TO SUCESSFUL
SEGMEMTATION:

• Substantiality:

Refers to the size of segmented markets. Segments large enough to permit viable
market effort directed towards them. In order words demand for one segment must
great enough to make the marketing effort worthwhile. Titan has fully satisfied this
condition as its model i.e. – Psi 2000, regalia, Classique, Fastrack etc are all large &
profitable enough to direct marketing effort towards them.

• Accessibility:
Could be attained through the existing channel of distribution. The segments must
permit the firm to direct successfully different marketing effort towards the
segments. The existing channels of distribution for Titan like exclusive showroom
and shop dealers can support titans various segments.

• Representability:

Segments should be large and profitable enough to be considered as a separate

market. Such segments must be representative in nature and must have
individuality of their own.

• Response rates:

The segments must show difference in responses to the marketing variables. If

various segments respond in similar ways to a marketing mix, there is no need to
develop a separate marketing mix.

• Measurable:

The size, purchasing power, and characteristics of the segments can be measured.
This has been clearly satisfied by Titan through its pricing and branding policy. To
understand Titan’s segmentation policy, the4 need arises to first understand the
basis for segmentation relevant to Titan.
 • Psychographic segmentation:

In psychographic segmentation buyers are divided into different groups on the basis
of lifestyle and personalities. People within the same demographics group can
exhibit very different psychographic profiles. For example, such segmentation can
be attempted on the basis of: Life – straights, swingers, longhairs. Personality –
compulsive, gregarious, authoritarian, ambitious.

• Multi – attribute segmentation ( Geo-clustering) :

Marketing in recent times is crossing several variables in an effort to identify

smaller, better- defined target groups. Geo-clustering yields richer descriptions of
consumers because it reflects the socio economic status & lifestyle of the target
customers. Socioeconomic segmentation: the segmentation here is done on the
basis of social class i.e. working class, middle income group etc. since marketing Is
potentially and intimately connected with the “ability to pay” this segmentation is
meaningful in analyzing buying pattern of a particular class. Socio-economics factor
help to locate a market precisely.

• Socio-economic segmentation:

The segmentation here is done on the basis of social class i.e. working class, middle
income group etc. since marketing is potentially and intimately connected with the
“ability to pay” this segmentation is meaningful in analyzing buying patterns of a
particular class. Socio-economic factors help to locate a market precisely.

• Demographic segmentation:
Under this method, the consumers are grouped in to homogenous groups in terms
of demographic similarities such as age, sex and education.

Now, before elaborating upon the ways in which Titan has implemented these
aforementioned basis of segmentation, we shall comprehensively list out the entire
range of time keeping instruments available in the market today under the Titan
brand name. we shall also attempt to identify the specific market segment each sub
brand is aimed at, while at the same time identify the genre they fall into, as well as
the main brands (be they Indian or foreign) that they are in competition with. Thus
presented henceforth, in no significant order, we might add, are the various sub
brands that collectively make up the time keeping giant we know as Titan:

PRODUCTS
Titan Industries, best known as India's pioneering manufacturer of quartz watches, has also etched a niche for itself
in some of the most competitive spaces in the fashion industry such as jewellery and eyewear. Precision engineering
is another area of specialization that Titan Industries is proud of.
Watches: Being the world's fifth largest integrated watch manufacturer, Titan Industries has created and sold more
than a 110 million pieces the world over.
With a production rate of over 12 million watches per annum and a customer base of over 100 million, Titan
Industries owns manufacturing and assembly operation centers in Hosur in Karnataka, Dehradun, Roorkee and Pant
Nagar in Uttaranchal, Baddi in Himachal Pradesh, and an Electronic Circuit Boards (ECB) plant in Goa.
Capturing the important market segments and the changing fashion trends, Titan Industries has brought forth four
core watch brands:
• Titan is designed for the mid-premium segment
• Fastrack is crafted to fit the trendy fashion space with a focus on the youth
• Sonata is created for the mass market and has emerged as India’s largest selling watch brand
• Xylys is fashioned for the premium market, aiming at the high-end connoisseur and new-age achiever
The Titan brand architecture comprises several sub-brands, each of which is a market leader in own space. Notable
among them are: Titan Edge, Titan Raga, Nebula, Heritage and several other collections like WWF, Zoop, Orion,
Purple, Obaku and the Automatic series. The Titan portfolio owns over 60% of the domestic market share in the
organized watch market.
Titan Industries’ pride possession, a world-class design studio for watches and accessories, is the place where some
of the most coveted creations have been conceptualized.
Exclusive World of Titan and Fastrack showrooms and over 12,000 outlets in more than 2,554 cities in India make
these much-sought-after watches available to the buyers. The watches are also offered internationally in 27
countries, with a special focus on the Middle East and Asia Pacific regions. The after-sales service, a benchmarked
operation with a large network of exclusive service centers spread across the country, is one of the operation units
with the fastest turnaround time in the world.
Jewellery: Following the suit of time products, Titan Industries’ Tanishq has been India’s largest, fastest growing and
most popular jewellery brand.
Tanishq offers a premium range of innovatively created gold jewellery with an aesthetic use of diamonds and
precious, semi-precious stones in various hues. Arresting designs in 22kt pure gold as well as platinum are among
the most admired products on the company’s list.. GoldPlus the recent retail plain gold jewellery offering, is
specifically created for semi urban and rural Indian market. The brand offers gold jewellery, as well as unique designs
crafted with diamonds, American diamonds and other precious stones.
Titan Industries boasts of 115 Tanishq boutiques, 2 Zoya stores and 29 Gold Plus stores in India. The enchanting
jewellery patterns that are part of these brands originate in the well-equipped exclusive jewellery design studio of
Titan Industries.
Eye wear: Titan Eye+ of Titan Industries offers sunglasses under its Fastrack brand. Prescription eyewear such as
lenses and contact lenses is also part of the range. Titan Eye+ offers frames, sunglasses, and accessories of Titan
Industries’ in-house brands as well as other premium brands.
Precision Engineering: The Precision Engineering division of Titan Industries supplies precision components to the
aviation and the automotive industry. As an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), the company makes dashboard
clocks for car manufacturers in Europe and America.
Equipped with best certifications such as AS 9100B for the aerospace segment, TS 16949 for the automotive
segment and the coveted Ford Q1 status - the highest supplier recognition from Ford – Titan Industries also offers
fully integrated automation solutions.

Customer Relationship Management at Titan:

Having now discussed in depth, both the brand building as well

as the segmentation techniques of Titan, we would like to briefly touch upon the
concept of Customer –Relationship Management (CRM), which has been successfully
introduced by Titan in the Indian market.

CRM is an idea that has began to assume growing significance in today’s corporate
environment, as it is a vital element in customer satisfaction. As product
differentiation decreases (and such is definitely the case in the watch industry)
companies will have to increasingly use CRM as a means of differentiating
themselves from the competition. It is here that Titan has made headway, perhaps
more so than any other Indian company. Apart from the run of the mill customer
databases and direct marketing techniques that most companies employ, Titan has
implemented a number of small, yet significant measures that go a long way in
enhancing customer satisfaction. A prime example of this would be to observe one
of Titan’s 55 watch care centers. Here, receptionists make it a point to speak the
local language, and standby watches are provided to serve as replacements till a
customer’s watch is repaired. Additionally, these service centers are as posh as the
showrooms, have 24-hour voice mail facilities, have no lunch hours, are open till
late evenings, and even deliver watches at home, if so required. It is measures such
as these that enhance a company’s image and build brand and consumer loyalty. It
is little wonder then, that Titan is consistently voted India’s # 1 brand.

Latest news in titan’s CRM

The Rs 960-crore Titan Industries Ltd, a joint venture between the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation
and the Tata group of companies is now planning to promote its FLIP, under the umbrella brand Titan, through select
300 premium retail outlets, across the country, within a year. The 300 outlets through which Titan's FLIP Watches will
be sold is going to be inclusive of The World of Titan showrooms, as well. At present, Titan has 144 multi-brand
outlets called Time Zones, and, stocks 17,000 SKUs through a network of 6,000 dealers, and, 30 distributors, across
the country.

According to Bijou Kurien, chief operating officer, Titan Industries Ltd: As part of the new customer relationship
management (CRM) initiatives at the retail-end, Titan Industries' ongoing loyalty programme called Signet Club
through The World of Titan showrooms has taken off well. Through this loyalty programme, in order to introduce FLIP
Titan watches to the few top-end members of the club, Titan will address to them this specific collection which will
meet their requirements, depending on their specific requirements."

Further, Mr Kurien added that with the unveiling of FLIP Titan watches, Titan hopes to grow the contribution of its
loyalty programme to its overall sales turnover from 7.5 per cent to 10 per cent. For the purpose, the company is
planning to add additional 50,000 new top-end members to its existing 1,75,000 members of the Signet Club, in the
year 2004.

Prior to the move, Titan Industries has recently repositioned Titan Watches in the Indian market by way of introducing
an international range of watches priced between Rs 2,000 and Rs 7,000. The range of contemporary-styled watches
is available in 55 designs, and, is targeted at the evolved Indian consumer who aspires for the latest in international
trends. As for FLIP Titan watches, the positioning and the target audience is upper premium segment priced between
Rs 5,495 and Rs 6,495.