CASE STUDY

The Evolution of Titan Watches

Titan is one of the most valuable brands from the Tata stable in the consumer durable category. What seemed to be a market where people bought watches for the functional purpose of knowing the time has been totally redefined by Titan. Today, owning a particular style or brand of watch is all about making a statement. Titan, as a brand, has established itself for its style and choice of design and is the unquestioned leader in the Indian watch industry today. This article details the brands evolution.

V Ganapathy
General Manager 2020 Media, Mumbai. The author can be reached at vikasclassic@gmail.com

he Indian watch market for a long time was ruled by the public sector giant HMT Watches. The Indian consumer had very few choices in the form of imported watches and other local brands, like Timestar and Camy watches. Hence, there was a strong need for a wide large range of watches for the consumer to explore. The Indian consumer looked at a watch more from a functional aspect and did not consider it as a lifestyle product. Under these circumstances and mindset, Titan unveiled its good looking watches 22 years ago,

when it launched its collection of world-class watches in all the major cities. This was the beginning of the Titan story and the success of the brand continues even today. The brand has become a household name in watches. The equity of the brand is so strong that the company has extended to jewelry and eye care space in the retail market.
What Aided the Success of Titan?

Titan entered the wristwatch market when it was just opening up and when there was a need for an alternative brand with more advanced world-class technology. While HMT was primarily known for its automatic and hand-wound watches, Titan brought the quartz technology to India. HMT also did

introduce quartz, but Titan offered the consumers a larger collection of watches. To begin with, it offered over 150 models of watches for men and women. Titan also leveraged the name of Tata in the early years, so that the trust factor could be established among the consumer. This was done because some of its brands like Hegde and Golay were not well-received in the market. In case of Titan, establishing the trust factor was of paramount importance. The major factor that contributed to the success of Titan was that it took the positioning of an international watch and delivered that promise by offering great designs and good looking watches. This was, of course, supported by a strong product, distribution, marketing and

Advertising Express University Press. All Rights Reserved. 2009 The Icfai July 2009 60

advertising strategy which led to positioning the brand as the undisputed king in this category.
Unique Product Strategy

Titan adopted a simple strategy. The consumer was offered a wide choice, both in terms of style and design. This was backed by good pricing to target different customer segments. To begin with, Titan offered four brands: Classique, Spectra, Exacta and Fastrack. Since then, the company has been introducing new designs of watches to entice Indian consumers. This was to ensure that the consumer never gets bored of visiting a Titan shop. Each time the customer decides to buy a watch and goes to a Titan showroom, he/she is always surprised to see fresh, fascinating and innovative designs. This constant introduction of new designs gave the brand a good image in the consumers mind. The product mix of designs were so varied that the consumer had a wider choice to choose from. Each sub-brand showcased a wide variety of styles and designs.
Innovative Product Distribution

of these outlets were chosen after great planning. Utmost care was taken to design the outlets with good ambience keeping in mind the values attached to the brand. This really built the brands credibility. These showrooms also offered strong after-sales service. Service was another factor in which Titan took keen interest. Since the concept of quartz watches was new in India, there was a fear among the people regarding the fragility of the watches. Customers were also worried about how to get the watches repaired since this technology was new in India. This was cleverly addressed by Titan by offering sales services in the showrooms where the customers could get their watches serviced with genuine parts and with complete assurance.
Thoughtful Product Marketing

the products offered by Titan. Its mantra was to keep pace with the changing taste and attitudes of the new modern Indian audience. Clever ideas were used to push pair watches by calling them the His and Her watches for couples. All this innovation catapulted the brand to newer heights and Titan has remained in the consideration set of the consumer every time he/she thought of buying a watch. Whats more, the brand also entered the global market with great designs to meet the taste of the international customer. Titan also aggressively entered corporate gifting segment by making special watches for many corporates with the company name inscribed on it. The company always looked for new avenues to increase its reach and presence on an ongoing basis.
Campaign Strategy

Titan introduced some innovation even in its distribution strategy. In the past, watches were sold in traditional markets like the DN Road in Mumbai or Radha Bazar in Kolkata, where most watch dealers were located. While Titan was also available with these dealers, the company went beyond this to increase the reach of the brand. Besides traditional outlets, Titan watches were showcased in places like fashion boutiques, etc. Another important step that Titan took was to open Titan shops and franchisees that changed the way watches were retailed. The location

Over the years, Titan has launched a wide range of watches with worldclass designs. The companys focus was to move people from buying imported watches to Titan. This was done by showcasing trendy and good looking watches. The pricing and design also perfectly matched to address the tastes of different customers. People are always eagerly looking for fresh designs from Titan. One such product was the Moon Face design which caught the attention of many people. Raga was another brand extension that was introduced by Titan to attract women buyers. To keep pace with the consumer tastes and fashion trends, Titan continuously innovated new designs. Nebula, Titanium, Fastrack (with a sporty look design and later on with fashion- oriented sun glasses) Sonata (for the masses) are some of

The task was to entice and create aspiration amongst the watch buyers to look at Titan. Here the company capitalized by showcasing the products as the hero in all its communications. This really paid- off as the customer could get a good feel and appearance of the product when it appeared in various media vehicles. The initial launch campaigns highlighted the products well. Even as time passed by and it tried to bring in some human element to break the monotony it did not sacrifice the presence of the products. The watches were well showcased and there was a good balance in each of its communications. Since color reproduction was not of good quality in the early stages, care was taken to hand pick the publication to get reproduction. The end objective was to show the true/

Advertising Express

July 2009

61

THE EVOLUTION...

CASE STUDY

closest colors in their publicity campaign.

Tactical Promotional Campaigns

In the consumer durable category, Titan has been one of the most valued brands. The brand has been very focused in its communication. The brand maintained the desired perception of the most desirable watch to own or gift and truly positioned itself as a world-class brand. The tone and manner of the brands advertising, over the years, has always been international and classy. When Titan launched its initial communication, people were instantly attracted. The watches were admired but the buying decision was postponed as many of these people already had a watch and everybody was looking at a watch from a functional perspective. This was a great challenge for Titan. However, the brand quickly seized this opportunity and ran tactical campaigns which wooed people to own multiple watches. Campaigns were developed which talked to parents about gifting their kids with a Titan watch on completion of their graduation. The ads prompted the men were to buy watches as gifts for their spouses, instead of the traditional sarees. Titan marketed its quartz watches by spelling out the benefits and allaying the fears associated with quartz. In the early 1990s, Titan chose to develop the Gifting market. Watches had always been favorite things to gift, and Titan had benefitted from that. A set of three films were developed in 1991 around three relationships, where the gifting of a Titan culminated in a moving personal moment and a strengthening of the bond between
Advertising Express July 2009 62

the protagonists. These films became a big hit and created a new genre of advertising films. These not only helped build a good-sized gift segment for Titan, but also became Titans Theme Campaign, building strong emotional values for the brand.

One must commend the Titan marketing team and its advertising agency for having consistently created great advertisements which perfectly address the values of the brand. Titan, today, is a brand which is known for its world-class designs; dependability and strong service Success Continues backup. The advertising campaigns Titan rewrote the history of the have been delivering all these values, while at the same time, retaining the wa tch in du st ry. HMT, a household name core essence of the in the 1970s was brand. The most no t ab le to enduring part of the combat Titan and Titan advertising Titan, today, is a in t he b arga in has been the music brand which is succumbed to the track. Chosen by known for its aggre s s i ve Xerxes Desai, a Tata world-class m arke ti ng by veteran, and the designs; Titan. Titan did creative head of dependability and not restrict itself O&M in 1987 for strong service its class and t o th e wa tch western vibes, the backup cat eg ory an d segment from m ov ed t o th e Mozarts 25 th fashion space and Symphony has cleverly entered arguably become th e je we lry Indian advertisings most market and the eye care market. memorable track. The mantra was very clear for the Starting in 1987, in its pure bran d: t o gi ve w orld - cla ss classical versions, with a single products in the fashion space. In violin playing the melody, this piece this vision, the brand has been has been rendered in countless su pp orte d wit h so me s ou nd innovative versions over the years: ma rk et in g and a dv erti si ng Indian classical, Indian folk, strategies and excellent customer operatic, rock, etc., and has become service. Many feel that this is just a powerful audio mnemonic for the a beginning and a lot more would brand. be seen from this watch giant. In fact, during the initial launch, What is more credible is that all when the personality of the brand this has been accomplished in a was defined, Titan was connected span of two decades. with Rajiv Gandhi and HMT with Reference # 18M-2009-07-13-02

Mahatma Gandhi. Titan was seen as international and contemporary, while HMT was looked upon as being old-fashioned. Even today, the campaign is maintaining consistency in its message. Even while selecting the brand ambassadors, Titan ensured that there was a perfect fit. Aamir Khan, the popular Bollywood actor, is currently the brand ambassador and the campaign around him has been smartly developed with a perfect balance between Aamir and the product features.