Indian watch industry

Wrist Watches form an integral part of the personality of

individuals in the present era.

Earlier seen as a luxury item, they are now witnessing a
fundamental change in perception, and are now gaining
respect as an essential utility item.

Indian watches market was for long dominated by public
sector organizations like Hindustan Machine Tools Ltd.
In post liberalization India, the market stood to witness
intensive competition between foreign and Indian
manufacturers like Timex, Titan, Movado, Longines, Rado,
Rolex, Frderique Constant, Mont Blanc, Swatch, and many
others.

Many watch makers have made significant inroads in the
industry and others are in the process of establishing
themselves, currently.
Besides this, buyers are extremely choosy about the brand
and type of wrist watches they wear.

Being extremely brand conscious, their tastes have evolved
over the years and have gone beyond the realms of
durability to choose in terms of aesthetics and elegance.

Thus it is a buyers market with multitude of designs that
have entered and flooded the market place.
The size of the watch market currently is
estimated to be around 40 to 45 million
pieces annually. The organized sector alone
contributes up to 30 % & the other
70 % is contributed by the unorganized grey
sector. In dollar terms, the estimated
annual market size is around USD 195 million,
despite the fact that the penetration
of watches is the lowest, compared globally.
The average growth in the size of the
market is slated to be around 10 -15 percent
per year.
The size of the watch market in India currently is estimated
to be around 40 to 45 million pieces annually.

The organized sector alone contributes up to 30 % & the
other 70 % is contributed by the unorganized grey sector.

In dollar terms, the estimated annual market size is around
USD 195 million, despite the fact that the penetration
of watches is the lowest, compared globally.

The average growth in the size of the market is slated to be
around 10 -15 percent per year.
Titan Industry
Titan Industries is the world's fifth largest and India's
leading manufacturer of watches.

The company has manufactured more than a 100 million
watches till date; and has a customer base of over 80
million.

The umbrella brand Titan is one of India's leading watch
brands that brought about a paradigm shift in the Indian
watch market, offering quartz technology with international
styling.
The brand Titan is committed to offering its consumers
watches that represent the compass of their imagination.

Titan's customers are therefore consistently introduced to
exciting new collections, which connect, with various facets
of their deeprooted yearnings for self-expression.

The new brand philosophy of Titan, encapsulated in the
words "Be More", touches this as well as all other aspects of
the brand.
The Titan brand architecture comprises several collection
and subbrands, each of which is a leader in its segment.

Notable among them are:
Titan EDGE
Titan Raga
Titan Nebula
Titan Heritage
Titan Ragalia
Titan Octane
Titan WWF
Titan Fastrack
Titan Sonata
Today, the Titan portfolio has over 60% of the domestic
market share in the organized watch market.

The company has 24X7 exclusive showrooms christened
World of Titan', making it amongst the largest chains in its
category backed by 700 aftersalesservice centers.

The company has a worldclass design studio that
constantly invents new trends in wrist watches.
Background Of Fastrack
Timex had entered the Indian market through a joint
venture with Titan and which was their offering for the
youth market.

When that JV broke off in 1997 and Timex went
independent,
there was a gap in Titans portfolio and it only made sense
to fill that need through their offering.

Fastrack was launched as a range of watch ware under Titan
and was called Titan Fastrack.
Subsequently, it grew from a range
to a sub-brand, where Titan was
upfront in the logo and the
association was strong.

They used the jazzy version of the
Mozart tune, which is Titans
signature tune. So, the link with
Titan was very strong.

When they launched, they targeted
predominantly the early jobber 23-
30 year-old male executive. It was
only a year or two later that they
launched a line for women.
Re-launch Of Fastrack
They took off and did well in the start but started stagnating
in 2001-2003, and thats when they went for a reality check.

Titan had simultaneously launched the steel collection,
whichwas an attempt to contemporize for a Titan audience.

But what was happening was the collection in terms of
looks, price point and consumer buying behaviour was very
similar to Fastrack, including advertising.

The parent brand needed to continue in its endeavor to
keep it contemporary and hence repositioned Fastrack to
younger audience in sub-25 range.
Awareness of Fastrack was very low and was linked to Titan.
There was no independent identity. Research had also
shown that the fact that it had the backing of Titan was a
positive assurance.

However, kids didnt like to be serious and sober like their
parents. Fastrack needed to break away and hence changed
the logo to bring in a youthful, spontaneous, energetic and
fun identity and also removed Titan from the upfront
association in the logo.

They however, kept it at the bottom, saying its a Titan
product. This helped carry the assurance of the trusted Titan
brand. They also stopped using the Mozart tune in
advertising.
Fastrack was launched with new products, a new identity,
new advertising and a new logo in June 2005.

The year took off so well that they ran out of stock very
quickly and ended the year with a 150 per cent growth and
the demand was growing continuously.

Next year, they recorded another 100 per cent growth.
When re-launch was started, Fastrack brand was worth
about Rs 29 crore but however they have grown almost ten
times of that over the last three years.

Fastrack has a presence in over 6000 outlets across 800
towns, with new exclusive brand kiosks in Metro Malls and
its multichannel distribution network which covers the 228
strong World of Titan Network, 122 Large Format Chain
stores viz. Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, Central, Westside,
Pantaloons and Multibrand watch & optical outlets.
Fastrack is actually among the few brands where people
come asking for the brand. They have adopted a fashion
based strategy, where they launch about 3-4 collections in a
year in both categories. Collection-based strategy has
helped them very well.

It has been twin approach of constantly innovating on
product design, yet being affordable, and to reach out to
consumers in a language that connects to them that led to
their success.

Its not your typical fashion brand talking down saying you
must look cool and you must look like me. With their
advertising, they were able to relate to the youth in a setting
they were familiar with.
Fastrack, in its journey to being a fashion accessories brand
has expanded its portfolio to now include not just watches
and sunglasses but bags, belts, wallets and wristbands too.

With this, it now has enough categories to open a fashion
accessories store and thats just what theyve done!
SWOT Analysis
STRENGTHS :

Goodwill in the market

Strong financial position

Fast changing designs
WEAKNESS :

Short cycle products which are expensive to make

Weak channel of communication

Lack of exclusive stores
OPPORTUNITIES :

Rapid market growth

Changing customer needs

To create relation between society on social marketing
basis
THREATS :

Tough competition in watches

Low profit margins

New competition in market
STP Analysis
Segmentation
Geographic

Continent- Asia
Country- India
Size/ population- India- 13,782,976
Demographic

Age- 15-25 , 25-30 , 30 above
Gender- Male & Female
Income- 10000-20000 , 20000-30000 , 30,000 above
Occupation- students , young executives , graduate and
post- graduate students , journalists , sports athletes
Psychographic

Activities- basketball , swimming , dancing , acting ,
gymming , gaming

Interest- socializing, reading, painting, travelling ,
adventure
sports , theatre,cars/bikes , gadgets , music

Opinions- intellectual , reasoning talk , opinionated

Personality- ambitious
Behavioural

Benefit sought- quality, looks/style, durability

Usage rate- heavy, moderate, light

User status- regular, potential, first time user, irregular,
occasional

Brand loyalty- split loyal, shifting, switches

Readiness to buy-aware , neutral

Occasion- birthdays, anniversary, festivals, gifting
Targeting
Fastrack has products caters to the products in all the
segments.

The range of Fastrack watches is from Rs. 500 to Rs.4000.

Hence it is catering to all the three segments of low, medium
and highly priced segments. However more emphasis is laid
on medium and high priced segments.
Collection Price Range
SPORT 2000-4000
ARMY 2000-3500
ADVENTURE 1000-2000
BIKERS 1500-3500
GRUNGE 1000-2500
ALUMINIUM 500-1000
COLOUR PLAY 1000-2000
DIGITAL FASHION 500-2000
ESSENTIALS 1000-2500
PARTY 1500-3000
PAIRS 3000-3500
NEON 1000-2500
NEON DISC 500-1500
XY 1500-3000
On demographic grounds :

Fastrack watches were launched to cater to the needs of
youth at first.

However it introduced watches for kids also later on. Hence
it is targeting both youth and kids segments.
Collection Target
SPORT MEN
ARMY BOTH MEN & WOMAN
ADVENTURE BOTH MEN & WOMAN
BIKERS BOTH MEN & WOMAN
GRUNGE BOTH MEN & WOMAN
ALUMINIUM WOMAN
COLOUR PLAY WOMAN
DIGITAL FASHION BOTH MEN & WOMAN
ESSENTIALS BOTH MEN & WOMAN
PARTY BOTH MEN & WOMAN
PAIRS PAIRS
NEON MEN
NEON DISC MEN
XY BOTH MEN & WOMAN
Positioning
Fastrack positions itself as both trendy and affordable range.
These two attributes were usually considered as two poles
wide apart.

Fastrack has taken the challenge of combining both the
features to offer a greater value proportion to its customers.
Consumer Buying Behaviour
CULTURAL FACTORS :

In India, Titan ahead of all other brands as the Most
Admired Brand in India across all product categories.

It was also a fitting tribute to a brand, which had not only
revolutionised the Indian watch industry, but also brought in
world-class benchmarks in product design, quality and
retailing into India.

In 1998, it was Fastrack, the cool, trendy, funky range for the
young and young-at-heart. Since Indian population has
positive outlook for titan it has influenced the behavior of
younger generation who are variety seeking.
SOCIAL CLASS :

The age and stage of individual has a major influence on the
buying behaviour of consumer.

The youth in the range of age of fifteen years to mid thirties
are generally attracted to the watches.

Friends and their peer group has a major influence on the
purchase decisions of the youth.
ECONOMIC CIRCUMSTANCES:

Economic circumstances do not play a major role in opting
for Fastrack watches because the target segment is youth
and it offers an affordable range.
LIFESTYLE :

A Fastrack watch generally attracts people with affluent
lifestyle who are fashion conscious.

For Fastrack watches traits like Excitement and ruggedness
can be attributed.

Excitement includes imaginative and being up to date while
ruggedness sports outdoorsy and tough.
Buying Decision Process
PROBLEM RECOGNITION:

The buyer first and foremost identifies the reason
Why he or she wants a particular product.

In the case of Fastrack watches the need is
triggered by both internal and external stimuli.

Internal stimuli are the need to keep track of time
while external stimuli are because of the peer
group who are using the watch.

In the surveys conducted many of them have
responded that it as either a necessity or an
accessory.
INFORMATION SEARCH:

In order to reach a large audience
Fastrack employs a number of
advertising and promotional campaigns.

Fastrack has roped in John Abraham as
brand ambassador of the product at the
beginning to portray the sporty nature of
the brand.

The company has also roped in Aamir
khan for army collection. The company
uses youth icons to portray the trendy
looks of the watches.
It also advertises aggressively in internet, print media and
television.

Therefore its quite easy on the part of consumers to make
an informed decision regarding Fastrack watches by
collecting data from various sources of mass media and from
family, friends etc.

In the surveys conducted majority have responded that
television and print media have major influence on their
purchase decisions.
EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVES:

A consumer then evaluates various
alternatives based on the needs and
information available to him.

Fastrack through its variety of variants is
able to satisfy a number of needs of the
consumers.

Fastrack which is always perceived as
trendy and affordable watch has an edge
over its competitors.Hence Fastrack is one
of the best alternatives who are looking for
a trendy yet affordable watch
PURCHASE DECISION:

There is a strong preference of Fastrack brand among
youth in both middle and upper.

It would involve other sub decisions like timing, payment
method.

All the Branded stores and shopping malls would be offering
flexible payments methods and flexible timings.

In the surveys conducted it is observed that consumers
preferred to buy the watches majorly in branded stores and
shopping malls.
POST PURCHASE BEHAVIOR:

Since Fastrack has been able to deliver value for money and
satisfy the needs of consumers, it has been able to build a
brand image for itself and win the loyalty of consumers.

Hence many of the respondents have responded to not only
buy the Fastrack watch once again bit also to recommend
the brand to their friends and colleagues.
4 Ps of Fastrack
Product
QUALITY :

Fastrack is sub brand of Titan and Titan is well known for its
quality. Even though Fastrack is brand created targeting
medium range and low range segment, high quality is
provided to customers.
FEATURES :

Fastrack is well known for its features, it has come up with
several variants and features which suits the choices and
tastes of different consumers.
PRODUCT VARIETY ( DESIGN AND STYLE) :

Fastrack is specially designed for youth. Its design and style
and variants are the key to the success of the brand. The
several variants they have come up with are :

Sport

Army

Adventure

Bikers

Color play

Hiphop

Neon

Neon disc

xy
PACKAGING :











Fastrack has came up with new and contemporary packaging
for its watches which attracts youth.
SERVICES & WARRANTY :

Fastrack provides warranty of one year on all its watch
range. After sales services are available on all Fastrack and
Titan showrooms.









Product Life cycle
Fastrack is in growth stage now as it is marking rapid climb
in sales. Early adaptors like the product and the additional
customers start buying the product. The company
continuously coming up with new features and variants
keeping the brand moving forward satisfying tastes and
needs of different customers
Levels Of Product :

Core product : Satisfying purpose of keeping track on time

Actual product : Fastrack watch

Expected product : Product with brand value and image

Augmented product : Warranty, after sales service, design ,
packaging.
Promotion
TVC :
Most of the Fastrack TVC advertisements were dominated
by youth and youth representing brand ambassadors like
John Abraham, Genelia and Virat Kohli.

Some of the popular Fastrack advertisements are
discussed below:

Yes Sir Ad :
A teacher was taking attendance,
A boy responses his roll by raising his hand
Girls get obsessed by looking at the watch worn by that
boy Which has the message that this watch on your wrist
makes you more stylish?
How many you have ?
Creative Advertising :

From Titan Fastrack where fashionable jeweller was a gift on
purchase of any Fastrack watch. This jewellery set of a
pendant and earrings is contemporary and unique in form
and material, with steel and acrylic being used together for
stunning effect. This was launched for Valentines Day where
the name scheme, The watch being advertised for (Fast
track) as it pertains to the youth, jewellery (for the youth),
valentines day (more so for the youth) and adding to the
excitement is a limited edition FASTRACK VALENTINE'S
COLLECTION that is being made available in four designs.
Only 300 watches of each design will be on sale across cities
during this fortnight.
These watches are designed is steel with leather straps in
the colours of the season black, red and silver. The dials
are in matched colours with heart patterns, making the
collection a true blend of fashion and romance. "Young
couples are looking for new ways to discover their
relationships and this set of special watches and matching
jewellery from Fastrack, gives them just the reason to do so.
The promotion was in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Bangalore
from Feb 114.
POSTER AD :














FASTRACK WEBSITE PROMOTION :

Fastrack website is the tool they used to attract the youth,
the pictures displayed on the website creates curiosity and
interest towards the product.
SALES PROMOTION :

Fastrack always come up with sales promotion during
festival seasons and special locations. They provide 20% -
40% discounts on all its watch ranges.










BRAND AMBASSADOR :

Brand Ambassadors for the Fastrack watch are Virat Kohli,
Genelia D Souza, John Ambassador to appeal to youth.
OUTDOOR ADVERTISING :

The billboard advertising is very popular
however has to be really terse and catchy in
order to grab the attention of the passers by.

Fastrack billboards can be found put up all over
Delhi especially at places like the north campus
university area on the main road which the
company knows that it is a youth centric area
and since that is their target segment it puts up
there. The brand also does trade shows during
the festival area which a key rule to their
promotional strategy through which hey engage
the youth and make them aware of the brand.
PUBLIC RELATIONS :

Fastrack one of the few companies in India
to take the lead on embracing PR 2.0.
Fastrack has come out with the Fastrack
social media news room for bloggers.

They are using the newsroom to share
information and news on Fastrack. It also
features social media press releases (Bikers
and Neon Disk), Flicker streams of Fastrack
gears, social bookmarking buttons, videos,
media coverage, product and company
information, spokesperson profile, RSS
feeds, and more.
For the consumers, Fastrack has launched two Facebook
groups called Life on Fastrack and Bikers on the Fastrack,
which have 121 and 71 members already, as on yesterday.
The groups have attracted so many people in such a short
time.

Fastrack main site not the usual corporate stiffness but an
attractive and very consumer oriented featuring contests,
fun stuff, opinion polls among others. They plan to follow up
with a Twitter part as well.
It has launched MyExBox, an online campaign where users
can post videos that communicate. The month long online
campaign is based on the Fastracks theme Move On and
encourages users to vent the reasons why they had to dump
someone or something and move on. According to the
company, the most viewed video of the week wins Fastrack
Merchandise and also a chance to get featured in a Fastrack
TV commercial. This makes the campaign go viral as users
share the videos with their friends to get more views.
AIDA COMMUNICATION MODEL :

AIDA is a communication model which can be used by firms
to aid them in selling their product or services. AIDA is an
Acronym for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. When a
product is launched the first goal is to grab attention and
that is what fastrack did by introducing a mid price range of
watches for the youth which were affordable as well as
created a fashion statement for the youngsters
Once we grab attention we held Interest, through promoting
by getting virat kohli and genelia dsouza as brand
ambassadors and coming up with new ranges every half
yearly. The third stage is desire, to make the product
desirable to the consumer which was done by introducing
new accessories by the brand like it introduced bags belts
wristbands and sunglasses at the nominal price range .The
final stage is the purchase action, and the company has been
successful with its strategy and the target customer has
purchase the product.
Price
Titan have watches like sonata to cover the lower level
income segment people and titan raga, octane, xylus to
target higher segment people but they didnt had any
watches to cover the youth market which is in flourish now
because more than 50% of population is youth, so they
came up with fastrack to cover this segment and they are
trying to cover the market share in youth sector and actually
they are successful also because they cover 37% of 50% of
youth population.
PRICING OBJECTIVE :

The pricing strategy adopted by Fastrack is market share
maximization as they are targeting people with affordable
cost range

They have watches from the range of 499 to more than
4000,so that they can attract customers of lower segment to
higher segment and this clearly shows that they are into
capturing more of the market share than making profit or
other strategies.
DISCOUNTS :

Fastrack always come up with discount offers at auspicious
occasions to capture more market.

They also provide exchange offers, when old watch is
replaced by new watch they provide a discount upto 40%.
PRICING CUES :

Fastrack follows odd pricing strategy and ends the price with
5 . So people perceive the price as low as people in India
tend to read from left to right
Place
Fastrack is a product that u can find everywhere because of
its parent company Titan. Titan have already build the
channels in the form of exclusive stores and outlets so
fastrack products are also made available in those stores
and later they established their own exclusive store of
fastrack where all range of fastrack watches are available
and these exclusive showrooms are present only in some
cites while in other places they are being sold through the
outlets of Titan.
PARALLEL DISTRIBUTION :














Fastrack follow parallel distribution network

It sells watches online through direct marketing

It sells through factory outlets like Fastrack store & World
of Titan.

It sells its products in major chains like bigbaazar, city
central etc.

It sells through retail outlets ( watch shops , gift shops)
Fastracks supply chain in mostly concentrated on Tier-1 and
Tier-2 cities as youth in urban cities look for style and
branded products when compared to youth in rural and
under developed areas. In tier-1 and tier-2 cities fastrack
have a huge supply chain to make products available in each
and every corner of the city.
REFERENCES :

www.fastrack.in

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_Industries
Our Special thanks to Bindu Mam for providing this
wonderful opportunity to do intense research on product.
With regards,
Srikanthbabu Katragadda (FK-2231)
Ravindra Kumar Misra (FK-2352)
Ammireddy Kovvuri (FN-184)
Anju (FK-2334)
Rinu Maria Jacob (FK-2261)