Marketing Management

Final Project Report on

Fastrack Watches

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Table of Contents

I. Introduction 3
II. Situational Analysis 3
A. Porters Five Forces 3
1. Existing Competition
2. Threat of new entrants
3. Availability of Substitutes
4. Buyer Power
5. Supplier Power
B. SWOT Analysis 5
III. Segmentation 5
IV. Targeting 6
V. Positioning 6
VI. Product 7
VII. Price 8
VIII. Place 9
IX. Promotion 10
X. Recommendation 11
XI. References 12

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I. Introduction

Fastrack was formed as a sub-brand of Titan in 1999. It was later spun-off as an

independent brand targeting the urban college going crowd. It visualised to become a
complete fashion accessory brand appealing majorly to the age group 15 -25. Fastrack
quickly became a household name owing to its tongue-in-cheek advertising and its
formidable presence on social media. Fastrack extended its product line to Sunglasses,
Wallets, Belts and Bags without lifting its focus from the watch segment. Fastrack
capitalised on its growing popularity and soon opened its all exclusive store chain. Fastrack
is still in its growth stage, is still opening more and more stores all over the country.
Fastrack also claims to have offers to expand overseas and are considering truly
considering them.

II. Situational Analysis

Before starting with the product analysis, it is important to understand the internal and
external environmental factors affecting the industry. Let us analyse these factors by using
the following tools.

A. Porters Five Forces:

Wrist watches are no longer being perceived as a tool to watch time but an accessory
to add glamour to your look. Thus, the wrist watch market in India is already a Billion
Dollar industry with a staggering growth rate of 17% in 2015 alone.
1. Threat of new entrants: The watch industry in India has some very established
players while the foreign brands are trying to settle in. New entrants into this
market having a low-cost approach can definitely entice the buyers but will have
to tackle the likes of Titan which has a huge base of loyal customers, Timex and
HMT. The new entrants in the high cost range will face competition from many
brands and a lower customer base means high chances of failure for the entrant.

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 About 75% of the participants in our survey have a budget of up to Rs.4000. Low
entry costs, easier distribution networks via local vendors, and negligible
government policies also work in favour of the new entrants.
2. Existing Competition: Indian Wrist watch segment is broadly split into four
segments based on price:
Low Cost Medium Cost Upper-Medium Cost Premium cost
< Rs.1K Rs1K Rs.4K Rs.4K Rs.10K >Rs.10K
Local Brands Money for value Slightly Premium Premium and Luxury
brands brands brands
HMT, Sonata, Titan, Timex, Esprit, Swatch, Fossil, Tommy Omega, Rado, Tag
Maxima Giordano Hilfiger, Casio Heuer, Rolex, Hugo Boss
10% of participants 65% of participants 15% of participants in 10% of participants in
in survey in survey survey survey

3. Threat of Substitutes: The market has high number of substitutes in every price
segment. The presence of established brands like Titan, Timex, HMT etc. as well as
highly revered luxury brands like Omega, Rado, Rolex etc. all provide similar
features at the same price level. This means low switching costs. The booming
online marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart etc. also provide access to brands
perceived as luxury at discounted rates thus increasing the substitutes.
4. Buyer Power: Buyers have bargaining power in the unorganised markets but no
bargaining power for the brands at medium cost level or higher. Also with the
growing trend of specialised watches for different occasions/events/places,
buyers are beginning to own multiple watches which adds to the buyer power. The
buyer has multiple brand/model options for a particular budget with readily
available information on them to make his decision easier.
5. Supplier Power: Most of the brands in the Indian market manufacture their own
brands excluding foreign brands who import their watches. Every watch brand has
two units for production: a manufacturing unit and an assembly unit. This kind of
backward integration gives little power in the hand of suppliers. High volumes of
watches work in the favour of suppliers though. Training and development costs
of is not very high thereby reducing the switching costs for the companies.

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 B. SWOT Analysis

Strengths:
Weaknesses:
High Youth appeal,
Over-reliance on brand power of Titan,
High penetration in urban market,
Controversial Ad campaigns,
Catchy ad campaigns,
Highly targeted audience,
Medium-level prices,
Less no. of designs specifically for women
Reliability of Titan,

Fastrack
Watches
Opportunities: Threats:
Target low age office crowd, Online players offering high discounts,
Increase no. of designs for women, low costs restricts quality levels,
Penetrate into semi-urban markets, Cannibalization by Titan
Can come up wth seasonal collections

III. Segmentation

The Indian watch market is estimated to be of 65% organized sector and 35% unorganized
sector. Fastrack watches are available in both the online and offline markets.

Fastrack generally follows a niche marketing segment. It is so because it targets a specific age
group of people and has a specific price range.

1. Demographic segmentation: The market can be divided on the basis of the variables
like gender, occupation, age, religion.
o Based on gender: The watches have been made for both males and females.
o Based on age and life cycle: The watches are being sold specifically for the
people of 15-25 age group.
2. Psychographic segmentation: The market can be divided into segments that are
based on personality, lifestyle, motivation.
o Based on lifestyle: The expectations from a product are based on the lifestyle of
the product. The age group prefers a trendy, fashionable product.
o Based on personality: The personality of the buyers is reflected in their personality
and personal choices. The age group that is targeted for this product has certain
specific characteristics that sets them apart from the rest. The product has been

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 designed to be individualistic and with a lower cost so that these can be easily
changed. This makes the product appealing to the customers personality.
3. Behavioural segmentation: The market can be divided on the basis of the behaviour
that customers perceive and show to a product.
o Based on occasions: The occasion where the product is to be used varies the
buying preferences of the customers. Fastrack watches are preferred for informal
occasions.
o Based on benefits: The durability and customer satisfaction helps in buying
preference of the product. Fastrack watches are sturdy and durable.

IV. Targeting

Titan has almost 65% market share of the organized watch market in the country. Fastrack is
targeting people in the age group of 15-25. This makes the group large enough to sell their
products and define themselves specifically for one potential number. There is a lot of
difference between this segment and the one higher than this as the age group tries to follow
some characteristics which differentiate the target group compared to the other groups
consisting of other age groups.

According to the survey done, 32.6% of the respondents feel that the design is the most
important factor while buying a watch. Fastrack through its constantly changing and
upgrading styles tends to target this preference of the customers. According to the survey,
around 44.3% of the respondents stated that they would buy a watch within a price limit of
Rs.2000. Fastrack tries to keep itself within this range.

V. Positioning

Fastrack has been brought in by Titan for a new and young customer. Its vision is to become
a complete fashion brand for the youth. The age segment of 15-25 years has been defined as
the core audience of Fastrack. These customers are individualistic, bold, fashionable and non-
conformist. A lot of advertisements by Fastrack have been in the tongue-in-cheek pattern
whereby the idea of an ironic behaviour is displayed. The company has been producing a
range of aspirational products produced specifically for this group. For this, new products that
vary in shape, in colours, in styles are being manufactured. Another reason is that the number

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of repeat purchases made by a customer keeps on increasing as they tend to buy more and
more of similar products. By being a regular customer, the seller gains an idea about what is
expected from it by the buyers. This helps them in producing better products.

According to our survey, 35.7% of the respondents feel that the style quotient is the most
preferable thing of the product. The survey also states that 34.3% feel the youth appeal of
the product is very important.

Perceptual Mapping of Fastrack with respect to other brands:

Luxury/Formal look
Rolex

HMT

Timex Swatch

Titan

Low Cost
Fastrack Police High Cost

Sporty/Casual Look

VI. Product

Three levels of Product

1. The core product being sold to the consumer is a time keeping instrument.
2. Fastrack offers a wide variety of features in its watches. The below attributes are all
combined to deliver the actual product (Fastrack watch).
Display Fastrack makes both analog and digital watches.
Straps Watches with leather, silicon or steel straps are released.
Features Chronograph, Multi-functional, Day + Date, Dual Time, Water resistant.
Design - Funky shaped dials, vibrant colours.

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 3. Fastrack usually offers additional services like 1-year warranty, 707 watch care centres
and after sales services to create additional values to its customers and these benefits
form the augmented product.

Fastrack watches fall under the category of shopping products

since they are purchased less frequently and the customer
usually spends time and effort in gathering information and
compares with other brands before buying them. Packaging of
the watches is done in smart and strong tin cans which add
strength and panache.

VII. Price

Fastrack has marketed itself as an affordable youth brand. With more than 50% of Indias
population being under 25 years of age, Titan carved out this
sub brand primarily to entice this untapped young customer
segment which includes college going students and early
jobbers. With most of the fashion accessories not being in the
reach of the teenagers due to higher prices, Fastrack saw an
opportunity and priced its watches to attract the young first-time watch buyers. The results
of our survey also reveal that 72.9% of the respondents were willing to spend less than Rs.
4000 on watches.

Keeping in view the price constraints and the possible inducement of its customers through
unique products, Fastrack has been using a market penetration strategy and has been coming
up with unique models with offbeat dials to attract a considerable amount of young
customers and increase its market share in the middle level market of the Indian wrist watch
industry.

Fastrack follows a customer value based pricing approach and comes up with watches in the
price range of Rs.650 - Rs. 4995 and has been conceived as a value for money product by most
of its customers. It announces discount offers as part of its price adjustment strategy to
target market expansion or inventory reduction. Fastrack also offers exchange schemes to its
customers as part of which it takes the old watch from the customers and provides a new
watch at a discount of upto 30%.

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Price Elasticity Considerations:

Fastrack watches are shopping products that are priced low to cater to the youth and
middle level customers.
Though substitutes are available, its low price and innovative designs act as
differentiating factors.

Fastrack has been able to grab a market share of almost 35% out of the 50% youth population
in the country with its effective pricing strategies.

VIII. Placement

Fastrack has over the years adopted a multichannel distribution system in order to reach out
to maximum number of customers. It primarily relies on the below channels for distribution
of its watches.

11000+ dealer outlets handled by its distributors. (Indirect marketing channels)

Titans exclusive business outlets (Direct marketing channel)
Major Multi-brand outlets like Central, ShoppersStop, etc. (Indirect marketing
channel)
E-commerce sites and its own online portals (Direct marketing channel)

Titan, being the fifth largest watch manufacturer in the world, has over the years built an
extensive retail network having 65 distributors who handle 11000 retail multi-brand dealer
outlets in 2500 towns. Titan has the largest retail network in India and boasts of 1293
exclusive stores with over 1.74 million square feet of retail space. Fastrack leverages the
advantage of its parent companys retail distribution network, and retails its watches through
Fastrack, Helios and World of Titan stores apart from the multi-brand outlets and dealers. It
has already set up 164 exclusive stores across India and continues to focus on the expansion
and upgradation of its outlets in order to increase the reach of its watches.

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Fastrack intends to constantly expand its sales and marketing coverage and follows an
intensive distribution strategy.

IX. Promotion

Since its inception, Fastrack has constantly sent out a clear message that it is a cool, irreverent,
rebellious and eternally young brand. It has been positioning itself as a stylish brand for the
youth and trying to connect with them emotionally with its quirky, bold and tongue-in-cheek
ad campaigns. It has promoted itself as a brand with a young and free spirit by coming up with
out-of-the-box designs and funky colours at affordable prices and has succeeded in evolving
into one of the most loved youth fashion brand in India.

Fastrack has been using the pull strategy by enticing its customers to buy its products using
innovative and catch ad campaigns through TV commercials, print ads and social media
interactions. It has adopted the below promotion mix to persuasively communicate customer
value and build customer relationships.

Advertising: Fastrack has over the years concentrated on constantly coming up with
bold and unusual ad campaigns, in print, social and digital media (through television
commercials), in order to create a buzz among the youth and spread the brand
awareness. It has also been advertising using bill boards in areas having a higher

concentration of the urban youth and in the vicinity of educational institutions to

promote its brand. Its advertising strategies, though provocative and controversial,
have succeeded in improving brand visibility. The results of our survey also reiterate
the fact that its ad campaigns helped publicize the brand. We have asked 140 people
in the age group of 15-30 years about how they got to know about Fastrack watches
and 49.6% of them mentioned that the TV commercials introduced them to the brand.
Some of its campaigns that have struck a chord with the young audience are Move
On, How many do you have?, Sorry for what?, Mature is In.., LiveIn, Keep

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 Trippin and Just Be. 75% of the people who took our survey also claimed to have
remembered the Move On campaign more.
Direct Marketing and Public Relations: Fastrack has adopted the social media earlier
than its competitors and managed to pull off successful campaigns on Twitter and
Facebook. Over 9.2 million have liked its Facebook page and over 0.125 million follow
its twitter handle to keep abreast with its ever increasing and improving product line
and promotion campaigns. It has also actively promoted its new launches from its
online portal fastrack.in. The company has affectively used the social media and its
online portals and blogs to forge good relationships with its customers through its
blogs, exciting contests and opinion polls.

Sales Promotion: Fastrack often comes up with short term incentives like offering
discounts in the range of 20-40% during the festive seasons to encourage the sale of
its watches and to further penetrate into the market.

Brand Ambassadors: Fastrack had celebrities like Narain Karthikeyan, John Abraham,
Virat Kohli and Genelia DSouza endorse its brand to appeal to its target group of
vibrant, young teenagers and college going communities.

X. Recommendations
Fastrack is already a very popular brand in Urban areas where social media is
prevalent. But Fastrack will need to use other marketing techniques to penetrate
the semi-urban market where there is lesser social media exposure. Fastrack

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 should go for traditional marketing in these areas or come up with more stores in
such areas. Also, in order to appeal to the more conventional semi urban areas,
Fastrack will need to tone down their provocative and quirky advertising.
Move On was a wildly popular advertising and social media campaign in 2010
which got the attention of the Urban youth as also evident from our survey where
75% of the participants were able to recollect this campaign. Now, with
furthermore expansion in social media, it will only make sense for Fastrack to bring
the Ad campaign back.
Fastrack should align itself with the changing trends in watch industry. For e.g.
Currently there is an increase in the demand for Chronograph watches which
Fastrack needs to identify and introduce.
As the youth gradually move from college to jobs, a Fastrack watch currently does
not have models suitable for office wear on the trendier side. Fastrack can come
up with a line of watches which are trendy but suitable for office life as well which
can target the age-group of 22 30.

XI. References
a. http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/fastrack-eyes-rs-
1000-cr-turnover-in-3-years-110082000063_1.html
b. http://www.indiantelevision.com/mam/marketing/brands/q2-2016-ad-exp-
down-305-percent-watches-sales-grow-jewellery-pulls-down-titan-s-
numbers-151114
c. http://www.businessinsider.in/WatchOut-For-The-
Watch/articleshow/33775564.cms
d. http://www.livemint.com/Consumer/Jr0QL7AGZEnXEBp6xB6DYN/Fastrack-
eyes-sales-of-1000-crore-this-year.html
e. http://www.indiasocial.in/fastrack-fans/
f. http://www.afaqs.com/news/story/42819_Fastrack-Bold-Statements
g. http://www.titan.co.in/hot-time-fastrack
h. http://www.adageindia.in/marketing/cmo-strategy/fastrack-gets-a-notch-
bolder-with-new-campaign/articleshow/51161541.cms
i. http://www.titan.co.in/company-profile
j. http://www.titan.co.in/TitanEcom/corporate/pdflinks/Investors%20Meet/2016/
Q1%20FY%2016-17%20Investor%20presentation_Final.pdf
k. http://www.titan.co.in/control/fastrackStory
l. http://www.fastrack.in

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