A Report On

“STUDY OF INDIAN WRIST WATCH INDUSTRY AND

REPOSITIONING STRATEGY OF TITAN WATCHES”

Submitted By
Mangesh V. Girsawle
 INTRODUCTION
THEORY & CONCEPT
“A BUSINESS HAS TWO AND ONLY TWO- BASIC FUNCTIONS MARKETING
AND INNOVATION”.
PETER DRUCKER
The rapid pace of change and intense competitive pressure in today's marketplace
demand that brands continuously innovate and reinvent themselves to maintain their
relevance and market position. In this context, brand repositioning and other
revitalization strategies have become a business imperative for battling brand erosion.
The appeal of brand repositioning is further heightened by the rising costs and high risk
associated with launching a new brand.
Brand repositioning has received little attention in the marketing literature and
has mostly been treated as a variation of brand positioning. Biel, for example, has defined
brand positioning as "building (or rebuilding) an image for a brand". The goal of
positioning and repositioning strategies relates to the management of consumers'
perceptions. However, positioning focuses on the creation of brand associations -
consumers' perceptions of the attributes that differentiate the brand from competitive
offers – while repositioning also implies managing existing brand associations. The
unique challenge of a repositioning strategy, thus, lies in rejuvenating the brand image to
make it relevant in an evolving environment, while honoring the brand equity heritage.
Repositioning can be required as the market changes and new opportunities
occur. Through repositioning the company can reach customers they never intended
to reach in the first place. If a brand has been established at the market for some
time and wish to change their image they can consider repositioning, although one of the
hardest actions in marketing is to reposition a familiar brand.
According to Solomon, position strategy is an essential part in the marketing
efforts because companies have to use the elements in the marketing mix to influence the
customers understanding of the position. During the movement from something less
attractive and relevant towards a more attractive and relevant position several of strategic
choices has to be made. The ones responsible for the repositioning have to evaluate why a
reposition is necessary, and if the offer is the one that will change or just the brand name.
There are several risk factors that have
to be taken into consideration when preparing for a repositioning of the offering or
the brand. During repositioning, the risk of losing the credibility and reliability is high and
the need for a thorough strategy is therefore necessary to avoid this occurrence. Some
analyst argue that to successfully reposition a establish brand name is almost impossible
because repositioning of a brand can make the most loyal customer to switch brand. But,
in some circumstances a repositioning is necessary to gain credibility if the brand is
eroded. Whenever a reposition is in question it has to be of relevance from a customer
perspective, is this achievable? Some brands will on no account be thought on as a luxury
brand and therefore an attempt to reposition will only damage the brand image or the
actual company.
Numerous failed attempts at brand repositioning testify to the difficulty of
developing and implementing such a tactic. For example, while the soft drink brand,
Mountain Dew has remained relevant to the youth market through continuous
repositioning in its thirty years of existence, Levis' Jeans has been losing market share to
newcomers such as The Gap, despite numerous campaigns designed to
reposition the brand as trendy.
The strategic importance of brand repositioning in preserving and enhancing
brand equity, coupled with the mixed results of repositioning attempts, underscores the
need to develop a better understanding of the dynamics of brand repositioning.
Specifically, questions of whether, when and how brands should be repositioned need to
be addressed.
Objectives of This Study

1. To study the current scenario of Indian wrist watch industry.

2. To review the brand positioning strategies of different sub-brands of Titan
Watches.
3. To analyze the brand repositioning strategies of Titan watches.
4. To study consumer awareness and perception about the brand repositioning
Company Profile

4.1 Overview
Titan Industries was established in 1984 as a joint venture between the Tata
Group and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation. The company brought
about a paradigm shift in the Indian watch market, offering quartz technology with
international styling, manufactured in a state-of-the-art factory at Hosur, Tamil Nadu.
Leveraging its understanding of different segments in the watch market, the company
launched a second independent watch brand-Sonata, as a value brand to those seeking to
buy functionally styled watches at affordable prices. In addition it focused on the youth
with its third brand – Fastrack. It has also premium fashion watches by acquiring a
license for global brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Hugo Boss, while. It has also in its
portfolio its first Swiss Made watch brand – Xylys.
In 1995, the company diversified into jewellery under the brand – Tanishq to
capitalize on a fragmented market operating with no brands in urban cities. In 2005, the
company launched its second Jewellery brand, Gold Plus, for capitalizing on the
opportunity in small towns and rural India.

The company has now diversified into fashion Eyewear by launching Fastrack
Eye-Gear sunglasses, as well as Prescription Eyewear. The Company leveraged its
manufacturing competencies and branched into Precision Engineering Products and
Machine Building from 2003.
Today, Titan Industries is India's leading manufacturer of watches and jewellery
employing 3,800 people. Titan and Tanishq are among the most admired brands in their
categories.

4.2 Products
The company manufactures over 8 million watches per annum and has a
customer base of over 80 million. It has manufacturing and assembly operations at Hosur,
Dehradun, Roorkee and Baddi in Himachal Pradesh and an ECB plant in Goa. Its main
products are:

• Watches: Currently manufactures four main watch brands viz.Titan for the
premium segment,Fastrack – focused on the youth and trendy fashion
space,Sonata for the mass market andXylys for the premium market. The Titan
brand architecture comprises several sub-brands, each of which is a leader in its
segment. Notable among them are: Titan Edge – The world's slimmest watch
which stands for the philosophy of "less is more"; Titan Raga – the feminine and
sensuous accessory for today's woman,Nebula - crafted in solid gold and precious
stones and several other collections likeWall Street, Heritage, Regalia, Octane,
Orion, Diva, Zoop, WWF and the

Aviator series, all of which form a part of the Titan wardrobe. Sonata is today
India's largest watch selling brand and is priced between Rs 295/- and Rs 1200/-.
The company's first Swiss Made watch – Xylys is for the hi-end connoisseur and
new age achiever. It also markets Tommy Hilfiger watches under a licensing
arrangement and is introducing Hugo Boss. Today, the Titan portfolio has about
65% of the domestic market share in the organized watch market.

The company has25 5 exclusive showrooms christened 'World of Titan', making it

amongst the largest chains in its category. Titan watches are sold through over
12,000 outlets in over 2,500 cities and internationally in over 30 countries,
primarily in the Middle-East and Asia Pacific. Its after-sales-service is itself a
benchmarked operation with a network of 750 service centers and amongst the
world's fastest turnaround times. The company has a world-class design studio for
watches and accessories.

• Jewellery: Tanishq is India's largest and fastest growing jewellery brand with
 a premium range of gold jewellery studded with diamonds or colored gems and a
wide range in 22kt pure gold. Platinum jewellery is also a part of the product
range Tanishq is one of India's largest specialty retailers and is

transforming the jewellery market in India10 2 boutiques in72 cities across the
country. ‘Gold Plus' is the recent retail offering for the mass market with plain
gold jewellery selling through19 stores in19 towns. The jewellery division has its
own design studio.

• Eye wear: Titan Eye+ is currently on a pilot mode with 5 stores in 2 cities and
has sunglasses under Fastrack brand and prescription eyewear consisting of
Frames, Lenses, Sunglasses, Accessories and Contact Lenses of in-house brands
and other premium brands.

4.3 Precision Engineering

The company's Precision Engineering Division supplies precision components to
the avionics and the automotive industry. It also manufactures dashboard clocks as OEM
to car manufacturers in Europe and America. The division also provides fully integrated
Automation solutions

4.4 Awards

The company has been awarded the following distinctions:

• Being named the No.1 Brand in the Consumer Durables category in the "Brand
Equity" Survey of The Economic Times, a leading Indian financial daily.
• The Titan Design Team won the Young Design Entrepreneur of the Year award at
the design awards instituted by the National Institute of Design and Business
World, a leading Indian magazine. The team has won 7 accreditations also.

• Both Titan and Tanishq have been adjudged "Most Admired Brands" as well as
"Retailer of the Year" by Images Fashion Forum in consecutive years
• Retail Asia and Media Magazine – Singapore adjudged Titan Industries as
• amongst the leading Retailing Companies in India.
• Titan has won the Brand Leadership award at the India Brand Summit.
• The Time Products Division of the company was awarded the JRD QV Award in
2006.
Rational behind the study
Hypothesis
Scope and Limitation :

Limitations

 The study is confined to Navi Mumbai area only

 There is possibility of sampling errors in the study
 The responses of the consumers may not be genuine
 The questions included in the questionnaire may not be comprehensive.
Research Methodology
Strategies of Titan Watches.
This study would help titan industry to understand the gaps in its communication strategy
regarding brand repositioning exercises and the further measures to be taken for effective
marketing communications.

2.3 Sources of Data Collection

The relevant data was collected from both primary sources and secondary
sources. The starting point of my information gathering has been the secondary sources
such as internet, books, and journals and so on.

First, I made a study of the brand positioning and repositioning strategies of Titan
watches through secondary sources such as internet, insurance magazines, and journals
and so on. Then I conducted a consumer awareness survey on brand repositioning
strategies undertaken by Titan watches in recent times.

2.4 Sampling Procedure

A sample of 50 consumers who are brand loyal to Titan watches since more than
a year and in the age group of 20 – 30 years have been considered for this study. As Titan
has taken up brand repositioning strategies since July 2008, consumers who have seen the
previous and new campaign have been targeted
2.5 Primary Data Collection
Data was collected through an interview schedule, consisting of both open
ended and closed ended questions. The schedule covered parameters like reasons for
consumers’ brand preference; recollection of earlier tagline and advertisement, brand
ambassador of Titan; awareness of new tagline and campaign featuring Aamir Khan, new
designs and so on. The data was collected through e- mails, telephone contacts and one-
to-one personal interviews.
Data Analysis and Interpretation
Titan sub-brand owned
This was a multiple choice question where respondents were asked to choose sub-brands
of Titan which they possess. It was found that around 72% of the
consumers in the age group of 20-30 years possess Fastrack brand, 14% Sonata, 6%
Raga, 4% Nebula and only 2% own WWF and Edge.

Figure 4: Titan sub-brands possessed by respondents

Period of use
The respondents were asked to mention since how long they have been brand
loyal to Titan. This was an open ended question and hence various responses were
received. The minimum period of use was set as one year, as mentioned earlier, while the
maximum period of use was determined. For convenience, the different responses are
categorized into three: 1year – 4years, 4years – 7years and 7years – 10years
 64% of the respondents fall into first category, i.e., they are using Titan watch in
the range of one to four years. 24% respondents are in second category and the rest 12 %
are using it for more than seven years.

Figure 5: Period of Titan watch’s use

Reasons for brand loyalty

The respondents were asked to select the reasons from the options given for their
preference for Titan watches. For this question, multi-responses were received from the
respondents.
 Table 1: Reasons for brand preference

Reasons No. of Respondents (Out of Total

50)
Attractive designs 39
Reasonable Price 7
Brand image 22
Good quality 25

Figure 6: Reasons for brand preference

Recall of Titan’s tagline

 Titan’s tagline, before brand repositioning exercise has been undertaken, was
“What’s your style”. This tagline was adopted during first rebranding exercise in 2004.
The respondents were asked to indicate whether they remember the tagline in
dichotomous way, i.e., as “yes” or “no”. It was found that only 22% of the respondents
were able to recall the tagline and the remaining 78% answered in negative

47. Figure 7: Recall of Titan’s original tagline

Titan’s advertisements

Titan advertises its watches in almost all media vehicles. The advertisements
can be seen in TV, magazines, newspaper, hoardings, billboards, radio and so on.
All the 50 respondents have seen the advertisements of Titan watches in various
media. This was a multi-response question and the options given to select were restricted
to TV, magazines, newspapers, hoardings and radio.
The findings of the survey have been summarized in a table as follows:
Table 2: Major Advertisement media

48. Figure 8: Major advertisement media Table

49. figure

Brand Ambassador of Titan

Aamir Khan is the brand ambassador of Titan since 2004. When the respondents
were asked to recollect the same, it was found that 46 of 50 sample size were able to
correctly mention the brand ambassador while the remaining 4 did not give any response
implying that they are not aware of it.
 Figure 9: Awareness of brand ambassador

50. Awareness of new tagline – “Be More”

The survey has revealed that less than half of the total numbers of
respondents (36%) are aware of new tagline.
Figure 10: Awareness of new tagline
New designs of Titan
Titan has launched several new designs in 2008 in its existing collections and as
per its plans introduced new product collections also. The respondents were asked to rate
the new designs as “poor”, “average”, “above average”, “good” and “excellent”.
7 respondents feel that their designs are “excellent”, 39 have rated them as
“good” and 4 have rated as “average”.
Figure 11: Consumer perception of new designs

New Campaign of Titan

The survey has revealed that the percentage of respondents who have seen
the new campaign focussing on “be more” featuring Aamir Khan is 50%.
Figure 12: Awareness of new campaign
Rating of New Campaign
The 50% of the respondents who have seen the new campaign were asked to rate
it with respect to how effective the campaign is in inspiring consumers to have a new
look everyday and be more in lives.
16 out of 25 respondents consider the new campaign to be “highly effective”
while the remaining 9 rated it as “effective”

Figure 13: Consumer perception of new campaign

53. Titan’s exclusive showrooms

The respondents were asked to rate Titan’s exclusive showrooms on 5 point

rating scale – Poor, Average, Above Average, Good and Excellent. The factors related to
showrooms that were provided to the respondents for rating are – store ambience, sales
personnel, after sales service and display of watches.
Figure 14: Consumer perception of store ambience

36 of the 50 respondents have rated store ambience as “Good” and 7 each rated as
“Above Average” and “Excellent”. This proves that store ambience plays an important
role in consumer perception of service quality.
 Figure 15: Consumer perception of sales personnel

With respect to sales personnel, 35 respondents rated them as “Good”, while 4

each rated as “Poor” and “Average”, 7 respondents gave rating of “Above Average”.

Figure 16: Consumer Perception about after sales service

 In the survey, 31 out of 50 respondents rated after sales service as” Good”, 4 each
as “Average”, “Above Average” and “Excellent” while 7 respondents rated as “Poor”.

Figure 17: Consumer perception of Display of watches

Most of the respondents have given high ratings to the display of watches in
Titan showroom. 22 respondents rated it as “Excellent”, 24 respondents as “Good” and
only 4 respondents gave rating of “Average”.

Figure 18: Overall perception about Titan showrooms

 The respondents were also asked to give overall rating to Titan’s exclusive
showrooms. It was found that out of total 50 respondents, 30 rated as “good” while the
remaining considered the showrooms to be “excellent”.
Around 50% of the respondents rated all the variables related to Titan’s
exclusive showrooms as “good”.
Suggestions given by the respondents to improve brand image .

56. Varied responses were received for this question. All the responses have

• been summarized as follows:

• Introduce more trendy and innovative designs
• Focus on niche markets such as working men and women
• Spread awareness about availability of watches in lower segments as most of
• the consumers feel that Titan brand is synonymous with premium watches.
• Take steps to change consumer perception that Titan watches are high
• priced.
• Improve after sales service.
Conclusion

58. The suggestions to improve consumer awareness about brand repositioning

strategy of Titan are as follows:

• To increase its visibility, Titan Company can sponsor events similar to fashion shows in
which all latest designs launched are displayed. This would have multiplier effect as the
latest designs launched by the company get noticed by different segments of the
customers in varied ways.
• Tie –up with FM radio channels for reminder advertisements and informing
customers about various sales promotion offers from time-to-time.
• Invest more in R&D as customer expectations are changing rapidly. Though Titan has
got more product collections, it should focus on introducing more varieties in already
existing product collections. In other words, having a limited but more depth in product
collections would be more advantageous.
• Introduce exclusive collection for working women which is more contemporary
and complements both traditional and western wear.
• Majority of the population in India live in rural areas. So, showrooms should be set up
at places nearer to them. Introduce cheaper and rough use watches for this segment.
• After sales service has to be improved. That is, the process of servicing and repairing of
watches should be made faster. This can be done by ensuring the spare parts availability
and training all sales personnel in Titan showrooms to undertake these tasks
• Tie up with international watch brands and make them available locally.
• Make use of internet to spread awareness among consumers about the
brand.
Bibliography

• www.marketingprofs.com
• www.brandingstrategyinsider.com
• www.thehindubusinessline.com
• www.economictimes.com
• Marketing Management
Peter Drucker
Apendix