BRAND-DOSSIER

A PROJECT ON TITAN WATCHES

Submitted to: Prof. S. Govindrajan

Submitted by Group 5: Anil (B11005) Gurcharan (B11021) Mona (B11028) Sabyasachi (B11037) Nandyala Sing Kumari Sahoo

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S.NO A 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 B 1 2 3 4 5 6 C 1 2 3 4 5 PHASE -1 EARLY HISTORY

CONTENTS

PAGE NO 3-20 4 5 5 7 13 16 17 20 21-27 22 24 24 24 25 25 28-39 29 29 31 35 39

EVOLUTION OVER TIME INITIAL POSITIONING AND REPOSITIONING ADVERTISING SALES PROMOTION AND SEGMENTATION GENERIC COMPETATION DISTRIBUTION STRATEGIES FURURE DIRECTION OF BRAND BIBILOGRAPHY PHASE -2 HYPOTHESIS LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED TO BE COLLATED FROM THE RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS OF DATA COLLECTION SAMPLING SIZE AND SAMPLING PLAN METHODS OF DATA ANALYSIS QUESTIONNAIRE PHASE -3 HYPOTHESIS HYPOTHESIS-1 EVALUATION HYPOTHESIS-2 EVALUATION HYPOTHESIS-3 EVALUATION NET TAKE AWAY

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PHASE 1

Literature Review of the brand

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EARLY HISTORY OF THE BRAND AND ITS EVOLUTION OVER THE TIME:

EARLY HISTORY:
Before the establishment of HMT (Hindustan Machine Tools Ltd.) as a dominant player in the Indian watch market, India was solely dependent on imports to meet the internal demands. However, establishment of HMT as a leading player in the wrist watch segment in 1960s changed the scenario. In post liberalization India, the market stood to witness intensive competitions between foreign and Indian manufacturers like Titan, Rado, and Rolex etc. A number of watch makers came and went .Only few of them made significant inroads in the watch making industry. Titan Industries is one of those very few players. TITAN watches, the initial brand of TITAN INDUSTRIES, the innovator of so called Quartz concept, came into existence in 1987 in Chennai as an outcome of a Joint Venture between TATA(Questar Investment limited) and TIDCO(Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Limited).The man behind this idea was Xerxes Desai. When Titan came in the market, it was the third watch maker company in India after HMT and Allwyn. At that time HMT had the monopoly in Indian watch market. HMT was known for automatic and robust hand wound watches. We can say that HMT used to manufacture mechanical watches. A customer had not many choices because HMT didnt focus much on style and variety in watches. At that time, TITAN came into the limelight introducing Quartz technology with international styling in watches. Titan watches were sleek, beautiful, and light weighted and crafted in a foreign designs which was much awaited in the Indian market. It was a much planned execution by Titan to capture the market share, it was a hit on the inherent weakness in the strength of the market leader, to which the giant had no answer, and hence Titan overpowered the market leader and overthrew them within few years.

EVOLUTION OVER THE TIME:

It entered the market as a beautifully crafted wrist watch which provided customer with the sense of high standard of living and status. It gave them a wide pool of 150 designs to choose from. Initially they started with four subs [brands as: FASTRACK, SPECTRA, EXACTA, CLASSIQUE. But over the time they came out with newer models so as to keep the customers loyal to their brand. A customer never got bored in visiting to a TITAN showroom every time he/she had to purchase a watch for himself /herself. Today it has been more than two decades that TITAN is in the market it has consistently evolved out with new collections, designs of wrist watches. For instance today you can see a number of choices in product where you can choose from like TITAN EDGE, TITAN RAGA, TITAN REGALIA, TITAN PURPLE, TITAN SPECTRA etc and each of these are further segregated into different models.

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Not only that, we can also see latest models and design under this are coming out within every two months for instance the latest model being HTSE(High Tech Self Energised) watches that run on light. This particular product is a type of its ilk. It gets charged by light and a very innovative idea that has been converted to reality with these kinds of watches coming into existence. Now just look at the evolution, from a simple, beautiful watch to a watch which runs on light.

A PHOTO OF HTSE WATCH AND AN OLD MODEL IN INITIAL DAYS:

EVOLUTION CLASSIQUE HTSE WATCH

B) INITIAL POSITIONING AND REPOSITIONING:

As seen it was pretty clear for the brand TITAN that it penetrated the Indian market with a view of bringing a change in the thoughts and lifestyle of the common persons life. The brand represented itself as much more design oriented and having a wide range of beautiful collections of smart and trendy watches rather than having robust dials on a wrist. Now let us look at the positioning and the repositioning phase.

POSITIONING PHASE OF THE BRAND:

As TITAN came to Indian market it had a very clear perception of setting its ideology in form of a stylish watch maker, having a design of a foreign mode, and they positioned themselves in the mind and soul of the common INDIAN as GIFTING WATCHES. They pioneered this idea, the initial advertisement having an essence of Gifting coupled with trendy Mozart music which appealed to the mass. They made themselves appeared as a maker of trendy, beautiful sleek wrist watches in front of those people who were fed up with ugly time machines they were using for a very long time. The brand really boosted the imagination of the mass with a sense of a wearing a wrist watch to that of having a kind of a class amongst each other, but, before that it was just a need which was to be fulfilled and nothing else.

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Now as the wrist watches got sleek, beautiful, much more modern both for men and women it became a good option of GIFTING and whole new market cropped up in no time in the Indian Domain. So it came out as huge opportunity for TITAN to make a good piece of revenue for them in the Indian market by the time competitors came into the fight.

SOME OF THE MODELS WHICH WERE CONSIDERED TO BE A GIFTING MATERIAL.

REPOSITIONING PHASE OF THE BRAND:

Everything appeared favourable for TITAN watches until the competition grew commercially in the lower segments of the market, and TITAN watches in order to get hold in the lower segment made a mistake which cost them dearly. They tried to play the game of volume that is having big market share than others. Moreover this step had to be taken because now they lacked in innovation. Customers were getting bored with their "Gifting Process. Now the mistake was introduction of the sub brand under TITAN watches of SONATA. Sonata was indeed made for lower market competition with MAXIMA, HMT so as to get hold in lower segments which indeed was successful venture, but it came with a price which TITAN paid dearly. It was supposed that TITAN WATCHES were only for premium segments and not for lower segments, it had a class and not for others than affluent, but TITAN-Sonata broke the image of mother company as a premium watch maker to a common watch maker, resulting in disowning the child Sonata from mother companys shelter. Today Sonata is advertised by TATA and not TITAN. The brand was in a serious trouble because of degradation of their image in the eye of public. They wanted to get hold of that premium segment anyhow. Then they came up with the idea of repositioning the brand in a different way so as to be there again where they actually belonged to. It was very much apparent that public was bored with their GIFTING WATCHES concept now something new was required. Repositioning is defined as rebuilding an image for a brand. Titan decided to reposition itself because of the following reasons: 1. If a company produces the product in a same way a sense of boredom, sets in the minds of consumers. Same case was with Titan too. Since its inception, Titan was working on the same formula. It needed some innovation and some freshness. 2. Modern customer is more aware about the new products in the market. He easily switches over to another brand if existing brand is not satisfying him. Titan understood the fact that todays marketplace is customer centric.

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3. Increasing competition by new players forced Titan to struggle for its survival. Then, brand repositioned itself as a fashion accessory preaching HOW MANY YOU HAVE? Rather than gifting it to others. They in order to make over the premium segment image introduced a wide varieties of new ,expensive and beautiful range of watches such as EDGE, STEEL, DASH, NEBULA, RAGA, FASTRACK and others. It injected freshness and same sense of high class segmentation of the brand in the thoughts of general mass. It also repositioned itself in the way of matching it with your clothes so as to have as many as one can. Their advertisement also has the caption HOW MANY YOU HAVE? Which is being endorsed by AAMIR KHAN, their brand ambassador?

IMAGES OF THE ADVERTISEMENT WHICH SHOWED TITAN A FASHION ACCESSORY

C) ADVERTISEMENT SALES PROMOTION AND SEGMENTATION

STRATEGY FOLLOWED BY THE BRAND.

ADVERTISEMENT SALES PROMOTION:

In order to keep its customers loyal to the brand every company should consistently keep doing sales promotion so as to make existing customers feel that the product which they have purchased is still advertising and its receiving a good response in the market and hence they have purchased the right product. Moreover its not only about the existing customers but

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also for the new set of prospective customers that should be made aware of the new launches and existing products of the brand.

Now look at the sales promotion or advertisement process followed by TITAN watches, it all started in initial level with Mozarts 25 th symphony and was most popular tune used in advertisement and is still remembered. It had a tagline YOU OWE IT TO YOURSELF. It was a real success for it injected a sense of high class commodity and a must have kind of a consumer durable. Slowly as time proceeded they came up with second advertisement which showed a husband presenting it to his wife on anniversary and thus very intelligently capturing its initial essence of GIFTING WATCHES. It had a tagline saying REDISCOVER THE JOY OF GIVING, again hitting the bulls eye and thus more brand awareness took place. In this way they kept on adding new occasions for gifting the watches to each other thus making a good reputation of them in the premium segment.

A change was needed, it was very much required to change the view of customers. Though they succeeded with lower market segments product but they lost the premium ad high standard position. Thus something new and big was required so as to grab the markets attention. They came up with the idea of launching premium and costly watches with their new brand ambassador Mr. AAMIR KHAN, the well known face of bollywood. The reason for bringing in Aamir is mentioned below as told by COO of TITAN in 2004.

The association with Aamir Khan was mainly due to the brand values that both Titan and the actor are associated with. We are both known for our commitment and obsession towards perfection, quality, innovativeness, setting new trends and our market leadership." - Bijou Kurien, Chief Operating Officer (Watches), Titan Industries Ltd. in 2004.
Then a new paradigm of advertising and sales promotion started it showed that Aamir is about to leave for somewhere and his servant comes to him and shows a box containing some watches and to select one as he hasnt put the watch on his wrist yet. As he could not decide anything he takes away the entire box. Here also the paradigm change in brands essence from Gifting to Fashion accessory is carved very smartly now it was not about gifting but about having as many as you can. It really made an impact in the market. As the idea was a hit TITAN wanted to bank upon the opportunity like anything and hence they came up with a new product down the line TITAN EDGE the slimmest watch in universe and the advertisement was like as Aamir wears it too much attention and hype comes into play. There are photographers everywhere clicking photos and it had a tagline OVER ATTENTION COMES WHEN YOU WEAR IT. What a marvellous idea which was encashed as slimmest watch in the universe gives you all the attention.

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For special occasions

Aamir in EDGE

SEGMENTATION STRATEGY FOLLOWED:

Now coming to market segmentation strategies adopted by TITAN WATCHES was phenomenal because they had done their homework on a proper basis. Generally market segmentation is nothing but a method by which we can come to know what percentage of mass wants what kind of product based on PRICE, GENDER etc. It is just a way to know how much differentiation in choices prevails based on different criteria in market. Now TITAN broadly segmented their target markets on two criterias:

1)

PRICE. 2) GENDER.
ON THE BASIS OF PRICE AGAIN IT WAS FURTHER SUB DIVIDED INTO THREE PARTS:

a)ELITE OR HIGH CLASS. b)MIDDLE INCOME GROUP. c) LOWER MIDDLE INCOME GROUP.

Now let us decompose this marketing segmentation one by one.

ELITE CLASS:
To start with elite class based on the price factor, it was seen that this group wanted nothing but extremely high end, beautiful, trendy, stylish watches and for them price didnt matter. It is to be remembered that TITAN was expert in this segment so it introduced a variety of collection in high end products namely ARUM and ROYALE having a price band of Rs 20,000/- to 1, 00, 000/- all crafted in gold and precious metal. For these kinds of buyers price tag was not of much importance.

Some of these are shown as:

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TITANTITAN ROYAL

ARUM

MIDDLE INCOME CLASS:

Here people wanted good watches somewhat stylish but not too costly. Indeed price tag was a matter of concern for them. They were willing to pay bucks for good quality but to a limit here the concept of asking everywhere about price was common. Some good examples are like EXACTA, SPECTRA. Some of these are as:

TITAN EXACTA

TITAN SPECTRA

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LOWER MIDDLE INCOME CLASS:

They were the third and lowest segment of the market based on price. For them the watches were just a time keeping device and just a necessity which was to be fulfilled and nothing else. Here the purchase of the product mainly revolved around the price. Their only concern was price. Now examples of these kinds of watches were SONATA, TIMEX etc.

Some are shown below:

SONATA

SEGMENTATION ON THE BASIS OF DIFFERENT AGE GROUP/GENDER:

1. 2. 3. 4. MENS SEGMENT LADIES SEGMENT FOR 18-25 AGE GROUP FOR KIDS

MENS SEGMENT.
It was considered that men didnt had any fantasy for style, looks and beauty in products like watches, but as TITAN entered the market it saw a paradigm change in mens preference over watches. They also wanted stylish, light, beautiful watches than having robust dials on their wrist. So TITAN aimed at men first they introduced a whole lot of different, smart, trendy watches to capture the market. Customers also wanted to have a sense of standard so they preferred premium watches and as an outcome brands like EDGE, STEEL, ROYALE, and ARUM were famous amongst men.

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LADIES SEGMENT.
It was not all about men that TITAN was looking for, but also women, in fact women were the prime target market of TITAN watches after they were done with men. So in order to hold the market they introduced watches like BANDHAN which included both mens and womens watch. They introduced brands like RAGA, PURPLE, SPECTRA, GOLDTONE, CLASSIQUE (WOMEN) and others to capture the market in ladies segment in quartz concept. They introduced again from high range to low range with a touch of sophistication, beauty and class. For instance like:

TITAN TITAN RAGA DIVA

KIARA

FOR YOUTH (15-25).

The other segment was that of youth, the young generation which they wanted to target. So to get hold in this segment TITAN did a recommendable job by introducing brands like FASTRACK, AQUA etc which were welcomed by the youth warm heartedly. Yet again this venture also produced desired results for TITAN. Some are shown as:

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FASTRACK FASTRACK 3972

GTI172

FOR KIDS (7-14).

One thing for sure which was impressible about TITAN watches was their focus in the market and their market segmentation. They had really done their homework well. Now they even didnt leave out kids segment, they introduced brands like ZOOP, DASH. They as expected again hit the bulls eye; it was also good and profitable venture.

For examples some images are shown:

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TITAN TITAN ZOOP

DASH

At the end we can say that TITAN before and after entering the market did a good job, they completely, and accurately surveyed the market; they came to know what was mass sentiment, their needs, and what was expected of them. They had been innovative consistently and always fulfilled what customers wanted. The brand itself having a good knowledge of the market successfully created its market segment under various categories. Here we can say that holistic marketing approach was highlighted. They first explored the value required (what customers wanted), created the value (created the product) and delivered the value (made the product available).

E) ANALYSIS OF THE PRODUCT & GENERIC COMPETITON TO THE BRAND:

Now as we look to the competition to the brand on a generic basis we mean to say a type of competition, where a different product not of same genre as watch but something else which satisfy the same need of the customer in a much more easy and sophisticated way. So generic competition to the watches are: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) MOBILE PHONES LAPTOPS GOLD BRACELET LOCAL BRANDS CHEAP IMPORTS

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Now let us look at each of these generic competitive products on an individual basis: MOBILE PHONES: With the advancement of technologies, new products have come to the market which are very handy, useful and at the same time very important to us. The mobile phones are the biggest innovation of this century in which you can do multiple things important at the same time. Now how can a mobile phone be a generic competitor to watches? It can be because one of the basic features we can find in any simple phone is clock which shows the time. So why one invest a hefty amount just to buy a watch rather than purchasing a mobile phone. By mobile phone every market segment for watches has been affected from lower to higher classes of people have massively gone for mobile phones. Examples are:

LAPTOPS: Now gone are the days when desktop was a craze, today its a laptop which everybody wants to have. Here also it has same time showing facility as mobile phones have, but one can ask how come this is a generic competitor to watches, it is also a generic competitor. For example today a person working in corporate badly needs a laptop or else he loses work advancement to others now instead of doling out money in premium segment of watches he can add this same money with the laptop one and can buy a more advanced version of the same. Here by doing so neither his work gets affected nor he cant see time its pretty much on the laptop.

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Examples are:

GOLD BRACELET: Now according to the repositioning of TITAN watches it is a FASHION ACCESSORY. Hence question arises that if watches here are taken as fashion accessory then why one should pay more than Rs 50,000/ or plus for gold watches rather than having a gold bracelet which is much more stylish, much more fashion oriented. It not only shows your style but also your class to which you belong. Here the premium segment is talked about. Now let see how a bracelet looks like:

For men

For women

LOCAL BRANDS: Market is flooded with the cheap watches made by local brands. Since these watches are very similar to branded watches in looks and styles so they creates an option for a consumer. They are available at very low prices .Also, they come in innumerable varieties. So a consumer prefers to buy 3 non branded watches instead of having 1 branded watch. A consumer applies the use and throws policy here. He thinks that local watches can be frequently changed instead of a branded watch. Just use it and replace it with a new one. There is no need of servicing too. Also these local watches are ubiquitous. You can find them anywhere. So, local brands together eat up a big chunk of market share in wrist watches segment.

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Wrist watches of some local brands

CHEAP IMPORTS: Cheap imported goods from country like China replace the quality products of our own country. Same is the case of wrist watches also. Nowadays Indian market is flooded with the Chinese products and cheap wrist watches are in big demand. There is a mental setup of customer that if he is getting an exported item at a very low expense then why to spend more?

F) STRATEGIES ADOPTED OVER THE TIME BY THE BRAND

TO TACKLE COMPETITION OR PRIME MARKET EXPANSION:

TITAN entered the wristwatch market when Indian watch industry was dominated by local players such as HMT and ALLWYN. 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 stylish, trendy and beautifully crafted quartz designs. In initial days TITAN watches took care to communicate that they are from house of TATA so as to have a good base to start with. TITAN was the first watch company India to project watch as a fashion accessory. TITAN adopted a simple strategy; it offered consumers with wide choices both in terms of style and design backed up by good pricing. To gain the competitive advantage over other players such as TIMEX, CASIO, CITIZEN, WATCH whose products started with a base price 1000, TITAN introduced products for each segment. MASS MARKET: TITAN introduced SONATA for mass market with base price starting from 250 and launched more than 200 models. KIDS MARKET: TITAN introduced DASH for kids YOUTH MARKET: TITAN introduced FAST TRACK especially for younger generation MENS MARKET: TITAN introduced many number of products for mens segment such as EDGE, ORION, AVIATOR, STEEL, AUTOMATIC . ETC WOMENS MARKET: TITAN introduced RAGA, PURPLE watches especially for women

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PREMIUM MARKET: TITAN introduced XYLYS and NEBULA for premium buyers. TITAN recently launched HTSE (High Tech Self Energized) for tech savvy young urban male TITAN has been introducing new designs of watches to attract consumers and ensure they never get bored visiting TITAN shop. They very cleverly segmented market into sub groups so as to understand what is required and by whom? How can we do this as earliest as possible? They totally read the market sentiments and worked upon it. They followed holistic marketing approach and fared well. This is how TITAN has consistently strategized itself in market so as to be ahead in competition.

G)

DISTRIBUTION STRATEGIES FOLLOWED BY THE BRAND:

No matter how much a company is efficient, good at every aspect but still it cannot success if it doesnt use the marketing mix well. Everything is important right from product, price, and promotion but often companies tend to address the other P of marketing and that is place. Your product will only sell if it is available widely. No matter how good your product might be if your distribution is not good you will lose the market to your competitors. Let us see how TITAN went about distribution channels & strategies for their product. TITAN watches are now available in both national and international markets in more than 32 countries around the world. TITAN introduced innovation even in its distribution strategy. In the past watches were mainly sold only in traditional markets like DN Road in Mumbai or RadhaBazar in Kolkata, where most watch dealers were located. As they wanted a full flow in the distribution and in order to show TITAN watches a fashion accessory they tried something different. They had come to know that of the existing 8000 retail outlets were seen as stores and not a separate showroom for TITAN watches. So they tried to setup special showrooms and franchisees for TITAN watches. It was advertised that TITAN wanted franchisees for its product, and they wanted it in a way which should reflect the ambience, the standard, and the feel which should be present in TITAN showrooms. In fact they specially instructed the franchisees about the interiors of the showrooms, because they didnt wanted these showrooms to be like other stores where watches are kept. It was simply meant for display of the watches in a much more sophisticated manner so that the status could be felt of the product. Thus came into existence TIME ZONE and WORLD OF TITAN. MARGINS: As speaking about margins they provided Direct Dealers i.e.; franchisees (TIMEZONE) with a margin of 18% trade discount and 1.5% with cash discount. Since WORLD OF TITAN was a companys showroom it had no margin whatsoever the product was and these margins were upon the purchase of premium segment watches. MBOs were given a less percentage of margins somewhere between 10-11%.

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OUTCOME: As a result today TITAN watches are sold in more than 6000 retail shops all over from 1200 towns. Not only has that it got 140 exclusive showrooms (WORLD OF TITAN) but also 150 TIME ZONE outlets. Needless to say they are backed by wide service network.

A FLOW DIAGRAM SHOWS HOW DISTRIBUTION TAKES PLACE:

MANUFACTURE R

CLEARING & FORWARDING AGENT

WORL D OF TITAN

TIME

COMMO N RETAIL ERS

MULTI BRAND OUTLE TS

ZONE

Customer/Buye r.

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SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT OF TITAN INDUSTRIES: An effective supply chain management is a key for any business, so Titan was no exception to it. Initially its supply chain was simple but as demand of the Titan wrist watches grew the complexity of the companys supply chain also increased. The company produces more than 2,200 types of watches. For this purpose it buys about 10,600 finished watch components from suppliers and assembles them. Its supply chain includes 5 manufacturing plants, 55 distribution areas and 35 vendor locations. To manage such a vast area is not an easy task. So, in order to tightly integrate its entire supply chain and increase its competitive advantage Titan implemented the SAP advanced planning and optimization component of the SAP supply chain management application through its new project connect. This project earned a Customer Excellence Award from SAP in the Business Innovation Category and was recognised by PC Quest magazine for best implementation in India.

H)

SUMMARY OF THE FUTURE DIRECTIONS OF THE BRAND:

After analysing all the aspects of TITAN watches when we come to its future directions a lot of things which are to be done can be seen and as mentioned by current COO Mr. Harish Bhatt, in recent years. He opines that TITAN plans of becoming the third largest manufacturer of the world from fifth largest manufacturer. He states that TITAN wants to have a solid foothold in the premium segment of watch makers as they want to focus more on international markets for getting that 3 rd spot in manufacturing the watch all over the world. He moreover states that playing safe in the national terriers wont be good for the company they should opt for global marketing if they really want to achieve the position which they are targeting.

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For this the company would need a period of up to 2015 and has got an additional capital of Rs 1000 crores for achieving it. Moreover they are looking for much more sophisticated techniques so as not to harm the ecological balance and much more stylish watch which can resemble the status of the person having it. Nevertheless they are aiming for premium segment they will not take a risk with middle income group segments and lower income group segments. But still their main motive remains to capture the global market in its premium segment in much more organised way as they have done in India.

I) BIBLIOGRAPHY:
It has been a real fun for all of us in doing the 1st phase of the brand dossier i.e.; the Literature review of the Brand TITAN WATCHES from TITAN INDUSTRIES. Thank you for providing such an opportunity to us. The entire data used in this Literature Review has been collected from different websites of INTERNET. Here is the list of address used by us for our work 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) http://www.tata.com/company/profile.aspx?sectid=A7QqSsuVi+g= http://www.moneycontrol.com/company-facts/titanindustries/history/TI01 http://communicationforum.blogspot.com/2009/07/evolution-of-titan-watches.html http://www.iupindia.in/709/AE_Case_Study_60.html http://marketingpractice.blogspot.com/2006/01/titan-watches-what-is-your-style.html

6) http://www.indiastudychannel.com/resources/83859-Marketing-Segmentationstrategies-used-by.aspx 7) http://www.citeman.com/850-innovative-distribution/

8)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_Industries

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Lastly the images have been downloaded from official image search engine GOOGLE.

PHASE 2

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Proposal for Primary Research in Kolkata

HYPOTHESES:
A hypothesis is a proposed explanation of the phenomenon. It is a proposed explanation based on a limited source of evidence as a starting point for further investigation. Now with respect to the brand we have taken for our brand dossier TITAN Watches, we would like to present two hypotheses relating to what we have mentioned in the literature review of the brand dossier.

A) WHAT THE GROUP WISHES TO ESTABLISH IN THE PROJECT? HYPOTHESIS 1:

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WATCHES ARE LOSING THEIR IMAGE AS TIME KEEPING DEVICES.

JUSTIFICATION:
Electronic devices such as Mobile phones, Laptops, Music players and such other devices have features of time keeping and these devices are used by the masses now. Thus, we feel that - gone are the days when people used watches for time keeping.

HYPOTHESIS 2: TITAN WATCHES ARE SEEN AS A FASHION ACCESSORY.

JUSTIFICATION:
Titan is concentrating on consumers who would like to use watch as a fashion accessory rather than people who just use it as time keeping devices. Now a days Titan watches are appealing to consumer as a fashion accessory. Thus products such as Fast track, Aviator, Htse for youth, Edge for professionals and XYLYS for high end users are completely backing their strategy.

HYPOTHESIS 3:
AAMIR KHAN IS THE IDEAL BRAND AMBASSADOR FOR TITAN.

JUSTIFICATION:
The traits of Aamir khan such as perfection, innovation and quality of work resemble the characteristics of Titan watches. Moreover, Aamir has a universal appeal that extends to everyone, across age groups, just as Titan watches do. We feel that although stars like Amitabh Bachchan and John Abraham are there for other sub-brands of Titan, it is Aamir Khan whose presence speaks for the brand itself, the traits of Aamir and Titan are considered same hence we feel he is the ideal brand ambassador for Titan.

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The reason of this hypothesis is better covered by the answer given by the then COO of TITAN watches Mr. BIJOU KURIEN in 2004. Here it is:

The association with Aamir Khan was mainly due to the brand values that both Titan and the actor are associated with. We are both known for our commitment and obsession towards perfection, quality, innovativeness, setting new trends and our market leadership. Bijou Kurien, Chief Operating Officer (Watches), Titan Industries Ltd. in 2004.

B) LIST OF INFORMATION REQUIRED TO BE COLLATED FROM THE RESEARCH:

HYPOTHESIS 1:

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1) What are the various devices used for time keeping by users? 2) Are there a majority of users who solely rely on watches?

HYPOTHESIS 2:
1) What are the various items purchased as fashion accessories and does Titan watches feature in them? 2) What are the reasons for purchase of Titan watches?

HYPOTHESIS 3:
1) What are the perceived brand traits of brand Titan in the mind of the consumer? 2) What are the perceived personality traits of Aamir Khan in the minds of the consumer? 3) What is common between Aamir Khan and Titan watches? 4) Are there other personalities who the consumers feel may be able to better represent Titan?

C) INSTRUMENTS OF DATA COLLECTION:

The instruments that we would like to use for data collections are questionnaire. We choose questionnaire over Focus group interviews and in-Depth interviews because questionnaire takes less time, it can be used in different mediums say directly filled by customer, and then can be mailed to the customer if he is not available, or can be filled over telephonic interview and it is free from bias of the interviewer. The questionnaire is given in the end of this part.

D) SAMPLING SIZE AND SAMPLING PLAN:

We would like to take sample size of 75-100 people. Sampling techniques are of two types probability and non probability sampling. The method that we are going to use is under non probability sampling that is Judgemental Sampling, which takes in to account of people who are familiar with the product.

E) METHODS OF DATA ANALYSIS TO BE USED:

When we come to the method of data analysis we can use 1) Pie-charts

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2) Histograms 3) Bar charts The pictorial description of data collected would easily depict the information which in turn can easily be understood.

F) QUESTIONNAIRE
Q1) What are various devices you use for time keeping? (Multiple ticks applicable) a) Watches b) Mobile Phones c) Laptops d) I-pods e) Tablet f) Others (Here as we are looking which of these devices is more used for time keeping, for this simple bar graph serves the purpose)

Q2) Following are some of the attributes of watches. Kindly let us know how critical these attributes are for you, while you purchase watches. (Rate the attributes in the order of their importance to you 0 for the least important attribute and 4 for the most important attribute) ATTRIBUTES Style (Look and feel) Durability ( Long lasting) Price (affordably priced) Quality Availability ( easily available in stores) After sales service (Here bar chart would show which attribute is mostly related to titan by people) RATE

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Q3) which of these items according to you is a fashion accessory? (Multiple ticks applicable) a) Watches b) Sun glasses c) Bracelets d) Shoes e) others (Here we are looking at this question on a quantitative basis so a bar chart would be used to show the comparison amongst these items)

Q4) Do you wear different watches at different occasions? a) Yes b) No (Pie chart represents percentage in a better way) Q5) If yes then how many watches do you have? OPTIONS 2 3 4 5 More than 5 (This being an additional question for supporting the hypothesis we would represent it in a simple bar chart.) Q6) In watches category which brand do you consider as fashion accesory rate it according to your perception? ( 1 for the lowest and 5 for the highest) a) Titan b) Timex c) Casio d) Other high end watches TICK WHICHEVER APPLICABLE

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e) Grey market watches (A bar chart would be better in depicting the choice in the form of numbers)

Q7) if Titan were a person, which traits would you associate with it? (Multiple ticks applicable) a) Style b) Innovation c) Perfection d) Quality e) Reliable f) Leader

g) Fashionable

(Here Weighted average system would be used)

Q8) The association with this person was mainly due to the brand values that both Titan and the actor are associated with. We are both known for our commitment and obsession towards perfection, quality, innovativeness, setting new trends and our market leadership.
This is a statement given for the brand ambassadors selection? Who do you think this person is? a) Aamir Khan b) Amitabh Bachan c) Virat Kohli d) Genelia DSouza e) A.R.Rahman (Here a pie chart because we have a single response to questions here.) Q9) Do you think Aamir Khan has enhanced the brand image of Titan watches? a) Strongly agree b) Agree

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c) Neither agree nor disagree d) Disagree e) Strongly disagree (Here bar chart would be sufficient)

PHASE - 3.

Report on Findings on the Primary Research

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INTRODUCTION:
We have taken three main hypotheses relating to our brand TITAN watches. Now for primary research on Titan, we have prepared a Questionnaire consisting of 9 questions trying to gather as much as information we can in order to see whether our hypotheses gets proved or disproved.

HYPOTHESES:
a) Watches are losing their image as a Time keeping device. b) Titan watches are seen as Fashion accessory. c) Aamir Khan is the ideal brand ambassador for Titan. Before we start our analysis on the data collected from this questionnaire, we would like to inform you that our sample size was 75-100 respondents, and we have got 107 respondents so we are taking all 107 responses for our data analysis. Moreover the sampling plan is Judgemental Sampling under Non-Probability sampling method.

Hypothesis 1:WATCHES ARE LOSING THEIR MARKET AS TIME KEEPING DEVICE. After completing the literature review of the brand Titan watches we thought that if today a giant like Titan watches has rebranded itself as something different, why? Why did it bothered the market leader to re-image itself in the minds of consumer, the answer is within the change of the watch industry as a whole, today as we see that nobody wears a watch just to see time, because this very want can be satisfied by other generic goods such as mobile phones, laptops, i pads, tablets etc. So we assume that they are no more used as a time keeping device.

Now to see is this really holds true, we have asked some questions in the primary research which are as follows: Questions asked, Results and Inferences drawn:

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1) What are the various devices you use for time keeping? (Multiple ticks applicable) Sample size = 107 DEVICE Watches Mobile Phones Laptops I-pod Tablet others NUMBER OF RESPONSES 83 94 40 8 2 1 PERCENTAGE 77.57% 87.85% 37.38% 7.48% 2% 1%

Here we have got responses from people who know the product. Here as we can see that amongst all of these gadgets which acts as a time keeping device mobile phone is the leader with 88% of the response. So we can say that today instead of watches, gadget like mobile phone is preferred as a time keeping device. It is to be noted that these gadgets werent there in the market 10-15 years back so it is a worth noting feature.

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Hypothesis 2: Titan watches are seen as fashion accessory. The reason behind this hypothesis is Titan is concentrating on consumers who would like to use watch as a fashion accessory rather than people who just use it as time keeping devices. Now a days Titan watches are appealing to consumer as a fashion accessory. Thus products such as Fast track, Aviator, HTSE for youth, Edge for professionals and XYLYS for high end users are completely backing their strategy. Questions asked, Results and Inferences drawn:

2) Which of these items according to you is a fashion accessory?(Multiple ticks applicable) ITEM Watches Sunglasses Bracelets Shoes Others NUMBER OF RESPONSES 77 76 45 67 20 PERCENTAGE 71.96% 71.03% 42.06% 62.62% 18.69%

First we wanted to see whether watches as a whole are seen as a fashion accessory or not, thus we asked this question so here we can see that watches category got the higher response than all others so it proves that watch segment along with others is considered to be a fashion accessory.

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3) Following are some of the attributes of watches. Kindly let us know how critical these attributes are for you, while you purchase watches. ATTRIBUTE Style Durability Price Quality Avalibility After sales service RATE 380 354 316 383 276 323 RATE/ SAMPLE SIZE 3.55 3.31 2.95 3.58 2.58 3.02

Now as we have seen that watches are considered as fashion accessory, now we wanted to know which of the attribute mentioned above in the graph is more preferred by the customer. Now from graph we can see that attributes like style and quality are most

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preferred and thus we can say that style being an integral part of fashion, it can be deduced that watches are purchased because they are seen as a fashion accessory.

4) Do you wear different watches at different occasions? NUMBER OF RESPONSES Yes No 62 45 PERCENTAGE 58% 42%

The next thing we wanted to see was, if people consider watches to be fashion accessory then they must wear different watches at different occasions, matching it with their clothes, so we went ahead with this question and here we found that 58% of the sample size responded to this in positive while 42% gave the negative response, thus it is also proved that majority of sample size wear different watches at different occasions, leading the way to prove that watches are seen as fashion accessory, which would lead to the proof that Titan watches are seen as fashion accessory. 5) If you use different watches for different occasions, how many watches do you have? ITEM 2 3 4 NUMBER OF RESPONSES 15 20 16 PERCENTAGE 24.19% 32.25% 25.8%

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5 More than 5 TOTAL

7 4 62

11.29% 6.45% 100

This bar chart represents the number of watches people have with them who consider watches as a fashion accessory, most of the people have 3 watches and some of them have more than 5 watches. This is an additional question asked just to see whether people who say watches are a fashion accessory, do they really back it because if they consider it to be fashion accessory then they should have more than 1 watch with them, which is proved by this chart.

6) In watches category which brand do you consider as fashion accesory rate it according to your perception? ( 1 for the lowest and 5 for the highest)

BRAND TITAN TIMEX CASIO

RATE * WEIGHT 87.6 37 62.4

PERCENTAGE 26.25% 11.09% 18.7%

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OTHER HIGH END WATCHES GREY END WATCHES

63.4 83.2

19% 24.94%

As this is a question based on rating system, from 1-5 , 1 being least important and 5 being the most, we have accordingly assigned the weights to the rating, 0.2 for rate 1 and 1 for rate 5. So after doing it we have represented it in the horizontal bar charts which shows that highest percentage goes to TITAN watches as well as Grey end watches. Thus we can say that TITAN watches are seen as fashion accessory, but they are not alone in this category, hence our hypothesis gets proved

Hypothesis 3: Aamir Khan is the ideal brand ambassador for Titan watches. The third hypothesis which we have taken is that Aamir Khan is the ideal brand ambassador for Titan watches because we believe that the personal traits of Aamir Khan is same to that of Titan watches and moreover the image of Aamir Khan to some extent influence the purchasing decision of customers. Now let us see if this is proved or not with the help of graphical representation of the data collected in primary research.

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Questions asked: 7) If Titan were a person, which traits would you associate with it?

TRAITS Style Innovation Perfection Quality Reliable Leader Fashionable TOTAL

WEIGHTED CALCULATION 97.8 92 83.4 96.8 74.2 85.2 86 615.4

PERCENTAGE 15.89 14.94 13.55 15.72 12.05 13.84 13.97 100

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We started with this question to see that which traits of Titan do people like to see if it was really a person, now traits like quality, style, innovation and fashionable are rated high it all indicates that they are the same traits which Aamir khan is known for, so his selection as the brand ambassador is well justified. Now coming to analysis again we have assigned weightage to the rating given to each trait. Rating is from 0-4, and weight assigned is 0.2 for 0 to 1 for 4 representing it in a bar chart.

8) The association with this person was mainly due to the brand values that both Titan and the actor are associated with. We are both known for our commitment and obsession towards perfection, quality, innovativeness, setting new trends and our market leadership This is a statement given for the brand ambassadors selection? Who do you think this person is?

NAME OF THE PERSON Amitabh Bachan John Abraham M.S.Dhoni Virat Kohli Aamir Khan Genelia Dsouza A.R.Rehman

NUMBER OF RESPONSES 7 3 15 0 89 0 3

PERCENTAGE 6.54% 2.80% 4.67% 0% 83.17% 0% 2.8%

Here it is clearly evident that the brand ambassador is easily recognisable once traits are mentioned, so we can see that Aamir is the most recognised face which happen to share its traits with the brand itself hence being the ideal brand ambassador.

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9) Do you think Aamir Khan has enhanced brand image of Titan? RESPONSE Strongly agree Agree Neither agree nor disagree Disagree Strongly disagree NUMBER OF RESPONSES 35 52 16 3 1 PERCENTAGE 32.71 48.59 14.95 2.8 0.93

This being the last question for hypothesis three we wanted to analyse whether taking Aamir Khan as their brand ambassador, did it really benefited Titan at all, well the answer seems to be in positive because most of the people surveyed said that they strongly agree to the notion that Aamir actually has enhanced the image of Titan. Hence we can say that this is indeed proved that Aamir is the ideal brand ambassador.

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NET TAKE AWAY

The brand dossier project was an enriching experience for us, where from we have learnt so many things which were previously not known. We can say that our net take away from the entire project including (PHASE 1, 2, 3) has provided us with: 1) Deep insight into the entry & evolution of the brand TITAN in the market. 2) Marketing strategies including repositioning to survive as the market leader 3) The image of TITAN in the minds of consumer.

Deep Insight into the Evolution: When we looked into the entry of the brand Titan we found that it was a complete case of Offensive Warfare whereby it pointed out the weakness inherent in the strength of the market leader (HMT) to which the giant had no answer, thus it overpowered the giant and gained popularity. It not only gained the market share but also stood as a giant/ market leader, and they are still the market leader. It showed their preparedness their quality of competitiveness. They were actually successful in giving what consumers wanted. Marketing Strategies: Here we saw that TITAN repositioned itself as Fashion Accessory from gifting watches because market was changing rapidly and gifting a watch was not a trend anymore, so they repositioned itself so as to boost freshness in the market by bringing in new watches which were not a watch for seeing time but a fashion accessory that could be matched with clothes setting a style statement for everyone else. It again worked for them. Image of TITAN in consumers mind: We came up with three hypotheses based on this project which were inevitably related to the consumers perception about brand TITAN watches. Here as we proceeded with our primary research we found that the decision taken by the company for the brand were successful because it impacted the consumer in a positive way.

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To say so we mean that our hypotheses, Titan watches are seen as fashion accessory and Aamir Khan is the ideal brand ambassador for Titan are based on Titans repositioning and decision making policies based upon which both of these hypotheses gets proved so it proves that consumers have a good image of Titan in their mind. In a nutshell, we can say that TITAN is a well managed company and truly deserves to be called a market leader for they know what it takes to be a market leader and they have delivered the same.

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