Titan Watches The Integrated Marketing Communication Strategy

Indian Watch industry is estimated to be around 1600 crores and Titan is riding on top of it with a market share of over 60% and 5th largest watch manufacturer in the world. This is a super brand that has changed the way we look at (or wear) watches. A marketing success story, Titan is a brand that will be of interest to most of the marketers. Titan, a brand from TATA in association with Tamilnadu Industrial Development Corporation was launched in 1987. During that time Indian watch market was dominated by HMT . At that time watches were seldom stylish and was catering to the basic need of knowing the time. The time was really difficult with basic mechanical technology not quartz, styling was very basic and not known, very limited range of models or limited choice for customers. The shops which were selling watches were dark, dingy and uninteresting, and the time considered advertisement as expenditure. Titan saw the opportunity it came up with quartz watches and built its line based on quartz. Accuracy would become a selling-plank. Titan decided to make stylish watches and came up with 350 models in the initial stage. Titan brought in the concept of retailing into the watch market, established a network of fine showrooms which would later become the world's largest network of exclusive watch stores. These stores not only helped Titan to gain leadership substantially, but also irrevocably altered the retail landscape of the watch market through a demonstration effect on the traditional dealers. Titan saw advertisement as a vital investment. Right from Day 1. Titan invested significantly in advertising and in that process created a set of memorable and effective properties over the years. OGILVY & Mather Advertising (O&M), handled the Titan Watches account since its launch in1987 out of its Bangalore office. So Titan, backed by world-class quality created at a world-class plant located just off Bangalore ,backed by the Tata name, was launched into the Indian market on the back of these new rules. It created waves right in the early days, mesmerized consumers and the demolished competition. Titan has kept innovation core to its strategy, realizing fully that the only way to sustain the fashion accessory perception is by continuously coming out with collections that make the current ones somewhat dated, thereby creating a certain discomfort in the consumers' mind ,which leads to another purchase. This impact has shown up in every one of the collections spoken of earlier. They were fresh and distinctive, unlike what consumers had seen before, and thus created curiosity, walk-ins and sales. Titan initially pioneered the concept of " Gifting watches". The ads captured the essence of gifting and along with the trendy music, easily caught the imagination of the market. A set of 3films were developed in 1991 around 3 relationships, where the gifting of a Titan culminated in a moving personal moment and a strengthening of the bond between the protagonists. These films became a big hit and created a genre of advertising films which lasted a good 8 years. During those years, a series of films involving a variety of characters (father, daughter, teacher, boyfriend, ex-boyfriend, thief!) and with local flavour (for Onam in Kerala, Puja in Bengal) were created and released. These not only helped build a good-sized gift segment for Titan, but also became Titan's Theme Campaign, building strong emotional values for the brand. One of the films in the series, where a man and his younger daughter conspire to give his older daughter a Titan as a surprise gift at her wedding, released around 1994, went on to become the most popular Titan film ever, even voted by the viewers of Zee Television as the second most liked TV commercial on the channel. The most enduring part of the Titan advertising has been the music track. Chosen by Xerxes Desai (Tata veteran and the then MD of Tata Press was chosen to lead Titan Venture) and the creative head of O & M in 1987 for its class and western

vibes, the segment from Mozart's 25th Symphony has arguably become Indian Advertising's most memorable track (incidentally, and perhaps not coincidentally, this was the most liked advertising track in the same Zee TV survey).Starting in 1987 in its pure classical versions, with a single violin playing the melody, this piece has been rendered in countless innovative versions over the years: Indian Classical, Indian Folk,Operatic, Rock, Funk,.And has become such a powerful audio mnemonic for the brand. During this period, Titan made a big mistake. It wanted to play the volume game. For that Titanlaunched another brand Sonata. Sonata was a huge success because it was a cheap product but atthe cost of the mother brand Titan. Titan realized this mistake and took away the Titan brand from Sonata. Now Sonata is endorsed by Tata not Titan.Titan carefully segmented the market and developed different sub brands for each segment. Sub brands like Edge, Steel, Dash, Nebula , Classique, Royale, Fast Track , Raga, Aqua etc. By having various products / models and sub brands, Titan was able to create freshness about the brand. Titan also moved away from gifting . Titan was positioning itself as a fashion accessory ratherthan a time keeping device. Titan also found its persona in Aamir. Aamir provided the muchneeded edge to the brand. Titan was careful in keeping the brand above the celebrity.The ads were fresh and neatly executed. Titan pushed the concept of " Matching Watches toClothes" in the recent commercials to promote multiple purchase of watches. Titan also made its presence in the ladies watch segment. It has a sub brand Raga targeting theladies in the premium segment .Titan also relaunched the FastTrack brand of watches aiming the target segment of 18-30 yrs old.Earlier Fast track was targeted at 20-25 year olds and positioned along the line " Coolwatches from Titan". Then the company found out that the youth in the age group was accountfor 42% of watch buying in India. Based on this insight the company relaunched the brand lowering the target segment to 18-30 year olds with the baseline How many do you have?". Again the strategy aimed at promoting the multiple watch owning concepts. Titan and its entry in European Market Titan entered Europe in 1995, and Lowe Howard-Spink created the initial advertising for the brand. The account was later shifted to a creative hot shop in New York. The current campaign development was is to O&M for reasons of better coordination and consistent positioning. The new campaign, comprising six print ads to being with, has images of major events and well-known people, including Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa and Albert Einstein. The attempt is to show faces and images which are well known to European consumers The advertising for Titan so far has focused on introducing the brand and building its image. The campaign is specifically focused on the style-seeking sophisticate who is willing to experiment and is conscious of key social issues. The campaign will run in English, French, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Greek and Italian, and the agency will take stock of the advertising after a year; WPP's Mindshare will handle the media buys.

Conclusion Titan has carefully created a market for itself through careful segmentation and branding strategies. The impact of the integrated marketing communications transformed watches to time machine, a necessary equipment to carry to a style statement, a sophisticated machine to emotional attachment. It is a brand that showed the world that Indians are good in Branding.