THE USE OF SEGMENTATION VARIABLES,

OVER THE LAST DECADE, IN CHANGING

THE CUSTOMER ASSOCIATIONS AND
EXPECTATIONS FROM CADBUURY'S and
TITAN Wristwatches

Segmentation is an essential task for any marketer as it provides indispensable

understanding and a unique insight of the market place and an advantage over the
competition.
Here the marketers try to divide the market into groups of customers, which when
commercially viable and accessible to the company, are known as segments. The
concept of targeting such segments follows and the organizations develop their
marketing mix accordingly. It also helps include factors of customer loyalty and
bettering of one’s services and sales with time.
The underlying principle of the process is the notion that “There are different types of
customers who have different types of needs”.

Need-based segmentation is the undisputed champion when it comes to the ways a

market can be segmented. It may well be that a segment also has some other useful
defining characteristic by which it maybe identified.

The variable through which a market is segmented has an array of outlooks imbibed.
Such variables can be classified into:
1. Geographic variables
2. Demographic variables
3. Psycho graphic variables
4. Behavioral variables

To site an example,
Hindustan Lever (now known as Unilever) has had three different detergents in the
offering including Surf,Wheel and Rin but they have never eaten away each other’s
market share due to efficient segmentation that caters to the needs of different classes
of people. Over the last decade and many years before it as well, the marketers in
terms of establishing market control, gaining competitive advantage, customer loyalty
and high revenues have put such segmentation to good use. Having its origination in
the consumer market, the concept of segmentation has reached the business-to-
business markets as well.

This brings us to the gist of the topic where we would analyze the use of similar
segmentation by three reputed companies and products namely, Cadbury’s Dairy Milk
and Titan wristwatches .

While Cadbury’s Dairy Milk basically started out as a regular chocolate bar, and Titan
made watches for the masses .
These orientations differed with time as India, its society, its mentality and its people
were undergoing a massive change during the 90s.
The three of them have remained established business concerns in the Indian market
throughout the past decade in spite of facing new competitors and rivals. Their
effective use of market segmentation strategies along with sound understanding of the
consumer mentality has provided them with considerable weight on the balance sheet.

CADBURY’S DAIRY MILK

Right now Cadbury’s new advertisement campaign is doing the rounds over the
television. “Meetha hai khana,aaj pehli tareek hai” is the tagline that the chocolate-
giant has come out with. It tries to bring forth the excitement, which lies in the minds
of the general public as they wait for the first date of each month on the calendar. The
monthly salary stashed in their hands enables them to celebrate and rejoice by
spending it on Cadbury’s Dairy Milk.

Cadbury’s Dairy Milk has come out with such memorable ad-campaigns, which
settled into the hearts of everyone.

The story starts with “Once upon a time in 1948…” when Cadbury entered the Indian
market. It originated from a town in the United Kingdom, Bournville(also the name of
its recently launched high-end chocolate) in 1905.
As the Cadbury’s official web site suggests, its journey in India has been an eventful
one. In the early 1990s, it tried to cater to the sweet tooth of the children. Those days
they steered the market and took control over the company’s major market share.
However, the strategy changed by letting out the secret that “everyone has a child
inside “ and thus everyone craves for the taste of chocolate. Cadbury strategies went
through a considerable change. It now catered from children to adults and from
chocolate to mithai. As the tagline goes “Khane walon ko kahne ka bahana chahiye”.

The hole-in-one for the company was when it identified sweets to be a very integral
part of the Indian culture. It made sure that the festive and jubilant moods of the
society that had paved the way for kilos and kilos of mithai, now made way for a large
number of Cadbury’s.
Meetha did to Cadbury’s what thanda had done for Coco-Cola. Both helped them
crawl their ways through into hearts of the rural population of the country, which had
an untapped and astounding potential.
The advertisement campaign of Amitabh Bachchan, dressed up as a villager, proudly
announcing that his “daughter-figure” won beauty contests for cattle, brought out the
laughs and struck a chord with the same segment of people.
Later came the campaigns of “Pappu paas ho gaya” acknowledged the market
potential for college-going youth. The treats for passing exams were now a Cadbury
instead of a mithai.

With Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye, we knew Cadbury’s was now a desert craving as well as
a popular gift-item for festivals such as Raksha Bandhan and Diwali. Cadbury’s also
diversified its range of products with Wowie(with Disney characters for
kids),Crackle, Fruit and Nut(variations of the Dairy Milk),Bournvita(health
drink)Deserts,Perk(wafer ingredient) and éclairs(toffee segment).
Cadbury’s today holds 30 per cent markets share in the confectionaries industry and
sells around 1 million bars a day.

TITAN wristwatches

Titan entered the Indian market of wristwatches in 1984, at a time when HMT
watches were enjoying a monopoly-situation.
The venture took birth from the TATA group and today is India’s market leader in
wristwatches and the sixth-largest watchmaker in the world.
The constant innovation and effective market segmentation has been the great boon of
the company.
Today the company has a model for every price segment and every market.
Initially when the mechanical technology was the norm, Titan went against the tide
and built-up its line with Quartz.
Styling was not a factor initially with the Indian watch industry but Titan was there to
make a difference and gave a fresh breath of life to the age-old rusty style of
wristwatches.
Titan is also capturing the rural market very efficiently. Its price range starts from
Rs.475-1200 for the basic consumers. It has also appointed Mahendra Singh
Dhoni(himself belonging to Ranchi) as the brand ambassador of its Sonata collection
to reach out to the rural population. On the other hand, his counter-part Aamir Khan
was capturing the minds of the urban segments.
It brought out the Aqua, a trendy collection for the youth.
Raga was for the sophisticated Indian woman. This was a significant move as the
women were now more liberal in the society and the corporate culture was
establishing its roots in India. The needs of women throughout the nation were
changing and the brand was aimed to cater these very needs.
Dash for the kids segment.
Sonata for the masses and the budget-conscious.
Fastrack for the cool and funky fetishes of the youth while Insignia, Steel and
Nebula were all aimed at the luxury watches segment.
ts brands like Bandhan were aimed towards couples while EXCTA and
SPECTRA towards the common class for office wear.
The unique designs and price variations enabled it to reach all classes and
customers.
Today, the Titan group has its own retail shops throughout the country. One can
now see the “World of Titan” in almost every city and town of the India.

Today, Titan has also diversified into the eye-wear market thrugh these retail
chains. Its Titan Eye+ brand is now set to give competition to the established eye-
gear companies .