Titan Industries Limited, is a joint venture of the Tata Group and Tamil

Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO)

Entered the watch market in 1984.
In 1987 set up production facilities for the manufacture of Quartz and
analogue electronic watches.
Leader in Indian Quartz watch market- the fastest growing segment of
the industry.
Sold 7,50,000 watches in the very first year and crossed the 3 Million
mark by fourth year.
Titan has more than 60% share of the Quartz watch market.
Introduction
1990s were a decade of expansion and growth for Titan.
Motion expansion plan in quick succession for achieving capacity of 4 Million
pieces.
By 2001, Titan was making and marketing over 6 Million watches.
Became 6
th
largest global player in the manufacturer brand category.
The companys currently sold in about 40 countries of the world.
Expansion and Growth
The entire evaluation of the strategies are being carried out on the basis
of the 4 Ps of marketing mix

Product (High Quality product)

Price (High Profile distribution)

Place (Effective Brand selling)

Promotion (Effective Promotion)


Marketing Strategy
Titan made its product choice very sensibly.

Options available : Mechanical and Quartz.

HMT already established a benchmark in Mechanical.

Titan decided to go for both, stick exclusively to Quartz.

Choosing Quartz, Titan was able to enter the industry
with lesser investment.

Market Study
A wide product range over 1000 models.
By offering wide range, customers tempted to own more then one
watch
Designed different watches that matches Ones dress and occasion
Segmented the market and made distinct offers for each segment.
Spotted a market in India for expensive Jewellery watches.
Introduced Aurum line in the price range Rs. 20,000 to Rs 1,00,000.
Bought in designer watches, the Euro Collections, designed by
European designers.

Product Strategy
Early stages, Titan had to obtain a good portion of components through
outsourcing from vendors developed within the country.
Titan was clear over the long term, bulk of requirements should be
made in-house.
In-house manufacturing was essential to maintain high product Quality.
Soon launched a programme of Vertical Integration.
First phase involved watch case manufacture, later moved on to other
product components.
To Ensure Quality, Titan resorts to vertical Integration
Titan has been positioned as a premium brand, providing high quality
products
Titan changed the consumers very perception about watches.
Re- Positioning as a fashion accessory.
Titan initially pioneered the concept of "Gifting watches".
Customers who were fed up with ugly time machines welcomed the
brand Titan.

Positioning Strategy
Voted for the showroom idea and started franchising a network of
trendy Titan Showrooms.
More emphasis was laid on dcor, the ambiance, the selection of staff
and the level of inventories.
Titan insisted on attractive showroom in the best location as a major
criterion in dealer selection.
Titan wanted to franchisees to perceive the Titan business as one of
dealing in ornaments, rather then watches.
Titan was able to recruit excellent franchisees within a short period.

Distribution Strategy
Titan watches are now sold from more than 6000 retail shops, spread
throughout the country, covering 1200 towns.
Titans 140 exclusive showrooms(World of Titan) and 150 multi-brand
showrooms (Titan Time Zones) have set a new trend for watch retailing
in India.
Spent over Rs 20 Crore per year for advertising in the initial years
Sales promotion schemes like Gold Bonanza
Dealers and Promotion
Titan laid down its service objectives very carefully.
Titan belief that when customer walks into a shop to get a Titan watch
serviced, there are in fact three types of repairs which need to be
effected: repairing the watch, repairing the feelings of the customer and
repairing the damage done to company's image.
Titan made its service a much talked about affair.
Titan under priced repair and service charges, and battery and other
replacement spares.
Marketing Mix : Customer service
Branching off into the international markets would help in growth and
would also fortify the brands image in home market.
Entered global market with its Euro collection and jewellery watches.
Two distinct segment, namely the Rs 9,000 to Rs 15,000 medium
category and the Rs 15,000 to Rs 80,000 top of the line category.
Started a company in London- Titan International Marketing Ltd.
Titan watches are now selling in over 350 shops in UAE, Oman, Bahrain
and Qatar.
Going Global
Titan entered the low price segment to enlarge its business.
Huge potential in the Rs 300 to 500 segment, virtually untapped by
Indian manufacturers.
Nearly 50 % of lower segment of the 20 million unit watch was met
mainly by grey market operators.
Titan worked out a tie up with Timex Corporation of the US.
With Timex Corporation, mass production has always been the key to
success.
To start with, Timex offered around 200 models in four distinct ranges.
Plan was to release 800 models over a period of five years.

Titan with Timex
Tie up with Timex served Titans overall strategy of confrontation with
HMT.
Idea was to Knock out HMT in lower end of watch market without
getting into the mechanical segment.
By offering a lower priced Quartz model, the switchover from
mechanical could be accelerated.
Titan succeed in making inroads into HMTs stronghold through Timex.
With Timex, it was able to capture 75 % of Quartz watches market in
India,
HMT started to decline and losses went up to Rs 53 Crore in 1994 95 .
Titan Attacks HMT in Low Price Segment
HMT launched its Elegance series of watches in the prices range of Rs 1,600 to
Rs 3,500.
Rs, 5 crore investment in ad campaign for Elegance series in order to promote
Quartz range in particular.
To strengthen position in lower end, HMT launched low priced digital watches
and the plastic Quartz range pace and Astra.
New strategy had to naturally cover the distribution aspect.
Came with a plan to renovate 30 showrooms and expanding its dealer
network from 700 to 1,000.
Invest Rs 100 crore for expansion and technological up gradation.
Introduced some attractive sales promotion schemes like Festival of Time.
Also offered items like air-conditioned Maruti Omni as prizes to retailers to
enlist their support for campaign.


HMTs Defense
HMT had unique strengths like its infrastructure, its cast technical
manpower and capability to make almost all the components of a
Quartz in house.
But HMT failed to work out a winning marketing strategy using its
strengths.
It did not adequately recognize the need for aesthetics and variety in a
product like watch.
It had a very limited number of designs unlike Titan.
HMTs assessment that Quartz would remain a restricted market also
proved wrong.

Reasons for HMTs Decline
Titan wanted to target the semi-urban and rural consumers as well.
Titan launched a detailed study of the Rural markets, based on findings
set up outlets in Rural areas with a view of getting closer to consumers.
Titan wanted to modify its positioning as well, which was originally
positioned as an elite product.
Titan stood as an omnipresent national watch brand, meeting varying
demands in quality, fashion and prices.
Wanted to strengthen their distribution and promotion further.
Titan allocated an advertisement budget of Rs 42 Crore, for fiscal year
2001 as compared to rs 35 Crore, the previous year.
Factors Forcing Titan to Modify market Strategy
Launched another Gold range watch Nebula with 24 models. Aimed at the
well to do, 25 years plus segment.
Moved up in technology and brought in the Digital Fastrack a range of
digital watchers, designed exclusively for the young and sporty.
The range consist of features like multiple time zones and alarms,
countdown timers, stopwatches and format digital display.
Titan launched Dash!, a new exciting brand of watches for children as
the market for children watches in India is virtually untapped.
Dash was made available in 28 cute designs with Sporty looks for boys
and pretty patterns for girl, affordably priced between Rs 250 and Rs 395.
Product Innovation
The first priority has been to resolutely drive down unit costs through
product and process modifications and aggressive sourcing.
The second priority has been to boost asset productivity by producing
more with less: less of men, materials, machine and time.
Resorted to re-engineering of virtually all its watch movements for
ensuring greater cost advantage.
Launch of SAP R/3 based enterprise resource planning (ERP) system
incorporating a supply chain management progress across the watch
decision.

Titan Develops Cost Advantage