The evolution of TITAN WATCHES.

The birth of Titan:

The Indian watch market for a long time was ruled by the public sector giant HMT watches. Indian consumer had very few choices starting from imported watches and other local brands like Timestar and Camy watches. The choices were limited for the Indian consumer and there was a strong need for large range of watches for the consumer to explore. The Indian consumer looked at watch more of a functional value of just seeing the time but watch was not seen as lifestyle brand. At his point of time Titan unveiled their good looking watches exactly 22 years back and launched their collection of world class watches on a Baishaki day in all major cities. This is the beginning of the Titan story and success still continues as the brand has become a household name in watches. Today the equity of the brand is so strong that the company has extended it to jewellery and eye care space in the retail market.


What aided the success of Titan?

Titan entered the market when it was just opening up and there was a need for an alternative brand with more advanced world class technology. While HMT was primarily known for its automatic and hand wound watches Titan bought in the quartz technology to India. HMT also did introduce quartz but Titan offered the consumer a larger collection and to begin with over 150 collection of watches for men and women. Titan also leveraged the name of TATA’s in the beginning so that the trust factor was established amongst consumer. They had to do this as one of their watch brands Hegde and Golay was not well received in the market and hence this time around the trust factor was of paramount importance. The major success that attributed for Titan was they took the positioning of an International watch and delivered that promise with great designs and good looking watches. This was of course supported by a strong product, distribution, marketing and advertising strategy which has positioned the brand as the undisputed king in this category.


Unique Product Strategy:

Here the strategy was simple. The consumer had a wide choice both in terms of style and design. This was backed by good pricing so consumer did not move away after looking at the watches. To begin with they had 4 four brands i.e. Classique, Spectra, Exacta and Fastrack. But over a period of time they kept on introducing new range to entice the Indian consumer. The consumer never got bored of visiting a Titan shop as each time he decides to buy a watch and goes to a Titan shop he or she was always surprised to see fresh, fascinating and innovative designs. This constant introduction of new design gave the brand a good outlook in the consumers mind. The product mix of designs were so varied that the consumer had a wider choice to choose from. Each sub brands showcased a wide variety of style and design.


Innovative Product Distribution:

Titan introduced some innovation even in their distribution strategy. Conventionally in the past watches were sold in traditional markets like D.N.Road in Mumbai or Radha Bazar in Kolkatta where most watch dealers were located. While Titan was available at these dealers the company went beyond to increase the reach for the brand. From traditional outlets they made watches available in places like fashion boutiques etc to showcase their products. Another great step that Titan took was to open Titan Shops and franchisee and changed the way watch was retailed earlier. Very careful planning has gone in choosing the locations of these outlets and utmost care was taken to design the outlets with good taste and ambience keep in mind the values attached to the brand.
This really built the brand’s credibility as the place also offered strong after sales service.
Service was another factor that Titan took keen interest. Since the concept of quartz was new there was the fear amongst the people that it was fragile and how would I get my watch repaired. This was cleverly addressed through their Titan Shops so that customers could get their watch serviced with genuine parts with complete reassurance.


Thoughtful Product Marketing:
The successful marketing of Titan came through their products by launching a wide range with world class designs. Their focus was to move people from buying imported watches to Titan which they did by showcasing good looking watches. The pricing and design was also perfectly matched to address various audiences across the pop strata.

People were always eagerly looking for fresh designs from Titan. One such product was the Moon face watch which caught the eyes of many people. Raga was another brand extension that was introduced by Titan to attract lot of women buyers. Some collector’s item with limited edition like the Jawaharlal Nehru watch, Times watch were other notable innovation in terms of design that was introduced by Titan from time to time to be noticed in the market. To keep pace with the consumer tastes and fashion trends Titan kept on innovating with new designs. Nebula, Titanium, Fastrack (with a sporty look design and later on with fashion oriented sun glasses) Sonata (for the masses). Their mantra was to keep speed with the taste and attitudes of the new modern Indian audience. Clever ideas were used to push pair watches by calling them the His and hers watches for couples. All this innovation catapulted the brand to newer heights and Titan was always in the consideration set of the consumer every time he or she thinks of buying a watch. What’s more the brand also entered the global market with great designs to meet the taste of the International customer. Titan also aggressively entered corporate gifting segment by making special watches for many corporates with company name inscribed in it. The company always looked for new avenues to increase their reach and presence on an ongoing basis.
Campaign Strategy:

The task was to entice and create aspiration amongst the watch buyers to look at Titan. Here the company capitalized on their great products by showcasing the products as the hero in all their communication. This really paid off as the customer could get a good feel and appearance of the product when it appeared in various media vehicles. The initial launch campaign always highlighted the products well. Even as time passed by and they tried to bring in some human element to break the monotony they did not sacrifice the presence of the products. The watches were well showcased and there was a good balance in each of their communication. Since color reproduction was not of good quality in the early stages care was taken to hand pick the publication to get reproduction. The end objective was to show the true / closest colors in their publicity campaign.





Tactical Promotional campaigns:

In the consumer durable category Titan has been one of the most valued brand .The brand has been very focused in their communication and hence their advertising maintained what they launched 20 years back. The brand maintained their desired perception of the most desirable watch to own or gift and truly positioned them as a world class brand. The tone and manner of the advertising has always been international and classy.

When Titan launched their initial communication people looked at the advertisement and rushed to the shops. The watches were admired but the buying decision was postponed as people already had a watch and everybody was looking the watch more as a functional one. Therefore there was a great challenge to overcome and Titan quickly seized this opportunity to run tactical campaign to woo people to own multiple watches. Campaigns were developed to talk to Parents to get a watch when the son graduates. Move loving husbands to buy watches as gifts for their wife instead of the traditional sarees. Push hand wound and automatic watch buyers to buy quartz by spelling out the benefits and educating them positively about the fears of quartz. Tactically running festive campaigns by plugging Titan in the gifting segment.

One must salute the Titan marketing team and its Advertising agency for having consistently creating great advertising which perfectly addresses the values of the brand. Titan today is a brand which is known for its world class designs; dependability and strong service back up. The advertising campaign has been delivering all this values by retaining the core essence of the brand. The great background music of the Morzat is still the most memorable one which dates back almost 20 years. The music is so engraved in people’s mind that one can easily relate the music with Titan. In fact during the initial launch when the personality of the brand was defined then Titan was connected with Rajiv Gandhi and HMT with Mahatma Gandhi. Titan was seen has international and contemporary while HMT was looked upon as fuddy duddy and old fashioned. Even today the campaign is maintaining great consistency that even when they selected their brand ambassador they ensured that it was a perfect fit. Amir Khan is the brand ambassador and the campaign around him has been smartly developed with a perfect balance between Amir and the product features.


Success continues:

Titan rewrote the watch industry. HMT a household name in 70’s happened to be too complacent and were not able to combat Titan and in the bargain succumbed to the aggressive marketing by Titan. But Titan also had a very clear ambition that they wanted to be seen beyond watches by moving to fashion space and cleverly entered the jewellery market and the eye care market. The mantra was very clear for the brand and that is to give world class products in the fashion space. And the brand has been supported with some good advertising and excellent customer service. I think this is just a beginning and we will see more brand ideas from this watch giant. What is more creditable is that all this has been accomplished in a span of two decades.