Indian watch industry

Wrist Watches form an integral part of the personality of individuals in the present era. Earlier seen as a luxury item, they are now witnessing a fundamental change in perception, and are now gaining respect as an essential utility item. Indian watches market was for long dominated by public sector organizations like Hindustan Machine Tools Ltd.

In post liberalization India, the market stood to witness intensive competition between foreign and Indian manufacturers like Timex, Titan, Movado, Longines, Rado, Rolex, Frderique Constant, Mont Blanc, Swatch, and many others. Many watch makers have made significant inroads in the industry and others are in the process of establishing themselves, currently.

Besides this, buyers are extremely choosy about the brand and type of wrist watches they wear. Being extremely brand conscious, their tastes have evolved over the years and have gone beyond the realms of durability to choose in terms of aesthetics and elegance. Thus it is a buyers market with multitude of designs that have entered and flooded the market place.

The size of the watchof the watch market currently is The size market in India currently is estimated to be around 40estimated million pieces million to 45 to be around 40 to 45 annually.
pieces annually. The organized sector alone contributes up to 30 % & the other 70 % is alone by the unorganized grey The organized sectorcontributedcontributes up to 30 % & the sector. In dollar terms, the estimated other 70 % is contributedsize is the unorganized grey sector. annual market by around USD 195 million, despite the fact that the penetration of watches is the lowest, compared globally. In dollar terms, The average growth in the size of the the estimated annual market size is around market is slated to be around 10 -15 percent USD 195 million, despite the fact that the penetration per year.

of watches is the lowest, compared globally.

The average growth in the size of the market is slated to be around 10 -15 percent per year.

Titan Industry

Titan Industries is the world's fifth largest and India's leading manufacturer of watches. The company has manufactured more than a 100 million watches till date; and has a customer base of over 80 million. The umbrella brand Titan is one of India's leading watch brands that brought about a paradigm shift in the Indian watch market, offering quartz technology with international styling.

The brand Titan is committed to offering its consumers watches that represent the compass of their imagination. Titan's customers are therefore consistently introduced to exciting new collections, which connect, with various facets of their deeprooted yearnings for self-expression. The new brand philosophy of Titan, encapsulated in the words "Be More", touches this as well as all other aspects of the brand.

The Titan brand architecture comprises several collection and subbrands, each of which is a leader in its segment. Notable among them are: Titan EDGE Titan Raga Titan Nebula Titan Heritage Titan Ragalia Titan Octane Titan WWF Titan Fastrack Titan Sonata

Today, the Titan portfolio has over 60% of the domestic market share in the organized watch market. The company has 24X7 exclusive showrooms christened World of Titan', making it amongst the largest chains in its category backed by 700 aftersalesservice centers. The company has a worldclass design studio that constantly invents new trends in wrist watches.

Background Of Fastrack

Timex had entered the Indian market through a joint venture with Titan and which was their offering for the youth market.

When that JV broke off in 1997 and Timex went independent, there was a gap in Titans portfolio and it only made sense to fill that need through their offering.
Fastrack was launched as a range of watch ware under Titan and was called Titan Fastrack.

Subsequently, it grew from a range to a sub-brand, where Titan was upfront in the logo and the association was strong. They used the jazzy version of the Mozart tune, which is Titans signature tune. So, the link with Titan was very strong. When they launched, they targeted predominantly the early jobber 2330 year-old male executive. It was only a year or two later that they launched a line for women.

Re-launch Of Fastrack

They took off and did well in the start but started stagnating in 2001-2003, and thats when they went for a reality check. Titan had simultaneously launched the steel collection, whichwas an attempt to contemporize for a Titan audience. But what was happening was the collection in terms of looks, price point and consumer buying behaviour was very similar to Fastrack, including advertising. The parent brand needed to continue in its endeavor to keep it contemporary and hence repositioned Fastrack to younger audience in sub-25 range.

Awareness of Fastrack was very low and was linked to Titan. There was no independent identity. Research had also shown that the fact that it had the backing of Titan was a positive assurance. However, kids didnt like to be serious and sober like their parents. Fastrack needed to break away and hence changed the logo to bring in a youthful, spontaneous, energetic and fun identity and also removed Titan from the upfront association in the logo.

They however, kept it at the bottom, saying its a Titan product. This helped carry the assurance of the trusted Titan brand. They also stopped using the Mozart tune in advertising.

Fastrack was launched with new products, a new identity, new advertising and a new logo in June 2005. The year took off so well that they ran out of stock very quickly and ended the year with a 150 per cent growth and the demand was growing continuously. Next year, they recorded another 100 per cent growth.

When re-launch was started, Fastrack brand was worth about Rs 29 crore but however they have grown almost ten times of that over the last three years. Fastrack has a presence in over 6000 outlets across 800 towns, with new exclusive brand kiosks in Metro Malls and its multichannel distribution network which covers the 228 strong World of Titan Network, 122 Large Format Chain stores viz. Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, Central, Westside, Pantaloons and Multibrand watch & optical outlets.

Fastrack is actually among the few brands where people come asking for the brand. They have adopted a fashion based strategy, where they launch about 3-4 collections in a year in both categories. Collection-based strategy has helped them very well. It has been twin approach of constantly innovating on product design, yet being affordable, and to reach out to consumers in a language that connects to them that led to their success.

Its not your typical fashion brand talking down saying you must look cool and you must look like me. With their advertising, they were able to relate to the youth in a setting they were familiar with.

Fastrack, in its journey to being a fashion accessories brand has expanded its portfolio to now include not just watches and sunglasses but bags, belts, wallets and wristbands too.

With this, it now has enough categories to open a fashion accessories store and thats just what theyve done!

SWOT Analysis

STRENGTHS : Goodwill in the market Strong financial position Fast changing designs

WEAKNESS : Short cycle products which are expensive to make

Weak channel of communication

Lack of exclusive stores

OPPORTUNITIES : Rapid market growth Changing customer needs To create relation between society on social marketing basis

THREATS : Tough competition in watches

Low profit margins

New competition in market

STP Analysis

Segmentation

Geographic Continent- Asia Country- India Size/ population- India- 13,782,976

Demographic Age- 15-25 , 25-30 , 30 above Gender- Male & Female Income- 10000-20000 , 20000-30000 , 30,000 above Occupation- students , young executives , graduate and post- graduate students , journalists , sports athletes

Psychographic Activities- basketball , swimming , dancing , acting , gymming , gaming Interest- socializing, reading, painting, travelling , adventure sports , theatre,cars/bikes , gadgets , music Opinions- intellectual , reasoning talk , opinionated

Personality- ambitious

Behavioural Benefit sought- quality, looks/style, durability Usage rate- heavy, moderate, light User status- regular, potential, first time user, irregular, occasional Brand loyalty- split loyal, shifting, switches Readiness to buy-aware , neutral Occasion- birthdays, anniversary, festivals, gifting

Targeting

Fastrack has products caters to the products in all the segments. The range of Fastrack watches is from Rs. 500 to Rs.4000. Hence it is catering to all the three segments of low, medium and highly priced segments. However more emphasis is laid on medium and high priced segments.

Collection
SPORT ARMY ADVENTURE BIKERS GRUNGE ALUMINIUM COLOUR PLAY DIGITAL FASHION ESSENTIALS PARTY PAIRS NEON NEON DISC XY

Price Range
2000-4000 2000-3500 1000-2000 1500-3500 1000-2500 500-1000 1000-2000 500-2000 1000-2500 1500-3000 3000-3500 1000-2500 500-1500 1500-3000

On demographic grounds :
Fastrack watches were launched to cater to the needs of youth at first. However it introduced watches for kids also later on. Hence it is targeting both youth and kids segments.

Collection
SPORT ARMY ADVENTURE BIKERS GRUNGE ALUMINIUM COLOUR PLAY DIGITAL FASHION ESSENTIALS PARTY PAIRS NEON NEON DISC XY

Target
MEN BOTH MEN & WOMAN BOTH MEN & WOMAN BOTH MEN & WOMAN BOTH MEN & WOMAN WOMAN WOMAN BOTH MEN & WOMAN BOTH MEN & WOMAN BOTH MEN & WOMAN PAIRS MEN MEN BOTH MEN & WOMAN

Positioning

Fastrack positions itself as both trendy and affordable range. These two attributes were usually considered as two poles wide apart.
Fastrack has taken the challenge of combining both the features to offer a greater value proportion to its customers.

Consumer Buying Behaviour

CULTURAL FACTORS : In India, Titan ahead of all other brands as the Most Admired Brand in India across all product categories. It was also a fitting tribute to a brand, which had not only revolutionised the Indian watch industry, but also brought in world-class benchmarks in product design, quality and retailing into India. In 1998, it was Fastrack, the cool, trendy, funky range for the young and young-at-heart. Since Indian population has positive outlook for titan it has influenced the behavior of younger generation who are variety seeking.

SOCIAL CLASS : The age and stage of individual has a major influence on the buying behaviour of consumer. The youth in the range of age of fifteen years to mid thirties are generally attracted to the watches. Friends and their peer group has a major influence on the purchase decisions of the youth.

ECONOMIC CIRCUMSTANCES: Economic circumstances do not play a major role in opting for Fastrack watches because the target segment is youth and it offers an affordable range. LIFESTYLE : A Fastrack watch generally attracts people with affluent lifestyle who are fashion conscious. For Fastrack watches traits like Excitement and ruggedness can be attributed.

Excitement includes imaginative and being up to date while ruggedness sports outdoorsy and tough.

Buying Decision Process

PROBLEM RECOGNITION: The buyer first and foremost identifies the reason Why he or she wants a particular product. In the case of Fastrack watches the need is triggered by both internal and external stimuli. Internal stimuli are the need to keep track of time while external stimuli are because of the peer group who are using the watch. In the surveys conducted many of them have responded that it as either a necessity or an accessory.

INFORMATION SEARCH: In order to reach a large audience Fastrack employs a number of advertising and promotional campaigns. Fastrack has roped in John Abraham as brand ambassador of the product at the beginning to portray the sporty nature of the brand.

The company has also roped in Aamir khan for army collection. The company uses youth icons to portray the trendy looks of the watches.

It also advertises aggressively in internet, print media and television. Therefore its quite easy on the part of consumers to make an informed decision regarding Fastrack watches by collecting data from various sources of mass media and from family, friends etc. In the surveys conducted majority have responded that television and print media have major influence on their purchase decisions.

EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVES: A consumer then evaluates various alternatives based on the needs and information available to him. Fastrack through its variety of variants is able to satisfy a number of needs of the consumers. Fastrack which is always perceived as trendy and affordable watch has an edge over its competitors.Hence Fastrack is one of the best alternatives who are looking for a trendy yet affordable watch

PURCHASE DECISION: There is a strong preference of Fastrack brand among youth in both middle and upper. It would involve other sub decisions like timing, payment method. All the Branded stores and shopping malls would be offering flexible payments methods and flexible timings.

In the surveys conducted it is observed that consumers preferred to buy the watches majorly in branded stores and shopping malls.

POST PURCHASE BEHAVIOR: Since Fastrack has been able to deliver value for money and satisfy the needs of consumers, it has been able to build a brand image for itself and win the loyalty of consumers. Hence many of the respondents have responded to not only buy the Fastrack watch once again bit also to recommend the brand to their friends and colleagues.

4 Ps of Fastrack

Product

QUALITY : Fastrack is sub brand of Titan and Titan is well known for its quality. Even though Fastrack is brand created targeting medium range and low range segment, high quality is provided to customers.

FEATURES : Fastrack is well known for its features, it has come up with several variants and features which suits the choices and tastes of different consumers.

PRODUCT VARIETY ( DESIGN AND STYLE) : Fastrack is specially designed for youth. Its design and style and variants are the key to the success of the brand. The several variants they have come up with are : Sport Army Adventure Bikers Color play Hiphop Neon Neon disc xy

PACKAGING :

Fastrack has came up with new and contemporary packaging for its watches which attracts youth.

SERVICES & WARRANTY : Fastrack provides warranty of one year on all its watch range. After sales services are available on all Fastrack and Titan showrooms.

Product Life cycle

Fastrack is in growth stage now as it is marking rapid climb in sales. Early adaptors like the product and the additional customers start buying the product. The company continuously coming up with new features and variants keeping the brand moving forward satisfying tastes and needs of different customers

Levels Of Product : Core product : Satisfying purpose of keeping track on time

Actual product : Fastrack watch

Expected product : Product with brand value and image Augmented product : Warranty, after sales service, design , packaging.

Promotion

TVC : Most of the Fastrack TVC advertisements were dominated by youth and youth representing brand ambassadors like John Abraham, Genelia and Virat Kohli. Some of the popular Fastrack advertisements are discussed below: Yes Sir Ad : A teacher was taking attendance, A boy responses his roll by raising his hand Girls get obsessed by looking at the watch worn by that boy Which has the message that this watch on your wrist makes you more stylish?

How many you hav

Creative Advertising : From Titan Fastrack where fashionable jeweller was a gift on purchase of any Fastrack watch. This jewellery set of a pendant and earrings is contemporary and unique in form and material, with steel and acrylic being used together for stunning effect. This was launched for Valentines Day where the name scheme, The watch being advertised for (Fast track) as it pertains to the youth, jewellery (for the youth), valentines day (more so for the youth) and adding to the excitement is a limited edition FASTRACK VALENTINE'S COLLECTION that is being made available in four designs. Only 300 watches of each design will be on sale across cities during this fortnight.

These watches are designed is steel with leather straps in the colours of the season black, red and silver. The dials are in matched colours with heart patterns, making the collection a true blend of fashion and romance. "Young couples are looking for new ways to discover their relationships and this set of special watches and matching jewellery from Fastrack, gives them just the reason to do so. The promotion was in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and Bangalore from Feb 114.

POSTER AD :

FASTRACK WEBSITE PROMOTION : Fastrack website is the tool they used to attract the youth, the pictures displayed on the website creates curiosity and interest towards the product.

SALES PROMOTION : Fastrack always come up with sales promotion during festival seasons and special locations. They provide 20% 40% discounts on all its watch ranges.

BRAND AMBASSADOR : Brand Ambassadors for the Fastrack watch are Virat Kohli, Genelia D Souza, John Ambassador to appeal to youth.

OUTDOOR ADVERTISING : The billboard advertising is very popular however has to be really terse and catchy in order to grab the attention of the passers by. Fastrack billboards can be found put up all over Delhi especially at places like the north campus university area on the main road which the company knows that it is a youth centric area and since that is their target segment it puts up there. The brand also does trade shows during the festival area which a key rule to their promotional strategy through which hey engage the youth and make them aware of the brand.

PUBLIC RELATIONS : Fastrack one of the few companies in India to take the lead on embracing PR 2.0. Fastrack has come out with the Fastrack social media news room for bloggers. They are using the newsroom to share information and news on Fastrack. It also features social media press releases (Bikers and Neon Disk), Flicker streams of Fastrack gears, social bookmarking buttons, videos, media coverage, product and company information, spokesperson profile, RSS feeds, and more.

For the consumers, Fastrack has launched two Facebook groups called Life on Fastrack and Bikers on the Fastrack, which have 121 and 71 members already, as on yesterday. The groups have attracted so many people in such a short time. Fastrack main site not the usual corporate stiffness but an attractive and very consumer oriented featuring contests, fun stuff, opinion polls among others. They plan to follow up with a Twitter part as well.

It has launched MyExBox, an online campaign where users can post videos that communicate. The month long online campaign is based on the Fastracks theme Move On and encourages users to vent the reasons why they had to dump someone or something and move on. According to the company, the most viewed video of the week wins Fastrack Merchandise and also a chance to get featured in a Fastrack TV commercial. This makes the campaign go viral as users share the videos with their friends to get more views.

AIDA COMMUNICATION MODEL : AIDA is a communication model which can be used by firms to aid them in selling their product or services. AIDA is an Acronym for Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. When a product is launched the first goal is to grab attention and that is what fastrack did by introducing a mid price range of watches for the youth which were affordable as well as created a fashion statement for the youngsters

Once we grab attention we held Interest, through promoting by getting virat kohli and genelia dsouza as brand ambassadors and coming up with new ranges every half yearly. The third stage is desire, to make the product desirable to the consumer which was done by introducing new accessories by the brand like it introduced bags belts wristbands and sunglasses at the nominal price range .The final stage is the purchase action, and the company has been successful with its strategy and the target customer has purchase the product.

Price

Titan have watches like sonata to cover the lower level income segment people and titan raga, octane, xylus to target higher segment people but they didnt had any watches to cover the youth market which is in flourish now because more than 50% of population is youth, so they came up with fastrack to cover this segment and they are trying to cover the market share in youth sector and actually they are successful also because they cover 37% of 50% of youth population.

PRICING OBJECTIVE : The pricing strategy adopted by Fastrack is market share maximization as they are targeting people with affordable cost range They have watches from the range of 499 to more than 4000,so that they can attract customers of lower segment to higher segment and this clearly shows that they are into capturing more of the market share than making profit or other strategies.

DISCOUNTS : Fastrack always come up with discount offers at auspicious occasions to capture more market. They also provide exchange offers, when old watch is replaced by new watch they provide a discount upto 40%.

PRICING CUES : Fastrack follows odd pricing strategy and ends the price with 5 . So people perceive the price as low as people in India tend to read from left to right

Place

Fastrack is a product that u can find everywhere because of its parent company Titan. Titan have already build the channels in the form of exclusive stores and outlets so fastrack products are also made available in those stores and later they established their own exclusive store of fastrack where all range of fastrack watches are available and these exclusive showrooms are present only in some cites while in other places they are being sold through the outlets of Titan.

PARALLEL DISTRIBUTION :

Fastrack follow parallel distribution network It sells watches online through direct marketing

It sells through factory outlets like Fastrack store & World of Titan.
It sells its products in major chains like bigbaazar, city central etc. It sells through retail outlets ( watch shops , gift shops)

Fastracks supply chain in mostly concentrated on Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities as youth in urban cities look for style and branded products when compared to youth in rural and under developed areas. In tier-1 and tier-2 cities fastrack have a huge supply chain to make products available in each and every corner of the city.

REFERENCES : www.fastrack.in

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

Our Special thanks to Bindu Mam for providing this wonderful opportunity to do intense research on product.

With regards, Srikanthbabu Katragadda (FK-2231) Ravindra Kumar Misra (FK-2352) Ammireddy Kovvuri (FN-184) Anju (FK-2334) Rinu Maria Jacob (FK-2261)