Vishweshwar Education Society’s

Indira Institute of Business Management

PROJECT REPORT

ON

(Title Of The Project Report in CAPITAL)

SUBMITTED TO

INDIRA INSTITUTE OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT,

NAVI MUMBAI

BY

(Name of the student in CAPITAL)

Roll No.

Batch No

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF

MASTER OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES (MMS),

UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI

MONTH, 2015

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DECLARATION

I, Mr./Ms. __________________

hereby declare that this project report is the record of authentic

work carried out by me during the period from --------to----------and

has not been submitted to any other University or Institute for the

award of any degree / diploma etc.

SignatureName of the student

Date

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CERTIFICATE FROM THE COMPANY/ORGANISATION

(On the letterhead of the Company/ Organisation, given and signed by the concerned authority in the Company / Organisation where student has done the Summer Training. It should also have Company/ Organisation Seal /Stamp.)

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CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that Mr. / Ms.

---------------------------------- of Indira Institute of

Business Management has successfully completed the

project work titled ---------------------- in partial

fulfilment of requirement for the completion MMS as

prescribed by the University of Mumbai.

This project report is the record of authentic

work carried out by him / her during the period from

----------- to ------------- .

He / She has worked under my guidance.

Signature Name Project Guide (Internal)Date :`

Counter signed bySignature Name DirectorDate :

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

(To be written and signed by the individual student. Name and designation of the Project Guide (Internal) and Company/ Organisation Guide should be written correctly)

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Many brands and companies are constantly reinvigorating their businesses and positioning them for growth. There is a constant need to innovate, reinvigorate, update, recalibrate, or just simply fend off the competition in an effort to better explain "why buy me."

Brand positioning creates a specific place in the market for the brand and product offerings. It reaches a certain type of consumers and delivers benefits that meet the needs of several key target groups and users.

The actual approach of a company or brand's positioning in the marketplace depends on how it communicates the benefits and product attributes to consumers and users. As a result, the brand positioning of a company and/or product seeks to further distance itself from competitors based on a host of items, but most notably on five key issues: Price, Quality, Product Attributes, Distribution, and Usage Occasions.

In recent times, consumerism has undergone a sea change. Consumers today are well informed about the products, as compared to earlier times. Hence, the marketplace has become customer centric. Recognizing the importance of the customers in the business structure, companies have started effecting brand repositioning exercises on a regular basis.

In the recent times, a major brand repositioning exercise has been planned by Titan Industries Ltd. in order to provide more to its customers. The company has first gone for change in logo and tagline. Then the communication strategy has been revamped to convey its new position. The present study consists of reviewing the positioning strategies of Titan watches. An analysis of repositioning strategies of Titan also forms part of the study.

The main objective of the study is to broadly understand the overall wrist watch industry in India. Secondarily to study the brand positioning and re-positioning strategy of Titan wrist watches and to find out whether the loyal consumers of titan watches are aware of the new positioning strategies of the company and how they perceive them.

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TABLE OF C O N T E N T SChapter No. Title Page No.

1 Introduction Approx No. of Pages. 05-07

1.1 Relevance of the Project1.2 Introduction of the Topic1.3 Objectives of the Study1.4 Statement of Hypothesis1.5 Scope of the Study1.6 Rational of the Study1.7 Limitations of the Study

2. Profile of the Organisation Approx No. of Pages. 15-20

2.1 History & General Information2.2 Company Profile2.3 Competitors Analysis

3. Review of Literature Approx No. of Pages. 5-10

3.1 Meaning and Concept of the Topic3.2 Basic theories of the Topic3.3 Review of Research on the selected Topic

4. Research Methodology Approx No. of Pages. 05-07

4.1 Method of Study4.2 A Primary data4.2 B Secondary data4.3 Sample design

4.3.1 Population4.3.2 Sample size4.3.3 Sampling method4.4.1 Method of data collection

4.4.2 Instrument for data collection

5 Data Processing and Analysis Approx No. of Pages. 20-25

6 Findings Approx No. of Pages. 02-03

7 Hypothesis Testing Approx No. of Pages. 02-03

8 Recommendations Approx No. of Pages. 01-02

9 Conclusions Approx No. of Pages. 01-02

10. BibliographyAppendices /Annexure

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“STUDY OF INDIAN WRIST WATCH INDUSTRY AND

REPOSITIONING STRATEGY OF TITAN WATCHES”

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PREFACE

Today, a wristwatch is considered as much of a status symbol as a device to tell time. In an age when cell phones and digital pagers display tiny quartz clocks, the mechanical wristwatch has slowly become less of an object of function and more a piece of modern culture.

The Indian watch industry began in the year 1961 with the commissioning of the watch division of HMT. The first watch model manufactured by HMT was the Janata model in the year 1962. HMT was the leader in the watch market till the Tata’s formed Titan Watches in association with Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation in the year 1987. Titan was the first company to launch quartz watches in India.

The Indian watch market is today of 40 million units, out of which 60% is in the unorganized sector in which the maximum number of watches are sold are below Rs.300. Quartz watches form two third of the organized sector and the rest is split between mechanical and digital watches. Even in the organized sector, three fourth of the sales by volume comes from watches that are priced below Rs.1000.

Watch is one of the consumer durables whose replacement rate is very high. The replacement rate of watch is 33.8 %( Source: India market demographics report, 1998). This is also due to the fact that the estimated scrap rate of wrist watches is 7.8%, which is applicable after 6 years (Source: India market demographics report, 1998).

So, due to high scrap rate, outdated models, and the shift from the mechanical watches to the quartz watches it is causing a very high replacement demand for watches. This along with the low penetration level represents the untapped market potential for watches in India.After liberalization of Indian economy in 1992 many international players have entered the Indian Watch market posing as competitive threat to the Indian companies.

Lately Titan has tried to reposition its Brand to capture more segments of the watch market retaining the already served market segment. The strategy has been studied in deep during the project.

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Chapter 1- Introduction

1.1 Object of the Project

Final Project is an integral part of the MMS program. These projects helps us to

understand and gain a real insight into the Indian wrist watch industry and the

repositioning strategies of Titan Company Ltd.. This experience is very important as

students gain valuable knowledge and helps in improving skills .

The main objective of the project is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of Titan

Company Ltd as compared to its competitors.

1. It provides an opportunity to work on live projects.

2. It provides an opportunity to review and imply the theories and concepts

studied in the class.

1.2 Introduction of the Topic

Theory & Concept"A business has two - and only two - basic functions: marketing and innovation." -Peter Drucker

The rapid pace of change and intense competitive pressure in today's marketplace demand that brands continuously innovate and reinvent themselves to maintain their relevance and market position. In this context, brand repositioning and other revitalization strategies have become a business imperative for battling brand erosion. The appeal of brand repositioning is further heightened by the rising costs and high risk associated with launching a new brand.

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Brand repositioning has received little attention in the marketing literature and has mostly been treated as a variation of brand positioning. Biel, for example, has defined brand positioning as "building (or rebuilding) an image for a brand". The goal of positioning and repositioning strategies relates to the management of consumers' perceptions. However, positioning focuses on the creation of brand associations - consumers' perceptions of the attributes that differentiate the brand from competitive offers – while repositioning also implies managing existing brand associations. The unique challenge of a repositioning strategy, thus, lies in rejuvenating the brand image to make it relevant in an evolving environment, while honoring the brand equity heritage.

Repositioning can be required as the market changes and new opportunities occur. Through repositioning the company can reach customers they never intended to reach in the first place. If a brand has been established at the market for some time and wish to change their image they can consider repositioning, although one of the hardest actions in marketing is to reposition a familiar brand.

According to Solomon, position strategy is an essential part in the marketing efforts because companies have to use the elements in the marketing mix to influence the customers understanding of the position. During the movement from something less attractive and relevant towards a more attractive and relevant position several of strategic choices has to be made. The ones responsible for the repositioning have to evaluate why a reposition is necessary, and if the offer is the one that will change or just the brand name. There are several risk factors that have to be taken into consideration when preparing for a repositioning of the offering or the brand.

During repositioning, the risk of losing the credibility and reliability is high and the need for a thorough strategy is therefore necessary to avoid this occurrence. Some analyst argue that to successfully reposition a establish brand name is almost impossible because repositioning of a brand can make the most loyal customer to switch brand. But, in some circumstances a repositioning is necessary to gain credibility if the brand is eroded. Whenever a reposition is in question it has to be of relevance from a customer perspective, is this achievable? Some brands will on no account be thought on as a luxury brand and therefore an attempt to reposition will only damage the brand image or the actual company.

Numerous failed attempts at brand repositioning testify to the difficulty of developing and implementing such a tactic. For example, while the soft drink brand, Mountain Dew has remained relevant to the youth market through continuous repositioning in its thirty years of existence, Levis' Jeans has been losing market share to newcomers such as The Gap, despite numerous campaigns designed to reposition the brand as trendy.

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The strategic importance of brand repositioning in preserving and enhancing brand equity, coupled with the mixed results of repositioning attempts, underscores the need to develop a better understanding of the dynamics of brand repositioning. Specifically, questions of whether, when and how brands should be repositioned need to be addressed.

1.3 Objective of the project

Research objectives:

1. To study the current scenario of Indian wrist watch industry.

2. To review the brand positioning strategies of different sub-brands of Titan watches.

3. To analyze the brand repositioning strategies of Titan watches.

4. To study consumer awareness and perception about the brand repositioning strategies of Titan Watches.

This study would help titan industry to understand the gaps in its communication strategy regarding brand repositioning exercises and the further measures to be taken for effective marketing communications.

1.4 Scope of the Study

The scope of the study is limited to customer satisfaction, products of others in

comparison to Titan Watches and customer expectations from Titan and the impact of

repositioning strategies adopted by Titan to strengthen their hold on the market. Since

it is one of the leading players in the Indian Watch Industry, the future researchers can

focus their studies on different angles of Titan and its products such as marketing

share and market segmentation.

1.5 Rationale/contribution of the study

Titan India Ltd believes in satisfactory delivery of service , quality to the customers,

but due to unknown reasons that the customer satisfaction analysed by the company is

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not up to the mark . The company intends to find out the causes and remedies for the

low customer satisfaction.

1.6 Limitation of Study

The study is confined to limited audience only

There is possibility of sampling errors in the study

The responses of the consumers may not be genuine

The questions included in the questionnaire may not be comprehensive.

Chapter 2-Profile Of The Organisation 2.1 History and general information

The Indian watch industry began in the year 1961 with the commissioning of the watch division of HMT. The first watch model manufactured by HMT was the Janata model in the year 1962. HMT was the leader in the watch market till the Tata’s formed Titan Watches in association with Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation in the year 1987. They took a major strategy decision, which later changed the face of the Indian watch market- to manufacture only quartz watches. Liberalization in 1992 and the removal of quantitative restrictions due to WTO has opened the doors for many foreign brands in the Indian market viz. Tissot, Swatch, Omega, Rado, TAG Heuer, Rolex and many others. The import duties on watches are falling which makes the Indian market look attractive for the global majors like Casio, Swatch, and Citizen.

2.1.1 Brief About Indian Watch Industry

Indian Watch industry:

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Supplier Power:

HMT has its own fully integrated operation for production of its watches. Titan has its own production facilities for which it has invested roughly 120 crore rupees over the years, the manufacturing capacity of which is 6 million units. Also there has been a rise of low cost producers in China & Taiwan which has provided an opportunity for watch makers to outsource watches at low cost, just as Titan has done to outsource the components for Dash. Due to the large supply of watch movements available, there is little supplier power in the watch market.

Buyer Power:

The Indian watch buyers are very price sensitive, especially in the lower end of the market. There is still a huge untapped market in India with market penetration of only 20 units per thousand people while the world average is more than 100. At the same time there are a segment of people who are willing to pay a premium for watches with good performance and with a recognized brand name. So understanding the buyers’ preferences is very crucial in this industry in order to gain a substantial market share.

Entry Barriers:

The Indian watch market in the recent years has shown a dramatic increase in the number of brands available in the market due to removal of quantitative restrictions. So the new entrant has to have an offering, which can be positioned and differentiated from the other players in the market. This could be either price or functional or emotional appeal. So the prime barrier for entry, in the current context, for a new entrant is to build a brand image and price competitively.

Threat of Substitutes:

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There are no such substitutes to watch as a product. However, in terms of the companies offering various variations for watches such as pendant watches and jewellery watches, some sort of substitution has developed. Rich consumers prefer to purchase watches more as a fashion accessory rather than simply for its typical use.

Degree of Rivalry:

There are many companies in the Indian watch market, however, the product ranges offered by them are manifold. This makes the competition very stiff. Also at the lower end of the market it is basically the Value for Money, which differentiates the players. The strategic stakes for the producers are very high. Titan Ltd., the largest company in terms of market share in the organized sector has faced losses in the quarter ended June 2001 despite increase in the market share due to macroeconomic situation. HMT faced a similar situation when Titan was introduced in the 1980s leading to a sharp fall in its market share.

Present Situation of the Indian Watch Market

The Indian watch market is today of 40 million units, out which 60% is in the unorganized sector in which the maximum number of watches are sold are below Rs.500. Quartz watches form two thirds of the organized sector and the rest is split between mechanical and digital watches. Even in the organized sector, three fourth of the sales by volume comes from watches that are priced below Rs.2500.

Plastic as such is not acceptable to average Indian consumers, especially those from the small towns and rural areas who regard it as cheap and flimsy. They want toughness- which translates into a good quality metal model at a reasonable price.

Watch is one of the consumer durables whose replacement rate is very high. The replacement rate of watch is 33.8% . This is also due to the fact that the estimated scrap rate of wrist watches is 7.8%, which is applicable after 6 years So due to high scrap rate, outdated models, and the shift from the mechanical watches to the quartz watches is causing a very high replacement demand for watches. This along with the low penetration levels represent the untapped market potential for watches in India.

Major brands in the Indian watch market

The major players in the Indian watch market include HMT, Titan and Timex. The other players include Westar, Shivaki, Maxima, SITCO. Foreign brands such as Cartier, Piaget, Omega, Tiffany’s and Corrum, Gucci, Longines, Casio, Citizen, Tag Heuer and Espirit are also making an inroad into the Indian market.Titan has been consolidating its market share over the past decade. Timex watches, which entered in India with collaboration with Titan, now independently has also gained substantial market share.

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2.1.2 TITAN INDIA:

Titan Industries was established in 1984 as a joint venture between the Tata Group and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation. The company brought about a paradigm shift in the Indian watch market, offering quartz technology with international styling, manufactured in a state-of-the-art factory at Hosur, Tamil Nadu. Leveraging its understanding of different segments in the watch market, the company launched a second independent watch brand-Sonata, as a value brand to those seeking to buy functionally styled watches at affordable prices. In addition it focused on the youth with its third brand – Fastrack. It has also premium fashion watches by acquiring a license for global brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Hugo Boss, while. It has also in its portfolio its first Swiss Made watch brand – Xylys.

In 1995, the company diversified into jewellery under the brand – Tanishq to capitalize on a fragmented market operating with no brands in urban cities. In 2005, the company launched its second Jewellery brand, Gold Plus, for capitalizing on the opportunity in small towns and rural India.

The company has now diversified into fashion Eyewear by launching Fastrack Eye-Gear sunglasses, as well as Prescription Eyewear. The Company leveraged its manufacturing competencies and branched into Precision Engineering Products and Machine Building from 2003.

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Today Titan Industries is India's leading manufacturer of watches and jewellery employing 3,800 people. Titan and Tanishq are among the most admired brands in their categories.

2.1.3 Products

The company manufactures over 8 million watches per annum and has a customer base of over 80 million. It has manufacturing and assembly operations at Hosur, Dehradun, Roorkee and Baddi in Himachal Pradesh and an ECB plant in Goa. Its main products are:

Watches : Currently manufactures four main watch brands viz. Titan for the premium segment,

Fastrack

– focused on the youth and trendy fashion space,

Sonata

for the mass market and

Xylys

for the premium market. The Titan brand architecture comprises several sub-brands, each of which is a leader in its segment. Notable among them are:

Titan Edge

– The world's slimmest watch which stands for the philosophy of "less is more";

Titan Raga

– the feminine and sensuous accessory for today's woman,

Nebula

- crafted in solid gold and precious stones and several other collections like Wall Street, Heritage , Regalia, Octane, Orion, Diva, Zoop, WWF and the Aviator series, all of which form a part of the Titan wardrobe. Sonata is today India's largest watch selling brand and is priced between Rs 295/- and Rs 1200/-. The company's first Swiss Made watch – Xylys is for the hi-end connoisseur and new age achiever. It also markets Tommy Hilfiger watches under a licensing arrangement and is introducing Hugo Boss.

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Today, the Titan portfolio has about 65% of the domestic market share in the organized watch market. The company has 255 exclusive showrooms christened 'World of Titan' , making it amongst the largest chains in its category. Titan watches are sold through over 12,000 outlets in over 2,500 cities and internationally in over 30 countries, primarily in the Middle-East and Asia Pacific. Its after-sales-service is itself a benchmarked operation with a network of 750 service centres and amongst the world's fastest turnaround times. The company has a world-class design studio for watches and accessories.

Jewellery :

Tanishq is India's largest and fastest growing jewellery brand with a premium range of gold jewellery studded with diamonds or coloured gems and a wide range in 22kt pure gold. Platinum jewellery is also a part of the product range Tanishq is one of India's largest speciality retailers and is transforming the jewellery market in India

102 boutiques in 72 cities across the country. ‘Gold Plus' is the recent retail offering for the mass market with plain gold jewellery selling through 19 stores in 19 towns. The jewellery division has its own design stud.

Eye wear :

Titan Eye+ is currently on a pilot mode with 5 stores in 2 cities and has sunglasses under Fastrack brand and prescription eyewear consisting of Frames, Lenses, Sunglasses, Accessories and Contact Lenses of in-house brands and other premium brands.

Precision Engineering

The company's Precision Engineering Division supplies precision components to the avionics and the automotive industry. It also manufactures dashboard clocks as OEM to car manufacturers in Europe and America. The division also provides fully integrated Automation solutions

Awards

The company has been awarded the following distinctions:

Being named the No.1 Brand in the Consumer Durables category in the "Brand Equity" Survey of The Economic Times, a leading Indian financial daily.

The Titan Design Team won the Young Design Entrepreneur of the Year award at the design awards instituted by the National Institute of Design and

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Business World, a leading Indian magazine. The team has won 7 accreditations also.

Both Titan and Tanishq have been adjudged "Most Admired Brands" as well as "Retailer of the Year" by Images Fashion Forum in consecutive years.

Retail Asia and Media Magazine – Singapore adjudged Titan Industries as amongst the leading Retailing Companies in India.

Titan has won the Brand Leadership award at the India Brand Summit.

The Time Products Division of the company was awarded the JRD QV Award in 2006.

Objectives for 2014-15

o Turnover to grow by about 30% over previous year, to target Rs 4000 crores

o Operating Profit to grow in similar fashion

o Significant retail network expansion

2.1.4 SWOT Analysis of Titan Company Ltd:

Strengths:

Mechanical watches: TITAN is the market leader in mechanical watches which serves to the lower segment of the society.TITAN has a strong hold in this segment but to make sure that players like titan and timex do not occupy the stance TITAN needs to do its homework.

Brand equity: TITAN has a very strong brand image. People know TITAN because of its quality and reliability.

Production and training facility: production facility is flexible enough to adapt to new technologies. Training program is one of the best in the country.

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Industrial relations: company has very good industrial relations. Till today company did not encounter any kind of labor or industrial relations problem which can put company in to jeopardy.

Adequate assets: company has commensurate amount of land, building and machinery available.

Weaknesses:

No emphasis on R&D and design . TITAN did not pay much attention to aesthetics and design. While its competitor titan kept innovating its products with latest technology, features and design, TITAN was still grappling with its basic design models.

Retailer policy: TITAN did not have control measures over its retailers; hence they lost control over prices and the trade.

Lack of team spirit and awareness: TITAN’s motivational strategies-punishment/reward have been inadequate, resulting in low utilization of human and machine capacities.

Trade audits: No regular trade audit was being carried out by the company to check what was actually happening in the market.

Management levels: The ground level TITAN staff has nearly six rungs of bureaucracy to go through before a general manager in sales or marketing could take a field decision.

Opportunities:

Diversification of products: there are good diversification possibilities in products. Apart from mechanical watches TITAN can also focus on anadigi, digiana, multifunction, digital, stopwatch, alarm, thin etc.

Exports: export market can be tapped.Market segmentation: company can expand the market launching products suitable for different customer profiles e.g.: youth, gift fashion, sports, novelty etc.

Enlarge network of sale outlets: An effective distribution system is mandatory for company’s success.

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Product improvement: Company can manufacture product based on current customer preferences, combining technology and aesthetic appeal together to enhance the experience.

Threats:

From competitors: titan, timex, citizen, swatch etc.

Spurious operators: People who indulge in fraudulent activities. Misusing the brand name.

Authorized service agents: For foreign smuggled watches.

Regional players: With their cheap prices and availability.

Unorganized manufacturing

2.2 DistributionNetwork:

Titan firmly believes in providing total customer convenience in shopping. This fact is justified by the location of their outlets and the recent move by the company to go in for a major renovation of all the WORLD OF TITAN show rooms updating it to modern selling concepts, saving space, making it more attractive for the customer, easy maintenance, a show room which stands out from the rest. This has been done to the highest standards taking care of even of the minute details.

Titan’s retail operations are a mix of company-owned and franchisee outlets, with the idea being to ensure a dominant presence in all market areas through different kinds of stores, and to assure the availability of every Titan product. Titan has concentrated on customer perspective, and have engineered the entire chain to suit different customers.

Titan concentrates more on the customer theme. Earlier there was no attempt in the retailing sector to entice customer to buy a watch, but Titan has tried to bring the brand to the customer in an appropriate setting. The company does this through its `World of Titan’ show rooms.

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The franchisee is a critical cog in Titan’s retail matrix. The company organizes various programmes for franchisees, their managers and customer relationships officers. These include training workshops and seminars on market trends, visual merchandising, store operations and maintenance, and customer service initiative. However, the real challenge in retailing is managing the franchisee network through processes and systems that ensure a superior brand experience for every customer. Franchisee relationship management is important because of increasing competition, not only from the watch business but also from other business in the retail industry.

Besides the franchisees and its own showrooms, Titan sells its product through other outlets as well. Among them are the Time Zone stores, which stock all the leading brands, and the Value Mart outlets, which operate in Bangalore and Chennai and sell surplus – to export watches at a discount. For its many customers Titan has Tata Signet, a 1,36,000 member club that looks to build relationships through rewards, regular discounts and special offers. Customers can also count on a service-centre network that’s 550-strong and spread over 30-odd cities and towns across the country.

The service centers have been deliberately kept apart from Titan’s showrooms. The business is different and the customer is in two different moods at the two places Titan’s blueprint for the future including making watches for international heavyweights such as YSL, Christian Dior and Gucci. Titan believes there is huge potential at the designer end of the market. The marketing investment is however lower because “the brand is doing the marketing for you”. Also on the anvil are specialty stores for niche customers, and an expansion into product categories like sunglasses and leather goods.

However, it is staying ahead of the competition that is the overall priority: “We have to ensure Titan has the best wristwatch store in any given city or town”. You don’t really have to watch this space for confirmation on that count.

Titan stores can be broadly classified into 4 stores each having its different features making TITAN attractive to everyone.

WORLD OF TITAN

experience the touch of Titan, all you have to do is walk into the stylish World of Titan showroom anywhere in India. Prepare to be floored by the cool international ambience and the staggering choice of over a 1000 watches and trendy accessories. And because the customer has to be given special treatment, we deliver your gifts, offer gift vouchers for your loved ones, and what’s more, we invite you to join the Signet Club, our loyalty programme with lots of special privileges. Come closer to us at The World of Titan!The world of Titan is the biggest among all stores of the company and is an exclusive dealer in Titan watches. These showrooms are generally about 1000-2000 sq.ft and have an extensive range of watches. These showroom are the major revenue generators of the company and every 5 years the showroom is fully done up updating it to modern international standards.

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TIME ZONE

Titan Industries brings together the country’s leading watch brands under one roof, providing the customer with variety in brands, looks and price ranges backed by efficient after-sales service. Presenting Time Zones – the chain of trusted watch shops. Conveniently located, these 1142 Time Zones across 89 towns offer you the complete watch shopping experience.

VALUE MART

These outlets sell surplus stocks of Titan watches at reduced prices, offering fabulous value for money with the same warranty as a regular, full-priced watch. These concepts in the recent past have caught up with any product with it being total value for money. However these shops would not be placed in the main locations so as to interfere with the working of the normal shops. This is to make the customer go to the shop rather than the shop calling the customer and hence the locations are not very suitable for shopping.

SONATA STORE

If you’re looking for Sonata watch, visit these exclusive Sonata outlets which also have an Authorised Service Centre for Sonata & Titan brands. The idea of a Sonata store came upto cater to the large scale demand for the watch and to open Titan to more customers. More over these shops had full stocks of the watch in demand whereas the others could afford to maintain only limited stock

2.3 Overall strategies

Since its introduction, Titan has been positioned as a premium brand, providing high quality products. With its numerous sub-brands catering to different segments, the challenge that Titan faces is to create a strong brand image. It follows different positioning strategies, these strategies can also be analyzed as given below:

Attribute Positioning:

When the company launched its products, it was the first to bring quartz watches to the Indian market. The company successfully leveraged this to penetrate the market and gain a market share. Raga, Classique and Regalia come under this strategy. Classique has been positioned as elegant corporate wear that leaves a quiet, but definite impression and fusion of function and sophistication. Power dressing now has a new weapon! As Magic in gold and bicolour look, the 'Regalia'

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range represents the essence of dress-wear. Raga has been differentiated and positioned as exclusive watches for women. The Raga and Silver Raga collection is elegant, delicate and feminine with each piece being truly unique.

User Positioning:

Titan caters to several user groups- children (the Dash), sportspersons and adventurers (PSI4000 and Fastrack range). The Fastrack range is seen as being contemporary, sturdy and reliable. The advertising, packaging and merchandising of this range is young, vibrant and ‘cool’ (the ad line says “Cool watches by Titan”)

Benefit Positioning:

The Fastrack Digital range offers the customer a functional watch that is also attractive. The digital watch has a “techno-geek” image, but Titan seeks to differentiate its offering on the basis of superior style and attractiveness.

Competitor Positioning:

With the entry of several foreign watchmakers into the market,Titan had to counter the threat. Most of the entrants are catering to the upper end of the market- Omega, Tissot, Cartier etc. Titan already had the Tanishq brand in this segment. However, it has tried to reposition this brand by increasing the price range to encourage more customers.

Quality or Price Positioning:

In the overseas market, especially in Europe where it is competing with Swiss and Japanese watches, it is positioning itself as ‘value- for- money’: reasonably priced (less than Swiss watches and higher than Japanese), attractively styled and of good quality. In Indian market, Sonata is a perfect example of Price positioning, titan came up with this segment when it was facing heavy competition from lower end segment

POSITIONING

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TITAN PERSPECTIVE

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. Customers who were fed up with ugly time machines welcomed the brand and Titan had a dream run for many years. Titan then moved away from gifting. Titan was positioning itself as a fashion accessory rather than a time keeping device.

Titan also found its persona in Mr. Aamir khan which provided the much needed edge to the brand. Titan was careful in keeping the brand above the celebrity. The ads were fresh and neatly executed. The idea was to make watches that would be seen as style and fashion accessories rather than just utilitarian devices. The company decided to use Aamir in brand and product communication on television and in the print and outdoor media. Though, the vast distribution and service network of TIL had served as an effective entry barrier in the 1990s, foreign brands were becoming increasingly popular in the early 2000s, thanks to the paradigm shifts in the retail scenario and the growing affluence of the Indian consumers.

And TIL found that it was not safe even at the bottom of the pyramid. The grey market with cheap Chinese imports and the unorganized sector had cornered a sizable chunk of the low-end market. The appointment of Aamir Khan as brand ambassador for the Titan brand was seen as an attempt to broad base the appeal of the Titan brand.

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Titan also was pushing another strategy. Watches were perceived as a onetime buy and consumers seldom owned multiple watches. So Titan pushed the concept of "Matching Watches to Clothes" in the recent commercials. Since men are becoming more serious customers of fashion accessories, this is strategy that is worth trying out. For Titan, even if the concept fails, It has created the much needed freshness in the brand.

Earlier Fastrack was targeted at 20-25 year olds and positioned along the line "Cool watches from Titan". Then the company found out that the youth in the age group of 11-20 years account for 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 you have?". Again the strategy aimed at promoting the multiple watch owning concepts. Fastrack also launched a range of fashion accessories like Sunglasses trying to be a lifestyle brand

Positioning According to Product:

WATCHES

Raga

“The slimmest watch in the universe”All good things are packaged small. Or we can say they are packaged slim. Titan presents a large range of Titan Edge watches –the slimmest in the world. Clean –cut, elegant designs that speak of who you are. Go ahead , choose a style that says so much with so little. And you can see it is adding an edge to your persona.

Orion

A unique range of watches inspired by the astral wonders of the universe. The collection celebrates the intelligence and masculinity of today’s men.

Octane

“Be speed, Be more”A range of high octane sports watches personifying speed and power with multi-functions, retrograde, analog-digital and chronograph.➢

Nebula

Inspired by the noble metal. Titan presents a classic collection of stunning jewelry watches-NEBULA. Crafted superbly from 18 karat solid gold and inlaid with precious stones, each piece comes with a lifetime guarantee.

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Zoop

Titan presents Zoop- timepieces for young stars. Take your pick from floral, butterfly, duckling, and base ball themed watches or go digital with features such as dual time, countdown timer, 50 yr calendar, compass, stopwatch, alarm, EL backlight and more.

WWF

Titan & WWE have joined hands to celebrate the beauty & behavior of six endangered species with the launch of six new animal themed watches. A part of the proceeds from every watch sale is contributed to WWE towards the preservation of these animal.

Raga

“Unveil the real you, Be more” The magic of ornate motifs and blushing enamel casts a spell on you. From intricate dials glowing with inner radiance, to delicate bracelets that flow around you in familiar embrace. The essence of woman, Revealed at last.

FAST TRACK

Titan Fast track is positioned as an essential thing for the trendy youth of today. With its special offerings it is really serving the urban youth. Its strongest offerings are availability and affordability.

Titan Eye+ of Titan Industries offers sunglasses under its Fastrack brand. Prescription eyewear such as lenses and contact lenses is also part of the range. Titan Eye+ offers frames, sunglasses, and accessories of Titan Industries’ in-house brands as well as other premium brands.

Fast track was spun of as independent brand of watches targeting the urban youth In 2005. Since then it has carved a niche for itself with designs that were refreshingly different and affordable. During that time, Fastrack also extended its footprint into eye gear and in the last 4 years has quickly notched up the title of being the largest sunglass brand in the country.

Fastrack has now chartered into newer categories – bags, belts, wallets and wrist bands – as part of its vision to become a complete fashion brand for the youth. With enough categories to fill up one cool store, Fastrack has ‘moved on’ to open its own stores for its young consumers. The store is positioned as a complete accessories destination with all Fastrack gear under one roof.

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Titan Fast Track provides an impressive range of stylish and contemporary eyewear, through exclusive optical outlets. Currently, Titan Fast Track boasts 70 stores across 41 cities. Titan Fast Track heralded standardisation by benchmarking with the world’s best, in sync with the TATA principles of quality and trust. Sales counters now offer products and services of international quality standards coupled with transparency in pricing, style, and upbeat designs.

Tanishq

Colours of Royalty : Colored jewelry corrected the impression of tanishq having only modern design

Aarka : Positioned thanishq as high fashion 22 karrat gold collection

Fashion earrings : A collection of studded jewelry , an attempt to move tanishq from being a traditional studded collection.

Brand Positioning of Tanishq

o Promise of purity and a unique experience. Design and retail innovation have been the hallmark of tanishq all these years.

o Promise of purity and unique experience.

Design and retail innovation have been the hallmark of tanishq all these years

First and only jeweler to guarantees the purity of its gold jewelry and certifies the quality of its diamonds and coloured gems in writing.

o Trust

It has established itself as a highly ethical player in a market that was rated as having the highest incidents of under karatage (bis)

They even have gold meters where one can check the purity of the gold.

o Luxury

Tanishq also has been positioned as a branded jewelry of luxury rather than commodity. It moves jewelry beyond investments to the fashion and adornment sector.

Superionr Product

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In order to compete with the regional players tanishq introduced the concept of ‘consistency in delivering promise’

Tanishq is known for its ability to develop specialized design collection. It is the only jewelers that houses a full fledged design studio with a team of several international award winning Indian designers.

Offer a totally new perspective to jewelry buying especially when it comes to exquisite oriental jewelry.

Pricing Objectives:

Titan consists of watches that cater to various segments and to various categories and so their pricing strategy is also in accordance to their products and the features offered by them cashing in on monopoly, unique features, outstanding performance and the name TITAN.

Titan’s primary pricing objective is to kill Competition. Being an Indian manufacture and infusing the advantages of the Indian market with the dynamics of the western market the company has carved itself a place difficult to achieve by foreign players.

The Objective for pricing are mixed with them being

Survival : Exacta, Spectra, Raga

Maximum Market Share – Sonata, World Watch

Market Skimming- Nebula, The Steel collection Insignia

Product Quality - Leadership – All watches in their respective segments.

PRICING METHOD MARK UP PRICING – Titan goes in for the mark up pricing strategy. The Titan product carries a maximum retail price on it. Now shops such as the world of titan – exclusive showrooms buy directly from the dealer and hence the element of the middleman is not there.

A retailer in this category buys the watch for 17-18% lesser than the MRP and hence he is able to get the 17% profit margin on sales. It is up to the discretion of the retailer to offer any discount on the MRP as it would affect what he gets in return. In the recent past Titan has also used the

PERCEIVED VALUE PRICING to its advantage. It is managing to successfully convince the customer of the perceived value of the WORLD WATCH using billboards and hoardings all around the city, increasing buyers image, trust worthiness, innovation, differentiation, value for the product. The hoardings go about

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to say the international presence of an Indian Watch. Titan has also in the past done so for its steel collection but using Commercial Advertisements.

There is always a positive relationship between high prices, high quality, and a high advertising budget. Titan too demonstrates this feature. People are willing to pay the price for the quality and titan spends 25 crores a year on advertising its products. This is the highest spending done in the watch industry in India. More so ever with high value and lower prices in case of the sonata, the product is the heart throb in the watch industry.

APPLICATION OF THE PRICING STRATEGY IN PRODUCTS

The main plank of the watch market is in the less-than-Rs.1,000 price category. Effectively, about 70 per cent of the sales in the watch industry in India is in this category. None of the foreign brands has a presence in this category. Only cheap Chinese watches are present in this bracket and they compete with the unorganized manufacturers, who are more expensive than them. So, the unorganized sector is getting hit from the bottom by Chinese products and at the top by the organized sector brands, such as Sonata.

LOWER SEGMENT

The SONATA Brand which proudly emphasizes it to be a TATA product is the watch for the common man and for the lower class of the society. Pricing itself between Rs.300 – Rs.900 is Titan’s fastest selling watch. This watch was launched to make titan everybody’s company from the image of it being a Richman’s company. Watches were offered for as low as Rs.300 with a guarantee of 1 year and the styles were very appealing for the price. Titan in this case has followed the Penetration policy. Maxima Quartz is a competitor with similar offerings at Rs.350. The lower end market being price sensitive, such pricing used to drive away competition, making people buy the product to make one trust what a Titan is all about was promptly why this low price was offered. There are many in the stable such as the Exacta, Spectra and Fast Track which is priced at what one would pay for a simple but impressive watch. These watches deliver value for money with Titan’s name and the innovation done by the company to deliver better models at the same price.

THE 1000 PLUS SEGMENT

The TITAN market share is actually growing because of the increased share that has been cornered in the Rs.1,000 – 2,000 range, which is the main strength for Titan plus

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a growing contribution from people upgrading to Rs.1,500 range. In the last 2 years TITAN has been introducing lot of products in this range and have been growing in this segment. The Indian watch market itself is expanding in the price bracket of greater-than-Rs.2,500. This has been happening for the last couple of years. The greater-than-Rs.2,500 price bracket is the highest growth category, though it might be a small contributor to the total watch market. This segment is growing because of the interest that has been created by the international brands. Titan was quick to launch the steel collection, the world watch and its bandhan, insignia comes in these ranges. Titan used its technological prowess as its unique selling point. Priced in the Rs..4,500-Rs.5000 range, Titan targeted the brand at the techno-savy consumer looking for a prestigious watch, who would otherwise go in for a foreign brand.

`The WORLD WATCH TITAN’S’ latest offering to the Indian market is a watch which is made in India but which shows off a truly international look with styling rare to the Indian market. This is a product which none of the Indian watch makers can offer as of today but meets with competition from foreign players like Swatch and Esprit. The watches taken out are priced between Rs.2700 – Rs.5500. This range of pricing can be associated with Skim the cream pricing used by titan. These watches represented true international quality for an Indian price.

The same watch by Calvin Klein would cost the Indian customer about 4 times a titan watch and hence he would prefer the titan watch for the same value for lesser price. There has been societal changes and a growing demand for these price watches with the culture of the west coming in and the smart move to get these watches to India. The Indian consumer is still a price sensitive player even though it be a high value product.

The NEBULA is Titan’s price catch and is also watch selling in top of the line. These solid gold watches gracefully and elegantly shows off richness of the gold and the design makes it stand out from a regular gold watches. Preferred on occasions of Diwali and marriages it is priced between 10000 to 40000. Titan is able to do so for the reason it is a pure gold watch and the same time no one else in the market can offer these watches. A pure gold watch for a festival or marriage would be 90% of the times bought by titan.

Thus whatever may be the price titan carefully chooses it to see that its product is able to survive, rise and become the product leader and at times after skimming the market it attains price leadership with cutting prices slightly or waiting for competition to come in and promote the market. One final statement that can be made is the objectives and the price go hand in hand as it should always go.

Titan has tried to achieve a balance of cost focus and differentiation focus. By this we mean that in the lower - end (Popular segment) of the market, it seeks to achieve a cost advantage by exploiting the differences in cost behavior. In the mid-and higher–

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end (Mid Premium segment) of the market, it seeks differentiation by providing better designs.

PROMOTIONS: Price Discounts and Allowances

Titan once a year comes out with a Price discount sale on the MRP of the watches. Now this is entirely based on the stock carried by the company at the year end. Allowances are more on the company to the retailer where the retailer gets a special allowance if the store picks up more than a certain quantity.

Warranties and Service Contracts

Titan promotes sales by adding a free warranty or service contract to its watches and this is backed up by the name TATA which is especially needed to convince and march ahead in the lower segment market.

Product Line Pricing

The differences in the prices of the watches are justified by the features, the style, and the differences which makes up each watch. Titan prices all its watches in such a way that it maximizes the total profit on the total mix.

Captive Product Pricing There is a general buzz in the market about titan being more expensive than the rest in terms of servicing and the parts used by TITAN. Titan watches, the lower end ones are cheap but the straps and the battery with services is generally expensive.

For the past few months, the one-point agenda of the Tata group has been to bring about synergy among its individual companies, and to promote Tata as a single, unified, central brand. “The Tata’s have realized that many of their companies are addressing the same target clientele and share a common customer base. So it makes sound business sense to synergies the marketing efforts for these companies.

The main reason behind Tata doing this was the results of a survey which revealed that: “the Tata brand is like sameone who is established, but not modern, large but not focused, profitable but not in top gear, a warm person but not efficient, Tata group is so large and fragmented that the central brand gets lost in the vastness of the empire. As a result, the top-of-the-mind recall of the Tata brand-pegged at Rs.10,000 crore – is not so strong amongst its various products, be it Taj hotels, Titan watches or Westside garments.

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Tata has come to realize that their biggest asset is their name TATA and not their factories and hence like the value of the assets the value of a brand can also come down and so is the name coming down, now the Tata Brand Equity and Business Promotion Agreement states that – advertisements and commercials by any Tata company must carry the TATA mark.

The Tata’s may be a 102-year-old company, but they want to be seen as a young, contemporary, new, entity”,. Besides evolving a central brand for all companies, the Tata group has also redefined its objectives and laid down three key themes that would guide the philosophy of the “new Tatas” – global, futuristic and modern. The target audience? Generation next.The Tata Open The battle ground for this new strategy of synergy started with the Tata Open (India’s biggest tennis tournament) held every year in December – January. The tata’s have paid Rs.10 crore for the three-year contract. For the Tatas themselves, it meant more than just sponsorship – it signaled the beginning of a new era in the Tata regime.

One of the main reasons for the sponsor of this event is “Global event like these provide a great opportunity to corporates to satisfy their marketing objectives and cross-promote their brands”,Creative AdvertisingTitan introduced a contest on cartoonnetworkindia.com which invites children to use their creativity and imagination to design a watch. The prize –winning design was launched as a new watch in the Summer 2002 collection and the winner received the first watch of this collection. The Top 5 won a Dash! Watch each and all participants were awarded certificates. Type Of Advertising Titan believes in making its ads clean, well made, touch an emotional chord, convey the message, have catchy jungles and make an impact. The use of celebrities, superstars is not there. These only ad to the expense packet of the company and companies only catering to the niche market of the upper cream like a Rolex or an Omega afford these. Majority of the people are rational buyers and very rarely get carried away by celebrity endorsements. They also know that they will eventually end up paying for such celebrity endorsement. Rich kids, Young DINKS (Double income, no kids) and Yuppies may fall for such ads but not ordinary people. At the end of the day, if your product or service is not good enough or does not offer value for money, your advertising will get no where. Promotion On Occasions

Titan is one of the companies which formally believes in the policy of promotion the product based on the occasions of the calendar. With every occasion having a special memory attached to it exploits this memory aspect and pushes its products. Not only the promotion of the existing products is done on these occasions but new products which would sell like hot cakes are launched for the sole reason it creates an impact in the minds of customers and appeals to the occasion thus making it even more special. In this context TITAN launched the

THE BIG HEART OFFER FROM TITAN FASTRACK where fashionable jewellery 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

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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 colors of the season – black, red and silver. The dials are in matched colors 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 1–14.Musical Advertisements – Subtle Advertisements

With changes coming up in the way one advertises Titan has changed too from the trend of constantly bombarding the consumer with the name of advertisements to subtle advertising. Through this titan is reinforcing just the name Titan and not any one of its products. The tune used by titan is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's 24th symphony as its signature tune. In the recent trend of advertising Titan uses only music to get its message across, with the company name making only a brief appearance.

Segmentation

Titan started its activity of marketing under the name TITAN as a brand not promoting on basis of the models it had. Gradually when markets became more demanding it felt that the brand needed to be segmented. This was in the years of 96 and onwards titan segmented because it felt the need that people know about different brands and the target audience was easy to identify. This was because titan was just entering the market and needed to meet specific people for their needs. For eg, it went on with the regalia, sonata brand which met different needs of different sets of people in the market. Thus titan got known among every one in the market cause they knew what was in store for them from the titan's stable rather than just knowing that titan manufactures watches.50 Million Concept Titan achieved the 50 million mark and hence it had a great slogan to blow the trumpet loud. The 50 million concept signifies the concept that 50 million happy faces who not only own but a sense of love, care and prestige, associated with what the titan has given them and will be giving them. This was aimed at all the categories with the smiling faces of the common man. Seeing this one gets the message of 50 million watches, the landmark titan has achieved, which means the name has metal in it and is something which can be trusted at the same time the emotions portrayed in the ad make emotions run high in the blood and one wants to be associated with the brand rather than buying some other watch.

Strategic Implementations

Implementation is an integral part of strategy. Strategy is not just a set of ideas removed from reality. It becomes visible only when you implement it. When Titan entered Indian jewellery market it signaled an opportunity for an organized sector.

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The customer was moving towards branded goods in other segments. The concept of brands was not familiar with the Indian customer. Titan did the process of creating brands in the minds of customer. A consumer goes to Tanishq because she believes the brand stands for purity and good design. This insight, along with the increasing mobility of Indian customers, is helping Tanishq mature into a national jeweller.

Focus

The strategy that Titan adopted in recent years is that of focus. It has segmented the market into different need groups and tailored its strategy to the exclusion of others. By optimizing its strategy for the target segments, it seeks to achieve a competitive advantage in its target segments. Market segmentation is concerned with identifying differences in the buyer behaviour, allowing a firm to match its capabilities with distinctive products and related marketing programs. Market segmentation tends to focus on the marketing activities in the value chain in which Titan commands a very formidable position. This also allows Titan to find out how it should serve each segment.

Strategic implementation

Companies must have robust processes to develop strategies irrespective of the personality of the CEO. `THE WORLD OF TITAN’ our exclusive showrooms for watches are our assets. As retail formats change the role of the showrooms may also change. Initiatives need to be prioritized. Some of the showrooms have been done up last year. However we must start today. Pragmatism has also set in perhaps because of the downturn. The depth to Equity ratio in titan is high where Titan faces a financial risk and hence their current initiatives involve any thing which do not require much financing.

Banners-Hoardings

It is not difficult to see TITAN hoardings displaying its prominence in the streets of an urban city. The prime locations, next to dealer outlets hoardings with attractive, clear, simple but catchy slogans are put up and a particular product or some times the name TITAN in general. One of the hoarding promotes the World Watch where the hoarding states “MADE IN INDIA” “CHERISHED IN GREECE”. Like this many catchy ones are there. Older ones state “THE PERFECT VALENTINE GIFT” was released a month before valentine’s day.SponsorshipTitan is involved in sponsoring major events, culturals and other fests in colleges, schools and nation wide happenings. This way of promotion gives it the extra mileage to increase its data base by directly tapping the customers to convince them about a TITAN.

Revamping the titan Brand Image Titan after all its marketing efforts in the market is going back to step one where it started when its first marketing activity concentrated on titan name rather than the different watches it offered. Then came the segmentation of the brand where every different product was advertised individually that is every product got its own identity. Titan felt that the segmentations was high and the brands have got their own name rather than titan being associated with them, so titan has gone back to revamp the brand image and market this product on the name titan. For

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this all its ads from September 2003 onwards would focus on titan as a name, this includes the showrooms are being re modeled to suit the strategy. The focus now is on titan rather than fast track and regalia the logo would promote TITAN. The policy is in accordance with the advertisement released on television which simply and subtly promotes TITAN.

Seasonality One major way of promoting the titan product is through seasons. To understand a little more about it for Example. During a wedding season or for Diwali Titan promotes Nebula, Bandhan because there is demand for the product. Gold watches and pairs are the likes of a wedding occasion., similarly the fast track brand is promoted in the months of June – August when schools and colleges re open and since these watches cater to the segments of youth, these watches get the extra mileage on sales if promoted during these seasons.

Gifting Concept Titan initially started of as a brand which was associated with gifting and relations. Today also titan is associated with the image it stated off with. The fight concept sells well for people have come to associate titan with love, care and makes emotions run high. More so ever the product is that of quality and style. The titan Nebula and Bandhan would fall more aptly in this category and the Dash is promoted with the gifting concept in mind because a parent gifts the child a watch.

Strategic FlexibilityKeeping your options open means building flexibility in the strategy. For instance in 1998 – 99 Titan announced its intention to become a global player, to address the multiple segments emerging in the Indian market through multiple brands and sub brands, and to offer terrific value for money through differentiated design, retailing and brand image. The company addressed multiple segments through brands such as sonata, fast track, Raga etc. it realized that as the market became more competitive multiple brands would be the best way to address the needs of the market. When you have multiple brands you are more flexible and less vulnerable. Titan has gone in for multiple brands.

Promotion Through ContestsTITAN ties up with various magazines, televisions, outlets where TITAN gifts could be own for winning the contest. One of them is THE WEEK magazine where one could win TITAN watches and also many magazines offer many watches depending upon their needs. TITAN also offers bulk discounts to players who pick up in lots offering it as a gift to schemes and to companies for their employees.Promotion Through Television ProgramsTITAN sponsors a program or a serial or ties u with for example a show like MTV TIMECHECK done by ESPRIT, time wear. Such promotion done as an exclusive sponsor and targeted at a particular segment. For example, if a youth program then fast Track would be focused on and on CNBC or CNN business programs the Steel or the World watch.

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A Cricket Connection

Titan is targeting Super Fiber sales to come in mainly from the semi-urban markets -- and in keeping with its target group, the company has roped in Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the young cricketing icon who hails from the small town of Ranchi in Eastern India, as its brand ambassador.

Fragmented Categories Desai points out that a brand attempting to be among the first branded presences in a fragmented category must first justify why the category needs a brand in the first place. "There are good reasons why categories don't have brands. It could be the artisan aspect of the category, like in the case of female ethnic garments, or deep personal relationships like with jewelry, or it could be the sheer price aspect like in commodities. You need to redefine the market and create a value perception of a different kind that gives the consumers an overriding reason to shift to a brand."

This is exactly what Titan did when it entered the jewelry market in 1994 with its Tanishq brand. Tanishq not only brought a wide design expertise and a plush retail environment to a segment which until then was limited to local family jewelers and small set ups, but by being the first to introduce the karat meter to measure the exact purity of gold, it brought the element of trust to the forefront. Before Titan, 'trust' between the consumer and the jeweler was a factor of personal relationships. "The reassurance of guarantee and purity in such a transparent manner was a great new value addition that Tanishq brought to this category," says Desai.

Eyeing Other Territories:

Meanwhile, Titan is now looking to bring the power of the brand to yet another unorganized category: Last year it entered into prescription eyewear with Titan Eye+. The prescription eyewear market in India is estimated to be around 25 to 30 million units per annum with revenues of US$300 million and growing at around 15% to 20% per annum. As per industry statistics, only around 25% of the people who need prescription eyewear are actually using them.

The lifestyle space, in fact, is where Titan is looking to make a larger play. Having tasted success in watches and jewelry and forayed into eyewear, Titan now wants to leverage its strengths in manufacturing, design expertise, retail knowhow and brand building for other lifestyle products. It is actively researching new categories that it can enter. Titan is also looking at expanding Fast Track, its youth brand comprising watches and sunglasses, to other accessories like belts, bags and so on.Bhaskar Bhat is, however, emphatic that Titan will not enter any category where the opportunity to compete is only on price and product quality alone. Says Bhaskar: "We have always chosen to enter segments where we saw that the consumer was being significantly underserved. In watches, it was lack of choice; in jewelry, it was under-caratage; and in eyewear, it was lack of information. In each of our businesses, we have focused on offering sharp differentiators, and the greatest consumer opportunity to differentiate comes in the unorganized sectors.

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Chapter 3:

Review of literature

The repositioning strategy is rolled out in three stages: introductory, elaboration and fortification stages. This involves the introduction of a new or a repositioned brand, seeking to underline the brand’s value over others, and to broaden the brand proposition. It is truly tough to change the customer’s perceived

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attitude towards a brand, and therefore the risk is great that the attempt to repositioning might be unsuccessful.

After rolling out the strategy, it is time to modify the proposition through update of the personality and through repositioning. There are benefits and risks with both of this segments and it is of great significance that they are truly evaluated when deciding the next step in the process. To further understand the stages stated above, figure.1 will guide you through the different phases that follow after establishing a brand proposition.

Figure 1: Stages in brand strategy development

The implication with the term” repositioning” is that a company modifies something that is already present in the market and in the consumer’s mind. The definition of repositioning changes different individuals and professions. To view the different definitions and perceive a greater understanding about this concept, three examples of repositioning given by individuals in different professions is stated below

“Repositioning is built upon the change of unique and differentiated associations with the brand in some kind of direction, it is about having a balance between the category party and differentiation when using reposition strategies” (Leading brand strategist)

From these definitions, it is obvious that reposition is about moving something to a newer and hopefully to a more attractive and relevant position. The purpose of the movement differs with regards to what the company wants to achieve. A company might want to reach out to a larger target group, or be involved in several different positions at the market. There is also a visible relation between price and

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quantity aspects. When a company perceives the market as a demand curve, the purpose is to down stretch or up stretch in this curve. When moving down it is often spoken of as an expansion down wards, and when moving up and there is a need for reaching the premium segment and expand up wards

understand that consumer’s minds are limited. People’s minds select what to remember and it is therefore significant to convince the consumers with great arguments. The market demand changes rapidly and therefore repositioning can be necessary to meet these demands, newer and stronger arguments have to be established to convince them to stay as loyal customers.

As stated in the literature, repositioning is a very complicated matter and therefore there are no detailed theories or models. The aim with repositioning differ from person to person, and the only connection between all the different theories is that repositioning is moving something from somewhere towards a greater position at the market.

Corstjens and Doyle (1989) identified three types of repositioning strategies:

(1) Zero repositioning, which is not a repositioning at all since the firm maintains its initial strategy in the face of a changing environment;

(2) Gradual repositioning, where the firm performs incremental, continuous adjustments to its positioning strategy to reflect the evolution of its environment; and

(3) Radical repositioning that corresponds to a discontinuous shift towards a new target market and/or a new competitive advantage.

After examining the repositioning of several brands from the Indian market, the following 8 types of repositioning have been identified. These are:

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o Increasing relevance to the consumer

o Increasing occasions for use

o 3.Making the brand serious

o Falling sales

o Bringing in new customers

o 6.Making the brand contemporary

o 7. Differentiate from other brands

o 8.Changed market conditions.

It is not always that these nine categories are mutually exclusive. Often one reason leads to the other and a brand is repositioned sometimes for a multiplicity of reasons.

A four-phased brand repositioning approach can be followed to achieve the intended benefits:

Phase I. Determining the Current Status of the Brand

Phase II. What Does the Brand Stand for Today?

Phase III. Developing the Brand Positioning Platforms

Phase IV. Refining the Brand Positioning and Management Presentation

The benefits that can be derived from brand repositioning exercises can be summarized as:

Value over others

Updated personality

Relevant position

The risks associated with such strategies are:

Loss of focus

Neglecting original customers

Losing credibility for the brand

Confusing the brand

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Therefore, brand repositioning is more difficult than initially positioning a brand because one must first help the customer “unlearn” the current brand positioning (easier said than done). Three actions can aid in this process:

(1) carefully crafted communication,

(2) new products, packaging, etc. that emphasize the new positioning and

(3) associations with other brands (co-branding, co-marketing, ingredient branding, strategic alliances, etc.) that reinforce the new brand positioning.This exercise is so critical to an organization’s success that the organization’s leadership team and its marketing/brand management leaders should develop it, preferably with the help and facilitation of an outside brand-positioning expert.

Chapter 4: Research Methodology

Repositioning Strategies are an essential component of corporate strategy. It is argued

that most firms do not conduct this type of analysis systematically enough. Instead,

many enterprises operate on what is called “informal impressions, conjectures, and

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intuition gained through the titbits of information about competitors every manager

continually receives.” As a result, traditional environmental scanning places many

firms at risk of dangerous competitive blind spots due to a lack of robust competitor

analysis.

In order to expose the necessary information regarding the project an intensive

research was done. The methodology adopted to accumulate the necessary

information is mentioned below.

Largely, research can be done with two types of data:

4.1 Sources of Data Collection

The relevant data was collected from both primary sources and secondary sources. The starting point of my information gathering has been the secondary sources such as internet, books, and journals and so on.

First, I made a study of the brand positioning and repositioning strategies of Titan watches through secondary sources such as internet, insurance magazines, and journals and so on. Then I conducted a consumer awareness survey on brand repositioning strategies undertaken by Titan watches in recent times.

4.2 Primary Data:-

Data was collected through an interview schedule, consisting of both open ended and closed ended questions. The schedule covered parameters like reasons for consumers’ brand preference; recollection of earlier tagline and advertisement, brand ambassador of Titan; awareness of new tagline and campaign featuring Aamir Khan, new designs and so on. The data was collected through telephone contacts and one-to-one personal interviews.

4.3 Secondary Data:-

This data is mainly collected from different types of sources such as official

documents, magazines, journals, pictorials, books, reports, and so on. During my

project, I have mainly utilized the latter kind of data. Like secondary data for my

research. I have referred to the official website of the company and many more.

Moreover, I have applied both qualitative and quantitative sort off studies as research

methodology for this project.

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4.4 Research Methodology:

Research methodology is considered as the nerve of the project. Without a proper

well-organized research plan, it is impossible to complete the project and reach to any

conclusion. The project was based on the survey plan. The main objective of survey

was to collect appropriate data, which work as a base for drawing conclusion and

getting result.

Therefore, research methodology is the way to systematically solve the research

problem. Research methodology not only talks of the methods but also logic behind

the methods used in the context of a research study and it explains why a particular

method has been used in the preference of the other methods

4.5 Research design:

Research design is important primarily because of the increased complexity in the

market as well as marketing approaches available to the researchers. In fact, it is the

key to the evolution of successful marketing strategies and programmers. It is an

important tool to study buyer’s behavior, consumption pattern, brand loyalty, and

focus market changes. A research design specifies the methods and procedures for

conducting a particular study. According to Kerlinger, “Research Design is a plan,

conceptual structure, and strategy of investigation conceived as to obtain answers to

research questions and to control variance.

4.6 Types of research are:

Descriptive Research

The type of research adopted for study is descriptive. Descriptive studies are

undertaken in many circumstances when the researches is interested to know

the characteristic of certain group such as age, sex, education level, occupation

or income. A descriptive study may be necessary in cases when a researcher is

interested in knowing the proportion of people in a given population who have

in particular manner, making projections of a certain thing, or determining the

relationship between two or more variables. The objective of such study is to

answer the “who, what, when, where and how” of the subject under

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investigation. There is a general feeling that descriptive studies are factual and

very simple. This is not necessarily true. Descriptive study can be complex,

demanding a high degree of scientific skill on part of the researcher.

Descriptive studies are well structured. An exploratory study needs to be

flexible in its approach, but a descriptive study in contrast tends to be rigid and

its approach cannot be changed every now and then. It is therefore necessary,

the researcher give sufficient thought to framing research.

Questions and deciding the types of data to be collected and the procedure to

be used in this purpose. Descriptive studies can be divided into two broad

categories: Cross Sectional and Longitudinal Sectional. A cross sectional

study is concerned with a sample of elements from a given population. Thus, it

may deal with household, dealers, retail stores, or other entities. Data on a

number of characteristics from sample elements are collected and analyzed.

Cross sectional studies are of two types: Field study and Survey. Although the

distinction between them is not clear- cut, there are some practical differences,

which need different techniques and skills. Field studies are ex-post-factor

scientific inquiries that aim at finding the relations and interrelations among

variables in a real setting. Such studies are done in live situations like

communities, schools, factories, and organizations.

Another type of cross sectional study is survey result, which has been taken by

me. A major strength of survey research is its wide scope. Detail information

can be obtained from a sample of large population .Besides; it is economical

as more information can be collected per unit of cost. In addition, it is obvious

that a sample survey needs less time than a census inquiry. Descriptive

research includes survey and fact finding enquiries of different kinds of the

major purpose. Descriptive research is description of the state of affairs, as it

exists at present. The main characteristic of this method is that the researcher

has no control over the variables; he can only report what has happened or

what is happening. The methods of research utilized in descriptive research

are survey methods of all kinds including comparative and co relational

methods. The reason for using such needs to be flexible in its approach, but a

descriptive study in contrast tends to be rigid and its approach cannot be

changed every now and then.

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4.7 Sampling Procedure

A sample of 50 consumers who are brand loyal to Titan watches since more than a year and in the age group of 20 – 30 years have been considered for this study. As Titan has taken up brand repositioning strategies since July 2008, consumers who have seen the previous and new campaign have been targeted

Chapter 5- Data Interpretation

5.1 Consumer Awareness Survey

Titan sub-brand owned

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This was a multiple choice question where respondents were asked to choose sub-brands of Titan which they possess. It was found that around 72% of the consumers in the age group of 20-30 years possess Fastrack brand, 14% Sonata, 6% Raga, 4% Nebula and only 2% own WWF and Edge.

Period of use

The respondents were asked to mention since how long they have been brand loyal to Titan. This was an open ended question and hence various responses were received. The minimum period of use was set as one year, as mentioned earlier, while the maximum period of use was determined. For convenience, the different responses are categorized into three: 1year – 4years, 4years – 7years and 7years – 10years.

64% of the respondents fall into first category, i.e., they are using Titan watch in the range of one to four years. 24% respondents are in second category and the rest 12 % are using it for more than seven years.

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Reasons for brand loyalty

The respondents were asked to select the reasons from the options given for their preference for Titan watches. For this question, multi-responses were received from the respondents.

Reasons No. of respondents ( out of total 50)Attractive designs 39Reasonable Price 7Brand image 22Good quality 25

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Recall of Titan’s tagline

Titan’s tagline, before brand repositioning exercise has been undertaken, was “What’s your style”. This tagline was adopted during first rebranding exercise in 2004.

The respondents were asked to indicate whether they remember the tagline in dichotomous way, i.e., as “yes” or “no”. It was found that only 22% of the respondents were able to recall the tagline and the remaining 78% answered in negative.

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Titan’s advertisements

Titan advertises its watches in almost all media vehicles. The advertisements can be seen in TV, magazines, newspaper, hoardings, billboards, radio and so on.

All the 50 respondents have seen the advertisements of Titan watches in various media.

This was a multi-response question and the options given to select were restricted to TV, magazines, newspapers, hoardings and radio. The findings of the survey have been summarized in a table as follows:

Types of media No. of respondentsTV 46Magazines 25Newspapers 36Hoardings 15Radio 4

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Brand Ambassador of Titan

Aamir Khan is the brand ambassador of Titan since 2004. When the respondents were asked to recollect the same, it was found that 46 of 50 sample size were able to correctly mention the brand ambassador while the remaining 4 did not give any response implying that they are not aware of it.

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Awareness of new tagline – “Be More”

The survey has revealed that less than half of the total numbers of respondents (36%) are aware of new tagline.

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New designs of Titan

Titan has launched several new designs in 2008 and 2009 in its existing collections and as per its plans introduced new product collections also.

The respondents were asked to rate the new designs as “poor”, “average”, “above average”, “good” and “excellent”.7 respondents feel that their designs are “excellent”, 39 have rated them as “good” and 4 have rated as “average”.

New Campaign of Titan

The survey has revealed that the percentage of respondents who have seen the new campaign focussing on “be more” featuring Aamir Khan is 50%.

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Rating of New Campaign

The 50% of the respondents who have seen the new campaign were asked to rate it with respect to how effective the campaign is in inspiring consumers to have a new look everyday and be more in lives.

16 out of 25 respondents consider the new campaign to be “highly effective” while the remaining 9 rated it as “effective”

Titan’s exclusive showrooms

The respondents were asked to rate Titan’s exclusive showrooms on 5 point rating scale – Poor, Average, Above Average, Good and Excellent. The factors related to showrooms that were provided to the respondents for rating are – store ambience, sales personnel, after sales service and display of watches.

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Consumer perception of store ambience

36 of the 50 respondents have rated store ambience as “Good” and 7 each rated as “Above Average” and “Excellent”. This proves that store ambience plays an important role in consumer perception of service quality.

Consumer perception of sales personnel

With respect to sales personnel, 35 respondents rated them as “Good”, while 4 each rated as “Poor” and “Average”, 7 respondents gave rating of “Above Average”.

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Consumer Perception about after sales service

In the survey, 31 out of 50 respondents rated after sales service as” Good”, 4 each as “Average”, “Above Average” and “Excellent” while 7 respondents rated as “Poor”.

Consumer perception of Display of watches

Most of the respondents have given high ratings to the display of watches in Titan showroom. 22 respondents rated it as “Excellent”, 24 respondents as “Good” and only 4 respondents gave rating of “Average”.

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Overall perception about Titan showrooms

The respondents were also asked to give overall rating to Titan’s exclusive showrooms. It was found that out of total 50 respondents, 30 rated as “good” while the remaining considered the showrooms to be “excellent”. Around 50% of the respondents rated all the variables related to Titan’s exclusive showrooms as “good”.

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Chapter 6-Observation And Findings

Titan firmly believes in providing total customer convenience in shopping. This fact is justified by the location of their outlets and the recent move by the company to go in for a major renovation of all the WORLD OF TITAN show rooms updating it to modern selling concepts, saving space, making it more attractive for the customer, easy maintenance, a show room which stands out from the rest. This has been done to the highest standards taking care of even of the minute details.

Titan’s retail operations are a mix of company-owned and franchisee outlets, with the idea being to ensure a dominant presence in all market areas through different kinds of stores, and to assure the availability of every Titan product. Titan has concentrated on customer perspective, and have engineered the entire chain to suit different customers.

Titan concentrates more on the customer theme. Earlier there was no attempt in the retailing sector to entice customer to buy a watch, but Titan has tried to bring the brand to the customer in an appropriate setting. The company does this through its `World of Titan’ show rooms.

The franchisee is a critical cog in Titan’s retail matrix. The company organizes various programmes for franchisees, their managers and customer relationships officers. These include training workshops and seminars on market trends, visual merchandising, store operations and maintenance, and customer service initiative. However, the real challenge in retailing is managing the franchisee network through processes and systems that ensure a superior brand experience for every customer. Franchisee relationship management is important because of increasing competition, not only from the watch business but also from other business in the retail industry.

Besides the franchisees and its own showrooms, Titan sells its product through other outlets as well. Among them are the Time Zone stores, which stock all the leading brands, and the Value Mart outlets, which operate in Bangalore and Chennai and sell surplus – to export watches at a discount. For its many customers Titan has Tata Signet, a 1,36,000 member club that looks to build relationships through rewards, regular discounts and special offers. Customers can also count on a service-centre network that’s 550-strong and spread over 30-odd cities and towns across the country.

The service centers have been deliberately kept apart from Titan’s showrooms. The business is different and the customer is in two different moods at the two places Titan’s blueprint for the future including making watches for international heavyweights such as YSL, Christian Dior and Gucci. Titan believes there is huge potential at the designer end of the market. The marketing investment is however

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lower because “the brand is doing the marketing for you”. Also on the anvil are specialty stores for niche customers, and an expansion into product categories like sunglasses and leather goods.

However, it is staying ahead of the competition that is the overall priority: “We have to ensure Titan has the best wristwatch store in any given city or town”. You don’t really have to watch this space for confirmation on that count.

Titan stores can be broadly classified into 4 stores each having its different features making TITAN attractive to everyone.

WORLD OF TITAN

experience the touch of Titan, all you have to do is walk into the stylish World of Titan showroom anywhere in India. Prepare to be floored by the cool international ambience and the staggering choice of over a 1000 watches and trendy accessories. And because the customer has to be given special treatment, we deliver your gifts, offer gift vouchers for your loved ones, and what’s more, we invite you to join the Signet Club, our loyalty programme with lots of special privileges. Come closer to us at The World of Titan!The world of Titan is the biggest among all stores of the company and is an exclusive dealer in Titan watches. These showrooms are generally about 1000-2000 sq.ft and have an extensive range of watches. These showroom are the major revenue generators of the company and every 5 years the showroom is fully done up updating it to modern international standards.

TIME ZONE

Titan Industries brings together the country’s leading watch brands under one roof, providing the customer with variety in brands, looks and price ranges backed by efficient after-sales service. Presenting Time Zones – the chain of trusted watch shops. Conveniently located, these 1142 Time Zones across 89 towns offer you the complete watch shopping experience.

VALUE MART

These outlets sell surplus stocks of Titan watches at reduced prices, offering fabulous value for money with the same warranty as a regular, full-priced watch. These concepts in the recent past have caught up with any product with it being total value for money. However these shops would not be placed in the main locations so as to interfere with the working of the normal shops. This is to make the customer go to the shop rather than the shop calling the customer and hence the locations are not very suitable for shopping.

SONATA STORE

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If you’re looking for Sonata watch, visit these exclusive Sonata outlets which also have an Authorised Service Centre for Sonata & Titan brands. The idea of a Sonata store came upto cater to the large scale demand for the watch and to open Titan to more customers. More over these shops had full stocks of the watch in demand whereas the others could afford to maintain only limited stock

Suggestions given by the respondents to improve brand image

Varied responses were received for this question. All the responses have been summarized as follows:

o Introduce more trendy and innovative designso Focus on niche markets such as working men and womeno Spread awareness about availability of watches in lower segments as most of

the consumers feel that Titan brand is synonymous with premium watches.o Take steps to change consumer perception that Titan watches are high

priced.o Improve after sales service.

Findings of the survey

The findings of the consumer awareness survey are listed below:

o 72% of the respondents in the age group of 20 – 30 years possess Fastrack watch. This shows that the positioning strategy of these watches has been good.

o Most of the consumers prefer Titan watches for their attractive designs and good quality. However, there is a misconception about pricing of Titan products among the consumers. They perceive them to be high priced.

o Logos and taglines are rarely noticed by the watch consumers. Hence, any change in them also goes unnoticed.

o Advertisement in mass media such as television, newspapers, and magazines are best means to spread awareness about brand.

o Celebrity endorsement of watches not only increases the visibility of the product but also gives an assurance to the consumers that it is of high quality.

o Titan watches’ designs are rated as “good” by 78% of the respondents. This indicates that they are looking forward for more innovative designs to be introduced by the company.

o Only 50% of the respondents have seen the new campaign launched by Titan watches in 2013 and 2014. This implies that the reach of the campaign in six months has been to more or less half of the consumers. However, those who have seen the new campaign consider it to be effective in conveying the message it intended to deliver, i.e., to “be more” in lives.

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o The after sales service and behavior of sales personnel have been given low ratings compared to other variables mentioned in the questionnaire with respect to Titan’s exclusive showroom

Promotion and Brand Building Strategies :

o Titan valued advertising as an investment to merchandise new models.

o Build a good-sized gift market and emotional market.

o Roped Amir Khan as brand ambassador.

o Tagline ‘Be More’ reflecting the youth’s multitasking lifestyle of the day.

o Sonata was launched as “waqt se do kadam age”

o Sonata was sold highest and Dhoni been signed as brand ambassador.

o Fastrack made use of social media like orkut, facebook, etc.

o Launched several sales promotion programmes around festivals.

o TIL received the “Reader's Digest Trusted Brand Platinum Award” for the watch category.

PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

o Overlapping of sub brands

o Competitors entering mid price market range (RS 1500-3500)

o Stiff competition in premium segment market by international players.

o Premium segment market are the only revenue generating market.

o Failure of launch in European market.

o How to create global brand identity like TOMMY,ESPIRIT etc

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Chapter 7-Recommendation

o Mid price market price range (up to RS3500) and sec C & D brands can go with umbrella branding strategy.

o Brands like Fastrack can diversify further in other accessories like MP3 players, digital cameras.

o Repositioning Xylis and Nebula with powerful emotional attribute.

o Creating a joint ventures with the high end international brands.a) when an international brand entering Indian marketb) when Titan is entering foreign market

o Entering new international geography by acquiring “Me too” players and positioning as durable product.

o Endorsing the product through international events like FIFA, World Cup, Olympics, etc.

o Establishing a chain of after sale services in international market.

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Chapter 8-Conclusion

The suggestions to improve consumer awareness about brand repositioning strategy of Titan are as follows:

o To increase its visibility, Titan Company can sponsor events similar to fashion shows in which all latest designs launched are displayed. This would have multiplier effect as the latest designs launched by the company get noticed by different segments of the customers in varied ways.

o Tie –up with FM radio channels for reminder advertisements and informing customers about various sales promotion offers from time-to-time.

o Invest more in R&D as customer expectations are changing rapidly. Though Titan has got more product collections, it should focus on introducing more varieties in already existing product collections. In other words, having a limited but more depth in product collections would be more advantageous.

o Introduce exclusive collection for working women which is more contemporary and complements both traditional and western wear.

o Majority of the population in India live in rural areas. So, showrooms should be set up at places nearer to them. Introduce cheaper and rough use watches for this segment.

o After sales service has to be improved. That is, the process of servicing and repairing of watches should be made faster. This can be done by ensuring the spare parts availability and training all sales personnel in Titan showrooms to undertake these tasks.

o Tie up with international watch brands and make them available locally.

o Make use of internet to spread awareness among consumers about the brand.

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1.Which sub-brand of Titan watches do you possess?

A. Fastrack

B. Sonata

C. Raga

D. Nebula

E. Edge

F. Others, please specify…………………………….

2.Since how many months / years have you been using Titan watch?----------------------------

3.Why do you prefer Titan brand?

A) Attractive designs,

B )Reasonable price

C )Brand image

D) Good quality

4.Do you remember the original tagline of Titan watches?

If yes, please mention.

5. Have you seen the advertisement of Titan watches?a) Yesb) No

6.In which media have you seen the advertisement? a) TVb) Newspaperc) Magazinesd) Hoardingse) Radio

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7.Who is the brand ambassador of Titan watches?____________

8. Are you aware of the new tagline of Titan?a) Yesb) No

9.How do you rate the new designs of Titan?a) Poorb) Averagec) Above Averaged) Goode) Excellent

10.Have you seen the new campaign of Titan? a) Yesb) No

11.Do you think the new advertisement is effective in inspiring consumers to have a new look everyday and be more in lives?

a) Not at all effective b) Effectivec) Highly effective

12.How do you rate Titan’s exclusive showrooms with respect to the following:(1–Poor, 2-Average, 3-Above Average, 4-Good, 5-Excellent)

a)Ambience- b)Sales personnel-c)After sales service-d)Display of watches-e)Overall showroom-

13. What suggestions would you like to give to improve Titan’s brand image among customers?

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Chapter 9-Bibliography

References

o Sengupta Subroto (2006), “Brand Positioning: Strategies for Competitive Advantage”. Second Edition, Tata McGraw Hill Publishing Company Limited, New Delhi.

o Gopalakrishnan PS (ed.) (2007),”Rebranding: An Introduction”. ICFAI University Press, Hyderabad.

o ICFAI Journal of Marketing Management

o ICFAI Journal of Brand Management

o www.marketingprofs.com

o www.brandingstrategyinsider.com

o www.thehindubusinessline.com

o www.economictimes.com

o http://www.flickr.com/photos/20714224@N02/

o http://www.fastrack.in/offer/fastrack-offer.aspx

o www.googlesearch.co.in

o www.titanindustries.com

o www.financialexpress.com

o www.tatagroup.com

o www.economictimes.com

o www.naukrihub.com

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