Brand Management

Assignment

Submitted to

Prof. Ashish Sadh

Presented by

Devendra Singh Lohmor

Siddharth Barhat
 Table of Contents

Brand Management_________________________________________________________________1
Fastrack___________________________________________________________________________3
Brand History____________________________________________________________________3
Brand Communication_____________________________________________________________5
Need for Extension________________________________________________________________6
Brand Extension: Eye Gear__________________________________________________________7
Communication___________________________________________________________________8
Effectiveness_____________________________________________________________________8
References_____________________________________________________________________10
Fastrack

There is certain breeziness about the brand Fastrack that is refreshing, not flippant. A marked
difference from other watch brands from Titan Industries’ stable that is more sober and sedate.
Today, the brand is indeed in the fast lane. Having carved a separate identity, breaking away from its
parent brand Titan, Fastrack hopes to become a brand name to reckon with in the fashion circuit.

With watches, sunglasses, wallets, bags and belts now, and all in its own independent store, the
brand’s journey since launch 12 years ago has been a heady one.

Brand History

Fastrack made a modest beginning in 1997, with a small collection of watches targeting the younger
side of Titan’s audience – “early jobbers” in the 23-30 years age group. It was positioned as "Cool
watches from Titan" and was aimed to counter Timex which had decided to spin off from Titan. In
1999, Fastrack's focus shifted further down the age spectrum - to those between 15 years and in
their early 20s. This resulted in the Digital Collection - communicated as `Too Sexy For Your Wrist' -
that included big, bold and techno-kind of watches. Later, it came out with Fashion Collection,
mainly aimed at wooing more customers from the fairer sex. The company has backed the campaign
by creating a range of aspirational products targeted at this group.

Initially, the extension of the Fastrack sub-brand was aimed at the youth and was expected to tap
the huge gap between the branded and unbranded players in the Indian sunglasses market. The
branded players, which included Police, Ray-Ban and Killer Loop, started from a price point of Rs
1,650 upwards, while the unbranded segment operated at approximately Rs 700 downwards.
Fastrack I-Gear was priced between Rs 1200 and Rs 2700 and was aimed at tapping the void
between unbranded and branded players.

The intention of Titan Industries was to launch Fastrack sub-brand into fashion accessories as it had
already established itself as the leading player in the youth segment of the domestic watch market.
After its launch, the company was on a high growth trajectory but Fastrack itself was not doing very
well. In 2003, the Indian sunglasses market in India was pegged at about Rs 330 crore and was
reportedly growing at nine per cent annually. It did well initially, turnover crossed Rs 15 crore in the
first year itself, and had grown to Rs 25 crore by 2001-02.
After eight years, Fastrack was risking itself by being in its parent’s shadow for too long and it had to
do something to break away from the shackles and that’s when the brand decided to go in for a
major makeover and carve out an independent identity.

In Circa 2005, Fastrack decided that cheeky was the way to go and decided to target and create its
own set of loyal customers rather than targeting the Titan’s audience. It repositioned itself as a
younger brand targeting a much younger audience in the 18-25 years age group, basically the
college-going crowd.

It changed its communication from earlier, where its advertising line was ‘Fastrack from Titan’. It
also used Titan’s Mozart tune – but a jazzier version.. There was a new logo, with the major
deviation to notice, from earlier was that the reference to Titan was not upfront in advertising. The
new brand identity was also conveyed in the communication. Earlier, it was understated
communication: ‘Cool watches from Titan.’ But now, it went in for ‘in your face’ communication
with the tagline ‘How many you have?’ that stressed on owning multiple watches.”

Year 2005 also saw Fastrack release an ad campaign for its sunglasses featuring John Abraham, its
brand ambassador. Adding excitement and zest to the category, Fastrack in collaboration with MTV
has introduced the “Fastrack MTV Masala Collection”– a range of 10 unisex watches. Targeted at
Generation Next, the brand tried to capture the essence and philosophy of today’s fun loving, free
spirited youth through the new positioning encapsulated in a tongue in cheek colloquial phrase -
“How many you have”? Fastrack positioned itself as the ultimate fashion accessory for the youth –
variety, multiplicity and constant excitement being the order of the day. The brand revealed a new
logo signifying the spirit of bonding among today’s youth.

The new range of Fastrack watches was targeted at 15 – 25 year old young girls & guys who actively
seek fashion as a means of self-expression. Sexy silhouettes and fashion trends like halter necks &
spaghetti straps inspired the product range for girls while styles for guys took inspiration from biking.
The new range targeted the trendy, fashionable and opinionated teenagers; aptly accessorizing their
wildest imagination. The range consists of more than 25 styles in over 80 models that will see
constant refreshment throughout the year.

Over the years, Fastrack gained in confidence and its ‘Move on’ ad campaign in 2008 reflected its
newfound confidence. The campaign with the tag line ‘Move on’ was based on the premise that
youngsters prefer to stay uncommitted. From then on Fastrack attempted several innovative tactics
to hook the youth. In June 2008, Fastrack partnered with Radio One 94.3 FM that saw the radio
station being ‘owned’ by Fastrack for a day. That day, the radio station was rebranded as ‘Fastrack
94.3 FM – the station for the move-on generation.’ This saw contests and promotions revolving
around Fastrack’s theme of ‘Move On’ integrating with the radio station’s programming. Radio One
94.3 FM also featured programmes around the theme such as ‘favourite dump lines’ and ‘tips to
move on’. The co-branding exercise was done in six cities — Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi,
Ahmedabad and Pune.

Brand Communication

There is a certain irreverence and boldness in the brand’s communication; it isn’t shy of making
subtle sexual innuendoes, but without sounding cheap or obscene which is very evident in the ‘Yes’
ad which shows a classroom full of girls going bonkers at a boy’s watch collection.

Fastrack found the perfect confluence that all brands search for: A very large consumer segment, a
vacant market space, and a brand which has found the way to build strong emotional and product
appeal, over and over. This brand talks the language of the campus, the language of today’s cool
young Indian. The products have a point of view like the brand itself. Fastrack has the makings of a
cult brand for the youth. It is entirely unconventional in its ways, and often runs close to the edge
with its way of advertising. But on the other hand that’s the way youth want to be today, and so
that’s the way they like their friends and their brands.”

It is a younger, more irreverent brand, and more on the edgy-buzzy side of style and the demand for
style from a generation that is younger.

Attitude apart, the brand is doing great in product innovation with examples in the Fastrack
adventure collection - which includes the Carabiner watch - inspired by mountaineering and rock
climbing themes, and the latest Army collection of watches and sunglasses inspired by army
equipment, arsenal and apparel.

Fastrack is invading into the lucrative fashion Accessories business with its launch to become
complete fashion brand for the youth – wallets, bags, back packs and belts.

The brand also believes that it can increase the consumer touch points many-fold, increase the
frequency of consumer interaction for the brand and also increase its aggregate consumer base with
its Branded accessories as a category is growing at 25 per cent per year. Given the limited range in
the market place, it sees huge potential for accessories for the youth, which forms about 55 per cent
of the country’s population.” The accessories are priced between Rs 295 and Rs 1,695 and the
company believes the slowdown won’t affect purchase of these relatively small ticket items.

Another indicator of its divergence from the parent brand is Fastrack’s decision to open its own
stores to provide “a whole new experience” to young consumers. The store is positioned as a
complete accessories destination with all Fastrack products under one roof. The first store (around
500 sq. ft.) was opened in Pune; the brand plans to have 50 stores in 25 cities by 2010.

Fastrack has seen 10-fold growth since 2005 — from selling 1.5 lakh watches to over a million,
50,000 sunglasses to over five lakh now; from being a Rs 29-crore brand to clocking a sales turnover
of over Rs 250 crore and is expected to become a Rs 500-crore brand in three-four years. It has been
growing at a CAGR of 30 per cent for the last four years.

Fastrack is engaging with the youth where they best like to be: the virtual space. It’s creating some
buzz on the social networking sites, and also re-launching its Web site and plans to transact sales on
the site as well.

Need for Extension

Earlier the brand was doing well but around 2002, the Sales started stagnating and sales were
expected to have an Rs 25 crore barrier. Also, Earlier was positioned at 22 to 30-year age group but
with loosing sales. Initially the company never understood the contribution of the youth to watch
buying in the country until 2004 year when it conducted a study of the market, in about 1.5 lakh
interviews including both urban and rural inputs. It realized that youth aged between 11 and 20
years account for 42 per cent of the overall watch buying. Hence, Fastrack's focus shifted further
down the age spectrum - to those between 15 years and in their early 20s. This resulted in the Digital
Collection - communicated as `Too Sexy For Your Wrist' - that included big, bold and techno-kind of
watches. Later, it came out with Fashion Collection, mainly aimed at wooing more customers from
the fairer sex. But it didn't help and by 2003-04, sales had dropped to Rs 23 crore (Rs 230 million)
even though designs were constantly refreshed, but sales remained stagnant.

The main cause of trouble was price, with Fastrack watches costing between Rs 1,200 and Rs 2,700,
and didn't encourage too many repeat purchases. Ultimate effect of all this was that the brand was
dying with declining sales and something had to be done.
Brand Extension: Eye Gear

The brand extension was a carefully thought-out exercise, based on in-house research by Titan. The
findings of the research showed that, Cellphones, deodorants, sports shoes, sunglasses and
handbags were most popular accessories for youngsters and while, the mobiles, fragrances and
footwear seemed too unconnected with Titan's core competence, handbags were an expensive
proposition, involving the need for several collections every year.

And hence, Eyewear, seemed the most logical brand extension cause Fastrack is addressing the same
consumer for both watches and sunglasses because both products are about style and not function,
whereas something like a handbag is both functional and stylish.

There was another reason, too. The eyewear market in India at the time was skewed. While the top-
end was dominated by designer originals and upscale brands such as Ray-Ban, with prices starting at
a steep Rs 2,000, the grey market was characterised by shoddy rip-offs that could be had for as little
as Rs 200.

An obvious gap existed in the market, and Fastrack decided to fill it, launching its branded sunglasses
at a middle price level: Rs 695- 1,895 a pair and hence, Fastrack wanted to give young people a
fashionable product of good quality that is yet affordable.

So finally, to revitalize the brand, the focus began shifting away from watches. The brand was
instead extended into sunglasses, with the launch of Fastrack Eye Gear in June 2004. Here, Titan was
following the strategies of big watch companies like Swatch and Seiko, who have branched out into
personal accessories as well.

The young and trendy collection of designer sunglasses under the series Fastrack Eye Gear from
Titan Industries was unveiled in Chennai and was gradually taken into other markets. It was available
at Lifestyle, Shoppers' Stop, Music World and Planet Ms.

The launch marked Titan Industries' foray into the fashion accessories space. With Fastrack Eye Gear,
the young crowd now had a brand of stylish, affordable, eyewear that could enable them to express
their sophisticated and evolved tastes. There was a huge untapped market available for sunglasses in
the fashion category which it hoped to tap. It tried to bring in a new dimension to the Indian
sunglasses market, which until now, was dominated by the unorganized players at one end and the
expensive, branded and designer label, at the other. This new range of sunglasses was aimed to
bridge that gap with its unique combination of style, protection and value. The highly affordable
Fastrack Eye Gear collection prices range from Rs 500 to Rs 2000. It recognized the needs of the
younger generation, realizing that the youth of today are constantly looking for ways to convey their
identity and individuality. The Fastrack Eye Gear collection tried to fulfill this need and was designed
to convey the new attitude of the young.

Communication

• Adopted the following core brand values

 Fashionable and trendy

 Affordable Pricing

 Fresh Communication to attract the young consumers. The brand wanted to be the
ultimate fashion accessory for the youth

• Roped in the youth icon John Abraham as the brand ambassador

• Launched Bikers, Sports, Army, Campus and Summer Collections range to target specific
segments

Effectiveness

The brand extension enhanced the parent brand image as Fastrack has successfully established
itself as a fashion accessory and also permitted subsequent extension –foraying into accessories
segment - wallets, bags and belts. The sales growth objective of the brand was also more than met,
if the numbers provided by Titan Industries are an indicator, the extension did help. In 2004 alone,
Fastrack's combined turnover was Rs 36 crore (Rs 360 million): Rs 23 crore (Rs 230 million) from
watches and Rs 13 crore (Rs 130 million) from sunglasses. The graph below shows the sales of the
brand through all these years to support the fact.
 Sales( in Cr.)
350

300

250

200

150

100

50

0
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007

The Brand was also revitalized - According to the recent survey by Fastrack, customers think of it as
an affordable brand rather than cheap. While successful in its own right, the brand extension has
also helped the cause of the mother brand, helping Fastrack gain more visibility and creating more
distribution options.
References

[1]. http://fastrack.in/

[2]. http://www.prdomain.com/companies/T/Titan/newsreleases/200562322069.htm

[3]. http://marketingpractice.blogspot.com/2009/02/brand-update-fastrack_25.html

[4]. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/catalyst/2009/03/12/stories/2009031250010100.ht
m

[5]. http://www.investsmart.in/content/Research/FlavourReportFiles/2008/2/27/Titan_Industri
es_Initiating_Coverage_IISL_19_Dec_2007.pdf

[6]. http://www.madisonindia.com/Insight-July07.pdf

[7]. http://www.rediff.com/money/2005/dec/01titan.htm