Introduction In October 2004, Titan Industries Ltd.

(TIL), a leading manufacturer and marketer of watches, jewelry, eye wear, and other lifestyle products, appointed Aamir Khan (Aamir) as the brand ambassador for its Titan range of watches. Bijou Kurien (Kurien), Chief Operating Officer (Watches), TIL, said, "There is a perfect fit between Aamir and Titan -- their stature, timelessness, and the love and trust they both share with the people, both nationally and internationally, makes this an ideal partnership. Moreover, Aamir has a universal appeal that extends to everyone, across age groups, just as our watches do."6 With the celebrity endorsement, TIL hoped to promote the latest trends in the industry. 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. In 2004, besides appointing a brand ambassador, TIL made several attempts to revitalize its sub-brands. It introduced several collections/ranges under each of its sub-brands. Moreover, it participated in the retail boom that the country was experiencing. It opened several outlets in the huge malls and hypermarkets that were mushrooming in the big cities. It also paid attention to its communication strategies. And its attempts seemed to have paid off -- the company posted good annual profits (Refer to Exhibit I for TIL's financials) and its image was rejuvenated. Background Note TIL, a joint venture between the Tata Group and the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation, commenced operations in 1987 under the name Titan Watches Limited (TWL). With the diversification of TWL into jewelry in 1994, the company changed its name to TIL. In June 2004, the company diversified into other lifestyle products like eyewear

by extending its watch sub-brand Fastrack and perfumery with a new brand Evolve, launched in early 2005. The main manufacturing plants of the company were situated at Hosur in Tamil Nadu. It also had an assembly unit at Dehradun in Uttaranchal and a unit that produced electronic circuitry for quartz watches in Goa. TIL reported a turnover of Rs.9.58 billion for the year ended 2003-04. Till 2004, TIL had sold more than 60 million watches. TIL's brands were sold from more than 5,000 multi-brand outlets and 175 exclusive 'World of Titan' outlets. In 2004, TIL manufactured and marketed more than 7 million watches. It was India's leading producer of watches and the sixth largest global player in the category of manufacturer brands7. Its watches were sold in about 40 countries through its marketing subsidiaries based in London, Dubai, and Singapore. TIL also made watches for international labels. TIL's Communication Strategy TIL's communication strategy evolved over time. In 1987, the company was known only for the parent brand. Through the 1990s, the company introduced several collections and sub-brands for different segments of the market. Though innovative and appealing, the marketing and communication efforts of these sub-brands were not integrated. Initially, they were advertised under the mother brand, but with the development of the market, it became necessary for TIL to develop separate communication and marketing campaigns for its sub-brands... Titan When the first Titan quartz range was launched in March 1987, it was accompanied by heavy advertising. The first advertisement described the Titan quartz as the international watch one could pay for in rupees. Later campaigns emphasized that to find such watches it was not necessary to go to Europe, Japan, America, or a duty-free shop... Dash! In July 1999, TIL launched Dash!, an exclusive children's watch targeting those in the age group 6-14. The watch was priced in the range of Rs.250-Rs.395 and came in plastic straps and colorful dials. With this launch, TIL made a serious attempt to change its 'elegant' and 'old' image. TIL tried to tap the children's watch market, which was an unpenetrated segment, and believed to be as large

as Rs.35 million. The company aimed to achieve volumes of around one million units from Dash! within a period of 2-3 years of the launch. Steel In September 2001, TIL launched Titan Steel watches in Kolkata. As the name suggests, the watches were created out of steel. The Titan Steel collection had a range of bracelets and leather strap watches for both men and women and were priced between Rs.1,250 and Rs.6,000. Edge In May 2002, TIL launched the Titan Edge, the slimmest commercially available watch "in the universe". Produced indigenously after four years of intensive research and development, the Titan Edge had a thickness of just 3.5 mm and a wafer thin movement of 1.15 mm. Flip TIL launched Titan Flip in July 2004 at Mumbai's Taj Mahal Hotel. And again a celebrity -- film star Akshaye Khanna -- was invited for the launch. The watch was unique in the sense that it was India's first dual face watch with dual functionality and styling and had two movements. One could use two watches with the mere 'flip' of the dial.The dual-faced watch allowed customers to switch between international time zones and alternative lifestyles formal/casual, minimal/sporty etc... Sonata In 1998, to exploit the huge potential in the budget segment, TIL launched Titan Sonata. Priced between Rs.300 and Rs.1,050, Sonata watches were available in plastic, leather, stainless steel and gold plated-straps. The brand Sonata did remarkable business, (it sold around three million watches during 1998-2001) but the company had to contend with two issues Fastrack - From Cool to Bold Fastrack was launched in the late 1990s as a product range within the Titan umbrella. These watches were positioned as 'cool watches from Titan' and as the youth face of the Titan brand. The communication of the brand also reflected the heavy fashion quotient of the watches.

In the early 2000s, the company started developing Fastrack as a distinct subbrand. A commercial featuring ace Formula-1 driver Narain Karthikeyan.with the tagline -- Are you on it? was launched in 2002. Raga Raga was introduced as a range for women, with a distinct ethnic character. Though popular among women, the range was not considered 'up-to-date'. Moreover, TIL wanted to broaden the customer base for the brand. Till 2004, many efforts, short of a full-fledged campaign, were made to revive the brand and infuse new energy into it... Nebula Nebula launched in 2000, was a premium range of light-weight gold watches, costing anywhere between Rs.8000 and Rs.70,000 (2005 prices). Most watches in the Nebula collection came with an 18 carat gold dial and a leather strap. The range was targeted at the top end of the market and was intended to persuade people to wear gold watches instead of plated metal. These watches were positioned as 'classics in solid gold'.In August 2004, TIL launched four new 'bridal collections' of Nebula designer jewellery watches. The watches in the collection were embellished with precious stones and crowned with sapphire crystal glass and priced between Rs.35,000 and Rs.40,000. The collection targeted the luxury segment. "Nebula is an asset, which has lifetime warranty and can be passed on from generation to generation...

Challenges To a large extent, TIL was successful in enhancing the presence and acceptance of most of its sub-brands. As an IIM-B professor said, "The varied offerings to diverse segments with a clear cut positioning strategy have been instrumental in sustaining the market share of the (Titan) brand. (TIL) has to a great extent attempted to balance the positive aspects/associations of the mother brand with the option of using sub-brands to appeal to several segments." Titan's strategy to project watches as part of one's personality, and not just as a functional product, had also gone down well. But TIL was also facing several challenges.

And industry experts warned that the future would bring with it greater challenges, both in number and severity. TIL had always followed a strategy of serving the entire watch market by offering different variants/sub-brands to each market segment... Situation Analysis: Titan is an undisputed leader in Indian wrist watch market. It has captured approx 68% of premium watch segment. Titan has diversified into gold ornaments, accessories & eye wear segment. Its attempt of going global was partially successful and forced the management to rethink on the strategy, particularly for EU markets. Stiff competition is being given by mature and stable brands like Swatch, Tissot, Citizen, Seiko for upper & premium segment business. Returns on Investment have been showing negative trends as the margins are reduced due to increasing cost of row materials, marketing and skilled manpower cost Problem Identification: Challenges with Titan are To leverage associated brand value of TATA ? To retain the market leadership position and to establish its premium segment brands (Xylys, Nebula, Orion) into its band. To penetrate deeper into semi urban & rural customer segments. Making reach till lower middle class & gaining premium customers. To achieve its objective of becoming a Global brand in its segments To increase its CMS (Customer Market Share) and RMS (Revenue Market Share). To formulate strategies for taking edge over other existing established brands and ensure profitability to its Middle East, Asia pacific and European business units. Reasons: Why some brands didnt do well? Timex: joint venture with didnt last longer due to different management approaches. Tata, as known is a slow & steady player wherein Timex was seen an aggressive partner. It was later realized by Tata management that Timex is actually eating Titans own share. Which can be termed as unintentional cannibalization of successful brands.

 Maxima: initially Maxima could not do well as people were not very used to for quartz watches and Japanese watches were considered above than any other brand. The branding was also done as Water-resistant watch. Regalia: The other variants of citizen, swatch were available and when the series was launched, trends were for big size dials were IN fashion Classique: The series failed due to its pricing factors. A watch was costing approximately 4K which was too high for middle class customers during 1998-99. Xylys: Xylys name has not been very friendly to watch lovers as there are international brands such as Tag-heuver, Omega, Hugo Boss, D&G, Cartier etc who have also made entry into indian markets. Mall culture has provided great space & better shopping opportunity for all such brands which have been obstacles for Xylys to be stabilized. Zoop: This series is a recent (re)launched series of Titan which targets teenagers, school goers and funky style youths. This is modified & corrected version of old Dash series. However availability of variants from Swatch, Timex, are giving very strong competition Solutions for the Problems: Product related: Core, Technical & Emotional: The core of Titan products should be latest technology, superior quality and state-of-art designs which will gradually reach at higher level of acceptance. Pricing factors:The differentiation line between Sonata, Titan- Nebula, Heritage, Classique, Regalia, Raga, Octane, Theme series (WWF etc) & Orion has to be defined very clearly which will help customers & market forces to give needful impetus of desired brand / product line. Attributes: Innovative features, attractive designs and Quality in services are some factors which need more attention to build strong perception about Titan products. Brand related: Leveraging brand TATA in brand architecture: Tata is highly reputed name in India and since last few years it is also being accepted widely across the globe. A product from Tata gets customers trust faster than others. Titan should use this to leverage this for all its product lines. Mother brand Titan should go along with entire product line.

Visibility & TOMA: catalogue marketing, celebrity endorsement, exchange offers, publicity thru electronic and print media (business magazines for Premium/ middle class, sports magazines for youth) are better options for creating higher TOMA and brand awareness. Displays at prominent places will give Titan an added advantage. Brand recall & recognition: Titan should develop customized advertising & promotion plan to up-sell its low penetration brands like Raga, Nebula, Orion, Heritage and Xylys. Such as Sonata, Maxima have been made. Social status & acceptance size: some brands like Xylys, Orion and Nebula need to be given more attention as either most of people are not aware about them or there are better substitutes like Swatch, Cartier, Pierre Cardin are available. Merchandise & POS display: Wrist watches are not limited to be only a timekeeping devices. It has beyond and now have become more a status symbol. Most of the time buying decisions for a watch go impulsive if any specific product is displayed at Posit of Sales. Reach & channel related Channels of Distribution: To capitalize upon existing retail channels World of Titan, Time Zone. Deeper penetration in emerging retail chains Lifestyle, Shoppers Stop etc. Surrogate Retailing: Along with these existing ones, Tanishq show rooms, Gold plus stores can also be explored as retail outlets for premium segment watches. Raga series watches can be made available at leading jewelers stores for women customers. Purchasing capacity comes to peak when women are at jewelers shop. Exclusivity & differentiation: Dedicated brand shops for prominent brands like Regalia, Orion, Rage etc. Such outlets should not carry other brand below certain price level and can be opened at prominent places across A, A+ cities across the world. This will also work as entry barrier and entry qualifiers and will provide Brand efficacy to customers. Marketing strategies related Endorsement: message & purpose from brand & brand ambassador has to be delivered effectively. Along with Aamir Khan, MS Dhoni, John Abraham some child artists like Taare Jameen par fame Darsheel, Balika Badhu fame girl can also be taken for ZOOP brands.

Premium products like Raga, Regalia, Orion & Octane kinds of products with distinguished portfolio, need strong brand ambassador who can endorse the brand not only in India but can also drive the message for its global business operations. Brand Orientation & Engagement initiatives are needed particularly for Octane, Heritage and Xylys brands. Customized marketing plans needs to be developed for transnational markets. Recommendations Wrist Watch : Should continue its focus on premium segment of watches and take edge over existing brands.Distribution of brands like Hugo Boss & Tommy Hilfiger with Titan brand.Designer watches Raga, Nebula & Heritage should get place at Tanishq stores so that can also be substituted with gold jewels.Intense marketing plan for Octane & Orion brand is needed so that acceptance level can touch competitive products. Jewellery: Emerging demand of Diamond based & designer jewelers to be looked into. To drive plans to develop bonding with house wives & working women. Quality assurance drives to develop credence value and customers faith in brand and product. Standardization of product to compete with me too kind of goldsmiths.