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Titan to strengthen network -- Plans ad blitz to counter Swiss, Japanese brands

Neha Kapoor

MUMBAI, June 23

THE watch division of Titan Industries Ltd intends to take on competition from Swiss and Japanese brands like Casio and Citizen by strengthening its distribution system and stepping up advertising, said Mr. B. Kurien, Vice-President, Sales and Marketing.

``By this year-end, we expect to increase the number of Titan outlets to 6,000 from the current 5,500. Of these, there will be 140 exclusive World of Titan stores compared to 115 at present and 150 multi-brand TimeZones as against 112 now,'' said Mr. Kur ien.

The company has also allocated an advertisement budget of Rs. 42 crores this year for its watch division as compared to

Rs. 35 crores last year, he added. This budget would provide funds for domestic as well as international brand building exercises.

Advertising in the domestic market during the festive and wedding seasons pushes up retail sales by 50 to 100 per cent, said Mr. Kurien. ``During the wedding season of April-May-June, it is the Northern and Eastern markets that account for a major portio n of sales, while the festive season of Pooja and Diwali drives sales in the metros as well as Northern and Western markets,'' he said.

Before the beginning of the festive season this year, Titan will be introducing new `white look' models in its Fastrack range of watches. ``The `white look' is the going currency internationally and Titan will focus on the Fastrack range to drive this lo ok in India,'' said Mr. Kurien.

The company will maintain its range of 100 models under this brand with older models being phased out, he added.

The new models will be available in two categories _ all metal and plastic. According to Mr. Kurien, ``The metal category is expected to drive larger numbers in terms of sales as the metal look is very much in fashion right now.''

Titan is also focusing on Dash _ its range of children's watches which is estimated to sell one million watches per year by 2003. ``Currently, we sell around half a million watches per year, and this number will increase further as there is a large growt h potential in the first-time ownership market,'' said Mr. Kurien.

The company, which has registered a net profit of Rs. 19 crores for 1999-2000 (aggregating to around 3 per cent of its turnover), is expected to maintain its growth rate of 15 per cent.

According to Mr. Kurien, ``While the domestic watch industry has remained stagnant, Titan has grown consistently in the past three years from a 35 per cent market share to more than 50 per cent at present.''

``Titan International Holdings B.V., our European subsidiary, offering watches designed by European designers in the price range of $75 to $750, is also expected to break even in the course of this year,'' said Mr. Kurien.

Rural distribution strategy: Titan is considering modifying its rural distribution strategy to focus on semi-urban towns in order to strengthen its presence in the rural market.

``We are carrying out an exploratory research of the rural markets to modify our distribution strategy to cover a larger number of towns and increase brand presence in the semi-urban and rural areas,'' said Mr. Bijou Kurien.

So far, the company has catered to the rural market through its outlets in urban cities with Sonata, its range of low-end segment watches which is priced between Rs. 350 and Rs. 1,100.

But after the completion of its research exercise (in the next six months), it will consider setting up outlets in

semi-urban areas with a view to get closer to the rural customer, said Mr. Kurien.

``The Sonata range focuses on functionality and assurance of buying a branded watch. It has a high growth potential in smaller towns and rural areas where we are basically looking at affecting a brand switch from the unorganised sector and creating a dom inant presence,'' said Mr. Kurien.

In March this year, Titan had introduced `all metal' models in this range priced at Rs. 495 compared to prevalent market rate of Rs. 695.

With an ad budget of Rs. 8 crores, the company has set a sales target of 2.7 million watches for the Sonata range (aggregating to around 20 per cent of the total low-end watch market) for the current year.