Chennai, April 21 As a watch marketer and Chief Operating Officer (watches) of Titan Industries, Mr Harish Bhat, has a portfolio of a dozen watches, mostly Titan, with an odd Tommy Hilfiger thrown in. But, what Mr Bhat likes to wear at the weekend or to the gym isn’t one of those iconic watches but a Sonata Super Fibre watch, a Titan brand.
“It’s cheap but fashionable and hardy and you wouldn’t get too upset if you damaged it at the gym,” he says of the watch.
Launched around seven months ago, the Sonata Super Fibre is Titan’s answer to the challenge posed by the import of cheap plastic watches in the sub-Rs 500 price range.
A part of Titan’s mass-market Sonata range, which is the largest volume brand in the country selling 5 million pieces annually, Mr Bhat says Titan hopes to do what Swatch did in the European market – offer cheap but fashionable plastic watches.
“We seem to have a sweet spot in the market, normally cheaper priced watches look exactly that – cheap – but what we offer are fashionable and trendy,” says Mr Bhat.
He points out that unlike the cheap plastic watches from China and low quality domestic ones, the SF watches have cases made from ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) and straps from polyurethane and are hence more durable. Available in analogue and digital and with Seiko movements, these watches, sourced from China and Taiwan and made to Titan’s designs, are targeted at the under-25 age group and priced in the band Rs 275 to Rs 550.
Dhoni’s endorsement
Endorsed by Indian cricket captain M.S. Dhoni, there has been a tremendous response for SF in the past six months and has sold more than 4 lakh watches, pitch-forking it to the position of sixth largest independent watch brand in the country, says Ms Kalpana Rangamani, Marketing Head, Sonata.
While Sonata is the largest volume brand, it is followed by the Titan watch brand, Timex, Maxima, another Titan brand Fastrack and SF. Till it launched SF, Sonata as a brand focused only on the Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 price point.
Sonata’s brand managers expect the SF brand to sell a million watches this year. The Indian watch market is huge at 43 million watches sold annually, but with only 15 million of this from the organised sector Titan sees scope to bite into the unorganised market. The sub-Rs 500 segment accounts for 40 per cent of the market in terms of volume.
As Shekhar Agarwal, Brand Manager, SF, points out even at the bottom end of the pyramid the consumer expects a great looking product at a great price and with the guarantee that Sonata brings. Dhoni’s endorsement too has played a big role in the brand making inroads, he says. The SF comes with a heat-sealed movement and with a one-year replacement warranty.
The Super Fibre watch could, in three years’ time, help double Sonata’s watch sales from 5 million at present to 10 million a year, making it among the largest volume watch brands in the world, says Mr Bhat. Citizen’s brand Q&Q is the world’s largest volume brand selling 20 million pieces a year.
While Sonata SF is distributed in close to 5,000 outlets, Titan plans to reach 2,000 outlets more and intends to make available the watch at gift shops, youth stores and other non-traditional outlets.
Source : Business Line