Titan Industries is targeting a turnover of Rs 25 crore in the current financial year from its recently launched steel collection watches in a bid to capitalise on the growing popularity of white and silver look. The company would be spending around Rs 2 crore on multimedia campaign, likely to break in the first week of October.
"About 85 to 90 per cent of volume in the quartz watches segment is dominated by the gold-plated look, while internationally the white or the silver look is in. We wanted to bring this contemporary look in India and that is how this collection came about," said Bijou Kurien, vice-president (sales and marketing), Titan Industries Ltd.
Made of 'pure steel', the collection has 90 designs priced between Rs 1,250 and Rs 6,000 and is targeted at a young upwardly mobile professional, who aspires to own the international look. Initially the company is planning to target only 25 cities in the country through 500 dealer outlets.
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"This collection is so targeted that it is mass yet limited in the sense while the international brands are available in seven to eight cities only, the steel collection would be available in 25 cities and it is limited in the sense that we are today present in 1,800 cities with 7,000 dealer outlets. There is a lot of potential in this category. This category amounts to five lakh in volume, which is little less than 10 per cent of our volume of 60 lakh," said Kurien. The Rs 700 crore company is targeting the turnover of Rs 795 crore in the current financial year.
The ad campaign will be supported by some outdoor activities. While the print ad will appear in English newspapers and a few vernaculars, the television campaign will appear on all the Star channels and niche channels such as AXN. Leveraging on the Internet, the ad will appear on some sites such as Fabmart.
The company is also exploring the possibility of entering other markets such as writing instruments, leather accessories and sunglasses. "We are doing an in-depth research before deciding which product category to enter, but it would be an extension of the Titan brand and we would be doing some smart sourcing for our designs. This decision would come only by the middle of the next year," said Kurien.
Commenting on the watch market today Kurien said, "Like the market in general, watch market is also stagnant. Customers are postponing the purchase, but we've grown in terms of retail turnover but we wish we had grown more."