Date:25/12/2007 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2007/12/25/stories/2007122550090500.htm

Back Titan to deepen focus on premium luxury brands

Debdatta Das

New Delhi, Dec. 24 Titan Industries is giving its watches business a facelift, through more focus on the high-end and luxury segments, not only in terms of launches but promotional campaigns too.

“Titan’s strategy for the future is to position itself as a brand that is premium and aspirational but relatable to the consumers at the same time,” said Ms Suparna Mitra, Head, Marketing, Titan. “We will be focussing on the Rs 5,000 and above price category with launches of new brands as well as collections,” she added.

Titan has several brands covering a gamut of segments, with Sonata as the mass or economy segment with products priced below Rs 1,000, to Titan with products and brands in the Rs 1,000-Rs 10,000 range.

Titan’s immediate priorities would be to focus on and offer more products priced above Rs 10,000. “We intend to spend almost 80 per cent of our overall advertisement budget on campaigns for our high-end and luxury offerings,” said Ms Mitra. The company spends an average of Rs 25-30 crore on advertising campaigns every year.

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Titan captures over 60 per cent of the domestic watch market share, in the organised segment and has a distribution network of over 9,000 outlets in 2,300 cities. Its brand Sonata is the market leader in the mass market segment.