SYNTHESIS FROM INTERNAL CONVERSATIONS

At Titan, the design briefs come from the marketing team and every sub brand has a brand manager who directs the design efforts to match the user segments. It is the conversations with these brand managers and marketing team that has been synthesized into two contrasting words that create creative tension between them - Classic and Contemporary.

When talking to the marketing team, it was important to understand how Titan’s business works. A lot of the assumptions that we walk into projects with disappear once confronted with the reality of business and this is precisely what happened. At present, Titan has approximately sixty percent market share of the organized watch market. As a mass brand, it would be impossible to achieve this without crafting different watches for different categories of people. Some categories of watches do not really make the company any money but are necessary to maintain to keep the competition at bay. This was idea behind the setting up of Sonata.

When zooming out to look at the Titan brand as a whole, the marketing team would argue that the following makes a strong case for the USP of Titan watches: 1) Trust Factor: Tata has established itself as an honest brand in the mind of the consumer.

2) High Quality product when a purchase is made, users can often sit back and not worry about the quality of product or after sales service.

3) A watch for every price Titan has tried to craft itself as a one-stop destination where a user can find a design for every whim, fancy and price point.

4) Original Design Titan prides itself with creating its own designs. Sub brands like raga are truly unique and have no real parallel. Innovative products like the Titan Edge give hope that India is actively participating in adding its share to horological history.

5) A pedigree in the watch industry While this was not fully articulated, it is worth considering. With the advent of tech companies getting into the watch space with smart watches, it is worth thinking about whether a watch company can craft it’s value proposition around its experience in designing wrist based artifacts. Designers from the watch industry have with them deep user insights and would need to up-skill to adapt smart technology. However, the journey is different for tech companies that need to uncover such insights on their own, or via collaboration with other watch companies (for example, Apple watch collaborated with Hermes).

6) Contemporary Design Assurance was given that Titan will never fall behind in terms of market trends. If there is something in vogue in the market, you won’t have to wait for it to hit the market, Titan would be one step ahead in making sure that it is already there.

When engaging the marketing departments in conversation about the changing design landscape in watches, it was brought to my notice that the region that watches operate within today is largely that of minimalism. Modern minimalism has great resonance with the classical way in which watch design is practiced. Titan, despite having been perceived as brand for older folk, has always had classical watch design as its strength. Thus the new brand culture, as well as the well as the design of watches, is at an interesting place because it is born out of interpretation of what is contemporary as per trend and what is classic as per Titan’s inherent design DNA.

Figure 123. Tata 2018 Attributes Figure 124. Titan Company Limited 2018 Attributes