Introduction
Titan Industries Limited is a public limited company that was established in 1984. The firm was formed through a joint venture involving Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation and Tata Group. Its headquarters are located at Bangalore, India. The firm conducts a variety of activities which include manufacture of watches, sunglasses and jewelleries. The firm ventured into manufacture of jewelleries in 1995 with the brand name of its jewelleries products being Tanishq. According to Titan Industries (Anon., 2009), the firm is currently the leading manufacture of jewelleries and watches in India. The brand watches manufactured by the firm include Sonata, Nebula, Raga, Regalia, Bandhan, Titan Edge, and Flip Fastrack.
On the global scale, the firm is ranked as the sixth firm in the manufacture of brand watches. Annually, the firm manufactures an average of seven million watches. In addition, the firm is involved in other activities such as global marketing, precision engineering, licensed products and accessories. With regard to marketing licensed products, the firm is involved in marketing Tommy Hilfiger’s products. Currently, the firm has employed 3000 employees and has managed to sustain a customer base of sixty five million.
In the 21st century, the business environment has become very dynamic due to the increased rate of globalisation. This has resulted into an increase in challenges facing business firms. One of the challenges relates on how a firm’s products and services can be competitive in the global market. For instance, new brands are being developed while the traditional ones are being faced out of the market (Sicco, 2002, p.3).
To remain competitive in the global market, managements of firm’s have to formulate strategies aimed at developing global brands. According to Sicco (2004, p.167), a global brand refers to a product or service whose brand name is recognised on a global scale. In addition, a global brand has economies of scale in relation to production, packaging and recognition. According to best global brands (Anon., 2006), this can be challenging to an organisation. To ensure the success of the product in becoming a global brand, the management has to consider its preparedness. This paper is a report identifying the criteria to be used to examine the preparedness of Titan Industries Limited in becoming a global brand.
The following are the issues that should be evaluated in determining whether Titan can become a global brand.
Product differentiation
Martin (2006, p.1) asserts that product differentiation is one of the elements that have been identified as a strategy towards a firm attaining competitive advantage. For a product to become a global brand, it is paramount that it be differentiated from the competitor products. Product differentiation refers to the process through which the firm’s products and services are uniquely manufactured or produced. This enables them to have valuable characteristics. The effect is that the customers can effectively identify the firm’s product.
In its operation, the management of Titan Industries Limited has incorporated the concept of product differentiation. This is through effective designing of its watches and jewelleries. According to Krishnan (2006, p.18), Titan Industries Limited has an experienced designing team in the organisation. In addition, the firm also out-sources other freelance designing firms. For the designing to be effective, the management has formulated a policy aimed at enhancing the designing capabilities of its in-house team.
The management has ensured that the current designing technologies are available in the organisation (Krishnan, 2006, p.18). These technologies have enabled the firm to improve on its designing processes.
In its operation, the concept of integrated manufacturing has been incorporated. This makes the manufacturing of the firm’s products to be conducted in one factory that is located at Hosur, India. Integrated manufacturing results into efficiency in the production process. In addition, the quality of the products is maintained. Product designing enables the firm’s products to have superior attributes that appeal the customers. This culminates into brand recognition (Sicco, 2002, p.4).
Product designing and integrated manufacturing of jewelleries and watches has enabled the management to continuously focus on superior quality. According to Bob (2007, p.5), the company has designed its products to include elegance by use of gold and other precious metals. This has made Titans wrist watches and jewelleries to be unique compared to those of competitors firms. The effect is that the firm has been able to develop a superior image of its products.
Positioning
Since inception, Titan’s brands have been positioned in the market as premium brands. A premium brand refers to a product or service that is considered to have a strong brand value compared to other competing products (John, 2009, para.4). This is due to the fact that the products are of high quality. The management of Titan has adopted a variety of positioning strategies. These include attribute positioning, user positioning, competitor positioning, benefit positioning, quality and price positioning (John, 2009, para. 5). Attribute positioning refers to a positioning strategy that takes into consideration the various characteristics of the customers. Through user positioning, the management considers the various user groups such as children, adventurers and sportsmen and women. This positioning strategy has enabled the management to develop an advertisement that is relevant to this customer category. In line with benefit positioning, the firm manufactures Fastrack Digital watch. This offers the customers a variety of benefits.
The market for watches in India is characterised by intense competition as a result of entry by foreign firms. Firms that are entering this market are concerned with provision of products for upper end market segment such as Omega, Cartier and Tissot. Titan had already ventured into this market through its Tanishq products. To dominate this market, the firm has continuously repositioned itself through price adjustment. This has enabled resulted into attraction of a wide range of customers (Krishnan, 2006).
Incorporation of marketing mix
Marketing mix is necessary to enable a firm’s products and services become global brands. The following are the ways in which Titan Industries Limited has adopted marketing mix in an effort to become a global brand.
Pricing strategy
Global firms are faced with a challenge in relation to pricing. This is due to the fact that consumers are price sensitive. Therefore, the management must decide on how to coordinate its pricing strategy across the market in different countries. In the event that there is no proper coordination of the pricing strategy, the result may be a Gray situation. This is a situation in which the price of commodities and services are below those that are set by the regulating authority.
To capture the customers in the entire market, the management of Titan Industries Limited has formulated a policy that enables it to distribute its products at various prices (Krishnan, 2006). This has enabled the management to establish price segments in the global market. For instance, in the global market, the firm has faced intense competition from Japanese and Swiss watches. To cope with the competition, the management of the firm incorporated price adjustment for its product. This enabled it to set the price for the watches at relatively low level. In addition, the management of the firm has ensured that there are a variety of products supplied to the market in relation to the different demographics such as age and income level. For instance, in September 2001, the management launched variety of steel watches. The target market for this product was the urban male and female customers aged 25-35 years. The price of that was set for this product ranged between Rs 1,250 to Rs 6,000.
By incorporating the concept of integrated manufacturing, the management of the firm has been able to set the price of its products at a relatively low price. This is due to the fact that the cost of production is minimised. The effect is that the firm has been able to establish itself into a price maker as opposed to a price taker in the global market.
Distribution and retailing strategy
For a brand to be recognised in the global market, it must be easily accessible in the entire market. The management of Titan Industries Limited has developed a comprehensive distributional strategy. According to Krishnan (2006, p.17) the firm has established 11,393 Tanishq and Titan outlets in India. Through these outlets, the firm is able to distribute its watches to approximately 2,546 Indian towns.
The firm has also formulated an effective retailing strategy. This is through establishment of a large number of showrooms and departmental stores. This has enabled a large number of customers can access the firm’s products (Krishnan, 2006). In the Indian market, the firm has established 179 Titan watch showrooms. In addition, there are 81 showrooms that deal with the distribution and marketing of jewelleries in India. Information technology has enabled the firm to manage numerous after sale services to its customers such as repair and maintenance. The result is that the public image of the firm has been greatly improved.
Promotion strategy
Creating product and services awareness is important in marketing. For a brand to become global, it is important that the management develop a comprehensive promotional strategy. Over the years, Titan has continuously advertised its product. The result is that the consumers are constantly aware of the firm’s product existence in the market.
In the global market, the firm has established outlets in various countries through which the firms brand image is promoted. The promotion strategy also includes participation in national trade fairs. This enables the firm to display its jewelleries and watch products.
Brand focus
For a brand to become global, it is important that the brand focus be narrow. This means that the firm should focus on one of its core products. However this does not translate into decreasing the firm’s product lines. Titan Industries Limited has been able to narrow its brand focus over the years. This is evident from the fact that the firm has not developed other products that bear the brand name Titan. Launching other products with the brand name Titan would cannibalise the core brand. Brand focus has resulted into consistency of image amongst the consumers. Currently, the management of the firm intends to extend the firm’s brand by venturing into writing instruments and wallets. However, the Watch Industry still remains its core focus.
Conclusion
It is evident that Titan Industries Limited is prepared to become a global brand. This is due to the fact that the firm has incorporated various strategies that are a necessity for developing a global brand. Through product designing, the firm has been able to differentiate its products effectively. The result is that the firm will attain competitive advantage since its products will be of high value and have unique characteristics. The firm has also positioned its products effectively in the global market. This is through adoption of a variety of positioning variables such as quality, competition, price, attribute and the user. The management of the firm has also incorporated marketing mix concepts in developing Titan’s brand. Through the pricing strategy, the management has been able address the price sensitive nature of the consumers. The pricing strategy will enable the firm to attract diverse categories of customers and cope with competition. The distribution strategy will ensure that the firm’s products can be accessed by a wide range of customer in the global market. The promotion strategy adopted by the firm will also enable the firm to create product awareness to the consumers. Over the years, the firm has consistently integrated brand focus in its operation despite expanding its product lines to other categories. This will enable the firm to maintain its image.
Recommendation
The management of Titan Industries Limited should continuously evaluate its global operational strategies. This will enable it to adjust these strategies by integrating the changes in the environment.
In promoting its products in the global market, the management of the firm should incorporate the current information technologies in its operation.
Reference list
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John, B.2009. Product positioning strategies. Web.
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Krishnan, D. 2006. Titan industries. Hosur: Golden Enclave.
Martin, R. 2006.Brand community: creating differentiation through branding. South Carolina: McGraw-Hill Publishers.
Sicco, G. 2002. General strategies for global brands. Amsterdam: Brand Meta.
Sicco, V. 2004. Global brand strategy: unlocking global potential through countries, cultures and markets. [E-book] New York: Kogan Page Limited. Web.