The World of Titan

Titan Industries revolutionized the watch industry in India. It was also our last class visit prior to our travel from Bangalore to Delhi. Our tour started with a briefing from one of the company’s Senior Engineers who told the story of how Titan transformed the watch industry from outdated and declining to fashionable and growing. In doing so, he told us about how over the course of 13 years, Titan went from being a non-player to achieving 60% of the share of the watch industry in India.

The story told to us by Titan folded out like one of our marketing case studies. At the time of Titan’s entry, watches were known purely as time keeping devises. Visual merchandising was non-existent and there was little interaction with the end-consumer. At the start of their journey, Titan set forth to break all of the rules of the industry by introducing a portfolio that covered the spectrum of technology, style, function and price. Coupled with a hands-on retailing concept and an immense marketing campaign, Titan “Created waves right in the early days, mesmerized consumers, demolished competition and rode into the sunset with panache”.

After a Q&A session that was surprisingly intertwined with all aspects of the EMBA curriculum (strategy, marketing, operations, …), the class split into groups and toured the manufacturing floor. It was here that we saw the highly manual process that went into component development and watch assembly. It was interesting to learn that despite technology advances, many of the components are made on original Titan machines. The tour was capped for most with a visit to the Titan showroom where we got to see the hundreds of varieties of watches the company produces and purchase souvenirs for ourselves.

Written by: Emily Livingston