Fastrack

Fastrack is a brand of watches from the house of Titan Industries Ltd. which is the market leader
in the watches category in India. Titan has a market share of 65% in the organized watch market.
Titan is also fifth largest integrated watch manufacturer in the world. The company has
manufactured more than a 100 million watches till date; and has a customer base of over 80
million. The umbrella brand Titan is one of India's leading watch brands that brought about
a paradigm shift in the Indian watch market, offering quartz technology with international
styling.
The watch market has been affected highly with the penetration of mobile phones, as mobile has
taken place of a time-keeping machine. Now, the use of a wrist watch is not timekeeping, but
style, fashion and physical appearance. More than 58 percent of the customers are under twenty
five and more than 80 percent are below 45 years of age.
Fastrack was launched in 1998 as a sub-brand of Titan. It was spun off as an independent brand
of watches targeting the urban youth in 2005. Since then, it has infiltrated the lives of Indias
youth with designs that were refreshingly different and affordable. During that time, Fastrack
also jumped headlong into the sunglasses business and in the last 4 years has quickly notched up
the title of being the largest sunglasses brand in the country. Fastrack has now pushed past the
horizons into newer areas bags, belts, wallets, wrist bands and even helmets as part of its
mission to offer the youth everything they need to be cool!

A glimpse of Fastracks product portfolio

Fastrack has positioned itself as a dedicated brand for style loving, smart youth. Fastrack is the
premium stylish wrist watch, which gives sporty look and style because of its gorgeous design,
appeal and brand reputation. Fastrack has target market of mid premium urban stylish youth
owning multiple watches.

SWOT Analysis
Strengths

Good Distribution Network over 100 Fast track stores across 50 towns with Titan

Service Centres across India

High youth connect Positioning as a youth stylish brand
Fast changing designs to keep up with latest trends
One of the most trusted brands in India
Excellent advertising and brand visibility connecting with the youth
Has a diverse portfolio of watches, sunglasses, bags, wallets etc.

Weaknesses

Products have a short life due to changing trends Adds to the cost of production
Less significant presence on the rural frontier
Limited global reach despite being a popular brand

Opportunities

Fast growing youth segment presents growth opportunities

Global penetration would help brand grow and target youth worldwide
Tie-ups with fashion houses and special schemes for youth

Threats

Youth segment is price sensitive

Entry of foreign players has led to tough competition
With lots of options available, brand switching is quite high

Branding
Fastrack was positioned to bring the new and young Indian into the company fold. This would
also provide an opportunity to convert them into "classic Titan customers" in the long run. The
promotional campaigns showed Cool Watches from Titan. It marked Fastracks growth from
being a product category to a sub-brand of Titan. Titan then relaunched its Fastrack brand of
watches for the youth in a new, younger avatar. Signalling the change in positioning, it unveiled
the new logo and the new range of Fastrack watches, truly reflecting the look and attitude of
todays youth. This initiative consists of a fashionable & trendy product range, new affordable
pricing, and fresh communication.
Targeted at Generation Next, the brand captures the essence and philosophy of todays fun
loving, free spirited youth through the new positioning encapsulated in a tongue in cheek
colloquial phrase - How many you have? Fastrack is positioned as the ultimate fashion
accessory for the youth variety, multiplicity and constant excitement being the order of the day.

Pricing

The pricing strategy adopted by Fastrack is market share maximization as they are targeting
people with affordable cost range. They have watches from the range of 495 to more than 4995,
so that they can attract customers of lower segment to higher segment and this clearly shows that
they are into capturing more of the market share than making profit or other strategies. Giving
stylish Branded watch for 500 has attracted customers much, where competitors have an average
price of 4500 for the same. Fastrack always come up with discount offers at auspicious occasions
to capture more market. They also provide exchange offers, when old watch is replaced by new
watch they provide a discount upto 40%. Fastrack follows psychological pricing strategy and
ends the price with 5. So people perceive the price as low as people in India tend to think that the
company is not charging them entire hundred rupees but it is charging them less.

Comparison with two of Fastracks competitors: Timex & Casio

Timex

US-based large manufacturer of watches

It is the largest selling brand in US & Canada
It is lowest cost watch manufacturer of the world
Entered India in collaboration with Titan, broke away in 1998
It is a big competitor of Fastrack
Helix brand of watches by Timex is positioned in direct competition with Fastrack
Timex provides its ranges from Rs. 500 to 5500
Timex also provides watches in premium category as well
Moreover, it has a perception of being a US brand in the minds of Customers
Timex follows penetration pricing strategy
Penetration pricing is a pricing strategy where the price of a product is initially set at a
price lower than the eventual market price, to attract new customers. The strategy works
on the expectation that customers will switch to the new brand because of the lower price.
Penetration pricing is most commonly associated with a marketing objective of
increasing market share or sales volume, rather than to make profit in the short term. The
price will be raised later once this market share is gained.

Casio

Japan-based company
Products include watches, calculators and musical instruments
Market leader in calculators with 90% market share
Strong presence in digital watch market
Recent positioning focuses on low end watches
Was pioneer in coming out with the concept of shock-resistant watches
Casio uses differentiation followed by cost leadership as its strategy
Casio lacks media presence
Casio watches are priced at the same parity level as that of Fastrack watches
Casio also sells watches in premium category as well

Retailing Strategy
Fastrack was launched with new products, a new identity, new advertising & a new logo in June
2005. The year took off so well that they ran out of stock very quickly and ended the year with a

150 per cent growth and the demand was growing continuously. Next year, they recorded another
100 per cent growth. This was possible because Fastrack had combined its branding strategy with
a highly effective retailing strategy which remains a major contributor to Fastracks success till
date. Fastrack has a presence in over 6000 outlets across 800 towns, with new exclusive brand
kiosks in metro malls and its multichannel distribution network which covers the 228 strong
World of Titan Network, 122 large format chain stores viz. Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, Central,
Westside, Pantaloons and multibrand watch & optical outlets.
Fastrack also sells its products through the 55 Exclusive Fastrack Stores/Kiosks spread across 22
towns offering some exclusive products and services and thereby giving the customer privileged
feel. Fastrack watches are also sold through the following popular online shopping portals:
-

Flipkart
Myntra
Jabong
Watchkart
Lenskart
Bagskart

Apart from the above options to purchase online, one can also purchase Fastrack watches
directly from the companys website using credit card or debit card.
There is no gift better than the 'gift of choice'. Gift cards from Fastrack make an innovative
gifting option. A gift card can be purchased for a minimum amount of Rs. 100 (redeemable) and
maximum of Rs. 10,000. The card expires within 180 days of purchase or last recharge. The gift
card is similar to gift vouchers but much more convenient. The card is rechargeable any number
of times. Unlike a voucher, the balance in the card can be redeemed for the exact bill value with
the remaining amount staying with you to use another time.

Gift cards offered by the company

Distribution Strategy
Though Titan is joint venture established between Tata Group and Tamil Nadu Industrial
Development Corporation in 1984, it is an independent board and is professionally managed by
Tata Group. Fastrack products are manufactured at six manufacturing facilities. Main watch &
jewellery are manufactured at plants in Hosur near Bangalore. There are also watch assembly
plants at Dehradun and Himachal Pradesh. There is ECB manufacturing plant in Goa. The latest
plant is started at Pantnagar, Uttaranchal in 2010. The company has adopted multi-channel
distribution strategy. Titan has 65 distributors handling well over 11,000 dealers across the
country. Titan distributes the products through an exclusive distributor in each country, who is
responsible for indenting, distributing, servicing, assisting and providing marketing support for
the brand.
Fastrack also follows parallel distribution in the following manner:
-

It sells watches online through direct marketing

It sells through factory outlets like Fastrack Store and World of Titan
It sells its products in major shopping store chains
It sells its products through retail outlets as well

One can also become a part of Fastracks distribution channel by owning a Fastrack franchisee.
Fastrack provides warranty of one year on all its watch range. After sales services are available at
Fastrack and Titan showrooms.

Advertising Strategy
Traditional method adopted unconventionally
Often, watches are taken as one-time purchase goods, Fastrack is the first company to promote
the Multiple Watch concept, by promoting with the tag line How many you have...? The whole
advertising is covered by media such as Hoarding, POP, Television Ads, Newspaper, Magazines.
As the advertising campaign is carried on through different manners the young generation is
attracted toward the brand. Public displays also play an important role in promotion. The colorful
and lively bill boards play an important role in promotion.

Catchy taglines did the trick

The recently launched ad campaign Move On was also successful in connecting the company
to todays youth. Fastracks website is the tool they used to attract the youth, the pictures
displayed on the website create curiosity and interest among the consumers towards the product.

Collaboration with MTV another youth icon itself

Fastrack in collaboration with MTV has introduced the Fastrack MTV Masala Collection a
range of 10 unisex watches. Inspired by people, objects and situations that are typical of an
Indian way of life, these 10 themes have been brought to life with a dash of humour and vibrant,
funky graphics.

Coming right into the spotlight with effective use of Facebook and Twitter

Fastrack was one of the first brands to use social media to engage with potential and existing
consumers. The company started with two communities on Facebook and a Twitter account in
September 2007. It created created the URL re-direct http://www.fastrack.in/facebook to take
fans directly to Fastracks fan page. Since its inception, this link has been used across the
billboards, take-ones, contest forms, emailers and all offline forms. The company then jumped
right into Twitter allowing it to connect with fans on a more individual basis, answering queries
directly, solving customer issues, giving out store addresses and the like. The company
campaigns around its social media communities, whether it be by releasing ads a few days in
advance on Youtube/Facebook or putting up an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at its Bikers
photo shoot, putting up sketches of the watches before they launch or linking back contests to its
communities as done with myEXbox.
Celebrity endorsements
Fastrack products have been endorsed by A-list celebrities in the past like John Abraham,
Genelia DSouza and Virat Kohli.

Future Strategy
Following are future strategies available for Fastrack as a brand. Some of them are already in
plans while others are suggestions that can be implemented upon and hence may result in further
growth of the company:

Fastrack presently contributes 25% to parent Titan's total watch business but is gearing up

to take it to over 35% by 2015

Fastrack eyes Rs. 3000 crore sales by 2015 from last year sales of Rs. 1000 crores
The company can also reach the untapped rural market segment as rural population has
also proved that they have significant disposable income and thereby company can target

rural youth
Fastrack must also focus on exports along with the domestic market
Fastrack must target other emerging markets in Asia like China, Vietnam, Philippines,
Indonesia

It should also enter developing markets in Europe, Latin America and Africa as these
markets provide good customer base and most of the global companies have been

following the same trend

Fastrack has also declared its plans to foray into bicycle segment
Fastrack should consider entering newer consumer segments like perfumes, deodorants,
apparels, footwear and other possible fashion accessories for men and women. Also,
these products should be tried to be sold under one roof to give the customer an
integrated shopping experience