‘Marketers need only couple of deep consumer insights for a brand'

A marketer needs to use only one or two deep and powerful consumer insights for the brand he's managing; anything more than that you end up confusing yourself.

A unique insight is the strongest foundation on which a brand can be built and marketing managers need to relentlessly search for that insight that appeal to their target consumer segment, said Mr Harish Bhat, COO, Watches, Titan Industries, while addressing students of the VIT Business School, Chennai. “Marketers need to understand popular culture, lifestyles and deep consumer needs to arrive at that insight,” said Mr Bhat.

The talk at the B-School was part of the ongoing BL Club lecture series for the academic year presented by Central Bank of India in association with Business Line .

Focusing his talk on consumer insights that helped Titan launch two of its brands, Raga and Fastrack, Mr Bhat said a good brand portfolio segments the market and then has a distinct consumer audience. “Brand messages have to be correct; that's the hallmark of a good consumer brand,” he added.

Elaborating on the Raga brand, Mr Bhat told the 80-odd students, that historically none of the global watch brands had created a brand specifically for women. “We thought Indian women were different from Western women and a distinct consumer group and so deserved a special brand of watches.”

Titan researched thousands of women across the country and came up with two deep insights: for Indian women, jewellery is an intimate treasure and possession. Secondly, the need to be considered sensuous is very high, but in a very Indian way. “Using these insights we launched Raga; watches that look like jewellery and which makes a beauty statement,” explained Mr Bhat. The average ownership of watches by women after Raga was launched jumped 65 per cent, he added.

Similarly, for Fastrack, Titan researched thousands of young urban youth. The insights they came up with: urban youth were rapidly discovering the excitement of an ‘uncommitted' attitude and lifestyle. Secondly, for Indian college-going youth, style and affordability were key.

With these insights Fastrack was launched in 2006. Price was stated upfront and sent a clear signal to the youth on its affordability: Rs 595 upwards.

Mr Bhat told the students that the brand looked for inspiration on whatever interesting youth: denims, hip-hop, beachwear, skating, tattoos and so on. Later, it was extended to affordable sunglasses, bags. “The brand made a very strong connect with youth and we've seen 50 per cent growth annually. There are many more product categories to come,” he elaborated.

The Titan COO's talk was followed by a lively question and answer session. The students plied Mr Bhat with many questions, with one of the students asking him about the segmentation of the market that Titan had done, but why it did not have a watch for 40- and 50-year-olds? To which Mr Bhat replied that the older watch users did not like to think themselves as old and wanted to remain young at heart!

Also present at the talk was Dr Kalyani Rangarajan, Director of the VIT Business School. Chennai. 

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