HMTHMT WatchesWatches

ByByS. Shalini S. Shalini

Mustafa Mhow walaMustafa Mhow wala

OBJECTIVES• To study of a yester year market leader ‘HMT’.

• Discuss • 4 P’s

• SWOT

• PLC

• To find out the reasons behind failure of HMT Watch ltd.

• Reposition the product in the best possible way

HMT : An IntroductionPRODUCTS OF HMT

The Company was converted into a Public Limited Company on May 13, 1977

In 1953 Incorporated in Bangalore.

In 1961 started it’s wrist watch plant.

"H.W. L. was the first to enter in the market.

In 1979 sales touch to 4 lakh watches.

In 1980 it was 5 lakh watches.

In 1990 got ISO 9001 certified.

On 9th August 1999 fully owned subsidiary.

Plants was located at Bangalore, Tumkur and Ranibagh.

COMPETITION ANALYSIS

• Titan sells around 7 million watches annually

• Timex sells under 1.2 million watches

• Other Brands (all put together sell less than 0.5 million watches)

• The Japanese – Citizen, Casio.

• The Swiss – Rolex, Omega, Rado, Tissot, Tag, Longiness, Cartier, Ebel

are the major.

• The fashion brands – Esprit, Giordano, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein,

Fossil, Swatch and many more have recently entered the Indian market

MARKET ANALYSISMass (< Rs. 400)

Valued at Rs. 300 Crores

Grey market, Chinese, etc.

Mid-upper (Rs. 1k - 5k)

Valued at 938 Crores

Titan, Citizen, Timex,

Swatch, Espirit

Low-end (Rs. 400-1000)

Valued at 1200 Crores

Sonata, Maxima

Premium (> Rs. 5k)

Valued at 370 Crores

Swiss brands: Tissot, Omega, Rolex

Fashion brands: Fossil, Calvin Klein,

Giordano, Esprit

THE MARKETING MIX

PRODUCT AND PRICEPRODUCT PRICE

Braille 495.00

Janata 515.00

Pilot 515.00

Kohinoor. 665.00

Dilip 750.00

Sona 780.00

Chinar 1175.00

Sweekar 1050.00

Kailash 1050.00

Rajat 995.00

Kedar 1500.00

ADSL-03 2295.00

ADSL 02 2095.00

PLACE

• Showrooms

• Dealers

• Retailers

• Whole sellers

PROMOTION

RadioTelevision

NewspaperMagazine

PLC of HMT Watches

SWOT ANALYSIS

• Strong govt. support

• Brand image

• Market leadership

• Good liquidity

• Availability of tangible assets

• Established marketing network

• Prior experience

STRENGTH

Cont….

WEAKNESS

• No emphasis on R&D

• Rigidness

• Red tapism

• Production was not market driven.

• No emphasis on design and

packaging

Opportunity

• Growing domestic and international market.

• Exports

• Market segmentation

• Enlarge network of sale outlets

• Product improvement

Threats

• Competitors

• Misuse of its brand name by spurious operators.

• Unorganized manufacturing

Causes Of Failure• We had not care to brace with the liberalization.

• A large number of staff, including persons of general manager's rank, had left

the organization to join the rivals.

• Our biggest threat was to come from watch manufacturers in the unorganized

sector and fake parts and components.

• We have even detected our dealers' connivance in selling other brands

SK Chaturvedi

HMT Executive

Director

OTHER REASONS

• Few Designs as compared to competitors.

• Offering less commission to retailers and whole sellers.

• Limited service agencies.

• Selective Policy while choosing retailers.

• Centralized organizational structure.

• It could not communicate its uniqueness to customers.

REASONS FOR REPOSITIONING

Completed all the stages of PLC

Introduction

Growth

Maturity

DeclinePLC

New Marketing Mix Segment (Demography) Product Price

Low end Rugged, basic time function, mechanical or quartz, water resistance steel and gold make.

Rs. 300-1000

Mid upper Automatic, steel or gold make, quartz/analog, water resistance and rich looks

Rs. 1,000-3,000

Urban Youth USB,MP3,trendy, attractive, stylish, water resistance and colorful.

Rs.1,000-5,000

Executive/Achievers Automatic, multifunctional, quartz, digital, water resistance, gold and jeweled

Rs.5,000-30,000

Affluent Jeweled, automatic, gold, platinum, water resistance ,classy and customize

Rs. =>30,000

Place

• Company owned outlets

• Retailers

• Authorized dealers

• Jewellary shops

• Other retail outlets and stores

• Online shopping

Promotion• Electronic Media:TV CommercialsSponsorship Prime time TV programs Sponsoring major events like IPL, Major Fashion shows, associate

sponsorship On line marketing

• Print Media: Billboards, Cut outs at all major traffic locationsMagazinesNews paperDanglers

Cont…• Radio:

Sponsoring morning / evening slots

• Public relation:Organizing press conference

• Events:Promotional activities at Malls, road shows,participating in live shows and trade fair.

• Special offers during wedding and festive time.

• Organize village fairs and conduct various publics welfare programs.

• Go for innovative and stylish ad campaign that reflects the aspirant,

independent and modern dimensions of the consumer.

REPOSITIONING STRATEGY

• Attractive Company logo and tag line like

• Undertake the socio marketing concept instead of product concept.

• Focus on all the segment instead of one (low end)

• Capitalize on the brand equity of HMT

• Use promotional and advertising strategy zeroing on the emotional

attachment and bond with the customers.

• Make customize watches.

• Open customer help desk.

Cont…• Make celebrity as a Brand Ambassador.

• Improve the website by providing features like-

• Online Shopping

• Store Locations

• Exhibiting new products

• Showcasing the existing designs

• Suggestion box

• Open an exclusive outlet only for ladies.

The Repositioning Campaign (30 Days)

Campaign No. of days

Activities decided

Top level exercise 7 Discussion & decision making on all ends like-

Budget, Ads, etc.

Training of sales teams

9 Training on New product features, competitors weakness & new targets.

Selection of activity and places

3 Media engagement

Radio

Web and social media

PR

Events

The Repositioning Campaign

Campaign No. of days

Activities decided

Pre launch activity

4 Full dress rehearsal and review of it.

The launch 1 The full fledged launch by the chairman and the brand ambassador in the presence of media and the dignitaries.

Post launch activity

7 Special counters whole week in shopping centers, frequent commercial on T.V. and radio, road shows and village fairs.

Cover entire market with HMT cut outs.

• HMT should focus first on tier 1 and tier 2 cities and then gradually

penetrate towards tier 3 towns and cities.

• Company has to position itself very carefully because other product

variants like mobi-watch (watch with a cell phone) and handheld

devices may try to snatch the market share.

• The whole idea of buying and wearing a watch must be an

experience.

• If HMT can deliver above mentioned offerings with a strong

distribution chain, a controlled retailer policy, with a wide market

research, future is no longer beyond their control. HMT will emerge

as a winner.

Although it is very uphill task

but HMT can once again emerge as the

“Market Leader”

Q1. Which type of wrist watch do you like to wear?

Q2. You prefer your watch as?

Q3. Do you prefer a cell phone over watch for referring time?

Q4. What features do you consider while purchasing a watch?

Q5. For what level does the warranty of a watch affect you while making a purchase?

Q6. Which brand of watch you are currently using?

Q7. What motivates you to make your purchase?

Q8. Does the publicity of watches by celebrities affect your buying decision?

Q9. How often you switch off the brands?

Q10. What additional feature would you like to go for?