A STUDY ON RETAILER’S PERCEPTION TOWARDS FAST TRACK

WATCHES IN VIJAYAWADA

(With Reference to Fastrack, Titan India Ltd)

Proposal for Management Thesis Submitted to

K L University Business School

Submitted by
Sandeep Kumar V
Reg No : 09102015

Under the Guidance

Mr. S.Ramesh Babu
Assistant Professor,
KLUBS, KL UNIVERSITY,
Vaddeswaram GUNTUR Dist.
 A STUDY ON RETAILER’SPERCEPTION TOWARDS FAST TRACK
WATCHES IN VIJAYAWADA

(With Reference to Fastrack, Titan India Ltd)

Proposal Submitted to

K L University Business School

Submitted on: Evaluated by:

Signature of the Student Signature of Faculty Supervisor

Marks Allotted: Attested by HOD. KLUBS

Appendix A
 Title and Proposal Approval Form
The MBA Program (The Class of 2009 - 2011)
Part – A
(Please fill in Capital Letters only)

Enrollment No. 0 9 1 0 2 0 1 5

Name of the Student SANDEEP KUMAR V

Semester III Semester IV

1. Consumer behavior 5. Brand Management
2. Sales and distribution 6. International
Elective courses management Marketing
selected
3. Global business planning 7. International
logistics
4. International institute of trade management
organization
8. Export and Import
documentation
Sectoral Elective
Retail Retail
Course

Sector: Foreign Trade Company Name: Cargo

handling Division,VPT

SIP Title: Supporting 5 Loading and Unloading activities of cargo

SIP Details handling division at vishakha port trust.

Product/Function Supervising

Target Achievement: Reached the target successfully

Name of the Faculty Mr.S.Ramesh Babu

Supervisor

Functional Area of the MARKETING

Supervisor
 A STUDY ON RETAILER’SPERCEPTION TOWARDS FAST
Title of Management Thesis TRACK WATCHES IN VIJAYAWADA

Relevant Functional Area MARKETING

Date: 14.10.2010

Signature of the Student

(For Office Use Only)

Review by Faculty Supervisor (Detailed comments of Faculty Supervisor on the

Proposal and the title are documented here.) (Enclose separate sheets if
necessary)

Faculty Supervisor Head of the Department Director

Date: Date: Date:
 A STUDY ON RETAILER’SPERCEPTION TOWARDS FAST TRACK
WATCHES IN VIJAYAWADA

Introduction

Wrist Watches form an integral part of the personality of individuals in the

present era. Earlier seen as a luxury item, they are now witnessing a fundamental change in
perception, and are now gaining respect as an essential utility item. Indian watches market was
for long dominated by public sector organizations like Hindustan Machine Tools Ltd. In post
liberalization India, the market stood to witness intensive competition between foreign and

Indian manufacturers like Timex, Titan, Movado, Longines, Rado,

Rolex, Frederique Constant, Mont Blanc, Swatch, and many others. Many watch makers have
made significant inroads in the industry and others are in the process of establishing themselves,
currently. Besides this, buyers are extremely choosy about the brand and type of wrist watches
they wear. Being extremely brand conscious, their tastes have evolved over the years and have
gone beyond the realms of durability to choose in terms of aesthetics and elegance. Thus it is a
buyer’s market with multitude of designs that have entered and flooded the market place.

MARKET SIZE

The size of the watch market currently is estimated to be around 40 to 45 million

pieces annually. The organized sector alone contributes up to 30 % & the other 70 % is
contributed by the unorganized grey sector. In dollar terms, the estimated annual market size is
around USD 195 million, despite the fact that the penetration of watches is the lowest, compared
globally. The average growth in the size of the market is slated to be around 10 -15 percent per
year.

Titan Industries

The name Titan has been one of the most omnipresent names in the watch
industry with the owner of this name having done wonders when it comes to creating fantastic
watches. Titan watches are sold all over the world under 6 brand names, which are as follows:
  Titan
 Sonata
 Nebula
 Octane
 Xylus
 Fastrack

The brands themselves are associated with watches, which confirm to the
expectations of customers in quite a wonderful manner. There have been many product launches
in the recent past that have created headlines. However, all the Titan product launches have been
ones that have stood out from the rest, by virtue of their products which have turned out to be
success stories. Titan has been the harbinger of many fantastic products in the past and in the
present. The level of research that the company is undertaking on a continuous basis is quite
likely to lead to many other wonderful watches in the future as well. The customer oriented
approach of Titan watches has had many wonderful facets for the customer. All the latest models
of Titan wristwatches that have been released, have been vested with features that renders them
with the ability of getting termed as fabulous watches. There have been many watches that have
been released in the month of June. Some of them have been put forward in the following list

 Gents Automatic
 Ladies Raga
 Gents Classique
 Gents Edge
 Gents Nebula

Each and every one of these watches have been doing quite well and have
fetched lots of customers all over the world. The success of all the brands has given the products
category of Titan watches with a charm that is becoming responsible for an increasing amount of
sales of these watches. The place for buying these watches till now was either a company owned
showroom or a shop in a mall.

The Titan brand architecture comprises several collection and sub−brands,

each of which is a leader in its segment. Market has been split into –
➢ Low end
➢ Mass market
➢ Premium
➢ Luxury
Notable Brands (sub-brands) of Titan are–
➢ Titan Edge: The world's slimmest watch which stands for the philosophy of "less ismore"
➢ Titan Raga: the feminine and sensuous accessory for today's woman
➢ Nebula: crafted in solid 18k gold and precious stones
➢ Several other popular collections like Heritage, Aviator, Regalia, Octane & WWFalso form
a part of the Titan wardrobe

CUSTOMER SEGMENTATION:
 After carrying out an in-depth market study, Titan identified three distinct market
segments for its watches. The segments were arrived at using benefit and income level as the
bases. The first consisted of the high income/ elite consumers who were buying a watch as a
fashion accessory not as a mere instrument showing time. The next segment consisted of
consumers who preferred some fashion in their watches but to them price did matter. The third
segment consisted of the lower income consumers who saw a watch mainly as a time-keeping
device and bought mainly on the basis of price.
FASTRACK

In 1998, it was Fastrack, the cool, trendy, funky range for the young and young-at-heart.
A collection of watches with contemporary styles that was specifically designed for the young
and distinctive. Designs ranged from the relaxed and informal to the definitely sporty. The
woman’s collection presents the all new international `Frosted’ look, which is trendy and chic.
The Fastrack collection has elements like cool mesh straps and features that include EL backlight
and dual time. Also, it presented a wide range of fashion digitals in contemporary wrist hugging
cases with oversized displays and features that include countdown timers, chronographs, lap
timers, hourly chime, alarm and Hilight glow.

Major Retail Formats in India

 World of Titan Showrooms - Titan has 255 World of Titan outlets, of which only 8-10are
owned while the remaining are under the franchise arrangement. Besides stocking the
entire range of Titan, these outlets sell select models of Sonata (lower end) and Tommy
Hilfiger (licensed brand) watches.
 Time Zone - Titan also manages 142 Time Zones, which are multi branded outlets
operating in the watches business.
 Time Zone - Titan also manages 142 Time Zones, which are multi branded outlets
operating in the watches business.

Objectives of the Study:

 To study Retailer perception towards Fastrack brand watches.

 To identify the sales of different models in Fastrack brand.

 To know the problems faced by the retailers in selling the brand.

Description of the Problem:

There are many reasons for the success of a product and retailer plays key role in its
success.There are many problems faced by the members of the distribution Channel.The
company has to address these problems and have to ensure the effective functioning of
the channel and high incentives.Retailers represent the company before the customers.
The problems faced by the customers are brought to the notice of retailers as the retailers
play a role of interface between customer and company.
Significance of the Study:

Customer satisfaction is becoming more and more a key strategic element of a

company with a growing influence on its economic success. A high level of customer
satisfaction creates customer loyalty. Customer loyalty brings for a company more security, more
growth, more income, higher profitability and consequently more success. In addition to this the
focus in companies is set on the creation of long term relationship in comparison to simple
transactions and individualized business relationships instead of anonymous markets It is hardly
to imagine a business-to-business transaction, without the existence of a business relationship.
Business relationships are characterized by a greater individualization, selection, interaction and
integration of the partners. The relationship between retailers and producers is a business-to-
business relationship in which the retailer is the customer and the producer is the supplier. For
this reason, retailer satisfaction is a certain kind of customer satisfaction in business-to-business
marketing. The difference between the final customer and the retailer satisfaction is the number
of the decision makers. The final customer satisfaction depends only on the persons who are
involved in the purchase of a product and is often very emotional. In opposition to this the
retailer satisfaction depends on the satisfaction of the team involved in the purchasing process.
For this reason, the retailer satisfaction is more rational. Customer satisfaction is generally a very
complex psychological comparison concept which analyses the perceived experience of a
customer after the use of a production comparison to the expectations, desires or individual
standards. If the target is reached or exceeded, it is satisfaction. On the contrary it is
dissatisfaction. A model which explains the formation of satisfaction or dissatisfaction is the
confirmation/disconfirmations paradigm. As previously mentioned, if the perceived performance
is higher than the expected performance, there is a positive disconfirmation. If the perceived and
expected performance, are equal, there is a confirmation. The worst situation is if the expected
performance is lower than the perceived one and then there is a negative disconfirmation, which
creates dissatisfaction. Despite this relative simple description, the process of measuring
customer satisfaction is a very complicated task and complex process.
Retailers operate in a complex and competitive environment, and because of this
retail managers need to be aware of the need to seek market opportunities and develop long-term
sustainable relationships with partner organizations. In order that a retail organization develops a
sustainable competitive advantage, it is essential that a partnership arrangement is viewed as
necessary and is based on trust. This means that there is a high degree of transparency and that
open communication is encouraged. It also means that various types of information are shared
and staff involved in the partnership arrangement is committed to personal development. This is
necessary if an organizational cultural value system is to be produced that gives rise to a set of
common goals and objectives that translate into a highly motivated workforce. Should this be the
case, staff in the partnership arrangement should be able to provide a high level of customer
service that results in customer expectations being met. Retail managers and their staff are
required to be committed to market intelligence gathering and to think in terms of strategic
positioning. The governance mechanism can be used as a blueprint to provide retail staff with
direction, and it should ensure that open, mutually beneficial partnership arrangements develop
that can be maintained through time.
Database :
The required data is collected from the individual retailers in Vijayawada from
both direct retailers of company like world of titan and other individual retailers. The data is
collected by framing questionnaire in the required format from which complete required
information is obtained. The population comprises of all the retailers selling fast track watches in
Vijayawada. Sampling method is followed in order to collect the data from retailers.
For every research there will be two data collection methods; primary and
secondary. Primary data is collected by using convenience sampling method. Questionnaire is
the tool adopted to know the retailers perception. A sample size of 20 is chosen to collect
primary data. The secondary data is collected through internet, journals; etc. Percentages can be
used as data analysis technique and will be represented in form of charts.

Hypothesis:

Null Hypothesis (H0): There is no brand preference towards Fastrack among the retailers

Alternate Hypothesis (H1): There is brand preference towards Fastrack among the retailers

Project Schedule: The research plan is

PHASE I

S.No Activity Dead Line Submitted To

1 MT
Title finalizing
6/10/10(Wednesday) coordinator

2 8/10/10 (Firday) MT
Company sponsored titles
coordinator

3 14/10/10 (thrusday) MT
Title & Proposal Submission
coordinator

4 18, 19, & 20 th of MT

Evaluation of title & Proposal
October coordinator

5 Review of Literature MT
Submission of Articles 18/10/10 (Monday) coordinator

6 Director Sir,
Results of Tile and Proposal
20/10/10(Wednesday) HOD madam
PHASE II
7. Submission of interim 8/11/10 (Monday) MT
thesis: coordinator

8 Presentations 15 & 16 Of MT
November(Mon, Tue) coordinator

9 Evaluation of interim thesis 17/10/10 MT

(Wednesday) coordinator

10 Results : 18/10/10 (Thursday) Director Sir,

HOD madam

PHASE III
11 Submission of Final Thesis 29/11/10 (Monday) MT
coordinator

12 Presentation: 1,2,3,&4 Of December MT

coordinator

13 Evaluation of Final thesis 8/12/10 (Wednesday) MT

coordinator

14 Results: 31 9/12/10 (Thursday) Director Sir,

HOD madam

References

Text Books:
 C.R Kothari: Research Methodology Methods & Techniques, 2/e, Vishwa Prakashan,
2009.
 Ramaswamy Namakumari marketing management Mc Milan Publications.
 Principles of marketing ,kotler Armstrong 10th edition.
 Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong - Principles of Marketing - 9th Edition.

Web references:
 http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Shefali_Roy dt:05.10.10
 http://www.scribd.com/doc/25329886/Research-on-Fastrack-Watches dt:13.10.10
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_Industries dt:11.10.10