HMT

Watches

By
S. Shalini
Mustafa 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 Introduction
PRODUCTS 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 ANALYSIS
Mass (< Rs. 400)
Low-end (Rs. 400-1000)
Valued at Rs. 300 Crores
Valued at 1200 Crores
Grey market, Chinese, etc.
Sonata, Maxima

Premium (> Rs. 5k)

Mid-upper (Rs. 1k - 5k) Valued at 370 Crores
Valued at 938 Crores Swiss brands: Tissot, Omega, Rolex
Titan, Citizen, Timex, Fashion brands: Fossil, Calvin Klein,
Swatch, Espirit Giordano, Esprit
THE MARKETING MIX
 PRODUCT AND PRICE
PRODUCT 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

n Radio
v isi o
Tele

Newspaper z in e
M aga
PLC of HMT Watches
SWOT ANALYSIS
 STRENGTH
• Strong govt. support

• Brand image

• Market leadership

• Good liquidity

• Availability of tangible assets

• Established marketing network

• Prior experience
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

Decline
PLC
Growth

Maturity
 New Marketing Mix
Segment (Demography) Product Price

Low end Rugged, basic time function, Rs. 300-1000

mechanical or quartz, water
resistance steel and gold make.

Mid upper Automatic, steel or gold make, Rs. 1,000-3,000

quartz/analog, water resistance
and rich looks
Urban Youth USB,MP3,trendy, attractive, Rs.1,000-5,000
stylish, water resistance and
colorful.

Executive/Achievers Automatic, multifunctional, Rs.5,000-30,000

quartz, digital, water resistance,
gold and jeweled

Affluent Jeweled, automatic, gold, Rs. =>30,000

platinum, water resistance ,classy
and customize
 Place

• Company owned outlets

• Retailers

• Authorized dealers

• Jewellary shops

• Other retail outlets and stores

• Online shopping
 Promotion
• Electronic Media:
TV Commercials
Sponsorship 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 locations
Magazines
News paper
Danglers
 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 9 Training on New product features, competitors

teams weakness & new targets.

Selection of activity 3 Media engagement

and places 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?