The brand is targeted at children in the age group of 6 and 14 years and is priced in the range of Rs 250 to Rs 395.

The company aims to achieve volumes of around one million units from Dash! in a couple of years, according to Titan Industries senior vice-president (sales & marketing) Bhaskar Bhat.

The launch is backed by an advertising campaign by Ammirati Puris Lintas which will kick off in August 1999. Subsequently, the company plans to go in for various marketing promos like tie-ups with other established children brands and schools, etc.

``We want to establish the brand in the Indian market before we go in for promotional tie-ups with other brands,'' says Bhat. However, this is not the first time a watch maker is launching a kid's watch in India.

In the past, HMT (with a brand called Zap) and Timex (Gimmick) have come up with watchesfor children. These attempts, however, did not yield major results in the absence of mega advertising promotions, industry observers point out.

``But, going by past experiences of other watch brands launched for children, Titan has made a serious attempt to tap this unpenetrated segment which is understood to be as large as 35 million urban children. A launch in such a segment requires adequate advertising and marketing investments to establish the brand,'' says Bhat.

The only other competition that Titan's `Dash!' faces is the grey market and the smuggled goods market.

However, the targeted market size of 35 million urban kids is across all strata of society. Says Titan Industries marketing controller (watches) CK Venkataraman: ``The research conducted revealed that 50 per cent of the targeted urban population has the purchasing power for a watch. Thus, even if we take 50 per cent of the 35 million urban children, the volumes are immense.''

The company expects sales of Dash! to largely come from thegifting route and by tapping a child's desire for direct ownership. ``Since `Dash!' is a kids brand, the company is required to constantly innovate in terms of new products, colours, schemes, designs, etc. Titan would thus bring out various products in the future,'' said Bhat.

`Dash!' has been launched in eight cities and will be available in exclusive Titan showrooms. In addition to this, the company plans to make the brand available in select book stores and toy shops frequented by children. The corner where Dash! has been displayed in a Titan showroom have been specially designed to attract children. For instance, the peppy, fashionable and trendy watches in vivid colours are exhibited on attractive tables which match the height of a 6-10 year old child.

Titan is part of the Tata Group, and manufactures jewellery under the brand `Tanishq' and clocks, apart from watches. Titan's products are sold in over 1,400 cities in India through 5,500 retail outlets across the country. Of these, 108 are exclusiveTitan stores, and 97 are Time Zone outlets.

Other brands in Titan watches includes the Sonata range of watches. Titan commands market leadership with a share of 58 per cent in the 10 million unit volume Indian watch market. ``Our share has increased over the last two years on the back of launches in the lower end of the market like the Sonata range,'' said Bhat.

Titan also has a presence in international markets like London, Dubai and Singapore through sales offices in these countries. It has also penetrated markets like Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.

...And woos youth by dropping Fast-Track's entry price

Titan Industries plans to lower the entry price level of the casual `Fast-Track' watches which are targeted at teenagers, to popularise these watches. The company is planning to introduce a number of products under `Fast-Track' by introducing a new entry price of Rs 600 instead of the earlier level of Rs 850.

``While `Fast-Track' watches are targeted at teenagers from theage-group of 18 years onwards, the lowering of the entry price to Rs 600 is likely to attract teenagers in the age group of 14 to 18 years to purchase these watches,'' Titan Industries senior vice-president (sales & marketing) Bhaskar Bhat told The Financial Express. The strategy is expected to stoke volumes growth for Titan, said an analyst.

A new advertising campaign to this effect will be launched around September to announce the launch of the new range in Fast-Track. The brand, which comprises metallic casual-wear watches, was launched in August last year. Fast-Track volumes in ten months have touched 80,000-85,000 units, which has surpassed the targeted break-even level of 50,000 units, said Bhat. He said, that Fast-Track (positioned as `Cool watches from Titan') will also witness new launches in chromographic watches at lower prices. Chromographic watches otherwise command a price of Rs 7,500 at the high-end.