Gould-who took over the worldwide responsibility for Swatch AG sales since January 2000-is in India for a two-day trip to, as he says, `put certain pieces of the Swatch puzzle in place.'' His gameplan for Swatch India: Develop the distribution network, get the right retail ambience and give a final direction to the communication plan. Expansion and localisation of the Swatch range is also on the cards.

So while the distribution focus will remain on Delhi and Mumbai for some time, it will gradually shift to the top eight metros. Besides opening 15-20 exclusive outlets or Swatch Stores in the next two years, Swatch plans to penetrate India through 15 kiosks and 30-40 multibrand outlets by the end of 2000. Besides shopping malls, it plans to operate these kiosks at airports and other `appropriate locations'. Swatch kiosks are peculiar for their round shape and ultra-modern merchandise and retail ambience, can house about 180 models and accommodates just about one salesperson. Swatch has already opened a kiosk at the premium mall Crossroads in Mumbai and is going to open its first exclusive store at Priya and at Ansal's Plaza this month in New Delhi.

Globally, Swatch also has megastores or flagship stores in Paris, New York and other European capitals. However in India, the concept of megastore is too early, feels Gould. A Swatch megastore sells over 50,000 Swatch watches annually and covers at least 100 square meters. Though globally, Swatch is positioned as an `affordable' watch, in India these are priced at Rs 1,450 and above. Admitting that pricing was an issue Swatch was trying to tackle in India, Gould, however, ruled out any price cuts in the range. ``We'll rather wait and not reduce the price to get extra sales because by doing so we'll lose relevance in the minds of the consumer.'' At the same time, Gould, did not rule out localisation of the Swatch range in the future. ``Doors are never locked at Swatch,'' he said.

In the coming months, Swatch will also introduce its much-talked about range -The Swatch Beat-in the country. Beat was launched internationally in 1998 and sets a new time system for measuring Internet Time and represents an innovative digital timepiece. The pricing for the Indian market is not fixed as yet, though internationally its available for 150 Swiss francs. Swatch has so far introduced four ranges of watches: Plastic, Irony, Skin and Olympus in India. By September, Swatch will have finalised its communication plan which includes an Indian brand ambassador in the field of music and entertainment and a TV/print campaign.

``We'll either have to do a radically different Indian spot or we might just modify certain frames with Indian influence in the international brand campaign which will be released in July,'' Gould said. Earlier in January this year, Swatch announced its entry into India through the promotion of its brand in Shah Rukh Khan-Juhi Chawla production Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani. Shah Rukh Khan, incidentally, is also the brand ambassador for Omega, Swatch Group's high-priced watch.