WITH AN EYE ON INNOVATION
Titan Eyeplus is on a new journey - that of making the brand more innovative. Vandana Bhalla, Marketing Head & Design, Eyewear Division, Titan Company Ltd, throws light on its strategies to move closer to its aim BY SAMARPITA BANERJEE Titan Eyeplus has undergone a complete make-over this year. How has the year been for you? This year, we have embarked on an exciting journey where we are looking at the brand in a whole new way. We are driven by the insight that consumers today are leading a dynamic, experimental and experiential life and that our products should cater to their dynamic lifestyle. A quarter back, we launched our new positioning and in the second quarter, we followed it up with the new campaign and a new baseline for the brand, ‘Live The New’. At that time, we focused on the frames part. The consumer sees the prescription as a category into two parts. They see it as frames and lenses. As a retailer, this was what we also wanted to focus on. We also borrowed from what the consumer’s lifestyle is all about, and then created a brand personality which was aspirational. Our first campaign in this regard was about occasion-based frames. Our frames are categorized by fashion, work and sport. We also categorized for genders separately. Today, if you go to any optical store, as a woman you will be shown a lot of unisex frames. But we have actually created a separate counter targeted at women, and every frame in that counter has something feminine about it, whether it’s the colour or the eye shape or something intrinsic in the design itself. We started this in Q2 with the new positioning. As market leader we want to lead the passion in the category, we want to be the first in innovation in lenses, we want to be the first in terms of customer experiences at the store, and the kind of brand personality that we portray. What led to this transformation in the first place? The thought actually came from a consumer study that we did which showed us that while the consumer today is moving towards leading a multifaceted life, they are also seeking new experiences and experimenting all the time. But when they looked at the category, it seemed simply functional and did not seem to be contemporary enough. It was definitely not an experience that they looked forward to. We wanted to make it more exciting for consumers. That’s really where the new positioning comes from. Your latest campaign promotes your new innovative collection of lenses. What was the thought behind it? Incidentally, this was our first campaign for lenses. This year, we looked at the brand as more of a retail brand and we wanted to talk about both frames and lenses. So this was the second step in that direction where lenses are an integral part. Lenses have traditionally been treated as a functional product. And just as in frames, as a brand over the years we have actually turned it more into an accessory and people today are increasingly looking at multiple ownership. They are looking at changing not just because of functional reasons but also because they want to change their look and be in line with fashion. So, the ad was really for the young, adventurous individuals of today who might be water skiing or driving on a foggy mountain or for people who spend a lot of time on digital devices. People today spend between 6-8 hours every day on a digital device due to which their eyes are also getting affected. So the ad talks about our new lens offering, one of them being fog-free, which stays clear despite temperature changes. The second is water repellent and the third is an ozone lens which protects eyes from the harmful bluerays emitted from digital devices. And we have tried to keep in line with the brand personality and show that this is a product for today’s consumer lifestyle, and how it fits into his lifestyle in a contemporary and aspirational way. Was promoting lenses instead of frames a way of breaking the clutter in the category? We spent the first few years really changing the fashion quotient of the category and making it into a fashion accessory. Now, since we have a very high-tech lens lab and have invested a lot on innovation in lenses which are integral to the consumer’s lifestyle, we thought this was the right time to start talking about it. How important is innovation for the brand? Very important. It is exemplified even in the baseline we have chosen for the brand, ‘Live The New’. It is all about giving new experiences to the customers at the product and retail front and also in the brand personality that we portray. So, this year, a lot of innovation has gone into the products. The way we have categorized frames into different occasions is something that has been done for the first time in the category. The lenses that we have just launched will be a first for the category. But even at the retail level, we have changed our entire identity this year. We have given the brand a new logo along with new logo colors. Also, the interiors of our stores have changed in order to portray the entire occasion-based strategy. Products are now categorized as per occasions and it’s very easy for customers to actually go and select them. Innovation, whether at the retail front or the product front, or as a brand personality, is an ongoing process for the brand. How are you working on increasing connect with your consumers, considering there are so many touch-points now, and so much competition in the category? We have a strong expansion strategy and are looking at opening 100 new stores this year. We already have around 430 stores in 170 odd cities. We are also looking at expanding our touch-points on ground. In terms of marketing, we have a multimedia strategy comprising TV, Print and Digital. Which is the media platform you prefer most? Since we are present across a very large number of cities, we need a high-reach media. We are also looking at a change in brand personality which is best done through an audio-visual medium. This year, we have looked at TV as our lead medium and are using Print and Digital selectively to drive walk-ins. What gives Titan Eyeplus an edge over competitors? It is really rooted in our baseline ‘Let the New’. As a Titan brand, we are trusted and we stand for quality. And as a brand, Titan Eyeplus is all about giving customers new experiences and new products at our stores and leading the category in terms of fashion and innovation. Going forward, what are your plans for the brand? The plan for the brand is to continue reinventing and to keep making it more interesting. We aim at turning the brand into an accessory for the consumers. Over the last 8-9 years, that’s the journey we have been on. We have done it in different phases through different strategies. But, we have been instrumental in taking this category from being a purely functional category to a category where people are conscious about the different kinds of styles available in the market. We are working on making the category much more interesting for the consumer. What is one major trend that you can predict for next year in the segment? While last year, the trend was people moving towards plastic frames, I think next year, it will be going back to metals and combinations - getting into a lighter look, lighter weight. We are into a lot more metal and lightweight products. MARKETING TIP Consumer research, when combined with gut feel and intuition, works best. Put yourself in the shoes of the consumer. Whatever we react to is what the consumers will react to. CMO FILE Vandana Bhalla is the Marketing Head, Eyewear Division, at Titan Industries Ltd., a part of the Tata Group. She leads all the marketing and product management initiatives of the brand across categories for Titan Eyeplus. Bhalla was earlier leading the marketing activities on the women’s watch brand from Titan - Titan Raga - and was a key member of the team that scripted the successful marketing and product re-launch of the brand.
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