Sunday, 3 June 2012

“Watches”àTrends and strategies in fashion and luxury brands of Watches


                 

Hello friends!! Few days back I got the chance to visit EA mall in Chennai. I landed up in few watch stores in the mall which inspired me to dedicate this blog to the watches and various strategies adopted by the brands to sell their watches.
                First store that I visited was of “Tissot”.The shop had perfect ambience to attract the customers looking for something exclusive. Varieties of watches were neatly placed in the shelves inviting the customers to lighten their pockets. On entering the shop I met the store manager who smiled at me thinking that I am his new customer. I too had the temptation to buy one of those watches but I had a bigger task in hand to complete (research the market strategies for watches).

                I introduced myself and made the store manager aware of my motive. I gathered from him that Tissot usually focus on sports watches and their main market is centric towards the watches for men. They do have something for ladies also, but they focus more on the watches for men. I also understood from him that based on the country the strategy for sales and marketing changes for Tissot. He informed me that in India the culture of having a Unisex watch is not as prevalent as it is in other countries (e.g. European countries, US, Singapore etc). Indian customers usually prefer watches specifically designed for a gender, for example in India sports watches are usually seen by customers as watches for men and not for ladies while in other countries same watches are quite popular among ladies. Hence, the strategy to market the watches in India is different. Moreover, Tissot has Deepika Padukone as its brand ambassador in India .This is a move by Tissot to capture the more stylish and youth wing of India through the image of its brand ambassador.
                On coming to the strategy specific to the store in EA mall, the store manager informed me that because of his 6-7 years experience in Retail market, he is able to judge the customers from their body language and facial expressions. Most of the times when the customers enter the shop their body language and behavior hints the store manager on whether the given customer is a potential customer and is interested in buying or is just for window shopping. One of the strategies to woo their customers is the positioning of the watches. As per the store manager, they keep their new launches or the most popular series of watches in the first display. Here, the first display stands for the shelves just near the glass door or the external shelves which are visible to the customers passing by the store. To add to it they do special showcasing by putting eye soothing lights or giving a special cushion to the waches.By doing this the store managers intend to capture the immediate attention of the customers towards their watches.
                Further I gathered that Tissot is seen more as a fashion brand rather than a luxury brand. The minimum range of watches in the Store at EA mall, start with Rs 8500 and goes to a maximum of around Rs.80, 000. They offer around two years international warranty on their watches. Store being located in EA mall usually have very good sale. Their sale is at peak during Pongal and Diwali time.
                So this was my observation for the Tissot watches, in next blog I will highlight the survey for luxury brand showroom and a store having multiple brands of watches.


Regards
Smriti Saran(FT13477)

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