The move is prompted by the fact that there is a paucity of exclusive watch showrooms in the rural areas. Titan Industries is, hence, exploring unconventional channels such as fertilisers outlets, where the group companies such as Tata Chemicals have an extensive reach and outlets that sell Tata Steel's Shakti brand of corrugated galvanised sheets.
"There are not many watch retail stores in rural India and consumers prefer to purchase from the nearest town stores. The company found certain stores such as Tata Chemicals (Kisan Sansar), Tata Steel (Tata Shakti) are apt to distribute the rural consumers," said C Srinivasan, business head, Sonata, Titan Industries.
Tata Chemicals has launched Tata Kisan Sansar, a chain of one-stop resource centres for farmers to provide end-to-end agri solutions. Titan is also planning to associate with other agro-retail ventures such as ITC Choupal, Godrej Aadhar and Hariyali and Kisan Bazaar.
The company has launched fibre watches priced below Rs 275, to make its presence in the rural areas. Rural markets make up 45 per cent of the domestic watch segment and Titan plans to tap the youth segment primarily.
Srinivasan said, "The rural segment is a high-volume driver, but is dominated by unorganised players selling low-priced plastic watches. The price factor was the biggest issue for Sonata, which does not have large presence in the segment."
A company survey revealed that more than half of the rural population was first-time buyers, above 12 years of age. "Though these consumers owned durables such as colour televisions and cycles, they still did not possess a watch. Hence, the challenge was to trigger interest among them for watches by introducing an affordable product that doesn't pinch their pockets," said Srinivasan.
The company is aiming to sell 3 lakh (0.3 million) watches this year. The domestic plastic watch segment is roughly made up of 7 lakh (0.7 million) units and if the unorganised players are taken into account, the size of the category will be one million units.
Initially, Sonata fibre watches would be sold through outlets and dealers network in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Punjab on a pilot basis. Explaining the rationale behind choosing these states, Srinivasan said, "These are high-potential markets with a larger rural contribution. Secondly, it was found that watches below Rs 500 were bought more in these states."
