Gopalratnam Kannan, Country Manager, Swatch Group (India) Pvt Ltd.

G Kannan, who heads the India operations of Swatch Group, started his career at the age of 22, joining Procter and Gamble. A postgraduate in English Literature from Madras University, Kannan has specialised in Human Dynamism. He is a faculty member of the Vision Management University and the Indira Gandhi Open University. Kannan, who had a stint with Zubair Furnishing, Dubai, as General Manager-Marketing, was earlier with Titan Industries.

Kannan is based in Delhi and is responsible for the Swatch Group’s product portfolio management, retail marketing, advertising and promotions for all the Swatch Group brands available in the country. The Swatch Group in Biel, Switzerland, is today the largest manufacturer of finished watches in the world. In terms of sales, Swatch Group represents 22-25 per cent of watch sales in the world. In an interview with Sakshi Talwar of exchange4media, Kannan shares the reasons for the success of the premium Swatch Group brands in the Indian market. Excerpts:

Q. You are targeting a niche segment with high-priced products. Do you think the market in India is large enough to sustain such premium brands?

Do remember that the number of luxury cars sold in India or the amount of gold imported to India is significant. India is a rich country with great tradition in aesthetics and design. The biggest consumer market next to China is India. Also, the middle class is emerging with substantial increases in salary. In addition, India has a tradition of going for products that signify luxury and finesse. So finding the market for our brands is not really a problem in India.

We are going about it in a methodical way. It took us about two years to integrate all these brands into Swatch Group’s India operations. We do have plans of having at least two more brands, Breguet and Blancpain, integrated into the Indian subsidiary’s operations in 2005.

We’ll grow at a rate of 30 to 40 per cent but it will differ from brand to brand. There is a huge potential for luxury brands in India, so growth is inevitable.

In India, we have five brands and each brand has a distinct persona. Omega stands for prestige, dynamism, success, and is known for its excellent design with a history of 150 years. Longines has a luxury image to it but with stress on elegance and grace. Brand ambassadors like Aishwarya Rai reiterate the philosophy of the brand. Rado is a combination of aesthetics, expertise and design in hard metal and rare materials. For example, we have diamond embellished in one of our watches, called V10K. Tissot has many facets. Tissot is innovation by tradition. It has got traditional looks, where we use technology, sports, etc. For example, with the touch of a finger on the dial you can get seven functions, and all this at a price of just Rs 23,500. The price range for Tissot varies from Rs 8,000 to Rs 200,000. Swatch is for people young at heart; it has elements of colour and design; these watches are made keeping in mind occasions like Valentine’s Day, etc. Swatch is the largest selling watch brand in the world.

We have the same approach worldwide. There are three important aspects, which we adhere to when we appoint retail stores. These are, location, professionalism of the men who would sell our products to customers, and merchandising. We give time and effort to merchandising to ensure that the consumer is motivated to buy. We have a selection process for towns and dealers. We go about expanding the market in a systematic way without compromising on merchandising and dealers’ ability to sell our brands.

We have created a foundation and an infrastructure and Indians are buying our brands. However, the duties and levies have to be much more reasonable. This will increase the revenue to the Government, more people will come into the business net and more job opportunities will be created. It would be a win-win situation for all.

Swatch attracts people from all walks of life. Secondly, it has got variety. For golf, for swimming, for scuba diving, as a gift on Valentine’s Day or to show that he or she is non-traditional. It is able to attract a huge customer segment irrespective of nationality and personal philosophy. There is some unison in the desire for owning a Swatch. The same person wears a different Swatch for different occasions. The kind of shapes, functionality, straps, material and things we put into these watches is enormous. We come out with about 300-400 designs every year.

Rado took the initiative of setting up service centres some 20 years ago in India. We have set up service centres, dealers and infrastructure here. We have done very effective promotions, PR events, media advertising and customer service. All this was done keeping in mind specific needs of each of the brands.

For Omega, we have about 36 outlets and for Longines we have 60. Rado has 120 outlets, Tissot has 130 outlets and Swatch has 110 retail outlets. We are present in about 25 towns. We are in class A and some class B towns and are now looking at a pan-India presence.

The Swatch Group was formed in the late ’70s and today it has worldwide operations. It has subsidiary operations in 77 countries with a portfolio of 18 brands. We started operations in India in 1997 through a distributor group. Swatch is a public limited company listed on the stock exchange and has a group turnover of 4.6 billion Swiss Francs. We hold a significant share of the global watch market. The company makes brands having various characteristics like fashion, luxury, sports, technology, expertise and so on. We have factories in Germany and Switzerland with 150 manufacturing units. It’s a worldwide operation, which manufactures watches as a fashion accessory, lifestyle, a symbol of persona, elegance, and rare materials. We also have a policy of employing all kinds of nationalities with no gender or religious bias.

Youthfulness, fashion and style, sports, and non traditional – that is the essence of Swatch.

Our approach is global; we do not want to dilute the persona of the brand.

There are other Swiss brands like Cartier, Rolex, etc. And, multiple ownership is another very common factor.

Well, we are not ignoring the mid-segment. It’s like gold available for the price of silver. Tissot, for instance, has a starting price of Rs 8,000, which is quite affordable.