Premium and luxury marketing are booming: Suparna Mitra, Titan

Titan Watches and Wearables has started dialling up its marketing endeavours for its premium section. Recently, the company launched the Nebula Series, its new premium collection, in association with actor Sushmita Sen in Mumbai. At the event, exchange4media caught up with Suparna Mitra, CEO of Titan Watches and Wearables Division to talk about India’s love for premiums.

Mitra shed light on the fact that the brand has started increasing its spending on regional influencers in vernacular languages as they hold a significant influence on their followers. 

“Now we have realized that regional influencers in vernacular languages have significant reach and impact so we have started focusing on regional influencers,” she said.

Technology has turned into a big enabler for direct-to-consumer brands and even retail shops. We asked Mitra about how the brand has been keeping up with tech and how it contributes to the business.

She informed us that brand e-commerce and marketplace e-commerce websites contribute to 12-15% whereas the rest of the business comes from physical retail stores. However, technology and being available online with their offerings, surely help the company generate leads. 

She elaborated: “Our website, in terms of the percentage of sales, is not very big but it is used as the first touch from the consumers. We get an enormous number of consumers visiting our site. Last year, we had 50 million people visit the website. They might not be transacting, although there are people who purchase online but they are very few. But most people are browsing, leaving their contacts or adding to their cart, or spending a lot of time on a particular page. We ask them for their permissions and generate leads for the store staff close to those consumers and then they connect with them for the later buying journey. This is the modern-day funnel.” 

Mitra explained that marketing today is not only about TV campaigns, hoardings, and print. “It is also about reaching, reviewing, and nudging consumers. Technology is the enabler for our business; it is a much more efficient and meaningful interaction,” she noted.

Premium experience and customization have become imperative in today’s time for any business to survive. As a marketer, Mitra thinks that these are the recent trends and this is what they want to bank heavily on, with the launch. 

She said, “There are trends in the country right now, one is about technology and digital, in our category - the smartwatches are doing good but there is a trend that is very evident and that is premiumization. Customers hailing from the middle class, upper middle class, and upper class are upgrading to premium and luxury products across categories. This has only gone up post-pandemic. The most premium range that we have in the Titan portfolio is Nebula, and it is doing very well. So, we thought of coming up with a new collection and promoting it. This is the beginning of a surge in premium collections.”

Mitra also commented on the changing Indian consumer landscape and why people have been preferring premiumization. “India has grown per-capita income wise and this is what is the reason behind people going for premiumization. When the number of prosperous households reaches a certain level, premium product sales go up. We have seen that in other countries. Premium and luxury marketing are booming. The pandemic has pushed people to enjoy and not wait.

For the next two-three years, Titan’s focus will be to increase its premium ranges and capitalize on the luxury segment with the use of technology, data, and traditional marketing.