We are expecting a strong festive season: C K Venkataraman, Titan

Titan recorded the highest profit of Rs 1,066 crore for Q1FY23 in comparison to Rs 82 crore in Q1 FY22, with its jewellery division contributing over 88 per cent of its total net sales. The company is now planning to take its jewellery brand Tanishq to the US and other West Asian markets. 

Recently it launched the ‘Titan Shaurya’ initiative for all serving and retired armed forces personnel, including their dependents. Under the initiative, products across all brand categories would be made accessible to The Indian Armed Forces at special offers reserved exclusively. 

We spoke to C K Venkataraman, Managing Director, Titan, about factors leading to this robust growth and his vision for the company.

Edited Excerpts

Titan has witnessed phenomenal growth in the last financial year, what are the factors driving this growth?

The consumer segments that we target are generally in a better place; during the pandemic, their savings and wealth have increased. So as the pandemic started receding, that desire to enjoy life enabled by their savings and wealth has driven the growth.

Second is the innovation potential of the Titan company. We were feeling the challenges of possible low growth and everybody rallied around the challenges of the company and innovated in terms of product and marketing, which resulted in the growth.

Third factor that has led to the growth is the supply chain and the financial constraints that the medium and small players in every category faced, which ultimately helped in the acceleration of formalising some of our categories. 

Titan's portfolio is largely experiential led, however there is  a lot of focus on digital now, how are you marrying the two?

If you see, it's so much about family buying. Now a family in Dallas or Chicago and a store in Bangalore are discussing the purchase, the deal is getting closed through a WhtsApp video and the actual sales happens at the store. We are now seeing this purchase trend gaining ground. So it's the digitalisation of exploration, discovery and shortlisting and the final sale at the physical outlet, so sales is becoming truly a hybrid phenomenon.

Is your jewellery segment still event-led?

We are catering to the various price points in the jewellery segment through our brands. We have a portfolio of brands to start with. We have Mia by Tanishq and Caratlane for young women and then there is Tanishq, which is a known brand. Zoa is for luxury.

It’s primarily driven by occasions like birthdays and anniversaries, and as a single block, weddings is the largest. But it's fast becoming a year-long affair. There are a lot of opportunities sitting in the digitalisation and target CRM investments that we make which help us understand the customer and increase our sales.

With the festive season close by, what will be your marketing strategy?

We are going all out to catch customers wherever they are, be it physical or digital. The company is expecting a strong festive season and is planning to adopt a combination of product innovations, new launches and marketing investments besides promotional offers to capture the expected demand.