Rendezvous

Ronnie Talati & Simeran Bhasin speak to Watch Market Review, excerpts…

Fastrack

(Ronnie Talati)

After more than 25 years in Finance, an opportunity came up within the Company to head a Strategic Business Unit (SBU) which would specifically target the youth. The SBU would also look after the Licensing and Distribution of fashion watch brands in the Company’s portfolio. The SBU was called Fastrack and New Brands and was set up in 2005. At that time Fastrack watches was a sub brand of Titan and Fastrack sunglasses was part of a separate SBU. Fastrack watches had just been re-launched targeting the irreverent college youth. Fastrack sunglasses, which had John Abraham as its brand ambassador, was looking to establish itself in a fragmented market. Both these categories were now brought under one umbrella under a common brand platform targeting one customer – the college youth. In 2005, the Fastrack brand sold around 1.5 lakh watches, 0.60 lakh sunglasses and had a combined turnover of Rs.30 crores. Today, Fastrack sells close to 2 million watches, over half a million sunglasses and ended financial year 2009-10 with a turnover in excess of Rs.300 crores. The brand now has its own retail channel with over 25 exclusive Fastrack stores and 5 kiosks across the country. Plans include opening another 75 stores by the end of the current financial year. The current year will also see the national launch of three additional categories – bags, belts and wallets – establishing Fastrack very clearly as an accessory youth brand. The Tommy Hilfiger brand, which sold 20k watches in 2005, now sells close to 1 lakh watches and is the market leader in the fashion watch segment. Two more brands have since been added to the portfolio – Hugo Boss and French Connection (FCUK). Fastrack has defined its vision to create the country’s most iconic and exciting youth brand and target a turnover of Rs.1000 crores within the next 5 years. It also has plans to introduce at least one new category every year with the aim of enveloping youth in every possible way. Brand building initiatives…. The Fastrack brand targets youth in the age group of 15 to 25 years. The brand’s DNA lies in its unpredictability, its constant desire to create disruption (albeit in a playful way) and to experiment continuously with product design and communication. The brand positions itself on the platform of affordable fashion for the youth and follows a collection based strategy. Collections like the Army collection, the Sport collection and the Biker’s collection were hugely successful in the market place for being distinctive in design and backed by bold and edgy communication. Fastrack has recently signed on two brand ambassadors – Genelia D’Souza and Virat Kohli – icons in their own right, who will take the brand to new levels of awareness. Competition from indigenous and international brands…. When one targets the youth, one is fighting for share of wallet. Our competition is therefore shoes, apparel, cell phones, movies, café’s and everything else that the youth of today spend their money on. Part of the brand’s strategy therefore is to envelope youth and take as large a share of their wallet with its various product categories as possible. Today, due to India’s large youth population, every brand is targeting them in one way or the other and we have to keep re-inventing ourselves to keep ourselves relevant. Will mobile phones replace watches…. We believe this will not happen. Watches are no more just a time keeping device but have become a very important fashion accessory in any person’s wardrobe. The youth of today are constantly looking to accessorize themselves and categories like watches, sunglasses, bags, belts and wallets are all fashion statements they make by adorning themselves with these accessories. How is Fastrack going to play the game differently as compared to others? As Fastrack moves away from being just a watch brand to an accessories brand, it will aim to dominate the market in each of the product categories it enters. Each category will be treated like a separate profit centre and each category will invest in building the category and in doing so create new and additional touch points for the brand. Today we already dominate the market in watches and in sunglasses and our aim is to do so in our new categories as well.

(Simeran Bhasin)

What makes Fastrack different in its approach to adopting new design trends? Fastrack is a brand that is constantly experimenting, be it in design or in communication. We repositioned ourselves in 2005 and moved away from being a traditional watch brand to a fashion brand targeting the college youth. Rather than tracking trends, we create trends of our own inspired by the associations and mindsets of the youth. We bring out three to four collections a year with each collection having a common theme running across all our categories. Unlike most fashion brands, we do not bring out collections inspired by seasons or colours. Our collections are inspired by mindsets relevant to the youth at that point in time. For example, if tattoo’s are relevant to the youth today, we would design a collection around this theme.