 Welcome back, now when you talk about homegrown brands in India, there's one name that comes through shining and that is Titan. For the kind of brand extensions they've had over a period of time, starting out in the mid 80s with watches, bringing in jewelry, eyewear, perfumes and not just creating your own little brands but also to be able to get in other marquee names from abroad, some of which compete with your own brand. So when you talk about marketing strategy, how does it all tie in? That's the question that I've posed to the company's managing director Bhaskar Bhat, someone who's been in the business for a very long time. Mr Bhat, as far as the headwinds are concerned and you have been talking about the general headwinds that we are seeing in the watch business right now, not least of which coming in from what the government has done by way of fan requirements as well. How much is that hurting the business as it were and apart from the other headwinds perhaps you should put that in context for us. The primary reason for the decline in a way of our first six months, sales performance was something which hit the jewelry business, not the watch business, which was to do with the regulatory requirement in golden harvest schemes and so on. But other than that, consumer sentiment was weak. The watch business itself has seen some challenging times in terms of growth, volume growth and again there we've seen different growth rates between our brands. For example, our brand Sonata has done well, Fast Track, not as well as it was doing in the past but nevertheless growing more than Titan, Titan brand growing in value, not so much in volume, the impact of e-commerce and not on the category of watches, it is overall because there was so much discounting in that space that there was a shift in spending itself and many categories you know that in the e-commerce, the e-commerce players have been discounting very heavily. So it's a combination of many factors. But looking at e-commerce, it's not something that you can wish away, discounting is not going to go away very quickly. In that kind of market Mr. Bhatt, what does the Titan do? Well, I don't think you can separate Titan from e-commerce. As in e-commerce is a reality and it's a channel of sale, the internet is a space which consumers are more and more experiencing brands, products in. Therefore, it's a reality and Titan has already started work on the digital experience, on trading on the net. We have several partners with whom we work. As well as our own e-commerce site, Titan.co.in. No, but what you're up against is the discounting element, how do you compete with that? I think that it's a very short-term phenomenon, I mean to be able to buy a Titan watch at a price lower than Titan could have made it is unnatural, it's not possible, it is not sustainable. But at this point in time, in this kind of scenario Mr. Bhatt, you're introducing a smart watch and that is by itself a game changer perhaps or a huge risk. How do you see it? Well, I think it is a long-term view that the company always has taken and that is what juxt, that is where juxt is sitting. It is similar to what I spoke about the internet behavior. That is, consumers, the next-gen consumer and they're not different. It's the same consumer who's progressing to, you know, for the digital experience on the internet. Connecting your watch to the smartphone is what juxt does. The only differences from long research, from long understanding of the Indian consumer, we are of the view that you need to provide the Indian consumer with a good-looking watch. So about the timing of it, of course, is important, I want to understand the marketing rollout plan that you have for a product of this kind. What's the thought process over there? Where are you positioning this brand now? Price perspective, it's about 16,000 to 20,000, so it's high from the average Titan price, but then Titan itself has watches in that 10,000, 15,000 price point, Titan brand itself. However, the smartwatch, the so-called traditional smartwatch, if you want to, how smartwatches have been introduced, those are much more expensive. Right. If it's not, so much the volumes game right now, Mr. Bhatt, if it is not so much the margins because you're saying that you're coming in at an affordable level and you have this partnership going with HB to offer the technology on juxt, tell us how exactly this works when you look at the numbers. Right now, we are looking not so much at numbers, we're looking at penetration. The mission is really to get people to adopt this version of the smartwatch, which is a good-looking watch which has technology enabled. So when you brought about the change that was trying to get at the popularization of a certain technology, a certain look perhaps, a certain trend as it were, that was a different market. Today, the market has changed. A lot more people are a lot more aware about the various brands and what they really bring to the table. In that kind of competitive environment, how do you hold your own for everything that's associated with brand Titan to keep it intact, even as you introduce newer and newer brands? And you brought in a lot of international brands as well, right? There is the FCUKs, etc., of the world that you have brought in. So to kind of be able to marry existing brands, existing Titan brands with the many other brands that you're out there in the market with, how do you create marketing strategies that are unique and yet they all tie into the mother brand? Okay. I think the mother brand Titan, it's no longer, it's the business. It's a category business, watch as business. So let's say FCUK or Tommy Hilfiger that you're talking about, it's about increasing our presence and giving to the Indian consumer what he or she wants without actually owning all of it. We own brand Titan, we own brand Fastrack, we own Sonata, we own Zyles, we own Nebula, but it can't go on like that forever. People in a category like watches much like in shirts or shoes, brand loyalty is not about buying the same brand every time. You have maybe five, six Titan watches and then you stray because there is something else that you're looking for by way of brand. Do you see the marketing mix really changing right now from the time that you started the business with a brand like Titan, just as well? Completely. How has it changed? With this brand, we'll be more active in the social media, we'll be on television as well, but the kind of promotion we're doing even on television to this target audience is very different, the kind of advertising we're doing and activity in the social media is very different, it's emerging as a very important space and Titan has done it well, perhaps there's a long way to go yet, other brands are more active, but Titan has certainly done a good job with Fastrack for example or even our Tanish brand. So we know that space and with Juxt we'll get more active. There has been a transformation of the new age consumer has moved, has realized, I mean let's take the large IT industry, large employers, that's one segment very strong with Titan. By way of consumers. By way of consumers and for them all these regulations don't matter to them. The mobile Indian young Indian woman for whom Tanish is the brand of choice because that's the only brand which is available in your hometown or in your work. Which are the segments that are working out the best for you and how do you think they are going to do for you now? Jewelry is back in growth, Iwer was always growing well for us but it's a small business, we've got to go get growth back in watches and this technology play is going to help, but watches has always responded to innovation and you know the innovation we've brought in Raga, Fastrack, consumers have responded. So the growth drivers change every few years, that is the beauty of our business model because we have several categories and therefore if one business faces headwinds, another business makes up and so on. But overall if you ask me it's still challenging time because of consumer sentiment. So we could have grown at 30% but we are growing only at 25 or 20. Now you have to deal with that, you have to deal with those uncertainties, so you have to do other things, you have to manage costs, you have to manage inventory, you have to get more agile, you have to be more, you have to be leaner. So all of that is work in progress and it has been for a period of time but talking about businesses and this is something else that you've taken on and I'm going to quickly ask you about Vistara as well. So as far as aviation goes and Vistara's prospects in 2016 go, how are you seeing it? Like the business flying high, no, I think it's early days for me to comment in any sensible manner, but it's early days for the brand and therefore growth is going to be natural. The airline is not yet complete in its offering in terms of routes. So every new route will see growth. So looking forward to great things from Titan as well as Vistara, it's great to have you with us on the show Mr. Pat. Thank you.