Marketing 2020: Timex to spend more on digital in 2020, says Ajay Dhyani of Timex

From increasing its outreach in regional markets to expanding its luxury portfolio, for Timex India the year 2019 was quite thriving, said Ajay Dhyani, Marketing Head, Timex India.

In 2020, the brand plans to move a step further and increase its spends on building brand preference among consumers. Having witnessed double-digit growth consistently, it is to expand and improve its footprint in modern trade and e-commerce.

Excerpts:

How do you see 2019 in terms of growth?

2019 was a challenging year for us. However, with multiple launches across segments, we were able to maintain good momentum and visibility for the brand across segments and regions. As a brand, we have been committed to understand consumer needs and market trends. In line with this endeavour, we saw successful launch of TMX, an affordable range of watches for regional markets, and introduced Timex’s first high-tech smartwatch iConnect for the fitness conscious consumers seeking to adopt healthier lifestyle. Targeting the millennials, under Helix brand we launched Helix Gusto, a fitness band for youth. We have a very good understanding of the India market and consumer needs now and want to leverage our understanding to meet consumers’ expectations. In the coming year, we would like to move a step ahead and achieve more than what we have set in 2019.

One thing in marketing that you couldn't implement in 2019 but would like to do this year?

We have accomplished the marketing goals that we set for 2019. From increasing our regional markets outreach to expanding our luxury portfolio and more. This year we launched Ted Baker watches, a British fashion brand, under our premium category which received good response from consumers. Through a digital ad film for our new brand TMX, we also managed to build an emotional connect with our consumers in the regional markets. We would like to continue the momentum and achieve more in 2020. Marking 165 years of Timex, we launched some of the best and classic International Timex watches in India. Sustaining the momentum, we are looking forward to introducing more such Global best sellers from Timex.

How do you see advertising and marketing trends evolving in 2020?

The speed with which technology is evolving, it has vastly impacted consumer behaviour and brand communication. Technology will continue to play a major role and digital marketing will grow further in the coming years. Brands will identify new ways to connect with its audience, become more personal to them and be more visible across traditional and social platforms. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) will further help brands cement their presence with personalisation, interactive audio and video content and influencer marketing at micro and macro level. A brand’s digital presence also makes a huge impact on the consumer’s mind as today’s consumer prefers to shop online rather than going out as it consumes more time and energy, hence we also have https://shop.timexindia.com/ where consumers have access to the best-selling Timex watches from the global collection like American Documents®, Marlin Automatics, Waterbury Automatics, Solar Expedition and other best-selling watches. 

Do you plan to increase your marketing budget for this year?

With a series of product launches across verticals, 2019 has been a substantially challenging year where most of our advertising and promotional spends were incurred in trade marketing. In 2020, we definitely plan to move a step further and are planning to increase our spends on building brand preference. As digital marketing has become an integral part for every brand, we are looking at increasing our spends around the same, as we understand this is where our customers engage the most.

Would your budget allocation for various mediums change in 2020?

As we understand that digital is the way forward, so to keep a connect with our audience, we are looking to increase our digital spends. In the coming year, for all our brand portfolios, we are allocating more on digital media.

How do you expect your agency/communication/content partners to change in the next year?

Our agency partners have always been our backbone in building and strengthening the brand image for consumers, media and vendors. We have worked as one team and they have always pushed boundaries when it comes to ideas and execution. Since content plays a very important role for every brand, we expect them to think out of the box and come up with immersive and engaging content and visuals for consumers. Like every year, we expect them to work with us in taking the brand to a level higher by using the right mediums to connect with the consumers.

What's your brand's outlook for the next three years?

India is an important market for us, and we have witnessed double-digit growth consistently. We will continue to expand and improve our footprint in modern trade and e-commerce continuously as these segments help us not only sales but driving brand preference and further help us in serving our customers better, offering trendy innovative timepieces and best of global assortment. We have one of the largest portfolios of watches for every occasion for every age segment. With a legacy of 165 years, we at Timex want to position ourselves as the most-preferred brand for all the watch lovers.

Social media and consumer behaviour are changing the dynamics of marketing. How do you keep abreast with these quick changes?

The consumers on social media are much more aware and evolved. Brands also get real time feedback and inbounds from consumers. We at Timex also leverage the same. One of the key reasons to launch the Timex International watch collection is because of the consumer inbounds that we got on our social media handles in India.

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