As HMT shuts shop, take a look at the lesson you can take away from it
Buildings age and become
dilapidated. Machines wear out. People die. But what live on
are the
brands".
When I first came into branding, I thought that the
above statement was gospel truth. It certainly had an element of truth in it as
brands like Pepsi, Coke and Marlboro have lived and flourished for over hundred
years. In fact these brands are still going strong. Yet, in the same breath one
must accept and acknowledge the fact that once dominant brands like Kodak and
Sony Walkman have walked into the sunset. The fact that brands need not live on
forever was reinforced once again today as I read the announcement of the
closure of HMT, at one time, the market leader by far in India, who proudly
called themselves as “The Timekeepers of the Nation”.
India wears HMT with pride
When I passed my matriculation examination way back
in 1968, I was gifted a HMT Sona watch by my grandmother. I wore it to college
with infinite pride. But I was not alone. India swore by HMT mechanical
watches. In fact it was the only brand that you could get in the country though
a few who travelled abroad smuggled in the odd Seiko watch to the absolute envy
of ordinary mortals like me. India in those dark days was a completely closed
economy filled with suspicious customs officials who thought that every Indian
was a smuggler. HMT ruled the roost and in all fairness came out with a range
of watches that were functional, accurate and more than adequate for the choice
starved consumer of pre liberalised India. HMT had a good advertising budget, a
fine marketing team and factories in different places. It was what one would
call a model Public Sector undertaking. HMT also commissioned a Quartz plant as
that was the future.
Enter Titan
Yet storm clouds were brewing as Titan commenced
operations in 1985 and launched its brand with great fanfare in 1987. Here’s
the breakthrough commercial that captured the imagination of the Indian
markets as Titan came in with a range of 250 Quartz watches.
There was a media blitz on national TV, newspapers
and magazines and the Indian consumer went berserk. I saw him come to the Titan
dealership with a clipping of the ad, pointing excitedly to an elegant watch
that he coveted. HMT in comparison seemed dated and looked like a sixty year
old trying to hold its own with a ravishing 21 year old in a beauty contest.
The results were swift and disastrous for HMT as it started losing market share
as Titan came up with even better and more expensive Quartz watches, more eye
catching advertising including the concept of gifting that it pioneered in
watches.
The decline and current demise of HMT watches is
something that is a source of regret to many happy customers like me. In fact
even recently there was a rush to buy some rare models of HMT watches whose
production was going to stop. So what can we learn from the HMT debacle?
Failure the great teacher
In marketing and management people tend to talk
only about their successes. While that is understandable, in my view at least
learning happens from understanding failures, particularly of others. HMT like
most market leaders underestimated the power of the competition. I am reminded
of Andrew Grove’s bestselling book “Only the Paranoid Survive”. Successful
marketers are paranoid of their competition.
It also read the consumer and her aspirations
wrong. The consumer wanted choice, elegance, style, you name it and that was
exactly the gap in its product portfolio that Titan filled in more than
adequately. HMT too failed to capitalise on its years of near monopoly where it
could have built an almost impregnable position. HMT too was adding to its capacity
in mechanical watches even as the market was moving towards Quartz. I used to
head an advertising agency that did the work for HMT and
was proud of our efforts for HMT Roman where we suggested that the market was
ripe for a rugged, macho man’s watch to counter the almost effeminate yet
elegant image of Titan. The advertising was great, the product brilliant but
when the consumer went to the store looking for the brand he couldn’t find it
as marketing and production didn’t see eye to eye. For a brand to be successful,
all the four Ps of marketing must work in cohesion, but sadly they did not.
HMT not alone
HMT is not alone in failure. BPL, another market
leader that I had the privilege of working with for several years lost its way
due to a variety of reasons. Ensure that your brand is not added to the growing
list of failures in the marketplace. Not for nothing do they say that wise
people learn from the experience and failures of others.
Here’s hoping that your brand keeps ticking!
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