Titan Eye Plus, the leading eye wear brand of India, has added another feather to its cap. With the launch of its all new collection for women, called Enigma, the brand has an expanding network of more than 300 stores across India. Vandana Bhalla, Head – Marketing, Eye wear Division, Titan Company Limited, shares her thoughts on the brand’s newly conceptualised women’s eye wear.
Market positioning and customer profile According to Vandana Bhalla, the recent research done on the women’s eye wear segment in India throws light on the fact that most women are not entirely comfortable wearing glasses all the time, owing to lack of options in designs and fit in eye wear products that are currently available in the Indian market. Targeting the 25- to 45-year-olds, Titan’s newly launched Enigma collection offers a wide range of attractive eye wear for the single visions and bifocal users. The collection has trendy designs across house brand and international branded frames, sunglasses and lenses.
Titan Eye Plus has recently tied up with Bollywood top style icon Chitrangada Singh in a TVC. “The Enigma collection is classy, contemporary and comes in elegant designs and feminine colours like rich burgundy, purple, pink, leopard prints and mint green. The frames are elaborate with fine detailing like metal bows, crystals and floral prints,” says Bhalla.
Product range
Priced between Rs 995 and Rs 3,250, the Enigma collection has a wide range of over 100 styles where 50 per cent of the collection is available below the price band of Rs 2,000. According to Bhalla, the unique collection is available in feminine colours like burgundy, purple, pink, leopard prints and mint green in contemporary styles.
The company’s regular frames start at Rs 495 onward. The Titan lenses are manufactured at Chikkaballapur at the company’s in-house lens manufacturing unit while the frames are sourced from various overseas vendors that are approved as per best quality standards. Explains Bhalla: “We cater to both prescription and sunglasses users. Being an optical chain, the larger part of our business is prescription eye wear.”
Titan Eye Plus products are retailed through the company’s exclusive chain of retail outlets. The brand has presence in over 100 cities in India and is also available through popular e-commerce portals.
Changing trends
Following face-to-face interactions with Titan’s women consumers, a study revealed that women consider eye wear more as a functional necessity than a fashion accessory. Though they wore eye wear the whole day, they would remove their spectacles during social events or while having a photo moment.
Bhalla elaborates: “Women even choose to be ‘without spectacles and not being able to see’ than ‘with spectacles, and not looking good’, at weddings, parties and other such functions. Internationally, the trend is to treat eye wear as an accessory, where different styles are used for different occasions to enhance one’s look. We therefore felt a gap in the market for fashionable, trendy designs exclusively designed for women at the mid-premium segment and women tend to wear unisex frames. The Enigma collection aims at addressing just this gap.”
Challenges
Consumers today are abreast with the latest in fashion and trends but as far as eye wear is concerned, women don’t really want to be seen in eye wear during special occasions like parties or marriage functions, etc., as they tend to feel that eye wear takes away the look from their appearance at social dos. So, according to Bhalla, the biggest concern is that women feel that they do not look good in eye wear.
“We would like to change this attitude towards eye wear and celebrate spectacles as a fashion accessory that enhances one’s overall style statement. Also, we want to break the stereotypes and encourage women to wear glasses, with any outfit and at any occasion,” she adds.
Marketing strategy
Positioned as a style platform, the brand will continue to experiment within the eye wear category through interesting collections for different target segments. The brand do promotions through various press conferences, product launches, new store inaugurations as well as opti-care workshops.
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