Brand Marketing Buzz: January 2014

Titan Company Ltd. has recently entered into the organized Helmet market under its Fastrack brand.

Fastrack is one of the largest and trendiest youth fashion brand in India famous for its gen y products and bold advertising. The brand currently deals in the following categories - Watches, Sunglasses, Bags, Belts, wallets and the recently launched Helmets.

Started in 1998 as a sub watch brand under Titan, it was created as an independent watch brand in 2005 and since then have successfully created the affordable fashion brand image. With brand extensions into Sunglasses (2005), Bags, Belts & Wallets (2009) and Helmets (2013) Fastrack has maintained its core positioning of trendy & stylish designs at an affordable price.

It started opening exclusive outlets - "Fastrack Stores" in 2009 with its first store at F.C. Road Pune and then Anna Nagar,Chennai and is currently having 147 stores across the country.

Helmets to start off is not a very glamorous purchase and is also not mandatory to wear in many cities across the country.

It is considered a compulsion purchase and especially the brand’s youth target group of 15 - 25 years (In this case 18 years onwards - legal driving age in India) consider it as a fashion dampener rather than a fashion statement. Also the replacement cycle is longer with people generally using one Helmet at a time unlike watches, Belts and Bags. The pricing of Rs 1,495 - Rs 3,500 is relatively higher than the well established players in the industry with safety and style proposition.

But this is what Fastrack is here to change and make the product a desirable fashion statement of every image conscious motorider, making heads turn not because of the moto-machine but because of the Helmets. In my opinion the task would be difficult as previous foray into new categories were natural extensions but this one is not directly related considering the helmet usage trend in the country.

Main USP the name Fastrack brings is trust (Safety) and Stylish (Cool Designs) and easy accessibility of their products across different channels and it has to be seen how the same is leveraged to create a new market in this protective gear category.

Marketing Communication : Fastrack Helmets

Launch Event : http://goo.gl/Xmwgyu