To begin with, Swatch India will launch its international brand campaign on TV, while for the print, it will modify certain frames with Indian influence. The launch of the communication campaign will coincide with the forthcoming festival and wedding season across the country.

According to Swatch Group's regional general manager, South-East Asia Mr Ravi Thakran, the company will launch an India-specific campaign for the brand next year.

Swatch entered the Indian market earlier this year in January with a carefully crafted gameplan: it announced its entry into India through the promotion of its brand in the Shah Rukh Khan-Juhi Chawla production Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani. It also focused on building top line distribution, first in the metropolitan cities gradually extending the reach to the state capitals.

To support the campaign, Swatch will also initiate a host of innovative ground promotions. According to Mr Thakran, the brand is already associated with a host of `happening and sporty events' such as Smirnoff Fashion Awards; Bacardi friends party and water rafting. To further reinforce its youth positioning, Swatch plans to co-sponsor a personality-contest, a new programme in the making for MTV. In addition, it plans to associate the brand with some of the happening youth festivals in the country such as Rendezvous and Oasis.

The company also plans to take certain initiatives so as to remove the perception of the brand as being just `a plastic watch' in the minds of its target audience, a revelation its market survey threw up. Hence, according to Mr Thakran, the core of the Swatch India-strategy would be to build and highlight `differentiators' at all points of contact, while targeting a wide cross-section of trend-conscious Indian consumers. By adopting this route, Swatch aims to build a credible and `aspirational' brand image and hopes to provide the Indian consumers a truly international brand experience.

Swatch hopes that after the positive kick-start, the next two years would see the brand gallop in terms of distribution, volume as well as marketshare in India. The company hopes to capture at least 55 per cent of the market by value and 80 per cent by volume. Mr Thakran says that after it announced its entry into India, the brand has finally got its act together. ``We're now preponing our targets; we're bullish on Swatch,'' Mr Thakran said. The company hopes to sell about one million units in the next four years.

Swatch puts off CK launch in India
In a strategy switch, Swatch has postponed the launch of one of its famous brands-Calvin Klein-in India. The company makes the Calvin Klein watches and cK Watches collection in co-operation with the American fashion designer Calvin Klein. Meanwhile, Swatch plans to launch Flik Flak, its watch brand for children by the end of this year. Titan is currently the only company in the country to have targeted the children's segment with its recently launched brand Dash.

Swatch is part of the 3.78-billion Swiss franc Swatch Group, along with other 15 watch brands including Breguet, Blancpain, Omega, Longines, Rado, Tissot, and Calvin Klein. Of these, the Swatch Group has already launched six brands in the country.