If he’s successful in his mission, then Tag Heuer in India would not be known for watches anymore and it would contribute majorly in the turnover of LMVH. By Angshuman Paul
Manishi Sanwal
GM - Indian Subcontinent, Watch & Jewellery division of LVMH
GM - Indian Subcontinent, Watch & Jewellery division of LVMH
You just can’t miss the gigantic silver plated insignia of Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton when you enter the New Delhi offices of LVMH, currently one of the world’s leading luxury brands, endorsed by the world’s biggest celebrities. What, then, would you expect if you were to meet the man heading the marketing operations of LVMH’s watch and jewellery division? Glamour, glitz, chutzpah, all loaded in one? That said, the simplicity of Manishi Sanwal’s office takes us quite by surprise. Manishi is the GM-Indian Subcontinent, Watch & Jewellery division of LVMH (overseeing the Tag Heuer brand), and despite the simplicity of his office environs, he is quite up the ask with concepts of marketing warfare and strategies for the Indian market.
It has been almost two years that Tag Heuer entered India and started marketing not only watches but also glasses, wallets, jackets and other similar accessories. Apparently, the legacy branding of Tag Heuer – combined with their age-old focus on technology perfection – has enabled LVMH to record an astonishing 40% growth rate in India. And even though Tag Heuer has forayed into several new segments, Manishi has made sure that the promotion and the marketing strategy for all these new products matches the brand-legacy of Tag Heuer. One of the key notable introductions was the uber-swanky Tag cellphone. The phone was released only in 11 countries and India was one of them. That led many analysts to question whether Tag had reached the country too late. Especially when a company like Nokia had already introduced Vertu many years back. Manishi defends, “Our positioning is different from Vertu. And further, within an year’s time, we are now available in all the metros; and are also providing appropriate after sales services. If we wanted, we could have had more retail penetration; but we didn’t want to go where there was difficulty in setting up after sales services.”
Manishi knows what he’s talking about. He has his ground-base knowledge pretty well structured. Manishi’s an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, and has already worked in several markets for Tag Heuer, including China and has also worked in various capacities in L&T, the Swatch group and even Samsung. Bucked up with such experience, Manishi knows the danger of over extension of a brand quite well. But given all that, and irrespective of that, Manishi is quite upbeat about introducing more products and jewellery under the Tag Heuer brand name. “Tag Heuer also stands for technology and sport and in all our brand extensions, we will resort to such common USPs. Then again, we are extending, but that doesn’t mean we will make our products available everywhere and increase our target audience,” shares Manishi.
It has been almost two years that Tag Heuer entered India and started marketing not only watches but also glasses, wallets, jackets and other similar accessories. Apparently, the legacy branding of Tag Heuer – combined with their age-old focus on technology perfection – has enabled LVMH to record an astonishing 40% growth rate in India. And even though Tag Heuer has forayed into several new segments, Manishi has made sure that the promotion and the marketing strategy for all these new products matches the brand-legacy of Tag Heuer. One of the key notable introductions was the uber-swanky Tag cellphone. The phone was released only in 11 countries and India was one of them. That led many analysts to question whether Tag had reached the country too late. Especially when a company like Nokia had already introduced Vertu many years back. Manishi defends, “Our positioning is different from Vertu. And further, within an year’s time, we are now available in all the metros; and are also providing appropriate after sales services. If we wanted, we could have had more retail penetration; but we didn’t want to go where there was difficulty in setting up after sales services.”
Manishi knows what he’s talking about. He has his ground-base knowledge pretty well structured. Manishi’s an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, and has already worked in several markets for Tag Heuer, including China and has also worked in various capacities in L&T, the Swatch group and even Samsung. Bucked up with such experience, Manishi knows the danger of over extension of a brand quite well. But given all that, and irrespective of that, Manishi is quite upbeat about introducing more products and jewellery under the Tag Heuer brand name. “Tag Heuer also stands for technology and sport and in all our brand extensions, we will resort to such common USPs. Then again, we are extending, but that doesn’t mean we will make our products available everywhere and increase our target audience,” shares Manishi.
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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2011.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
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