Hollywood celebrity will be new face of Citizen Watches

Sumedha Srivastav - Televisionpoint.com | Mumbai
After a small tryst with cricketer Rahul Dravid and Bollywood diva Kareena Kapoor, Citizen Watches India is now on the look out for an international brand ambassador for its luxury and high-end products. This time round, the company is keen to sign on a Hollywood celebrity to attract the global consumer.

Ryoshin Tokunaga, marketing head, Citizen Watches India, says, "We are in the initial stages of signing the pact with the Hollywood celebrity, and the new campaign is likely to break in a couple of months."

"We want to have a world famous celebrity as brand ambassador specifically from the entertainment industry, perhaps from Hollywood, who offers a unified image to our brand, is easily recognisable, and whom customers can relate to," Tokunaga added.

Explaining more about the brand, Tokunaga adds, "We are focused and positioning our middle to high range products worth Rs 5,000-30,000 for greater market penetration. We aim to grow at 20% in this segment while our three models in the high-end collection 'Campanola' is doing very well."

According to Sandeep Hegde, manager, commercial and finance, Citizen Watches, "With sales dropping 20% last month because of multiple reasons including heavy rains in Chennai, Mumbai terror attacks and Delhi elections, we are less likely to achieve the Rs 100-crore mark this year and should be able to manage the same volume as last fiscal."

Amid the global financial meltdown, the company hopes to hold on to last year's turnover of Rs 70 crore in the current fiscal. The company has a 8 per cent share in the luxury watches market in India. It registered Rs 2 crore net profit last year.