007 – The License to Sell

Brad Pitt and George Clooney certainly put a sparkle in women’s eyes and Cindy Crawford makes guy’s hearts skip a beat. Even though the Swiss Watch manufacturers do not have an image problem, they often deem it beneficial to endorse famous ambassadors to promote their products.

This is nothing new though; James Bond was wearing a Rolex Submariner already in 1962 and has ever since appeared in 11 James Bond movies. Rolex has benefited a lot from the association with this personality that stands for masculinity, bravery and power.

Do you think that the physical appearance and the image of the ambassadors contribute to the watch manufacturers’ brand equity? What do you generally associate with Swiss watch houses and which brand ambassador could underline these qualities?

Luxury watches report

Report on social media branding in the luxury watch industry

Luxury watches report

View more documents from Art Shala.

We all know what a brand is, and what it’s built for. However…

Ok, that’s one of these moments: we are men (or women of course!) enough to admit that, even if we know that candies are just chemistry which may damage us, and that the one who’s selling them probably cares about completely other issues... still, sometimes we desire, we dream of them. No matter the age, or the background: sooner or later we will have to deal with our material self, and all of a sudden we forget about things like brand engagement or how good a digital marketing strategy is.

So, let’s get a little bit emotional! After all, Christmas is coming and we’re allowed to dream, even if probably not many of us will find a Breguet Classique Grande Complication 5347 Twin Rotating Tourbillon (for the few of you who don't know it, in the picture beneath you can see what i'm talking about) under the tree…! Now, we just wonder:

Which one of these brands stimulates your desire?

Has some of them an affinity with you, with your personality?

To Be or Not To Be......on social media?

It is undeniable, there is no one-fit-all formula that will allow every single brand of every industry to succeed in the online social environment. The key to success however is probably to adopt a well thought-out strategy tailored to the needs of the company.

The point is that many organizations still seem to be struggling to find the best way to embrace social media or maybe more worryingly, seem to hide behind a let’s-avoid-it-until-we-can philosophy. The results found in our report on luxury watch brands in social media highlight the fact that many of these brands still have a large margin of action to put the potential of social media platforms on their side.

What would you suggest to these brands (Rolex, Omega, …) to improve their use of social media in a way that best fit to them?

Well, in case you shouldn't find the inspiration, here is an exemple of how a luxury brand can leverage social media and make news:

As you may hopefully see it on your left, the well known Burberry company has recently taken a step ahead of other luxury brands by releasing an animated interactive product shot on its official Facebook page.


Innovative! Why not...?




What do you think?




Thanks to Alessandro M. for sharing the info and don't hesitate to do the same!

“It's only arrogance if you're wrong”

Luxury means exclusivity! We could call it bourgeoisie or maybe also arrogance. However, somebody might wonder if nowadays it is still possible to stay this arrogant. It is a fact that traditional ways to reach people, or at least younger generations, have radically changed. They have changed enough to force every brand to follow the social platform phenomenon. But luxury brands did not, at least not with the same effort, keeping their conservatism as if it was their main asset.

Can luxury brands really afford to resist to this fashion? Aren’t they going to lose their appeal on new generations of customers?

What do you think? Are they wrong?

Your opinion matters to us!

In your opinion what brand do you think utilizes social media the most? 

Why are you of that opinion?

Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

The report provides extensive, scholarly research produced for different types of readers. The goal of the report was to gain far- reaching knowledge about the luxury watch industry and their usage of digital marketing activities, such as social media campaigns and investments.

Eight exclusive brands and their online activities have been thoroughly examined. The brands are: Rolex, Omega, Patek Philippe, Chopard, TAG Heuer, IWC, Breguet, Breitling.  These brands are the leading luxury watch brands in Switzerland and the world. Before the single examination of the brands, there is an overview of the luxury industry, the description of the approach used to gather data and finally some recommendations to improve digital marketing performance…

To view the full report, please click here.