Watch advertising at standstill
The marketing of the status symbol is becoming more and more a matter of a few luxury corporations
The marketing of the status symbol is increasingly becoming a matter for a few luxury groupsBy Luca AloisiDespite stock market slumps and gloomy economic forecasts, the Swiss watch industry is beaming with record sales figures. While manufacturers outdo each other in creativity, watch advertising is anything but innovative. It builds up the aura of the luxury product with global million-dollar budgets for events and stars.
This year's 29th World Watch and Jewelry Show in Basel could not have asked for a better start than the Swatch Group's brilliant annual report last week. After all, it tends to be representative of the entire industry. And because many people still have a lot of money in their pockets, the organizers of the fair expect that this year again around 9,000 visitors will flock to Basel. Expensive products in particular are becoming increasingly popular. And with the strong promotion of the luxury segment, the industry is also fully in line with the trend.
The pleasing results, however, have little to do with new revolutionary communication strategies. Just as the hands always (have to) stand in the smiling 9-by-10 position, watch advertising does not seem to have ventured into new ideas for several years. The concentration of luxury goods groups and their globalization of advertising and distribution have heavily loaded the timepiece emotionally and drowned out the formerly contemplative nuances with image codes from the fashion industry.
Jasmina Steele, International PR Director at Patek Philippe, confirms: "Many brands have said goodbye to technology- and product-oriented communication and are increasingly relying on an emotional visual language that can be used internationally. Apart from the design of the tickers themselves, most campaigns have meanwhile become the same again - interchangeability instead of profiling.
The credo of many watch advertisers:
"The product is the hero"
In contrast, the watch brand Ebel, which has belonged to the luxury goods group LVMH since October 1999, has bucked the style trend. After original implementations such as the artistic dreamscapes and the strategy with the wrists of stars such as Madonna or Harrison Ford, which was recognized as counterproductive after a market analysis and suspended, a campaign followed last year that increasingly focuses on the watch and visualizes detailed views.
"The shine of the metal or the flash of a diamond are intended to arouse emotions and reflect the esprit of Ebel," explains Edith Weibel, the PR manager, about the watchmaker's new appearance, which in recent years has depicted the brand claim "The Architects of Time" all too erratically. The latter will only be used in a weakened form in the new campaign planned for next fall.
With its approach of placing the watch at the center, Ebel joins the long list of brands that use the product as the fulcrum of their marketing. However, only those brands that actually have exceptional features succeed in doing so in a particularly image-shaping way. For example, Grey, Geneva, has been dramatizing Jaeger-Le-Coultre's legendary rotating cases for two years.
Those who can't come up with such particularities look for delimiting features in the brand history and present them in such a fascinating way, as the Milan agency Lowe Pirella Göttsche does for Panerai. In a provocative way that is unique in the watch industry, Wirz bridges the gap between large-format watches and ironic machismo for the prestige brand IWC.
Even the established watch designer Ruedi Külling (former advertiser and co-owner of Advico Young & Rubicam) remains true to his motto "The product is the hero" in advertising for his brand Xemex. "After all, the conscious buyer is concerned with the external appearance of the product," he says, but admits that people often also look for confirmation in the brand name and that this is accessed through an additional world such as celebrities or lifestyle.
Lifestyle and celebrities as
safe emotion mediators
Obviously, but in fact rather rarely, contemplative lifestyle is used as an environment for the visualization of the watch. Only a few manufactories, such as Patek Philippe and to some extent Baume & Mercier, appeal to the desirable icons of having and being with hedonistic codes.
Elegant people parade an elite lifestyle in discreet ads, exuding stylistic confidence, power and charm, while wearing the traditional status symbol on their wrist, which retains its value for generations. However, such ads hardly differ from the glamour of fashion and perfume advertising, which uses the same codes for status symbols. An example of the strong reference to fashion: the new campaign for Patek Philippe's Twenty-4 watch, which was realized by a well-known team that otherwise works for fashion and cosmetics.
More and more watch brands are letting world-famous athletes, actors, musicians and artists embody the world of success and prestige. Not only Omega relies on draught horses like Cindy Crawford and Michael Schumacher. Tag Heuer, Longines, Movado, Rolex and others successfully entered into a symbiosis of watches and celebrities. But in the end, who remembers whether Boris Becker stands for Omega or for Tag? No matter how authentic the commitment may seem, even celebrity advertising has its limits and can quickly falter, as Becker's tarnished image currently proves.
For newcomers, the
Successes can be deceptive
Watch advertising today is mainly aimed at maintaining or even increasing brand awareness, which is not an easy task in the face of increasing competition. The good business deals might encourage one to see the current marketing tactics as a promising perpetual motion machine. For as long as the overall sales pie was growing, even newcomers were selling their expensive tickers to women and men, even though the young brand profile was drowning in the masses.
But what will happen if the leading indicators prove to be right and a global recession threatens? In fact, the market situation is changing: On the one hand, the favorable Swiss franc exchange rate is likely to soon be a thing of the past;
Second, the negative demand shocks are no longer limited to the USA and Japan.
Particularly in the case of luxury goods, a recognizable brand personality and a large brand equity are worth their weight in gold. But how can brand awareness and its perceived uniqueness be built up if no marketing roller worth millions is affordable? With uniqueness, especially in advertising concepts.
The Swiss Watch Federation is convinced that if efforts are not made, luxury brands are also threatened with extinction. Today more than ever. According to analysts, a watch company would have to invest several million francs or about a quarter of its sales in its image. But the fact that many brands - not only young ones - did not take care of a dense semantic network in their advertising during the upswing could take revenge. Although luxury is recession-resistant, the ranks among the prestige brands could thin out in the future.
This year's 29th World Watch and Jewelry Show in Basel could not have asked for a better start than the Swatch Group's brilliant annual report last week. After all, it tends to be representative of the entire industry. And because many people still have a lot of money in their pockets, the organizers of the fair expect that this year again around 9,000 visitors will flock to Basel. Expensive products in particular are becoming increasingly popular. And with the strong promotion of the luxury segment, the industry is also fully in line with the trend.
The pleasing results, however, have little to do with new revolutionary communication strategies. Just as the hands always (have to) stand in the smiling 9-by-10 position, watch advertising does not seem to have ventured into new ideas for several years. The concentration of luxury goods groups and their globalization of advertising and distribution have heavily loaded the timepiece emotionally and drowned out the formerly contemplative nuances with image codes from the fashion industry.
Jasmina Steele, International PR Director at Patek Philippe, confirms: "Many brands have said goodbye to technology- and product-oriented communication and are increasingly relying on an emotional visual language that can be used internationally. Apart from the design of the tickers themselves, most campaigns have meanwhile become the same again - interchangeability instead of profiling.
The credo of many watch advertisers:
"The product is the hero"
In contrast, the watch brand Ebel, which has belonged to the luxury goods group LVMH since October 1999, has bucked the style trend. After original implementations such as the artistic dreamscapes and the strategy with the wrists of stars such as Madonna or Harrison Ford, which was recognized as counterproductive after a market analysis and suspended, a campaign followed last year that increasingly focuses on the watch and visualizes detailed views.
"The shine of the metal or the flash of a diamond are intended to arouse emotions and reflect the esprit of Ebel," explains Edith Weibel, the PR manager, about the watchmaker's new appearance, which in recent years has depicted the brand claim "The Architects of Time" all too erratically. The latter will only be used in a weakened form in the new campaign planned for next fall.
With its approach of placing the watch at the center, Ebel joins the long list of brands that use the product as the fulcrum of their marketing. However, only those brands that actually have exceptional features succeed in doing so in a particularly image-shaping way. For example, Grey, Geneva, has been dramatizing Jaeger-Le-Coultre's legendary rotating cases for two years.
Those who can't come up with such particularities look for delimiting features in the brand history and present them in such a fascinating way, as the Milan agency Lowe Pirella Göttsche does for Panerai. In a provocative way that is unique in the watch industry, Wirz bridges the gap between large-format watches and ironic machismo for the prestige brand IWC.
Even the established watch designer Ruedi Külling (former advertiser and co-owner of Advico Young & Rubicam) remains true to his motto "The product is the hero" in advertising for his brand Xemex. "After all, the conscious buyer is concerned with the external appearance of the product," he says, but admits that people often also look for confirmation in the brand name and that this is accessed through an additional world such as celebrities or lifestyle.
Lifestyle and celebrities as
safe emotion mediators
Obviously, but in fact rather rarely, contemplative lifestyle is used as an environment for the visualization of the watch. Only a few manufactories, such as Patek Philippe and to some extent Baume & Mercier, appeal to the desirable icons of having and being with hedonistic codes.
Elegant people parade an elite lifestyle in discreet ads, exuding stylistic confidence, power and charm, while wearing the traditional status symbol on their wrist, which retains its value for generations. However, such ads hardly differ from the glamour of fashion and perfume advertising, which uses the same codes for status symbols. An example of the strong reference to fashion: the new campaign for Patek Philippe's Twenty-4 watch, which was realized by a well-known team that otherwise works for fashion and cosmetics.
More and more watch brands are letting world-famous athletes, actors, musicians and artists embody the world of success and prestige. Not only Omega relies on draught horses like Cindy Crawford and Michael Schumacher. Tag Heuer, Longines, Movado, Rolex and others successfully entered into a symbiosis of watches and celebrities. But in the end, who remembers whether Boris Becker stands for Omega or for Tag? No matter how authentic the commitment may seem, even celebrity advertising has its limits and can quickly falter, as Becker's tarnished image currently proves.
For newcomers, the
Successes can be deceptive
Watch advertising today is mainly aimed at maintaining or even increasing brand awareness, which is not an easy task in the face of increasing competition. The good business deals might encourage one to see the current marketing tactics as a promising perpetual motion machine. For as long as the overall sales pie was growing, even newcomers were selling their expensive tickers to women and men, even though the young brand profile was drowning in the masses.
But what will happen if the leading indicators prove to be right and a global recession threatens? In fact, the market situation is changing: On the one hand, the favorable Swiss franc exchange rate is likely to soon be a thing of the past;
Second, the negative demand shocks are no longer limited to the USA and Japan.
Particularly in the case of luxury goods, a recognizable brand personality and a large brand equity are worth their weight in gold. But how can brand awareness and its perceived uniqueness be built up if no marketing roller worth millions is affordable? With uniqueness, especially in advertising concepts.
The Swiss Watch Federation is convinced that if efforts are not made, luxury brands are also threatened with extinction. Today more than ever. According to analysts, a watch company would have to invest several million francs or about a quarter of its sales in its image. But the fact that many brands - not only young ones - did not take care of a dense semantic network in their advertising during the upswing could take revenge. Although luxury is recession-resistant, the ranks among the prestige brands could thin out in the future.
