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Swiss Watch Manufacturer

Developing brand identity

Our client is a leading Swiss maker of fine timepieces, the brand’s target market includes high-net-worth watch owners.

It wished to understand the strength and validity of its market identity through a long-running external communications campaign, with the results of our research feeding into their overarching communications strategy.

The Challenge

Though the campaign had clearly been successful, there was a need to independently evaluate whether it still resonated with the varied global target audiences, whether it was threatened by old rivals or upstart brands, and whether it conveyed the right message about the brand, particularly in its visual creative assets.

The results of the research would feed into the overarching communications strategy for the brand and would be vital for further development of the brand’s visual identity and, chiefly, the future campaigns for the brand.

Our approach

We conducted 90 face-to-face interviews with wealthy individuals who were owners of fine timepieces, or who would consider spending at least $18,000 on a watch.

We conducted the interviews in the USA, UK, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Italy, Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan. These individuals were shown stimulus of the brand’s campaigns, as well as competitor campaigns, and engaged in analysing the various elements of the brand’s creative assets to choose the best performing elements of the brand’s visual identity in order to further develop the brand’s campaign.

We conducted a parallel, anonymous study with experts, including leading horlogerie writers and journalists, to understand their objective viewpoint on the high-end watch brands and their identities.

The outcome

We delivered a comprehensive assessment to our client that not only provided affirmation and direction on the communications campaign, but also provided rich feedback on its existing brand position and identity amongst global HNW consumers.

The research represented a significant investment for the brand, and was disseminated amongst the wider organisation, as a key strategic output. It was separately presented to the brand leadership and board, as well as the distributors of the brand in various global markets and the brand’s key communications partners.

The findings are being used as part of a long-term strategy to direct the way the brand develops its visual campaigns and differentiates itself in the market.