The watch business is quickly switching from analog to
digital- marketing-wise. Thomas Steinemann has been in the watch industry for 25
years, having experience working with the famous watch brand name, Fossil. Seven years ago, he bought Philippe DuBois et
fils, a small family-owned company established in 1785. Steinemann now was in
the ring competing with other well-known watch name brands. After doing some
research, he realized that “over 80% of the
millennials are [making] buying decisions through the mobile phone.” He
turned to the online environment for advertising instead of the traditional
advertising methods.
Steinemann
saw that major luxury brands such as Rolex, Vacheron, and Constatin were not looking
online for advertisement while other brands were online selling directly to
customers. According to Luca Solca, the head of global luxury goods for Exane
BNP Paribas, “Dubois is a pioneer and a potential disrupter” in a world where
brands limit the products they sell through wholesale by selling their best,
most innovative products in store in an effort to reduce wholesale discount and
damage to brand equity. In 2012, Steinemann sold shares in the company online,
leading to a current 800 shareholders with shares worth $1.5 million instead of
seeking banks for funding.
Another differentiating
factor the DuBois has is that they make their production numbers and financial
figures available for all to see on their website. Steinemann’s purpose in
doing this because he believes transparency is a key to success, and he wants
to be “very transparent about what we are doing and how we are doing it.”
Steinemann
probably studied other brands’ strategies using marketing research process and
observations (primary data) and inside company data (secondary data). He is
aiming to make DuBois watches specialty products and sought after just as much
(or more) than their competition. Whereas
luxury brands use indirect selective (wholesale) distribution, DuBois uses
direct distribution. Pros of their method of direct distribution is that they
can serve target customers at a lower cost and have better control over the
whole marketing job. The most prominent major advantage to this is that having
direct contact with customers makes businesses more aware of changes in
customer attitudes.
Rosa Sotelo
MKTG 3343
This was a very explanatory blog. I understood why you chose this interesting article. It is different from anything else I have read. Keep working hard on your next blogs and keep making them fun to read.
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