Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

introduction The goal of the report is to better understand digital marketing activities and acquire general ability to evaluate social media campaign and investments. To deeper understand these tools the investigation focus in a single industry, the luxury brands, especially watches and jewelers. To look in more detail online actions, eight brands are examined: Rolex, Omega, Patek Philippe, Chopard, TAG Heuer, IWC, Breguet, Breitling. 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 eventually some recommendations to improve digital marketing performance.

methodology As an aim of being more precise as possible the study focused only on certain social media, in particular there is the investigation of official and unofficial profiles on Facebook and Twitter, because of their ability to attract great number of users. Furthermore the report focus only on official blogs, forums, and You Tube’s profile in case there are not any official platforms, data has been gathered through unofficial platform. To limit the research of the unofficial blogs and forums, there were considered only those founded in the first two pages of google. Besides in each platform there is a time limitation, indeed there were considered the last six months for Facebook and Twitter and only the month of November 2010 for the others social media.

Looking in more detail, for each social media the brand analysis is structured in seven main features: 1. Dialog A general overview about the presence of the brand in the social media, reporting the name of the pages/profiles, the main language, the number of readers, how many member joined the platform and how many actively participate to the discussion, to provide the potential number of people interested to be involved on online brand’s activities. Then the study focus more on the most important profile/page, in term of largest number of members, to make a better investigation about the content of the discussions and the level of participation of both users and the brand. Thus, there are relevant the number of comments and the typology of comments, within a certain period of time.

2. Advocacy Split comments into positive and negative messages to calculate the both the level of brand advocacy and the negative word of mouth.

3. Support Evaluate the activity of the moderator, within a period of time, describing the content of its comments, the level of participation to the conversations and it is important to be aware of its role in the media.

4. Innovation Analyze the content of the post to gather information about the inclination of both users and the company to establish a co-creation relationship.

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Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

5. Brand Engagement Compute in how many social media the brand is present both officially and unofficially.

6. Leadership Analyze the company level of involvement in the social media through observations, such as the presence of links to the official website or the relation that the moderator has with the company. Thus, to comprehend if the brand directly manage brand communities.

7. Linking Value Compute the number of comments not related to the brand, in order to understand if users use the brand page to talk with its peers taking the platform as a way to build a community.

social media brand analysis ROLEX It is thanks to the innovative and pioneering spirit of Hans Wilsdorf that the first Rolex watches have come to life at the beginning of the 20th century. Keen on developing bracelet watches that could be of quality and precise, it is in Switzerland that he decided to have its technology produced. It was not long after the launch of its first model that awards and certificates of excellence came to pave the way of what was going to become a successful watch, synonym of precision. The watch industry would probably not be where it is today without the precious contribution of what Rolex has created throughout the years.

Wilsdorf quickly decided to specialize in the luxury segment of watches and, armed with a winner, began to develop the Rolex brand under different model families. Rolex has currently three main watch lines and over time, it has produced models for specific activities like deep-sea diving, mountain climbing and aviation.

The brand has many fans and followers throughout a world that support the brand and that advocate its welldeserved reputation.12 Social Media Activities Facebook

1. Dialog No official Rolex Facebook page. About 10 unofficial pages with a total of 210’123 fans. In the most popular non official Rolex page, there are 126’624 fans and 1’125 posts with an average of 1 comment and 1 like (last 6 months).

Mainly 4 typologies of comments: A) has nothing to do with Rolex. B) expression of personal feelings about Rolex watches. C) Rolex/fake Rolex sellers.

2. Advocacy Apart from the neutral people that either want to sell watches or don’t really care, there hardly any negative comments about the brand. People like it and are proud of it.

1 Rolex Website. http://www.rolex.com[2.12.10] 2 Rolex on Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rolex [2.12.10] 4

Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

Twitter

Blogs

3. Support None. As the pages are not officials, there is no official moderator responding to fans’posts.

4. Innovation None. Most of the members boast about having a Rolex and the others just dream about it. No proposal of co-creation of any kind, it’s not the typology of the comments.

5. Brand engagement/social presence There are present in one official channel and unofficially “ present” on the other four channels.

6.Communication leadership Not managing the proprietary brand community on Facebook. No free content and no free entertainment. No links to Facebook.

7.Linking value No real conversations, just purely individual posts not related to one another.

1. Dialog No official nor unofficial Rolex page on Twitter. However, over the last month, Rolex has been mentioned in about 42’000 Tweets. The typology of comments is: A)Mainly commercial tweets. B) Request for information/advices. C) Personal stories.

2. Advocacy Apart from the Tweets that have a “commercial intention”, most of the tweets have either a neutral tone or a positive one. However, on this channel we can see a slightly higher frequency of negative comments (compared to Facebook).

3. Support None given that Rolex doesn’t have any Twitter account. No responses, information or reply of any kind from the part of the brand.

4. Innovation None.

5. Brand engagement/social presence There are present in one official channel and unofficially “ present” on the other four channels.

6. Communication leadership Not managing the proprietary brand community on Twitter. No free content and no free entertainment. No links to Twitter.

7. Linking value No real conversations, just purely individual tweets not related to one another. The tweets mainly contain links to commercial pages linked to the sales of (replica)watches.

1. Dialog One official Rolex Blog and about three unofficial blogs (in the first 2 Google search pages). The official blog is the Rolex Awards Blog and there have been no posts in the last month. In general, there is an average of 0 to 1 comment per post. Posts and comments are only related to the projects and don’t have any negative or positive valence. The dialogue doesn’t evolve around the Rolex’ products but it presents the projects around the Rolex awards. (Reason for this could be that the blog is meant to offer laureates to share news and insights on their projects). Categories: General, Research, New Projects.

2. Advocacy None because it’s mainly a discussion between the public and the laureates so it’s not really the company that is at the center of the attention.

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Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

3. Support Same than above, the company is not directly answering to the public.

4. Innovation None as Rolex products are not the topic of the blog.

5. Brand engagement/social presence There are present in one official channel and unofficially “ present” on the other four channels.

6. Communication leadership The Rolex Awards Blog is a proprietary brand community of Rolex. However, the brand clearly mentions that the opinions mentioned are only those of the bloggers, that Rolex is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information supplied by the bloggers and that all contents published in this blog are intellectual property of the blogger.

There is no free content nor free entertainment. in a remote page of the official Rolex website, there is a link to this forum but that is the only thing.

7. Linking value This blog is not really used to communicate directly with peers but is more used a platform for some kind of projects storytelling. What is more, as there isn’t much activity on the blog nor many comments, the level of discussion is poor if not invisible.

Forums

1. Dialog There is no official Rolex Forum. However, there are about 12 unofficial forums (in the first 2 Google search pages). The first ten forums count all in all about 349’153 threads, and 6’404’892 posts. The more popular one Rolex Forums (unofficial) has a total of 144’115 threads, 2’144’330 posts and 47’256 members. Typology of discussions: A) Q&A about maintenance/repair of watches. B) Gallery. C)Reviews. D) Personal feelings towards Rolex and own Rolex watches.

2. Advocacy On these unofficial forums there is a high level of advocacy from the part of the users. It is clear that people who participate in the discussions are really fan of Rolex watches and share a common passion.

3. Support Again, as the forum is not official, no one is responding to the members in the name of the company. There is no interaction, nor any direct support from Rolex.

4. Innovation Users of the forums don’t use it in a co-creation perspective. On the one hand because they don’t have access to the company given that there are not present on any type of forums and on the other hand because the watches seem to be perceived as precious collection pieces. In this view therefore, there wouldn’t be anything to change in the product.

5. Brand engagement/social presence There are present in one official channel and unofficially “ present” on the other four channels.

6. Communication leadership Not managing the proprietary brand community on Forums. No free content and no free entertainment. No links to any forums.

7. Linking value There is a high level of interaction between the users of the forums. Members show a lot of support to one another and are involved in real discussions. Single posts are rare.

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Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

YouTube

1. Dialog Rolex doesn’t have any official Youtube channel. However, there are about 600 unofficial videos featuring Rolex watches in a way or another. Only in last month: more than a hundred new videos have been added. Typology: A)People showing their watches .B) watches manufacturing. C)Replica. D) Rolex ads.

2. Advocacy For typologies A and B, people usually have a positive tone talking about the watches. For the other typologies, there is no observable trend. Comments might be more neutral or suspicious concerning replica sales.

3. Support None given that Rolex doesn’t have any Youtube account. No responses, information or reply of any kind from the part of the brand.

4. Innovation Absolutely no proposal for co-creation or innovation. People are just commenting the videos.

5. Brand engagement/social presence There are present in one official channel and unofficially “ present” on the other four channels.

6. Communication leadership Not managing the proprietary brand community on Youtube. No free content and no free entertainment. No links to any Youtube page.

7. Linking value No real dialogue between Youtube users. Single comments are the most frequent types of post because most of the time it is simple statements that don’t require any answer or there is just no one answering. It is more similar to how things are going on on Facebook rather than on the forums where there was more of a conversation.

Recommendations

It is understandable that a brand as prestigious as Rolex might be reluctant to enter social media platforms. It would nevertheless be important for the brand to keep pace with its time and acknowledge the potential advantages offered by social media, even for a luxury brand. Rolex is barely present on any social channel, if not invisible. Therefore, we believe the brand should reinforce its activity at least on a couple of social media. Rolex has the chance to have fervent advocates that are truly enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the brand and its products and enjoy therefore of a notable advantage.

Rolex should engage more with its savvy consumers and try to create an exclusive relationship with them because they are the ones truly endorsing the brand. Their choice to create an Iphone/Ipad application can be considered a good move to start a more intimate relation with people who are involved with the brand but it might not be enough.

Maybe they should try to make the universe that surrounds the Rolex brand accessible on Facebook. This could be done through the creation of an official Facebook page moderated by the brand where information, latest news, and new products could be the subjects of threads. The brand would not have much else to do as members of the numerous unofficial pages seem to be depicting the brand in glowing terms. This would foster even more commitment and fascination towards Rolex. The same holds true for an official blog of forum. If the brand doesn’t want to open an official account on these channels, it could nevertheless monitor the content of the most popular unofficial pages and answer to comments, request of information, etc.

Finally, given the large amount of material posted and viewed on Youtube, it could be interesting for the brand create its own page in order to disseminate unique videos and/or other type of video content about their watches Youtube users seem to be eager to.

These activities would probably give a sign to people that Rolex cares, without necessarily making it lose its prestige.

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Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

OMEGA Omega is a Swiss watch manufacturer founded by the only 23-years old Louis Brandt in 1848. The company was based in La Chaux-de-Fonds (Switzerland) and the watches where produced under the brand Louis Brandt. After the death of Louis Brandt his two sons were running the factory and only in 1898 Louis Brandt & Frères had employed more than 500 people that produced 100’000 watches. In the year 1984 the name Omega appeared for the first time and the first pocket watch was presented to the public. The name Omega should underline the exceptional quality as the Greek letter Ω is a metaphor for perfection. The Omega S.A. is famous for the manufacturing of high precision watches for special fields of applications such as sports, diving and aviation watches. The innovativeness of the watches as well as the extreme precision made the watch very successful which was again accentuated by the use of the Omega ambassadors like Michael Schumacher, George Clooney, Cindy Crawford and Nicole Kidman.

Nowadays, Omega S.A. is part of the Swatch Group with headquarters in Biel (Switzerland).34 Social Media Activities Facebook

1. Dialog One official Facebook page and more than 10 unofficial ones with a total of 44’218 fans. The official page has 39.618 fans, with 45 posts coming from Omega with an average of 82 likes and 19 comments per post and 240 posts coming from fans with an average of 1 comment and generally no likes (for 6 months).

On the official page there are mainly 2 typologies of comments: A) Information, ads and Pictures of Omega Products (coming from Omega itself) B) expression of personal feelings about Omega watches and pictures of their watch.

2. Advocacy The comments coming from fans are consistently positive. There are some posts about the high price of Omega watches.

3. Support Omega provides information about the brand and its products but does not directly answers questions coming from fans. There is no real interaction.

4. Innovation Even though there is a frequent participation of fans and Omega the Facebook page is not used to communicate wishes and proposals toward the brand.

5. Brand engagement/social presence There are present in two official channels and unofficially “ present” on the other three channels.

6.Communication leadership The official Facebook page is directly managed by Omega. They post regularly and provide mainly links to videos, ads, pictures of their brand ambassadors. The videos are of high quality and high entertaining and informative value.

7.Linking value People that ask a question usually get an answer from other fans (not from Omega). Omega uses Facebook to link to videos on Facebook and YouTube and to their iPhone App in the App Store.

3 History. http://www.omegawatches.com/spirit [2.12.10] 4 Omega S.A. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/OMEGA_(Uhrenhersteller) [2.12.10] 8

Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

Twitter

Blogs

1. Dialog There is no official nor unofficial Omega page on Twitter. However, Omega Watches have been mentioned in around 2’400 Tweets within the last month. The Tweets can mainly be grouped in 3 categories: A) People express their wish to own an Omega, B) Commercial Messages about the sale of Omega Watches and C) Commercial Messages about the sale of Replica.

2. Advocacy The biggest part of the Tweets have commercial purposes. There are very few Tweets coming from individuals. The latter though have a positive tone.

3. Support None given that Omega does not have any Twitter account. No responses, information or reply of any kind from the part of the brand.

4. Innovation Omega is not present on Twitter. Therefore the customers cannot use Twitter to communicate with the brand.

5. Brand engagement/social presence There are present in two official channels and unofficially “ present” on the other three channels.

6. Communication leadership Not managing the proprietary brand community on Twitter. No free content and no free entertainment. No links to Twitter.

7. Linking value No real conversations, just purely individual tweets not related to one another. The tweets mainly contain links to commercial pages linked to the sales of (replica)watches. Tweets about Omega watches are usually not re-tweeted.

1. Dialog Omega is not managing any official Blog. However, we can find about 5 unofficial blogs related to the brand on the first 2 Google search pages. There is not much activity on any of these blogs with no recent posts in the last month. The content and style of the blogs seem to be pretty poor as well.

2. Advocacy Checking the last comments left by people on these blogs, many people seem to be enthusiastic about the brand with generally speaking, few comments. Negative comments are mainly referred to replica of omega watches. Slightly more negative critics on the quality of the products than with the Rolex brand for examples.

3. Support The users of the blogs don’t receive any reply or information from the part of Omega because it is not an official forum.

4. Innovation No participants are proposing any kind of solutions or co-creation. It is normal because they are not in direct contact with representatives of the brand and we are talking here of very precise technology.

5. Brand engagement/social presence There are present in two official channels and unofficially “ present” on the other three channels.

6. Communication leadership Not managing the proprietary brand community on any Blog. No free content and no free entertainment. No links to any Blog.

7. Linking value On these unofficial blogs, posts of the blogger are individual. The comments that follow are usu9

Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

ally just comments of the post but in some few cases, participants are responding to one another through the comments published under the post. The level of discussion however is not very high.

Forums

YouTube

1. Dialog Omega doesn’t have any official forums. By looking for the brand on the first 2 Google research pages, however, we fin around 5 unofficial omega forum pages. The total of the threads and posts for these 5 forums amount to 6’034(t) and 104’276(p). The most popular of the five, OMEGA FORUM seems to account for about 2940 threads and 83’986 posts. Only for the last month: 30 threads, 114 posts and 80726 views. It is however not possible to define the number of members. The main typologies of threads are : A) Review of Omega models. B) Sharing of one’s experience and watches.

C) Request for advices, help and information.

2. Advocacy Most of the word of mouth that could be spread by blog members is positive. People seem to be eager to share their experiences. Over the last month, there have not been any negative thread posted except for some rumors that were circulating on the web. The rest were either positive or neutral threads.

3. Support None given that Omega is not present nor active on these unofficial forums. No responses, information or reply of any kind from the part of the brand.

4. Innovation No improvements are offered by the users of the forums. It’s not really the topic of their discussions.

5. Brand engagement/social presence There are present in two official channels and unofficially “ present” on the other three channels.

6. Communication leadership Not managing the proprietary brand community on Forums. No free content and no free entertainment. No links to any Forum.

7. Linking value The level of discussion in these forums is actually pretty developed. People interact with each other and respond to posts and request of information of others. There is usually at least more than one reply to every thread, which often leads to a dialogue between some of the members.

1. Dialog Omega has an official page/account on Youtube and is therefore posting content on the platform.

The brand has 225’336 total upload views, 114 subscribers, and there are currently 36 official omega videos. The last months, Omega has published 5 videos that have accumulated a number of 20’254 total views. Over the past, the main typologies for their videos have been : A) Presentation of their products. B) News/events. C) Mechanics demonstrations.

2. Advocacy The comments of the videos posted over the last month are all positive. People are enthusiastic about the products shown and especially about the celebrity endorsers. Some comments have been removed by the moderator though, so we don’t know if maybe they were negative.

3. Support The company does not respond to the comments posted by the viewers. They just provide an introductory paragraph to the video at the top of the page. There is also a short description of the brand under its profile.

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Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

4. Innovation The users do not engage in conversations or proposals about co-creation. The same applies to innovative ideas sharing.

5. Brand engagement/social presence There are present in two official channels and unofficially “ present” on the other three channels.

6. Communication leadership Omega manages its profile and content on its Youtube channel. No content is offered for free nor any entertainment.

7. Linking value Youtube users on the Omega page do not really use that space to engage in conversations. They usually just comment the videos but don’t really interact with each other.

Recommendations

Omega is doing great effort to be present in social media. Especially their presence on YouTube is strong and it provides interesting and entertaining content.

Also their presence on Facebook is good and the page can enjoy great popularity and a lot of active users. Omega though, should pay more attention on the users’ comments and listen and respond to them. This would give additional value to the page and could make Omega owners and fans more involved.

What is more, Omega has an iPhone/iPad application. Basically it is the catalogue in a mobile form and the closest Omega dealer can be located. Omega should try to make the application more entertaining. For example a forum (accessible via the application and the web) could foster interaction among the users.

What is more, they should think about creating an official forum. Our research has shown, that the communities on other, unofficial blogs are very active and there is an enormous knowledge base among the users and fans.

PATEK PHILIPPE Founded in 1851, Patek Philippe & Co, is an independent family owned company producing Swiss luxury watches, located in Geneva. Patek Philippe produces and assembles fine timepieces enjoying total creative freedom of design. Thanks to a vast experience and more than 70 patents to its credit, it is the unique manufacture crafting all of its mechanical movements according to the strict specifications of the Geneva Seal. Ten unique values reflect Mr. Philippe Stern’s vision for the company, based on respect for the past and fascination for the future: independence, tradition, innovation, quality & workmanship, rarity, value, aesthetics, service, emotion and heritage.5 Social Media Analysis Facebook

1. Dialog The brand is present on Facebook with 18 official and unofficial pages/groups. The official pages together reached more than 12,000 likes, while the first 10 unofficial pages totalize more than 1,500 likes.

The brand has 4 official Facebook pages: an official page dedicated to the brand, one dedicated to the company and two groups. The first page in terms of likes collected is called “Patek Philippe”, it

5 Patek Philippe Homepage. http://www.patek.com/ [2.12.10] 11

Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

Twitter

has more than 5,100 likes and the language used to communicate is English.

In the last six months (June-November 2010) 170 comments were posted. The majority of posts express personal feelings, show love and admiration, and share own experiences with the watches (80%), some share links, videos and pictures related to the watches (10%), few people ask for advices and information (5%), and some are information given by the company (5%).

The brand has also developed a Facebook application, called Patek Philippe, where it is possible to send a virtual Patek Philippe to your friends page. The monthly active users are 13, more than 500 people like it and the average review is 2.5 out of 5. There are no posts.

2. Advocacy In the last six months all the messages were positive (80%) or neutral (20%), none posted a negative message.

3. Support In the last six months the company posted 14 messages: 5 were informative messages, 3 were reply to users questions, 4 were link to video, articles or pictures, and 1 is a greeting message.

4. Innovation Just one comment over 170 suggests a product innovation to the company.

5. Brand engagement/social presence The brand is officially present in 2 social media: Facebook and YouTube.

6.Communication leadership The page is managed by a moderator, which in the last six months posted 14 messages. The messages regard answers, comments, and links to YouTube videos (2 posts) and articles.

7.Linking value There is a high level of interaction between the users of the forums. Members exchange a lot of information, support, advices and experiences. They are willing to help each other and share their love for the brand.

1. Dialog The brand is not present on Twitter with an official page, but with 4 unofficial pages. Together they totalize more than 870 followers.

The first page in term of tweet collected is called Patek Philippe @haroldfreeman and it has more than 570 followers. In the last month the page collected 17 tweets, but none of them directly regards Patek Philippe. This is also true for the second most followed page (180 followers), ROLEX Patek Philippe, and 13 tweets. The third most followed page (64 followers), Patek Philippe, has no tweets.

For this reason I will consider the forth page, Ppro Patek Philippe @ppropatek. The page has 55 followers, more than 525 tweets and the language used to communicate is English.

In the last month all the tweets (78) were made by the administrator of the page. All the messages are links to a forum and blog dedicated to Patek Philippe.

2. Advocacy None.

3. Support None. Nobody is speaking on behalf of the company.

4. Innovation None.

5. Brand engagement/social presence The brand is officially present in 2 social media: Facebook and YouTube.

6. Communication leadership None.

7. Linking value None.

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Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

Blogs

Forums

1. Dialog The brand has no official blog. However, searching for in on Google, discussions about Patek Philippe are present in a multitude of general blogs (more than 500,000 results when searching for “Patek Philippe” in Google Blog). Two unofficial blogs are dedicated exclusively to Patek Philippe.

The fist unofficial dedicated blog appearing in the search engine is called My Patek Philippe (www. mypatekphilippe.com) and the language used to communicate is english.

During the last month (November) 5 messages were posted, all by the administrator of the website.

The posts do not speak about Patek Phlippe, but about other luxury watches and the industry in general.

2. Advocacy None.

3. Support None. Nobody is speaking on behalf of the company.

4. Innovation None.

5. Brand engagement/social presence The brand is officially present in 2 social media: Facebook and YouTube.

6. Communication leadership None.

7. Linking value None. Except for the administrator none else posted messages or comments.

1. Dialog There is no official Patek Philippe forum and no forum which is exclusively dedicated to the brand.

However, searching for it on Google, discussions about the brand are present in a multitude of general forums (more than 800,000 results when searching for “Patek Philippe forum”). Many forum dedicated to the watch industry devote a special section to Patek Philippe.

The first appearing on the Google list is the TimeZone forum (http://forums.timezone.com). The language used to communicate is English. The section dedicated to Patek Philippe counts more than 15,700 posts and 1,600 topics. In the last month (November) more than 600 messages were posted. Most of them regard people asking questions or advices (60%) and the remaining (40%) regards people expressing their feelings for the brand and their experience, also including pictures of their own watches.

2. Advocacy On these unofficial forum there is a high level of advocacy from the users. It is clear that people who participate in the discussions are real fans and share a common passion. Negative messages are really uncommon.

3. Support None. Nobody is speaking on behalf of the company.

4. Innovation Users of the forum do not use it with a co-creation perspective. On the one hand because they don’t have direct access to the company, and on the other hand because the watches seem to be perceived as precious collection pieces very attached to their heritage. Their history and tradition seem to be more important than innovation.

5. Brand engagement/social presence The brand is officially present in 2 social media: Facebook and YouTube.

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Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

YouTube

6. Communication leadership None.

7. Linking value There is a high level of interaction between the users of the forums. Members exchange a lot of information, support, advices and experiences. They are willing to help each other and share their love for the brand. Single posts are rare.

1. Dialog In YouTube it is possible to find more than 2,200 results related to the brand. The 200 most viewed videos totalized an average of 6700 views per video. Less than 10 videos seem to be official, while the others regard user-generated content (people that show their own Patek Philippe watches).

The most viewed video (more than 205,000 views) is called Patek Philippe – Birth of a Legend. It counts 451 likes (98%) and 9 dislikes (2%), and a total of 377 comments. In the last month (November 2010), people posted 10 comments: 7 show love and admiration (70%), 2 are questions (20%) and 1 is negative (10%).

2. Advocacy In the last month 70% of the message were positive, 20% were neutral and the remaining 10% were negative.

3. Support None. Nobody is speaking on behalf of the company.

4. Innovation None of the comments suggest innovations to the company, but one comment states that the company is behind if compared to “where the rest of the world is today�. Another comment states that there is no need to change.

5. Brand engagement/social presence The brand is officially present in 2 social media: Facebook and YouTube.

6. Communication leadership None.

7. Linking value Interaction between users is very limited. Most of the messages are single comments.

Recommendations

The brand does not seem to have a precise goal and a defined strategy behind its use of social media. It just started using Facebook (the account was opened last February), maybe to test the potential of digital marketing before getting really engaged and committed to it. However the numerous number of unofficial blogs and forums show a high potential. People enjoy interacting with each other exchanging information, supporting each other, exchanging advices and sharing their own experiences. They like sharing their love for the brand, their passion for watches and they are willing to help each other choosing the next watch to buy. Since the brand and the fact of being a Patek Philippe owner shows a status, in telling about their last purchase they tell something about themselves, their lifestyle and their economical well-being. For some of them the watch is a family symbol that was handed down from generation to generation. It is a story about father and son, and the achievement of a family during the years. For these reasons Patek Philippe should commit to social media with the goal of helping and exhorting people in sharing their big emotions and experiences.

This way the brand will be able to give something valuable to its customers and it will likely be able to reach even higher levels of commitment and love.

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Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

CHOPARD In 1860 Louis Ulysse Chopard, a watches artisan, promotes a workshop in his small village. The workshop was really successful, thus to provide to his watches a great reputation, which brings him customers from eastern Europe, Scandinavia and Russia. Afterwards, the business continued to expand so his son established the headquarter of the company in Geneva, where it is till now. The company has three main values: independence, with its high vertical integration, quality & excellence, with its expertise and finally creativity, focusing on R&D.6 Social Media Analysis Facebook

Twitter

6

1. Dialog There are five unofficial pages: Chopard (14702 people like it), Chopard Chopardissimo (9795 like it), Chopard (325 like it), Chopard (10 like it), Chopard (3 like it). There are a total of 24835 likes.

The profile with the biggest number of “likes” collected has no posts and no comments in the last six months; last post was published on December 2008. The main language used is English.

2. Advocacy No comment in the last six months.

3. Support No activities of the moderator.

4. Innovation No co-creation approach.

5. Brand Engagement The brand is officially present on You Tube and on Flickr, but it is unofficially present in all the other social media.

6. Leadership The company does not manage the profile at all.

7. Linking Value There are no discussions among peers.

1. Dialog There is no official page about the brand, but there are other two pages; the first is the official page of Chopard boutique in Amsterdam and the other is an unofficial page about Chopard’s brand. The first has 212 followers and it is called “Chopard Boutique”, the other has 46 followers and it is called “ppro Chopard”, so in total there are 258 followers. Chopard Boutique official languages are both English and Dutch; indeed the profile refers with Chopard boutique’s in Amsterdam. In the last six months there were published four tweets. Three tweets have been written by the moderator to promote events and they are written in English, while the fourth tweet is written in Dutch and it depicts an enthusiastic reaction for one of the previous tweet.

2. Advocacy The messages are information and a positive answer to them.

3. Support The moderator in the last six months just wrote about the promotion of the brand, without establishing a dialogue with users.

4. Innovation There are no proposals.

5. Brand Engagement The brand is officially present on You Tube and on Flickr, but on Twitter there is the official page of the Chopard Boutique in Amsterdam. Anyway the brand is unofficially present in all the other

Chopard Homepage. http://www.chopard.com/[2.12.10] 15

Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

YouTube

Blog

social media.

6. Leadership There is a company moderator and he directly manages the profile. In the last six months he wrote only two tweets, but he does not reply to customer’s tweets. In all his tweets he add the link to the website of the boutique.

7. Linking Value No discussion among peers.

1. Dialog There is an official profile called “Chopard Official”. The profile has been open on January 2010 and it has 51 subscribers, but none of them comment in the last month. In November two videos were uploaded, but no one comments or expressed its likes or dislikes, the videos were seen a total time of 219 (90 views for the most recent video and 129 for the second one). The official language is English.

2. Advocacy No messages 3. Support There does not appear any moderator 4. Innovation No proposal 5. Brand Engagement The brand is officially present on You Tube and on Flickr, but it is “unofficially” present in all the other social media.

6. Leadership The company directly manage the profile, but it is not clear if it has also a role of moderator 7. Linking Value No one discuss with its peers 1. Dialog In the website there is the official Blog called “Chopard diary”. In the month of November the company published eight posts, and the total number of “likes” are 512 (from the older post, in detail the likes are 110, 96, 94, 75, 60, 40, 34, 3). It’s possible to visualise the blog in English, Chinese, Japanese and Deutsch. There are no comments for the posts.

2. Advocacy No messages 3. Support It seems there is not a moderator, anyway the content of the posts are promotion about events, new collection or general news.

4. Innovation No proposal 5. Brand Engagement The brand is officially present on You Tube and on Flickr, but it is unofficially present in all the other social media.

6. Leadership The moderator does not appear, but the company directly manage the blog and eight posts were published in the last month. The blog provides the possibility to share information on other platform such as facebook, delicious, twitter, myspace and linkedin; further the company asks to the reader to follow their activities also in the official pages on youtube and on flickr.

7. Linking Value No one discuss with its peers.

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Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

Forum

1. Dialog In the first two pages of google there are ten links to forum talking about Chopard. Two of those forums are about fake Chopard watches called “Replica”, then the other eight forums talk about original Chopard. The most used language is English. The main topics concern: opinion about watches, comments on new collections, comments on LUC classic collection, manifestation of happiness to join Chopard “community”, ladies jewellery, etc. Seven of the eight forums express satisfaction and enthusiasm about the brand; in the eighth forum participants are disappointed about “Chopard mille miglia collection”. Taking into consideration only last month, November, there are two main forums: the first called “PuristPro. Passion, opinion, information” that has twelve Chopard discussion, 102 people writing on it and 3994 people reading it; the second forum called “timezone.com” has six main conversations, twenty-eight people writing on it and 3434 people reading it.

Considering these main forums and the other forums there are about 8000 people interested on the brand.

2. Advocacy In the last months 100 percent of the messages are positive.

3. Support The moderator appears at the beginning of the discussion to guarantee the understanding of the general guidelines to participate to the conversation, as for instance to do not add any external link or to not talk about prices.

4. Innovation No co-creation approach.

5. Brand Engagement The brand is officially present on You Tube and on Flickr, but it is unofficially present in all the other social media.

6. Leadership The moderator is not a Chopard’s employee, indeed the company does not directly manage the forums and it neither participates to the discussion.

7. Linking Value In the largest forums people is concentrated to talk about the main topic, but in the smaller one users discuss with their peers using the platform.

Recommendations

Chopard has a well-established reputation due to its long history, but mainly due to the high quality of its product.

Indeed, Chopard’s customers have high consideration about the company, considering it as a symbol of a classical elegance. Analyzing the company’s online strategy seems that it recognizes the power and the importance to be online and to follow business management evolution; nevertheless it appears completely unprepared to face digital marketing strategy. Looking in more detail the three official profiles (Chopard diary, Chopard official YouTube and Chopard official Flickr) there are some common elements: an accurate and pleasant layout style and a constant updating of information and content. Most of the time this is not enough! As well is in Chopard case. Despite the accuracy of the detail there is not a clear strategy to handle and involve customers to be part of it. Data are just uploaded into the platforms without making any concerns on how to gather customers, keep them and establish a relationship with them. About the seven features utilized to investigate the online brand strategy it is clear that there is a huge lack on two of those: leadership and as a consequence innovation. The company should demonstrates more its presence on those social media, participating more into conversation, sharing more data, not only promotional data, thus to create a strong bond between the consumers and the online brand community, as a strategic tool in order to make service or product improvement under a co-creation approach.

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Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

TAG HEUER TAG Heuer is a Swiss luxury cellphone and watchmaker, best known for its chronographs and sports watches. It was founded in 1860 by Edouard Heuer in St-Imier, Switzerland. Now the company is a division of LVMH, French luxury goods company. Throughout time, TAG Heuer has been on the edge of innovations in the watchmaking business. The company in a joint project with Breitling and Hamilton introduced the first automatic chronograph by the mid 1960s, which is considered as one of the most important innovations in the time keeping sector.7 Social Media Analysis Facebook

1. Dialog TAG Heuer is present in 45 Facebook pages (5 official pages and 40 unofficial pages) and 16 groups.

The official pages are the following : TAG Heuer (131,793 likes), TAG Heuer Grand CARRERA Calibre 36 RS (1,053 likes), TAG Heuer Pendulum (60 likes), TAG Heuer Meridiist - Official site (398 likes), TAG HEUER Monaco Steve Mc Queen (official, with 426 likes). The official pages totalize 133,730 likes. The unofficial pages are the following: TAG Heuer Club Hungary (241 likes), TAG Heuer Professional Timing (69 likes), TAG Heuer Eyewear & Eyeglasses frames (190 likes), TAG Heuer 360 - the world’s first 360 Degree Watchmaking Museum (848 likes). The firsts unofficial pages, for number of likes, totalize 1500 likes.

The official pages use the following languages to communicate: English, French, German and Italian. They have a total of 1560 comments by customers and 65 posts by the moderator: 55% express personal feelings, 5 % express complaints, 20% express fun/curiosity and 20% regard news.

2. Advocacy 95% of the messages were positive, while 5% were negative.

3. Support The messages of the moderator in the last six months regard: just answers (20%), promotional/ product related info (30%), fun/curiosity (20%) and news (30%). 100% percentage of replies to customer complaints.

4. Innovation None.

5. Brand engagement/social presence TAG Heuer is a brand that has been considered as the first mover compared to its competitors in terms of using the social media platforms to get in touch with its customers. There is a moderate engagement with the brand, mostly people that get involved in conversations are people that resonate with the brand as well as people that show interest in the brand. TAG Heuer has been active in posting videos, photos as well as launcing polls, review pages so that to deeply understand what their customers need and want. This is a sign of its customer-centric approach which is used in Social Media platforms and in all its levels of product development.

6.Communication leadership There is a moderator which is very active in replying customers, or just sharing experiences with the potential customers that are in Facebook.

7.Linking value There is a high number of people interacting with each other by sharing different experiences that they had with the brand.

7 TAG Heuer in Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TAG_Heuer [2.12.10] 18

Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

Twitter

Blogs

1. Dialog The brand is present on Twitter with 5 pages: 3 official and 2 unofficial pages. The official pages: TAGHeuerOnline (2066 followers), HeuerWatches (1096 followers), TagHeuerTiming UK (36 followers); and the unofficial pages: TAGHeuerHUNGARY (49 followers), Tag_Heuer_Watch/Aquaracer (40 followers); totalize 3287 followers.

The pages are written in English and French, but there is no activity between users.

2. Advocacy None.

3. Support The moderator’s messages regard: promotional/product related info (80%) and news (20%) 4. Innovation None.

5. Brand engagement/social presence TAG Heuer is a brand that has been considered as the first mover compared to its competitors in terms of using the social media platforms to get in touch with its customers. There is a moderate engagement with the brand, mostly people that get involved in conversations are people that resonate with the brand as well as people that show interest in the brand. TAG Heuer has been active in posting videos, photos as well as launcing polls, review pages so that to deeply understand what their customers need and want. This is a sign of its customer-centric approach which is used in Social Media platforms and in all its levels of product development.

6. Communication leadership This social media is managed by a moderator from the company, which is active in tweetering and responding the community when there is a need for further explanation.

7. Linking value The number of people commenting on other peers is fairly low.

1. Dialog TAG Heuer offers an official blog, which hasn’t been active from April 23, 2010. Before that date the blog has been active with weekly uploads in terms of the company strategy, products, retailers, events etc.

2. Advocacy None.

3. Support No activity during the last six months.

4. Innovation No comments in terms of co-creating value.

5. Brand engagement/social presence TAG Heuer is a brand that has been considered as the first mover compared to its competitors in terms of using the social media platforms to get in touch with its customers. There is a moderate engagement with the brand, mostly people that get involved in conversations are people that resonate with the brand as well as people that show interest in the brand. TAG Heuer has been active in posting videos, photos as well as launcing polls, review pages so that to deeply understand what their customers need and want. This is a sign of its customer-centric approach which is used in Social Media platforms and in all its levels of product development.

6. Communication leadership No moderator.

7. Linking value No conversation between people in the blog.

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Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

Forums

YouTube

1. Dialog There are 4 forums which aren’t specifically for TAG Heuer, but are in general for watches or jewelry and have threads for TAG Heuer. The activity there is 100% customer generated.

2. Advocacy 90% of the comments on these forums has been positive, where as 10% has been negative. The negative comments had to do with the bad experiences had with the brand or product specifically, such as wreckage of the product during a fairly short period of time.

4. Innovation The only co-creation that can be considered is the feedback taken from un satisfied customers with the product.

5. Brand engagement/social presence TAG Heuer is a brand that has been considered as the first mover compared to its competitors in terms of using the social media platforms to get in touch with its customers. There is a moderate engagement with the brand, mostly people that get involved in conversations are people that resonate with the brand as well as people that show interest in the brand. TAG Heuer has been active in posting videos, photos as well as launcing polls, review pages so that to deeply understand what their customers need and want. This is a sign of its customer-centric approach which is used in Social Media platforms and in all its levels of product development.

6. Communication leadership There isn’t an activity from the company moderator in any way. The comments are mostly replied by other customers that love the brand.

7. Linking value There is a high percentage of people trying to give answers to other peers with problems with products or with information regarding the products of TAG Heuer.

1. Dialog 1. TAG Heuer has two active channels on YouTube. One of them is about the TAG Heuer watches and the other one is dedicated to Meridiist, the TAG Heuer cell phone segment. The activity in these two channels is quite high, but the channel dedicated to the watches is much larger in terms of views, comments and videos uploaded compared to Meridiist. The total views to the channels is around 30,000 and there are 625 subscribers. The language that is used in these channels is English.

During the last month the activity has been plummeting, due to not much new model introductions or activities done by the brand during November. The number of videos uploaded on these two channels is 89, with a total view of 1,200,000.

2. Advocacy In terms of advocacy and brand buzz the brand is getting a total positive feedback from its viewers.

Apparently the people that view the videos mostly have a well defined expectancy level from its favorite watch maker.

3. Support There hasn’t been any activity from the moderator at all during the last six months.

4. Innovation In terms of co-creation there hasn’t been any activity.

5. Brand engagement/social presence TAG Heuer is a brand that has been considered as the first mover compared to its competitors in terms of using the social media platforms to get in touch with its customers. There is a moderate engagement with the brand, mostly people that get involved in conversations are people that resonate with the brand as well as people that show interest in the brand. TAG Heuer has been active 20

Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

in posting videos, photos as well as launcing polls, review pages so that to deeply understand what their customers need and want. This is a sign of its customer-centric approach which is used in Social Media platforms and in all its levels of product development.

6. Communication leadership In this channel there isn’t any moderator as it is the case in other medias. The brand mostly interacts in terms of the videos that it uploads. The videos have to do with promotions, detailed description to the products, endorsers stories etc.

7. Linking value Most of the viewers that comment, they share experiences that they get from the brand.

Recommendations

Since TAG Heuer throughout time has been open to new introductions in all fields related to its products, it has been very embracing as well to Social Media platforms as a form of communication and interaction with its cutomers.

Using them as tools to get closer to its customers, understanding them and giving them the latest information for the evolvements within the company instantaneously TAG Heuer has been doing a job which has been praised by several analysts in the field of digital marketing.

Nowadays, TAG Heuer has been considered as one of the luxury goods companies with best practices on social media platforms. TAG Heuer is using them for the introduction of new models, getting customers feedback, promoting various campaigns and in general being present closer to where customers are.

Overall, TAG Heuer has shown a wise use of social media tools to generate buzz around their brand, and create a clearer image for what the brands stands for. By using its brand ambassadors (Maria Sharapova , Leonardo Di Caprio, Luis Hamilton, Tiger Woods) they have created diverse adverts used specifically only on social media platforms. One of the most successful videos that went viral, is the Luis Hamilton VS Steve Mc Queen duel in Monaco Le Mans when TAG Heuer introduced the new Monaco version of its watch.

TAG Heuer has mostly been concentrated in getting feedback to their newly launched models through social media platforms and promoting their brand by introducing many videos and photos to where their company has been present; such as: fairs, events etc.

They also promoted a whole campaign named “Oddysey of pioneers” through Facebook. The campaign was in a joint project with Tesla motors. The campaign had to do with the first trip around the world in an electric car, chronometered by TAG Heuer watches. They made a good use of social media tools to promote this event by uploading plenty of videos and photos they took throughout the trip. As a campaign it received a good response from the actual customers and potential customers that where expressed as being environmental friendly.

TAG heuer’s presence on social media platforms was praised as well from the Digital IQ Index, introduced by the New York University, which ranked TAG Heuer as one of the best performing luxury brands in the last two years. TAG Heuer was placed in 8th and 24th position for 2009 and 2010 respectively.

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Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

IWC With its 141-year history, IWC Schaffhausen is one of the pioneers of the Swiss watch industry and a highly emotional brand with an exciting and fast-changing corporate history. Our founder, the American Florentine Ariosto Jones, had the vision in 1868 of using Swiss horological craftsmanship to produce high-quality pocket watch movements for the American market. In a location not far from the Rhine falls, the young manufactory utilized the energy of the river for its modern production, in doing so, Jones brought about a horological revolution to Switzerland, at the time a low-wage economy.8 Social Media Analysis Facebook

1. Dialog IWC has an official page. The total number of fans on the page is. 31072. Number of Posts in November: 121 Post

By Moderator: 15 Posts the rest is produced by active users Comments: 625 Comments by moderator: 43 40 Albums created by the moderator, over 368 pictures posted by active users.

English Language used The moderator does no posts every day.

The moderator replies to threads and questions posted.

Discussions available on the page 5 topics added on the Facebook page Most Common Topics on Facebook: a) expression of personal feelings about IWC watches and their new releases. C) Questions about the mechanics of the watch (Perpetual Calendar mechanism) 2. Advocacy Most of the participants on Facebook are people who seem already to be fond of the brand. Many positive comments. However, there are also some negative comments that can be seen, but the relative amount of the in comparison to the total amount of posts is little.

3. Support The Moderator actively participates in the discussions that are conducted on the page and actively replies to most of the threads and questions that users post even if the comments posted are negative.

4. Innovation None. No proposal of co-creation of value, it’s not the typology of the comments. IWC designs and produces their watches without much of the users participation however, some users post recommendation for the future that possibly are taken into the consideration.

5. Brand engagement/social presence There are present in 3 official channels that we focus on and one channel the presence is established unofficially. (Twitter) 6.Communication leadership Managing the proprietary brand community on Facebook well. Free content and many free pictures and videos. There are 4 links to other external pages on Facebook that help you gather more information on IWC and a link that leads you to the main webpage of the Brand.

7.Linking value There are no complete conversations that can be detected on the main page on facebook, individual posts some that are and some that are not related to one another. Discussion box available on Facebook where proper conversations can be detected. Currently 5 topics discussed

8 IWC Homepage. http://www.iwc.com/ [2.12.10] 22

Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

Twitter

Blogs

Forums

1. Dialog No official IWC page on Twitter. There are 116 Tweets made concerning the brand in the past month. None of the tweets done by the moderator. Typology of Tweets A) Commercial tweets.

(Replica Watches) B) Users ask for information/advices from current users.

2. Advocacy Most of the tweets that are generated on Tweeter don’t carry either positive or negative attitude and seem to remain neutral regarding the brand, more general information is asked on tweeter.

3. Support NONE not an official Page 4. Innovation None.

5. Brand engagement/social presence There are present in 3 official channels that we focus on and one channel the presence is established unofficially. (Twitter) 6. Communication leadership No free content or entertainment. No direct links to IWC main page, none other links could be detected 7. Linking value Purely individual tweets mostly not related to one another.

1. Dialog One official IWC Blog and approximately 2 unofficial blogs. The official blog is the IWC collectors blog that can be found on their home page. No post can be seen since the content of the blog is strictly for loyal customers, password and login required. On the unofficial channels most of the posts and discussions condacted are related to the projects the company is planning to undertake and speculations about new releases.

2. Advocacy None on the unofficial blogs because mainly the discussions are held between users no presence of the moderator.

3. Support None.

4. Innovation None 5. Brand engagement/social presence There are present in 3 official channels that we focus on and one channel the presence is established unofficially. (Twitter) 6. Communication leadership Provides additional info to loyal customers. Online direct support. Unknown number of members, or post IWC does not disclose that type of information 7. Linking value This blog is not really used to communicate directly with the general public but to loyal customers as mentioned. There isn’t much activity that can be seen on the unofficial blogs. On one blog called “Follow IWC” last comment was posted over a year ago with no further discussion.

1. Dialog There is no official IWC Forum. However, there are about 18 unofficial forums. Most popular in the search engines. The forums about 643’153 threads, and 2,742,000 comments made on the post.

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Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

YouTube

A) Servicing of watches (questions about international warranty C) 2. Advocacy High level of advocacy most of the people who take action in the discussion on the forums already own an IWC product. Thus, one can assume they are already interested in the brand and maybe looking to make a new purchase.

4. Innovation Most of the people that participate in the forums don’t provide suggestions of what the brand should change or how it could improve, more focused on gathering additional information about the products of interest. No value co-creation 5. Brand engagement/social presence There are present in 3 official channels that we focus on and one channel the presence is established unofficially. (Twitter) 6. Communication leadership Not managing the proprietary brand community on Forums by the moderator. The reason for that is absence of an official forum.

7. Linking value There is a relatively high level of engagement from the users. They support each other well even providing private pictures of their watches and details of the model and their feedback on their purchase.

1. Dialog IWC has official YouTube videos, however hard to define diffused with much of user-generated content. Even the official IWC ads are posted by the users no clear presence on this channel.

Over 200 videos on YouTube Over 1,745,023 views Average viewers per video 8,725 Moderator: 32 official videos the rest is user generated content Comments: Mostly discussions about new models.

Comments on 200 videos: 7,325 2. Advocacy Most of the videos do not have any comments on them. Most of the comments that are present are neither positive nor negative but mostly irrelevant. The moderator expresses no comments or views. The most recent video on you tube was last posted a year ago. No high participation of users recently.

3. Support NONE 4. Innovation None.

5. Brand engagement/social presence There are present in 3 official channels that we focus on and one channel the presence is established unofficially. (Twitter) 6. Communication leadership None.

7. Linking value No complete conversation can be seen on the videos posted on YouTube. Short brief remarks on the videos such as “ Cool video” or “Well done”. This can be due to the lack of communication in the past since the most recent video was posted a year ago

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Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

Recommendations

IWC Schaffhausen its committed with several social responsibility projects such as: the Charles Darwin foundation in the Galapagos islands, for the protection of endangered species, the laurels sport for good foundation, to help children in need to improve their life through sport, the Saint Exupery foundation for children education, adventure ecology and its Plastiki project, the Cousteau society. As they are already doing these activities it would be very useful for the brand to talk about these projects on social media. For example an official blog that educated about the projects could make them more known.

IWC has seen that social media is a good approach to establish relationship with the customers and see their preferences. One reason for IWC using only a few source of social network could be to sustain the luxury image and the overall value of the brand. They already have a relatively good moderator participation for a luxury brand. The fact that IWC closed the participation in the blog only to actual customers might be, on one hand reasonable, as it keeps the exclusivity, but on the other hand, they should think about creating an other one open to the public to enhance the involvement of non-customers.

BREGUET Breguet is a manufacturer of luxury watches, founded in 1775. Still one of the oldest surviving watch-making establishments and, pioneer of numerous innovative technologies: its founder, AL Breguet during the 18th century really set standards. Personalities like Louis XVI and his Queen, Marie-Antoinette, really appreciated these masterpieces (particular timepieces were designed for them), writers like Victor Hugo and Balzac made references about it, and they also became watchmaker for elites of scientific, military, financial and diplomatic. Breguet is member of the Swatch Group.9 Social Media Analysis Facebook

1. Dialog Essentially one (others being really irrelevant) non-official Facebook page, that counts 5’614 persons who like it. There are only 6 “solid”posts (photos, infos about novelties) on it, with an average of 74.66 “like” and 8.33 comments on it. The main typologies are: A) personal feelings, admiration, enthusiasm B) few “technical” suggestion, complaints.

2. Advocacy Nobody is complaining about the brand: everyone loves the old/conservative style of the brand (the oldest brand?)

3. Support No support at all, apart from reciprocal opinions (really rare however…)

4. Innovation Nothing, instead it seems that Breguet’s lovers really appreciate this conservatism.

5. Brand engagement/social presence Only a link to the main website = no enagement 6. Communication leadership nothing 7. Linking value Quote “No real conversations, just purely individual posts not related to one another.” (few posts)

9 Breguet Website. http://www.breguet.com/[2.12.10] 25

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Twitter

Blogs

Forums

1. Dialog No official page, just one “fake” unofficial page. and only hardly 1000 tweets, mostly about A) selling (often fake, replicate) B) general appreciation by a really negligible number of followers 2. Advocacy None.

3. Support None.

4. Innovation None.

5. Brand engagement/social presence None.

6. Communication leadership None.

7. Linking value No conversation, many links about sellers 1. Dialog Only one unofficial blog (Russian?), but there is some micro blogging under other platforms, mainly retailer or overall luxury watches followers, many reviews (this category makes an important effort, being the only one!).

2. Advocacy Really few discussion then nothing… Only the fact of being there is criticized.

3. Support No involvement, even on myspace.

4. Innovation None as Rolex products are not the topic of the blog.

5. Brand engagement/social presence There are present in one official channel and unofficially “ present” on the other four channels.

6. Communication leadership Nothing…just photos somewhere who valorizes the history-tradition, and individual reviews which glorify the manufacturing 7. Linking value Blogs are just there individually made to illustrate the beauty of such masterpieces which last during years…it’s not evolving anyhow.

1. Dialog There are no official or unofficial forums, but fan exploited other “forums-platforms” to build discussions, these are mainly hardcore sites like: watchpro, watchfreeks, even rolexforums! Discussions are really mixed topics: many people hits for Breguet but there are really few discussions about it…

The number of the comments is rarely above 10… http://breguet.watchprosite.com/?show=watch. cool.home.forum&fi=1&ob=ti Typology of discussions: A) maintenance B) photos and reviews D) personal feelings, experiences 2. Advocacy Still the mostly of the comments are pure appreciation. Sometimes they ask how to detect these watches (ref number), and sometimes there are really low level technical discussion (50-50).

3. Support Absolutely no interaction or support.

4. Innovation Again they’re really celebrating the conservatism of the brand.

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Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

YouTube

5. Brand engagement/social presence None.

6. Communication leadership None.

7. Linking value Being users the ONLY source of information, (there’s only a really poor website), they try to do what they can, but they don’t really create something in terms of criticism or desires. There are only sometimes comparisons with other brands.

1. Dialog There’s an unofficial YouTube channel, with only 13 subscribers and one comment…. There’s no recent activity (last visit 6 months ago, only 410 channel view). However the nine videos posted a total of 2619 views.

During the last month about 20 videos have been added. Typology: A) visits at important expositions B) reviews/tributes C) comparisons with other brands D)ads 2. Advocacy Admiration, and comparisons with most known brands… not really interested in these watches.

Some ads of replicas 3. Support The support from the official channel is nothing more than some general information and link with the main website 4. Innovation No innovation proposals, also because it’s really not desired.

5. Brand engagement/social presence None.

6. Communication leadership None.

7. Linking value The most viewed videos has 6 comments: no real discussion. Still many users like to compare brands, but these are really not constructing anything.

Recommendations

It seems like BREGUET tries to avoid social medias. Even the main websites is nothing more than a story and tradition celebration, some photo gallery, a short customer care section and retailer. Only videos provided on the website are quite impressive.

Breguet really believes in conservatism; also in their main website they keep their bourgeoisie approach. But this “arrogance” seems to be part of their strategy. The only time they have tried to enter a social media, namely MySpace, but it was ignored and even criticized, as it was considered too cheap and meaningless. As mentioned before, the content does not really add additional value for the customers and therefore does not really involve them.

It is understandable that they fear losing their exclusivity and bourgeoisie image and probably do not see the possible benefits of a social media participation. It gives the impression that they are satisfied with the image they have in the minds of the customers and want to stay the “legends”.

A participation in social media could though make them more attractive for the younger generation. It is understandable that they see their legendary status in danger participating of Facebook, but a well organized blog with unique content could make the younger people more interested and the existing customers more involved and invited to participate.

They should also think about using YouTube as a channel to put their official videos as most of the people use YouTube to search for videos. High definition videos and a monitoring of the comments could improve their visibility and popularity.

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Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

BREITLING Breitling was founded 1884 in Switzerland. They offer watches in the luxury segment with prices at the upper level.

In the past Breitling did not only offer products for individual customers, but also sold watches and chronographs to the Royal Airforce. These chronographs offered information about the fuel consumption, average velocity etc.

Breitling’s techniques and know- how made them the leader in this segment. However, in 1979, the company had to stop its production due to unprofitable business. Many Swiss watch companies had to close, except for IWC, Rolex and Patek Philippe. In 1982, the owner of the company Breitling sold the trademark and brand rights to a pilot, and since then the company continues under the name Breitling Montres S.A. The company continued to sell watches for consumers and chronographs for companies. Breitling is very successful in sponsoring sport activities such as air races, balloon travels etc., because the brand is strongly connected to air travel. Furthermore, the company is successfully implementing a co-branding strategy with Bentley. Interested consumers can purchase a Bentley- Breitling watch and Breitling produces the chronographs for Bentley cars. Sponsorship and co-branding helps Bentley to reach their target market.1011 Social Media Analysis Facebook

Twitter

1. Dialog There are five Breitling’s pages, four of those are unofficial, while the fifth is official. Summing the total number of “likes” in all profiles there are 55833 fans of the brand. Looking in more detail each page there are: 39918 likes in “Breitling” page, 3600 in “Breitling” (official profile), 9700 in “Breitling”, 1711 in “Beitling watches” and 844 in “Breitling club”. The official language of the main page in term of likes collected is English and in the last six months 305 posts were published, 5% of those post were complaints about the brand, 70% were personal feeling, 15% news about the brand and 10% are fun or curious comments.

2. Advocacy 90% of the messages are positive, while the other 10% are negative.

3. Support In the official page there isn’t the moderator, while in the official page there is one. The content of its post can be subdivided into 40% promotional post, 30% general news about the brand, 20% fun or curious content and last 10% are reply to other users comments.

4. Innovation No co-creation approach, customers seem satisfied.

5. Brand engagement The brand appears in all five social media.

6. Communication Leadership In the official page there is a company moderator, indeed the company directly manage brand community, but he never wrote in the last six months. In the platform the company offers free content, such as screensavers, finally there is a link to the official website.

7. Linking Value 70% of users discuss with their peers through the brand social media spaces.

8. Other There are 36 links to brand information.

1. Dialog There isn’t an official page, but there are three unofficial pages. “Breitling watch” with 286 tweets, 787 followers but there are not any tweets during last month. “Breitling Source” has 272 tweets, 856

10 Breitling, http://breitling.com [01.12.2010] 11 Breitling for Bentley, http://breitlingforbentley.com,[01.12.2010]

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Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

Blogs

Forums

followers and 23 tweets last month. Eventually, “Breitling time” has 77 tweets, 240 followers but any tweets during last month. Adding the numbers of the three pages the total number of followers is 1883.

The first page in terms of number of followers is “Breitling Source”, its official language is English.

50% of the content of the tweets talk about news, 20% are information about other brand’s watches, 20% are personal feelings and 5% are complaints.

2. Advocacy 90% of the messages during last six months are positive and 10% are negative.

3. Support The typology of the tweets post in the last six months by the moderator can be divided into a 40% of answer to other tweets, 40% promotion, 15% unofficial news and 5% about fun and curious stuff.

4. Innovation No co-creation approach.

5. Brand engagement The brand is present in all five social media.

6. Communication Leadership There’s no company moderator, indeed the company doesn’t manage directly brand communities.

There are some free content, such as screensaver, and there are also links to other websites and blogs; but it is likely that the company doesn’t provide neither the free content nor the links.

7. Linking Value 30% of users discuss with their peers through the brand social media spaces.

1. Dialog There isn’t an official blog, but in the first two pages of google there are eleven unofficial blogs. On average there are 137 categories and five comments to be member of a blog.

2. Advocacy 90% of the messages are positive comments about the brand, while the other 10% are negative.

3. Support In the last month the company never replies since these are unofficial blogs.

4. Innovation No co-creation approach.

5. Brand engagement The brand is present in all five media.

6. Communication Leadership Since the blogs are not official there is not a company moderator and of course the company does not manage directly brand communities in social media. Anyway there are links to other blogs.

7. Linking Value 70% of users discuss with their peers through the brand social media spaces 1. Dialog There isn’t an official forum, but there are 15 unofficial forums. The average number of topic discussed is 8407, while the posts are about 90735, 4.2 post on average per day. It is not possible to compute the exact number of members, but on average they are around 5458.

2. Advocacy 75% of the messages are positive comments about the brand, while 25% are negative.

3. Support In the last month the company never replies, since these are unofficial forums.

4. Innovation 30% of the messages try to establish a co-creation approach with the company, asking them to improve their service increasing the availability of spare parts for older watches.

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Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

YouTube

5. Brand engagement The brand is present in all five media.

6. Communication Leadership There is not the company’s moderator and the company doesn’t directly manage the social brand communities, since the forums are not official. Anyway there are links to other platform, such as blogs, facebook, flickr and twitter.

7. Linking Value 80% of users discuss with their peers through the brand social media spaces.

1. Dialog There isn’t an official YouTube channel, but there are 950 unofficial videos, viewed on average 42468 times and on average each video has seen 44.7 times (42468/950=44.7) 2. Advocacy 90% of the messages are positive comments about the brand, indeed they give information and show pictures of their watch; but the other 10% are negative comments.

3. Support In the last month the company never replies, since there are unofficial videos.

4. Innovation No co-creation approach.

5. Brand engagement The brand is present in all five media.

6. Communication Leadership There is not the company’s moderator and the company doesn’t directly manage the social brand communities, since there is not any official page, but only unofficial videos. Anyway there are some podcasts with information about the watch by experts.

7. Linking Value There aren’t discussions among peers, but some of the content of the videos are about relation among Breitling brand and airplanes.

Recommendations

In general it must be said that Breitling is present on every social media platform such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. However, we should not forget that most of these channels are created and maintained by unofficial sources and not directed by Breitling. The only official channel can be found on Facebook. Furthermore, it must be noted that this official channel has collected only around 3,600 likes. However, there is another unofficial fan page on Facebook, which received over 39,000 likes.

Having a closer look at the official channel on Facebook, it must be noted that there is no direct interaction with the Facebook users. The moderator does not write any comments and does not react to the posts of users.

Furthermore, Breitling does not try to co-create value. They do not engage the customer e.g. in product development etc. The only things they offer to customers are wallpapers or screensavers. However, as it can be seen in blogs and forums, customers are very satisfied with the products. They post comments such as “I love the product”, “It’s and amazing product”, or they ask “Where can I purchase a Breitling watch” which also shows that people would be ready to actively write about their watches and like to share their experiences with others.

Finally, it can be said that Breitling does not actively engage in social media platforms. Most of the social media channels are unofficial. However, customers do not seem to mind the lack official channels, since 90% of the posted comments are positive. Customers seem to be satisfied with the brand Breitling. As the analysis has shown, the customers and fans of the Brand actively participate in the social media channels; this should make Breitling think about implementing more official channels.

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Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

graphs Blogs

Facebook

The graphs above show one the relative participation and engagement level of people on each media channel the company uses. If the company does not possess an official forum or blog the total number equals to 0 no information to calculate. The averages were calculated on the basis of taking the total number of members divided by total number of post to find and average engagement level per media source. Lets describe it in more detail we see that on facebook Tag Heuer is the leader in the participation level with over 100,000 members and over 400 post for the past month. This helps us depict that the social channel of facebook is best practiced by tag Hour. This can also be explained by looking at the brand it self since tag Heuer is the Brand that offers relatively low priced products compared to the other brand present in the mix, thus a slightly heavier use of social media tools would not damage that brand as much as others. However, by looking at Rolex one of the most famous and one of the most prestigious brands in Switzerland has the lowest level of engagement in social media they do not have any official facebook page as well as forums and blogs. The graphs show that the participation of Rolex on each channel is minimal if any at all.

Remark: only Moderators content was taken into consideration.

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Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

Appendix 1 Excel Calculations

Members FC Rolex 0 0 Omega 39,356 120 Chopard 14702 1235 Breguet 5614 55 IWC 31,072 625 Tag Heur 131793 398 Breitling 39,918 305 Petek Philip 12000 170

Videos YT Rolex 0 0 Omega 0 0 Chopard 200 6432 Breguet 20 125 IWC 200 36000 Tag Heur 20 3124 Breitling 0 0 Petek Philip 200 491

Average 0 327.9666667 11.90445344 102.0727273 49.7152 331.138191 130.8786885 70.58823529 Average 0 0 0.031094527 0.16 0.005555556 0.006402049 0 0.407331976

Forum Rolex 1 23000 Omega 6 75 Chopard 1 123 Breguet 0 0 IWC 18 243 Tag Heur 1 2765 Breitling 15 1883 Petek Philip 14 27

Blog Rolex 0 0 Omega 0 0 Chopard 2 512 Breguet 0 0 IWC 2 3867 Tag Heur 0 0 Breitling 0 0 Petek Philip 9 232

Average 4.34783E-05 0.08 0.008130081 0 0.074074074 0.000361664 0.007966012 0.518518519 Average 0 0 0.00390625 0 0.000517197 0 0 0.038793103

i like!

Since the birth of Web 2.0, social media platforms have multiplied at an amazing speed reaching millions and millions of people around the globe. This has led to a change in the way people communicate and therefore has or should have had an impact on communication patterns of companies. Some have caught the wave early on and are already collecting the fruit of their labor, others, are still hesitant or struggling to find the right way to enter these new platforms.

Social media, if used in a carefully thought strategy have a wealth of opportunities to offer and should therefore be embraced by companies no matter the industry.

However, it seems that the luxury segment in general is still reluctant on adopting these channels. The reasons more often mentioned are: 1) Fear of losing one’s exclusivity.

2) Risk aversion.

3) Costs needed to maintain esthetics of the brand on social media.12

12 Balwani, S. “Understand luxury brands and social media”. Mashable.com [URL: http://mashable.com/2009/07/02/luxury-brands/] [02.12.2010]

Report on Social Media Branding in the Luxury Watch Industry

These fears and doubts are understandable but to tight relationships with their customers and develop a real and productive dialogue, it would be better not to avoid and ignore the social media because they are the becoming the primary source of information for many people.

Indeed, according to the digital marketing agency iCrossing, “An estimated 78 percent of affluent Internet users are active on social networking sites, and 66 percent3 conduct research online before making a major purchase, suggesting that a limited digital presence could have a negative impact on offline sales. […] With people now spending more time on Facebook than Google, social media optimization strategies have become the new black.” 13 As a result, brands should really take into consideration as an alternative to become involved and proactive on social media channels.

As a first step in this reasoning, here are some considerations that could be taken into account: It is important these brands make themselves more visible on social media even if they perceive them as maybe “lower-end” channels. The point is not to be available to anyone on any channel but to target the appropriate social platform that will allow them to reach the right audience in the right way.

All the brands analyzed in this report are exclusive brands and they should therefore try to create an exclusive online experience.

They should embrace these channels with one official and consistent voice that will give legitimacy to the channel but still find a way to “leave the control” to the fans who are already deeply involved with the brand.

Another way to gain the interest and commitment of their audience is probably to create exclusive content that would then be provided on these platforms to a selected audience for example. To put that in practice, new pieces of a collection could for instance be first unveiled on the social media before the official offline presentation.

As luxury watch fans appear, on the whole, to have really positive experiences with and even emotionally attachments to the brands, the companies should try to make a good use of the largely available enthusiastic reviews posted on the platforms.

Last but not least, they should monitor the forums and blogs that talk about them and interact with people. It could be only checking for misleading information but it could also be providing help and advices when required.

So, if the brands should decide to become active and even better, proactive, in these different channels, it is important to keep in mind that the latter should be all well integrated (Links back to the brand social media spaces, …).

The real need, at the end, is to balance being accessible on social media and exclusive in real life and to manage to make the universe that surrounds these luxury brands accessible on social media.

13 iCrossing.“L2 Digital IQ Index 2010: Luxury”. L2ThinkThnak.com. [URL: http://www.l2thinktank.com/luxury2010digitaliq/luxury2010digitaliq.pdf] [02.12.2010] 33