Competitors

Tiffany and Co has put a 14 meter Christmas tree in a train station in London in. 2018; driving people’s attention from the rush of the day to the signature Tiffany blue corner. The tree was made in a way to spray the Tiffany & Co perfume; while the brand also established a pop-up right under the massive structure for last minute gift ideas; promoting the perfume while establishing its place in the holiday season in people’s minds (Benjamin 2018).

One of the earliest initiatives and innovation of Tiffany & Co has been to establish the Engagement Ring Finder in 2015. The app functions to help girls pick rings by virtually trying on the ring to see how it looks on their hands. The app created a digital circulation, and created a word-of-mouth effect between users and non-users. This helped establish Tiffany’s digital stronghold.

CARTIER

Cartier Twitter account is helpful and more active than its competitors; providing followers with advice regarding finding the closest stores in different languages to inviting them to solve problems via direct-messaging ability of the platform.

JUSTE UN CLEU

In 2017, in order to promote its new product Juste un Clou, Cartier created an advertisement that was fueled by emotion and action, with the bracelet being left on the background only to be shown occasionally, Opting for a more lifestyle-centric message helped the viewers see the brand as something action packed and exciting; creating emotion towards the brand.

Both competitors have been chosen in accordance to the expertise and heritage of their respective areas, Cartier and Tiffany&Co are both companies thriving through their legacy while initiating younger buyers into their brands.

Through the digital presence chart it can be observed that Harry Winston lacks e-commerce while both Cartier and Tiffany make it available for users. Another trend is the tone of voice Harry Winston uses throughout its communication campaigns which stands to be almost too much like a ‘brand’ hence not creating any emotional attachment by its target.

Another interesting trend is both Cartier and Tiffany initiate demi-fine collections although in Cartier’s case rather limited; both manage to initiate simple pieces into the everyday lives of the new fine jewelry buyer.

While the competitors are increasingly including young people into their heritage and refresing the brand image; Harry Winston stands to fall behind. While Harry Winston carries a significant legacy behind it, the younger consumers who newly enter the market are distracted by the youth-focused campaigns and demi-fine collections offered by other brands as a way of ‘entering’ the brand; before securing them as loyal customers. The brand fails to create a community amongst its consumers; as well as failing to attract two generations dominating the diamond purchases globally.

Another growing trend amongst the two generations in question is to support brands that reflect their belief systems. Philanthropy has been a key point in brand image and communication in the past several decades and have proven successful; a given example to this is the case of Patagonia in 2017 (Brennell 2017). The brand utilised philanthropy as a strategy; it promised to donate 100% of its sale profits from that weekend to environmental non-profit agencies. The campaign resulted in a massive success; quadrupling the expected profits from 2 million to 10 million (Brennell 2017).

While Harry Winston has been doing humanitarian work through its own charity foundation, Harry Winston Hope Foundation and programs such as Harry Winston Brilliant Futures Charitable Program; the brand fails to showcase its involvement in charitable work to the public; hence it does not take advantage of the emotional marketing used nowadays by many brands.

PETITES

BY

HARRY WINSTON

THE STRATEGY

Harry Winston will tap into product development. While the brand has only focused on fine-jewelry to this day; the new aim is to refresh the brand image with creating a ‘gateway’ collection for younger targets. This will compose of 2 new capsule collections under a new segment ‘Petites’ which is the new permanent Demi-fine segment of Harry Winston.

The new collection will also be a collaboration with 3 different Millennial and Gen Z celebrities to benefit from their following groups and fans; while refreshing the “Harry Winston Girl” image.

The brand will also collaborate with net-a-porter for the selling of the new product on the platform under net-a-porter’s “Demi-fine Jewelry” segment.

50% of all profits earned through the new product category will be donated to the IRP - International Foundation for Research in Paraplegia, which is an organisation supported by Harry Winston Hope Foundation, looking to research and understand the illness paraplegia.