By Marcos de Anchorena, MBA in International Luxury Brand Management 2014-2015, Argentina
In less
than ten minutes our professor for “Managing A Watch Brand,” Jérôme Auzanneau
(who has worked in the luxury sector for over 20 years for companies such as
Rolls-Royce and Audemars Piguet), was able to attract everyone’s attention in a
way I’ve hardly seen since the beginning of the MBA. As watches are my main topic of interest; I’ve
tried to share, with mixed amounts of success, as much as I could with my
colleagues during our year at ESSEC.
So, how did
he mange to do it? The answer is simple…by the expression of a completely
honest point of view, through the display of an almost theatrical posture and the
creation of a short group exercise. He was able to demonstrate to the students
how much they did not know about watches and the industry in general. Questions
such as “Which are the top reputable haute horlogerie brands?” or “How many
watches are produced by Rolex or Cartier?” were met with diverse answers and hooked
students for the following four sessions.
In order to
explain what makes Swiss watches so special, we were driven through the history
of watchmaking, the quartz crisis and how it impacted the entire Swiss industry
as well as the financial information regarding export figures for the last
years. We also had the possibility to extensively discuss watch complications,
discover the lesser well-known options and their specific functionalities.
To play a
bit outside the technical specifications, Jérôme introduced a whole section on
how watch brands advertise and make use of celebrities to endorse their
products. It was funny to see how
advertising pieces from brands that play in completely different competitive
environments make use of similar resources. In general, it’s all about focusing
on technical performance and promoting sports in a very similar way. But if we
compare the ads with the messages that the brands want to deliver, we realize
that the brands are not doing enough to communicate their design skills and
technical creativity.
After this
first approach it was time to go into the real business to understand what
makes this industry so special. Jérôme described the following key features to
explain the Swiss watch phenomena:
·
Built
by few
·
Growing,
vertically-integrating companies
·
Geographically
concentrated
·
High
quality
·
Suiting
all tastes in materials
·
Preferences
for mechanical movements
·
Highly
valuable products
·
High export
orientation
·
Outperforming
other Swiss Exports
·
Sold
to the World
·
Leading
export nation in terms of value
Later, we
went into defining what should be considered in a luxury watch, which brands
belong to Haute Horlogerie and where to establish the frontier between them and
mass-produced timepieces. This last question was not so easy to answer and an
interesting discussion about which criteria should be used and whether or not
Rolex should be included in this category took place. What was the answer?
They’re the “Gate Keepers” of Haute Horlogerie!
After reviewing
a series of videos revealing the craftsmanship of the highly skilled Swiss
watchmakers, we were able to conclude that the
high value of Swiss timepieces is directly linked to the value of the human
factor in production. The main takeaway: “Machines just do not produce love”
and customers want to buy products with a heart.
The last part
of the market insights was what every MBA student waits for… the description of
main groups and how our possible future employers are organized.
But there
was still more… for the last session we were invited to visit the Breguet
Museum in Place Vendôme where we were offered an exclusive look at the archives
of the brand and discovered historical timepieces such as: one of Marie
Antoinette’s pocket watches, a couple of tourbillons created by Mr. Louis
Abraham Breguet himself and some interesting chronometers that Breguet produced
in the 60’s for the French Marine Nationale Aeronautique Navale.
It’s
amazing how with this short 4 lesson course Jérôme was able to offer the MBA
Luxe students an in-depth review of the Swiss watchmaking industry, the history
of watchmaking, what defines an haute horlogerie watch, how it is made, what
explains the price point and why people are ready to spend that much on a
timepiece.
