A critical analysis on how luxury watch brands position themselves strategically in order to compete internationally and a brief insight over what the future holds for the industry

Abstract

This research project is done intending to critically assess and examine how brands in the luxury watch industry position themselves in the market. The study manages this by analysing the main positioning strategies that have been used by luxury watch brands in the past, and the drivers of success in the industry, to later investigate how to deal with the existing global competition and alternatives. To achieve this, the researcher identified three objectives; identifying the main positioning strategies used by luxury watch brands today, pinpointing the success keys within positioning in the market and the estimate, throughout evidence of where to expect the luxury watch industry to be in the future. In order to fulfil the aim of the study the researcher opted to follow a mono method approach to collect the data. This method was interviews, that were conducted by three top positioned members of internationally well-known luxury watch brands as the primary source of data collection. The findings of the research were not as surprising as expected, as the primary and secondary data mainly agreed, although a richer knowledge on what makes luxury watch brands successful was generated. The three interviews were extremely useful in order to validate the findings of the existing literature and both sources of data agree, on how crucial brand equity and positioning is, for the luxury watch brand. The study ends by suggesting recommendations for future research in this field.