Overview of Swatch Group and Its Competitors

In addition, these companies are able to easily compete in the sports apparel market because the barriers to entry are low. On the other hand, many companies should think twice before entering the market. One reason is the large capital costs that are required to meet consumer demand in the market. In addition to large capital costs, some of the largest companies have gained customer loyalty based on their strong marketing skills. For example, Under Armour, Nike, Adidas, Reebok, ASICS, make new entrants into this industry much more difficult to compete with when these companies have a big share in the market already. According to Exhibit 4 in the textbook, it shows the major competitors and brands in 2013. Nonetheless, competition is intense in the sports industry market but, the high levels of product differentiation can also act as a barrier to entry for many companies because company’s need a high level of marketing to market their brand to consumers.

Omega (part of the Swatch Group portfolio of brands), was facing a similar demise in the early 1990's and successfully repositioned itself and became a major profit driver for the group. It achieved this by carefully selecting its marketing programs and drastically trimming its product line from 2,500 to 130. This strategy needs to be applied to Swatch, which focuses on the basic and middle-priced market. This is supported by the fact that the number of resellers dropped from 3,000 in the early 1990's to 1,200 in 1998. Swatch needs to apply a SWOT analysis and determine which product lines are successful in this market space and drop the remaining products. In addition, the Swatch Group needs to look at their consumer base and determine if it would be profitable to launch a new product line that captures past consumers who have now progressed to the next stage of their lives and are desiring a more expensive and sophisticated watch. A marketing campaign needs to be chosen that helps attract new consumers in the basic and middle price market focusing on the smaller number of brands and a separate campaign should be created that focuses on

One of the primary change in strategies would require pruning Omega’s product lines to make it more coherent and to eliminate any potential intra-firm competition. Typically, the lower end models need to be pruned so that it could be positioned as a more effective Luxurious Brand to compete directly against other Luxury Brand watches. The prevention of any overlapping with sub-brands will ensure that there is no potential risk to the dilution of brand image as well as reduce the risk of cannibalization of the current product lines. This will also help in uplifting the overall brand image of the Omega brand by withdrawing a number of Omega’s low-priced models thereby boosting the band profitability which will ensure that there is enough opportunity for the improvement on brand margins - a key factor in reducing the price differences with Rolex. Another underlying argument is that this process will enable the exclusivity

This paper aims to examine the brand’s major strengths and weaknesses, the current target market and the new markets that Rolex has not yet covered. It will also investigate the state of affairs of the company’s major competitors, together with their marketing and pricing strategies. This report also provides some insight into the company’s operations and strategies that aim to preserve its leadership in the luxury watchmaking

In analyzing the market/industry, the company was able to see some things that helped shape their plan. The first was rivalry among competing sellers. Our analyses indicated that there were 9 companies in the shoe industry that Competitive Shoes considered rivals. These companies were relatively new in the industry and produced the same types of shoes as Competitive Shoes. Due to this fact, they knew that the rivalry would be fierce since Competitive Shoes was going to produce a product that was like theirs, and the difference between the products would diminish as the products of industry rivals became strongly differentiated. This indicated to Competitive Shoes that brand loyalty would be minimal and buyers could easily switch brands at will. Competitive Shoes felt that they could produce the same quality shoes as the high-end producers, while at the same time lowering its production cost and offering the product at a lower price. This would make it easy for buyers to switch brands at will.

We look around ourselves everyday and see many brands and logos. Some of these brands and logos that we see are fancy and pleasing to the eye, but all come with a price. There are many varieties and many categories that these brands produce products in. Social media, the masses, and resource quantity are all factors of why these sought after products are very pricely. Man or women are willing to pay extra money for a brand name. Whether it may be the elderly, young, man, or woman, if it has a well known name on it, people are willing to pay more money for it than a similar version.

Have you ever wondered why most people are buying products from familiar brands? Usually, the most valuable brands becomes associated with a level of credibility, quality, and satisfaction in the consumer's mind. They provide unique design, performance, technology and durability in order to fulfill their customer's needs.

3. These fashionable brand watches are known to be tough and this is the third reason why consumers obtain branded watches. It is a considerable aspect to be aware of

Since an increasing number of people focus on brand names instead of product, brands become important elements for customers to choose products (Carroll, 2008). When customers trust the brand, the benefits for the manufactures are generated. In the first place, brands can be used by products as the tool to identify and differentiate themselves from various products. Secondly, brands are helpful for companies to build a competitive advantage (Bick, 2009). Therefore, organisations take more attention to branding.

A "swatch" strategy of low-cost market entry was the wrong choice. In the case study much is said about how Schindler 's CEO was fascinated with the success of low-end, mass produced Swatch watches -- a 90 's phenomenon -- more than one General Manager of Manufacturing Operations strove to emulate this low-end production strategy.

In essence, branding is all about differentiation and consistency. It always has been able to effectively establish an emotional relationship with customers. They compete with each other with the quality of watches that they make for example; Rolex provides a variety of choice for their customers and provides their wants and desires. This includes; by making their watches handcrafted, and putting diamonds into their watches to make it more luxurious etc. Another way for them competing is level of service provided. If a customer comes to Rolex they will ensure that they provide insurance and great level of customer service. This will increase repeat-purchase and brand loyalty among their customers. Rolex is considered untouchable in its position as the world’s leading luxury watch brand both in terms of industry prestige and its

What is interesting in this market is that there are no clear leaders. Even though each company’s goal is to make the more profit as possible, we can’t define any leader since they have different strategies and objectives.8 [ (Tower) ] For example, Patek Philippe’s core ideology is to have the most prestigious brand and to make the most expensive watch as possible, and target the most prestigious people which is a really niche market. In comparison, Rolex’s purpose is to be a more accessible luxury brand and make the most sales as possible. It is difficult to compare them in terms of success, Rolex sells more but Patek has a much higher reputation.

Middle class is booming worldwide and with prosperity comes consumers ' desire to show that they are doing well, therefore super brands like Danish Pandora and British Signet also called “category killers”, has stormed the global jewellery market where there is money to fight for. Pandora competes in affordable luxury segment, which in 2009 totalled 83 billion USD, equivalent to approx. 57% of the total market for fine jewellery. Affordable luxury still gives consumers the feel of stardust.

Adidas Group consists of three major sportswear manufacturers: Adidas, Reebok and TaylorMade; however, the focus will be on Adidas. Adidas in particular, has been rapidly gaining popularity over the past several years after it began creating “trend-savvy” products with a diverse range of interests. (Green) For example, Adidas introduced new types of footwear: the NMD, Ultra Boost, Alpha Bounce and Yeezy. The release of these sneakers dramatically increased footwear sales for Adidas by 67% in 2016. (Transcripts) This allowed Adidas to bump down Under Armour and secure the number two sportswear brand position; however, Adidas is still far from overtaking Nike from their number one spot (Kell). One reason why Adidas struggles to compete against Nike is because of our prices. Although the new line of sneakers has profited Adidas drastically, it’s assumed that only the upper middle class and upper class can afford them. In order to increase sales even more, Adidas prices should adapt to various economic classes in the sportswear industry in order to remain relevant in comparison to its competition.

Those strategies helped Swatch lead this market in the watch industry, selling 26 million swatches in 1992 and reversing SMH’s fortunes. Despite its success, there are some concerns whether the success of the Swatch would continue. Still, the world watch market was highly fragmented except Citizen, Seiko, and SMH. There were numerous watch competitors in Switzerland, Asia, and Unite states. The market share of Swatch was still relatively low in the single digits due to