discussion question title critique the rolex brand audit in brand focus 8 0 how do you think it could be improved

Rolex Brand Resonance Pyramid Source: Strategic Brand Management by Keller....7 Figure 2.. Introduction Rolex is the most well-known luxury watch brand.. To understand Rolex's sources of

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212_7QT0130_01 —- Brand Management Discussion Question 7

Discussion Question Title

Critique the Rolex brand audit in Brand Focus 8.0 How do you think it could be

improved? (Prescribed Textbook — Question 5, Page 315)

Appendix

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Appendix

Figure I Rolex Brand Resonance Pyramid (Source: Strategic Brand Management by Keller) 7

Figure 2 TAG Heuer Connected Calibre E4 - a product that offers both functions of a smartwatch and a luxury watch with a reasonable price for lower-end pricing (1,800 - 2,500$) 8 Figure 3 Patek Philippe Calatrava Ref.6007A - a 1000-piece limited edition watch (28,351$) 8 tigure 4 Sales oƒtop 20 watch branas in 2015 (Soufce mash@W€F) co chu Heo 10 Figure 5 Rolex's advertising campaign has a wormmeri qinBdssađOF ác sen re 12 Figure 6 How to distinguish fake Rolex watches (Source Dutc Tin LUXHFW) ào 13 tigure 7 Patek Phillippe's mmodern desig' QHHs fO VOMHB s€GII€HIGIÍOH à cành iee 15 Figure 8 Richard Mille's customized watch is the go-to choice for GeNnZ 0 ccc 15

I Introduction

Rolex is the most well-known luxury watch brand The basis for Rolex's success is its extraordinarily excellent product quality spanning across the many years of its existence One of the top reasons that make Rolex so successful is that Rolex watches are accurate timekeepers, durable, sturdy, and dependable To understand Rolex's sources of brand equity, we have to This assignment will initially analyze the brand audit of Rolex, including three sections: brand inventory, brand exploratory, and brand positioning with definitive evidence for each area mentioned Then, some recommendations for Rolex to munprove and expand its brand before concluding the assignment

II Rolex's Brand Audit Analysis 1 Brand Inventory

Rolex clocks have retained the reputation of excellent quality, durability, and timelessness that the firm has earned throughout the years Rolex only uses the highest premium materials like gold, platinum, and diamonds for its product The brand has been

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strongly emphasizing producing a very accurate watch with exceptional craftsmanship, differentiating the brand from the other mass-produced watches

Every Rolex product consists of 10 distinct characteristics that have been recognized as the company's "10 Golden Rules":

® A waterproof case ® The Perpetual rotor e The case back ® The Oyster case ¢ The winding crown e The finest and purest materials ¢ Quality control

¢ Rolex self-winding movement ¢ Testing from the independent Controle Official Suisse des Chronometers ¢ Rolex testing

Apart from watches, the brand does not produce any other product Consequently, Rolex's product portfolio is clean, concise, focused, and targeted

1.3 Pricing A Rolex advertising once claimed that a single Rolex watch takes about a year to create, and the fact that they limit their production as 2,000 watches a day helps the brand keep consumer demand consistently high, and so do the prices Starting at around $2500, the most expensive Rolex ever sold is Paul Newman's Rolex Daytona, which costs $17.8 million Its reputation and scarcity are what explain Rolex pricing

1.4 Distribution

There are 60.000 "Official Rolex Dealers" worldwide, and the Dealers must fit in several criteria, including high-end image, appropriate space, desirable location, and outstanding quality of service

2 Brand Exploratory 2.1, Customer knowledge

Rolex is a well-known brand, so it is no surprise that it has a good reputation Customers often describe Rolex with some positive adjectives such as "sophisticated,"

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"exclusive," "elegant," "high quality,” etc Among the high-end watch market, Rolex is considered the most popular one (84 percent knew it) compared to Bulgari (39%) or Cartier (63%) Although the brand is now more attractive to female and older people, they do not make any impression among young adults under 25 According to research conducted by the NPD Group, 36% of persons under 25 do not wear a watch From another Piper Jaffray study, 59 percent of youngsters never wear watches, and 82 percent have no plans to get one in the next six months

2.2 Brand Resonance Pyramid

Ultimate Social Status: Extremely loyal consumers High repeat-purchase rate

Much affiliation and

laÌ approva and self-respect True Luxury Product: : Sonia timepieces ¢4 Performance imagery ——————> = Classic ~

made from premium ievement Image:

materials Perpetual Elite luxury image self-winding technology through sports and Official crown logo cultural ambassadors Exceptional customer Salience Status symbol service Holds value well | Classic heritage

High Awareness: Most commonly recalled luxury watch in the world; more depth than breadth

Figure 1, Rolex Brand Resonance Pyramid (Source: Strategic Brand

Management by Keller) From the Rolex Brand Resonance Pyramid above (Figure 1), it is evident that Rolex built both sides of the pyramid, the rationale route (left side) and the emotional route (right side) Achieving two routes means a strong brand and conquers customers’ feelings and imagery about them while remaining excellent performance and receiving optimistic judgment from customers

2.3 Competitive Analysis In the watch industry, there are several famous watch brands besides Rolex Although Rolex is positioned as a high-end luxury brand, many other different pricing-segmented

brands can be their competitors since customers range widely from lower-end (e.g., TAG Heuer, OMEGA) to higher-end (e.g., Patek Philippe)

3 Brand Positioning “Rolex is the brand of luxury watches that demonstrates status and sophistication because of its groundbreaking, handcrafted quality.”

3.1 Market Segment Males aged 21 to 35 in the United States who have recently landed a high-paying job, eamed a promotion, or received a bonus must wear a Rolex watch to demonstrate that they have "made it” This target market currently values cell phones as their primary way to tell time and does not yet recognize the value of a watch Watch sales among young males in the United States have decreased by 30 percent

3.2, Competition Rolex has impressively high sales at the top position It seems that they do not need to worry too much about the competition of other competitors except those in the top 5 sales However, that is not important when Rolex is far from other brands Rolex is widely known as a brand that symbolizes wealth, and perhaps this is why people with money will want to own a Rolex watch and increase the company's sales

TOP 20 WATCH BRANDS (SALES)

Rolex

Citizen Cartier (Richemont) Seiko

Omega (Swatch Group)

Casio

Swatch (Swatch Group) Philippe Fossil Movado Bulgan Tag Heuer (WMH) Piaget (Richemont) Gucei (Gucci Group) Tissot (Swatch Group)

Rado (Swatch Group)

Longines (Swatch Group) Festina Ebel (LYMH) “il Sales in EUR m

In its industry, Rolex has a host of competitors However, stressing product quality, total attention to detail, and unique branding and positioning efforts will set Rolex apart from the competitors Paying attention to a complete marketing approach will also help Rolex stand out in the eyes of the industry Timex, Movado, Longines, Rado, Mont Blanc, and Swatch are their main competitors, and they all sell luxury timepieces in the same price range

3.4, Points of Difference At Rolex, the men and women who service and manufacture these machines are regarded as artists who combine science and design to create these works of art Furthermore, and this is the core of Rolex, watchmakers are passionate, have fantastic ideas, and are always thrilled to develop such things The workshops where the

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watchmakers work is incredibly well-organized from another perspective Making watches, in my opinion, is not for everyone; it requires talent, time management, commitment, and patience Not to mention that adding the jewelry puts even more pressure on the watchmaker

3.5 Points of Parity Exclusive Distribution Channels — Rolex, Armani, and Omega, offer their products through selective distribution channels that cater to high-end market consumers who want to stand out from the crowd by using branded products Prestigious Brand Image — Rolex, Armani, and Omega are well-known luxury companies that cater to the high-end market by charging premium prices for high-quality products with exquisite designs

III Recommendation

Although Rolex is doing great with its own strategic and tactical programs to leverage its brand association and expand its brand equity, we spot some weak points that Rolex is facing at the time With those points, they can consider modifying and adjusting their brand to catch up with the trends of the times Below are some recommendations for Rolex to improve:

¢ Focus on female consumers through advertising posters as their current image mainly emphasizes males

For a long time, Rolex's image has been associated with the elegant man in a nice suit with a shining Rolex on his wrist, and this image can be found chiefly in Rolex's marketing campaign The idea of a female wearing Rolex is rarely caught, which has created a disadvantage for Rolex in expanding its market

It is undemable that women make most jewelry and watch purchases, and those items are indispensable for wealthy women when they go out to a party or luxury party However, Rolex is not famous as they lack a female image in their campaign Hence,

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female customers find it hard to know about their products even though Rolex still has some models for women

Counterfeit goods are always a sore problem for brands, especially famous brands The lack of tightening policies related to copyright protection makes counterfeit goods widespread, causing significant damage to the revenue and reputation of the original brands

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Figure 6 How to distinguish fake Rolex watches (Source Duc Tin Luxury) As mentioned above, Rolex is an expensive and aristocratic brand Everyone dreams of owning a product from this brand Therefore, currently on the market, fake Rolex watches are being sold rampantly Even high-end artificial Rolex models with similar appearances are difficult to distinguish The appearance of counterfeit goods affects their brand value somewhat When a watch is counterfeited, it is not only copying the model of the watch and stealing brains to make a low-quality Rolex watch A fake Rolex watch can be faked to the point of being as sophisticated and sophisticated as the real thing This causes Rolex's sales to drop, and it will also create a bad reputation if the fake watch goes wrong

Rolex must make consumers aware of the risks associated with purchasing counterfeit products Besides, promoting anti-counterfeiting will help them stabilize and increase sales

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Focus on young people under the age of 25 Rolex has long been known as a watch brand that represents sophistication, elegance, maturity, and sustainability over time Their design is considered timeless since, even after hundreds of years, the creation of Rolex watches never goes out of fashion However, as it relates to the image of a mature and gentle person, Rolex is now finding it hard to attract younger customers Keeping the design unchanged will be a double-edged sword for Rolex in the coming years when millennials and young people, especially GenZ, 1s becoming wealthier, their budget can afford luxurious goods, and they are willing to buy them, leading to the significant growth of the desire of purchasing a high-end watch

Maintaining the current design may reflect the timeless fashion, parallelly, it shows restraint in coordinating with other items, while other high-end watch brands such as Richard Mille, Hublot, and even a long-historical brand like Patek Philippe is customizing and developing their products to satisfy the demand of the young market Research reveals a trend toward more jeweled and customized watches in young consumers, and only 7 of Rolex's sub-brands feature diamond watches This shows that Rolex is now not concentrating many resources and attention on this segmentation

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Figure 8 Richard Mille's customized watch is the go-to choice for GenZ To cope with this problem, Rolex can ultimately develop a new design that can satisfy young people but still keep the value of a luxury brand in their product as their development department can All they need is to channel more resources and effort into this segment Besides, Rolex can consider partnering with well-known designers or celebrities with limited edition watches, freshen the brand and create a buzz in the

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