Ahhh, Switzerland. I was fortunate to spend some time there this year. A truly beautiful country, with great history, scenery, and, yes, the cheese, chocolate, and of course, its watches.
A single timepiece can cost more than most people make in a year. And then there is the biggest success story of all, Swatch. You can nab many models from around $100.
What most people don’t know is that the Swiss watch market went into total meltdown crisis in the 1980s and was saved by Swatch — arguably, single handedly. It’s a lesson in brand repositioning that is a great case study for any marketer or business leader.
Back in the ’80s, Japanese brands such as Seiko and Casio flooded the market with highly, if not more accurate, timepieces at much more affordable prices due to the advent of quartz technology, vs. the mechanical timepieces manufactured by the Swiss. It’s similar to when the Japanese entered the U.S. car market in the ’70s with cheap, reliable cars. Both industries a decade apart were caught flat-footed.
What would you have done if you were a high-end Swiss watchmaker at that time? Lower your prices? Increase your marketing budget? Offer lower-cost entry model watches? Any of those might have worked. What did work, though, was a repositioning of what Swiss watchmaking meant (and didn’t).
What the Swiss had was a strong brand reputation and decades of knowledge. They put their egos aside and decided to not only play the Japanese game using quartz technology, but also leverage their Swiss reputation and know-how to beat them.
A marketer by the name of Franz Sprecher understood what differentiated Swiss watches and the power of storytelling. They didn’t just pump out cheap quartz watches and stamp them with a Swiss logo. They created a new narrative. Swatch initiated the concept as watches that were a fashion accessory. Why have one watch? You can have a second watch. Hence the name, Swatch.
With all the color combinations, designs, ability to customize the bands, and of course, Swiss accuracy and reliability, people didn’t just buy one, they bought many. People who traditionally didn’t wear watches started to, while proudly knowing they had Swiss technology on their wrists.
It was an amazing way to reposition not just a brand or company, but an entire industry. They took something that the Japanese didn’t have — a long history of making great watches that were known for their quality and style — and leaned heavily into it.
There are a number of key lessons here. If you are in a crisis, don’t keep doing things just because that’s the way it’s always been done. Lean into what makes your brand unique. That is an excellent starting point to think about how to amplify what makes you stand out. Also, listen to your customers. Sometimes, it’s easy to get so insular that all you can hear are the internal stories and forget to listen to what your customers want or are asking for. It’s not noise, it’s insight.
Smart companies will look to create the future and leave their competitors scrambling. Ideally, you won’t wait until a crisis appears — do it now, don’t get complacent. Reimagine your future and create your own market by telling a new story that only your company can tell. ●
Dean Ilijasic is co-founder of Long & Short of It
