At the heart of any success story is a great product … and a great marketing.
Forget about being successful if you have a less-than-average product. I keep reminding this to my clients. You won’t make a successful brand if you focus all your efforts on marketing and stop looking at the weaknesses of your product.
This lesson was perfectly understood by the late Nicolas Hayek when he acquired the watch brand Breguet in 1999 for 200m Swiss Francs. He perfectly knew at that time that the products were great and were only lacking a “little bit” of marketing magic. Despite resistance the executive committee approved the offer and Breguet became eventually a brand of the Swatch group.
The first thing Hayek did was to revamp the marketing. At the time of the previous owner (Investcorp), Breguet was positioned as a sport brand (!) andall communications and marketing efforts were dedicated to the type XX watch, a stainless steel and sport watch. Because of the very name “Breguet” and the history attached to it, Nicolas Hayek refused this positioning and wanted to focus all efforts on the cultural contribution of Breguet.
The decision was therefore taken to set up a two-stage communication strategy. In the first stage, a series of adverstisements was prepared on the most famous clients of the brand, Churchill and Napoleon for instance. In the second stage ads would depict the atmosphere of books by famous authors where Breguet watches were part of the story. At the bottom of the ads quotes of books by Balzac, Dumas were echoing the poetry of superb photographs.
So far for the advertisements … on the product side too Breguet underwent a marketing revolution. It is indeed not sufficient to make marketing promises. You have to keep them. Hayek stopped the production of the Type XX and instructed to focus all efforts on the Tourbillon, which remains the heritage of Breguet.
The rest of the story has little to do with marketing, more with technique.
My take :
My intention was to briefly explain you and illustrate how a brand can be revamped and can get a totally new identity in a few years. Think about it : 10 years ago Breguet was a sport brand, today it is perceived as a highly elegant brand. Breguet had history and authenticity rooted in its DNA but it was not used. Do you see me coming? Yes … want we let commodities aside, customers all want things which have a meaning. Hayek perfectly understood this. He “just” injected ready-to-use authenticity to the brand and aligned operations on marketing. You too can do it. If you have a brand and do not sell commodities (which is in my opinion one of the few ways to be different) you must inspire people. People will love you if your products bring them inspiration.
I had a professor once who told me that I should sell intangibles if I wanted to make money. Do the same … put a lot of intangibles in your tangible and let your customers feel it.
Posted in Marketing.
