Rolex

Introduction
Rolex SA is a Swiss watch designer and manufacturer based in Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in
1905 as Wilsdorf and Davis by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis in London, England, the company
registered the word ‘Rolex’ as the brand name of its watches in 1908 and it become Rolex Watch
Co. Ltd. In 1915. Rolex SA and its subsidiary Montres TUDOR SA design, make, distribute and
service wristwatches sold under the Rolex and Tudor brands.

Marketing Strategies of Rolex

Roles is a luxury watchmaker. The products are made and sold by Rolex are Rolex and Tudor.
Rolex markets its watches as luxury brands. The company is well known for its unique targeting,
segmenting and positioning of their product which may believe has helped them to maintain their
position as a leader over a long period.
However, with the change in the generations and ushering of the new generation who is more
inclined towards a new fast-moving technology than a timeless timepiece, Rolex faces a challenge
as to how they can attract these new emerging customers.
The marketing efforts of the company demonstrate the kind of customers the products are aimed
at. The marketing strategy helps companies identify the customer needs and helps firms formulate
strategy to satisfy them. The marketing success of a company lies in its success in identifying the
customer needs.
After extensive research and analysis company formulates the four Ps of marketing – Price,
Promotion, Place and Product.
The target of Rolex is both men and women. Rolex makes watches to suit the taste of both men
and women and are preferred by both the sexes. The market segment that the company has placed
its product in is the luxury market, and the prices are high as they are placed in the luxury market.
In order to maintain their status related to the four Ps, the company has positioned its product as a
luxury item and for this specific reason, they have striven to maintain a very high quality for their
products. The accuracy of the Rolex watches is one area that puts them ahead of any other
watchmaker.
Before positioning the product, the first analysis the company does is to identify the characters of
its products that makes it stand apart. Creating a group of target audience is the key to creating the
target audience. Brand positioning, as any practitioner and academician would know, is based on
the perception of the customer.
Rolex target both men and women which makes watches to suit the taste of both men and women
and are preferred by both the sexes. The market segment that the company has placed its product
in luxury market, and expensive as they are placed in the luxury market.
The target customers for Rolex are both male and female. Targeting both the demographic section
helps the company to spread its market. Rolex’s commercializing strategy entails celebrity
endorsements. Rolex advertises its products with both male and female endorsements. Rolex
positions its products as a symbol of excellence and passion. Therefore, most of the commercia ls
that are shown by Rolex usually feature sports personalities like Tiger Woods or Roger Federer
who are the best in their respective sports. In addition, the commercials with women in them
feature sports women or actors like Ana Ivanovic.
Further, in order to cater to a certain economic class, the company meticulously positions itself
targeting the rich and the ones who crave for “class” rather than “beauty” this is evident from the
taglines used in previous Rolex advertisements such as “Class is forever”, “Some people want
more than just a pretty face” or “Live for Greatness”.
The Rolex logo – the original design was a
five-pointed crown in gold above and Rolex
in green text with a gold outline. The logo
embodied the Rolex slogan, “A Crown for
Every Achievement” which symbolize power
and prestige and the chosen colors were
meant to symbolize the brand’s excellence in
Figure 1 Rol ex Logo
watchmaking (gold) and prosperity (green).
These taglines demonstrate that the appeal that the company makes for its brands ensures that the
products are sold to those who strive not only for beauty of the product, which even a fake Rolex
watch can deliver, but rather the pristine class of wearing a watch that is hand crafted.
“Behind the Rolex crown is a way of thinking about our place in the world and an aspiration to
contribute. We call this perpetual spirit.” – from the Rolex website.
In another landmark tagline for a Rolex advertisement, the positioning is made further clear, “A
Rolex will never change the world We leave that to the people who wear them.” Thus, the
positioning of Rolex is clearly represented through the advertisements that they promote.
The tag used in their website to describe the products of Rolex is resonant of the positioning
approach of the company. It describes Rolex watches as “The watch that conquered the deep”.
Therefore, the positioning strategy of the company is to project the product as luxury brand that
strived for excellence.
The four P’s of marketing
Price
The watches sold by Rolex are highly cost. The pricing strategy tally with their promotion and
positioning strategy. Their products are made with very expensive raw material and fitted with
the best quality technology. Therefore, the high price is equivalent to the positioning of the product
as a luxury item.

Promotion
Promotion plays an important role in describing the product. It helps companies to familiarize their
products to the customers.
The promotional strategy of Rolex can be categorized as:
1. Advertisements in televisions.
2. Print advertisements in magazines and newspapers.
3. Sponsors of gaming events like Wimbledon.
4. Embedded advertisements in movies like those of James Bond
There are two distinctive categories of advertisement done by Rolex. They are celebrity
endorsements and pure product campaigns.

Place
Rolex maintains high level of accuracy in its mechanism through its in-house manufactur ing
plants. Most of its watches are manufactured in Switzerland and then distribution takes place
through certified dealers. Rolex prefer in making personal bonding with the clients. It allows their
retailers to sell at most two watches in year as it believes in maintaining its premium value. Rolex
does not sell its products in smaller stores, rather it targets high scale areas. The products are
available in selected and premium showrooms in order to preserve its brand value. They do not
perform sales through internet. Rolex promotes its products through its website but Rolex prefers
sale only though exclusive stores. With the growth of ecommerce, Rolex watches been sold via
online channels.

Product
The products that are presently marketed by Rolex can be broadly divided into main three
collections – Oyster collection, new 2013 collection and Cellini Collection.
The oyster collection boasts of “elegance and prestige” and has twenty models in the collectio n.
The
description of the product states that the products are “Crafted from the finest raw materials and
assembled with scrupulous attention to detail”.
The new 2013 collection is the second collection of Rolex is a new collection of chronometers
with cutting age technology instilled in them to attract the new generations and retaining their old
classiness.
The third collection is the Cellini collection. The collection named after the Renaissance sculptor
and artist Benvenuto Cellini aims at demonstrating “quintessence of elegance”. Masters of various
arts sculpted each timepiece and each come in gold or platinum cases and dials of sapphire or
mother of pearl.
Rolex has created distinctive image in the market by portraying itself as the luxurious brand that
is worn by celebrities. Everyone who wants to develop an association with any of the favorite
personalities is buying and using Rolex watches. Hence, the marketing strategy used by Rolex has
helped it in achieving its set goals of marketing strategy and it has positioned itself distinctive ly
from its competitors.

STP of Rolex
SEGMENTATION
Attention to specific segments is necessary task for most of companies in order to serve their target
market better. Based on the Rolex Brands Corporation has segmented their customers using three
main categories as
• Geographic
• Demographic
• Psychographic
Geographic
This is a powerful segmentation, dividing its marketing considering on the geography. Rolex
segments market based on states/regions and market density with wealth. The main focus on
economically strong countries along with semi-urban markets. In the sense of innovation, they
have recently expanded their geographic market segments to BRIC countries and encourage the
opening of new Rolex only storefronts.

Demographic
In the demographic segmentation, Rolex targets the age group of 18+ and above with all income
levels all ethnic backgrounds life cycle, social class (upper and middle class) and generation.
Different strategies are function based on targeted demographic segments. For certain instance
Rolex offers special outlets for high income and premium customers and plans for business
executives and professionals. One of the key strategies is that Rolex offers limited collection of
special events, creating scarcity of those models driving up the value. Being one of the luxur io us
brands it is clear that Rolex craves wealth. In the UK, Rolex has segmented its market based on
wealthy areas showing tremendous results in profits.

Psychographic
Psychographic segmentation is a market segmentation that group by their psychographic
characteristics such as customers personalities. Lifestyles, value, loyalty, interests and
geodemographics. The main goal of psychographic segmentation is to understanding how the
brand or the product fit into customer’s life and see them as an individual.
During this segmentation of Rolex, customer’s personality traits lead them pursue luxury accessory
or brands to make them look like high class people in order to satisfy their vanity. In research
showed that consumers will buy more of product that endorsed by celebrities, customers feel
higher value of product when the celebrities are known by customers.

TARGETING
Current Market
The present target market for Rolex is rich customers that are searching for high caliber and
selectiveness. The items are made for the individuals who need to show off their wealth. The
average Rolex owners is male or more the age of 35, at times a VIP or games figure. Rolex is a
global brand of Swiss watches that is esteemed everywhere throughout the world with more than
half of the business sector dwelling in the US, Hong Kong, China, France and Singapore.
Market Segment
21 to 35-year age range men living in the United States who have as of late found a higher
profitable occupation, earned an advancement or got a reward. These are young guys who show
off their newly discovered status. They have purchased their expensive clothing to wear to their
job. Yet to finish the look with advancement of a Rolex watch to demonstrate that they have “made
it”. This target market as of now values mobile phones as their primary way to read a clock and
they don’t yet value a watch. They should teach on why they ought to wear a watch rather than
watching the mobile phones just for time.

POSITIONING
Rolex has positioned itself as a brand without any accommodation in the quality of the services
and sustained its growth by generating substantial profits. Rolex believes that the good quality and
extraordinary look provide them competitive advantage. With its excellent talent of distributio n,
Rolex has been able to position itself in almost every part of the world. It has launched various
exciting and beautiful advertisements and sales promotional activities for creating sales and
enquiry.

Conclusion
Rolex made us believe through its products that they are best in the market. Potential customers
will always consider Rolex when buying an expensive watch. By being a pioneer in many segments
of the industry, Rolex made us perceive the brand as the parameter of quality.