瑞士傳統鐘錶業因應數位浪潮之行銷策略變革-以Swatch Group為例

Abstract

Traditional luxury industries and digital technologies are first believed to be incompatible in essence. With the increasing sophistication of technological development, leveraging digitalization in luxury watch industry is still disputable and lack of empirical evidence. Therefore, this research paper focuses on sorting out the influences of digitalization on marketing initiatives of a luxury watch firm and whether it is a suitable strategic response to deal with the industry’s structural issues. The thesis also aims to dig out what else luxury watchmakers might consider to continuously achieve success in a increasingly digital and globalized marketplace. To realize the above research objective, the thesis takes single case approach and provides a systematic examination and critical analysis that relies on qualitative data structured on McCarthy’s marketing mix model. Swatch Group is chosen because continuously refining marketing strategy empowered it to gain success in the digital era and retain the ability to set a standard beyond whole luxury watch industry. The contribution of the thesis is that implementing digitalization is a viable strategy for Swatch Group because its expertise lead in innovation and abundance of financial assets gives it a solid reason to pursue digital transformation in order to maintain the leadership. But this couldn’t be generalized to mean that every watch firm should pursue certain degree of digitalization to apply to each of their marketing initiatives. Regardless of the potential benefits digitization might bring about, it is essential for top management team to consider the optimal degree of leveraging digitalization.