Is the Swiss Luxury Watch Industry in Social Media Meltdown?

I've been thinking a lot about the state of social media in the luxury industry and, of course, specifically in the watch segment for obvious reasons. You might recalls some recent posts about this like the one about lethargy, dealing with clients, specific issues in luxury social media, and lately of course the one about cool "socially-inclined" brands, and watch brands with (or without) Facebook IQs.

Additionally, as you might know, I recently returned from the ChinaConnect 2011 Conference in Paris, France where I discovered (and confirmed) a boatload of information about social and digital in the world's largest market (read Part I, II and III of my feedback about it).

To top it off, those of you who have kindly followed me for a while know that, albeit French-born, I come from the USA, and that I spent my entire life there until recently. That doesn't make me a US market expert by any stretch of the imagination, but it does give me a little insight into how things should work in an optimal "social-mediatized" culture. Heck, social media was invented there! :)

Combine all this with eighteen months of learning and evolving in the Swiss luxury watch industry from the mothership, and I think all of the above combines to give me a pretty special (if not unusual) perspective on the whole matter of social media in tic-tock land.

Eighteen months is short by Swiss standards (by any standard for that matter) but almost an eternity in digital time. What I notice is that the industry is still "on the fence" in many cases - still trying to decide whether to go for it or not. Problem is, in my opinion, that the go/no-go decision point is way past the point of no return. In the largest luxury markets to date, namely the USA, Japan and China, the question of investing in "real" social media or not is beyond moot - the answer is quite obvious.

If you're wondering about engaging in social media at this point, you've missed the boat, and you are D.O.A. And in growing markets like China, India, Africa, some Middle East nations, and Brazil, to name a few, not having a social media strategy is just plain suicidal. You're giving your lunch away.

The other problem is that luxury codes themselves are mutating. Not products per say, but the intellectual and socio-economic factors affecting and defining luxury are shifting - and these changes accompany ongoing global socio-political fluctuations. Remember the ending scene from T2? We are there. Luxury has various levels of maturity and acceptability in different markets - namely Asia (China) versus Europe or the US, for example. Old codes are changing and evolving in a world where the consumers, not the brands, now hold power. Luxury is no longer expressed as it used to be - often politically-incorrect as the Western world is shifting liberal (in the US sense of the term) while China, of all places, is re-teaching us what Capitalism is all about!

The Swiss watch industry is for the most part completely missing the boat on this. Instead of riding the wave, listening, and drawing conclusions to drive longevity, they're paddling centuries of "tradition" dogmatism and safety in the comfort of the almighty "Swiss-Made" (which, incidentally, was recently castrated by the very own system it was designed to protect!).

Social media (in the generic sense) is the only possible way to "ride the wave" in the maelstrom we face. Why? Several reasons:

Velocity
Things move very fast. Markets change as do tastes, trends, and geographic power points. Institutions, opinions and governments now turn on a dime. Changes occur in days, not years. This new global life pace is way too fast for the Swiss watch industry to adapt adequately. Especially since production plans are etched out on 3-5 year periods, and physical retail locations represent huge investments. One obvious tactic would be to progressively re-route distribution to online channels (mobile or not) but the industry is far behind on e/f/m-commerce.

Reach
You cannot physically reach every corner of the world where something significant may or may not be happening, or where customers may or may not need support or an ear. Simply put, unless you are actively engaged in social media, you can no longer cover your markets effectively. No matter how many frequent-flyer miles your CEO might boast about. Period.

Intelligence
Information keeps coming in fast and furious from all directions. Unless you're listening broadly and continuously, you will inevitably miss vital pieces of intelligence. It's bad enough when brands don't listen to their own people in the field - which happens often enough - but not having the digital means to measure and evaluate ever-changing data is deadly in this new world (dis)order.

It's about people, stupid
As my friend and ex-mentor Robbie Coleman likes to say, "Social media only works at the hands of someone who understands people" - This apparent truism is often at the source of the industry's reluctance to fully embrace social media - in essence, most brands really don't understand people and, more dramatically, their own customers. Nor do they have the means to anticipate their future needs, aspirations or rewoven social fabrics.

Our industry has been slow - very slow - to fully embrace social. A year ago, I would have said this was understandable. Today, I believe it's suicidal and incompetent at best. The day of reckoning is here, and if we don't get our act together, believe you me others in the US and China soon will. In case you haven't noticed, Chinese investors have declared open season on Swiss watch brands in the past months. Nothing is eternal. Stay tuned...

The industry survived the economic crisis and Japanese quartz assault of the late 1970s and 1980s thanks in part to men like Jean-Claude Biver and Nicolas Hayek. But at the present time, I'm not seeing any such saviors for the digital crisis I believe will soon hit the Swiss watch industry - and that worries me.