Digital Marketing Strategy

Digital Marketing
Strategy

Rolex

Group Presentation – Digital Marketing Strategy

Surname Name First Name University ID

Kakar Amandeep Singh 19041421

Campbell Ewan 18018620

Pires Rolvina 18024071

Ladipo Ibukun 18036506

Loh David Zheng Xiang 19042091

Chang Yi Ching 20044357

Introduction

● Rolex is one of the top ranked luxury brands in the watch industry.
● The leading Swiss brand in 2018 and valued at around 8.05 billion dollars.
● In order to reach the right target audience, Rolex has made a drastic change

in its digital marketing strategy by moving from traditional mediums (TV) to
social media and celebrity endorsements (Roger Federer). .

Digital strategies

Place

● Regarding the place strategy, Rolex heavily relies on social media to market the right target
audience.

● Use of social media, helps build better relationship with customers (customer loyalty)
● Rolex has expanded their marketing strategies and expanded to social media Twitter. Rolex uses

the hashtag # Perpetual and #Rolex, so customers can find them easily.
● Digital intermediaries include use of Augmented reality.
● Rolex has invested in an augmented reality platform designed to help users try on watches at home

before purchasing. They have created the bench mark. (Gupta, 2018)
● Revamp of Rolex.com, enabling them to showcase the brand’s masterpiece.

Digital Strategies (2)

Product
● Rolex frequently chooses to involve themselves in relevant pop-culture to appease with the

masses
● Design their watches to fit certain consumer target audiences
● Associated with pop culture references
● Appease to the interest of people from different target audiences with redesigned watches and

trend
● Feature itself in campaigns that present Rolex as a product that doesn’t crack under pressure

Promotion
● Rolex uses trending social media platform like instagram and youtube.
● Collaborates with different brands that shares a different target audiences to attract new customers

from different sectors and to attract awareness of younger audiences to the brand
● Rolex is influential enough to get free marketing and promotions for their product.

Digital strategies

Price

● Rolex was identified as luxury- Super premium pricing policy.

● Their pricing range varies in accordance with the model of the product and the materials that are
used in its manufacturing.

● Targeting upper income class of people.

● Luxury raw materials such as gold or diamond.

● The price put them in within the price range of a premium product and it also helps with
marketing, as the premium price range and limited quantity further promotes the company’s
exclusivity, resell prices appreciates and for that it is also popular among watch enthusiasts to
collect

External threats and their response

● Counterfeiting:
○ They create special serial numbers for each watch.
○ They have their logo engraved on the winders.
○ The date magnifier has a special cyclop lens
○ The quartz dial movement on the watches are smooth whereas the counterfeits usually have

a stutter.

● COVID -19:
○ The pandemic has caused the company to move from in-store shops to online shopping

which has had a great impact on the nature of the company.
○ The company feels that they have lost touch of the personal experience that they used to

provide to the customers and the connectivity has been lost.

● Shortage of workforce in global market leads to the lack of steady growth
of the profit.

● Competition:
○ Patek Philippe, Richard Mille, Audemars Piguet and Hublot are a few competitors of the

Rolex
○ Rolex has a better competitive advantage over the other high end watch brands as they have

a better market share in the market.
○ Better marketing skills, representation in different fields such as sports such as tennis,

swimming and golf, cinema, architecture and arts such as in movies

Appropriateness of digital marketing techniques

What is Rolex’s Targeted Audience?

● Rolex essentially concentrates on high society clients , who are over the age of 35.
The present target market for Rolex is rich buyers that are searching for high caliber
and selectiveness. The items are made for the individuals who feel the need to flaunt
their riches (Pappachan, 2016).

PLACE
● Rolex’s augmented reality was designed to help users try on watches at home

before purchasing (Gupta, 2018).
● Makes the customer journey more enjoyable and exclusive as during the events
● VIP members were able to try on Role’s new collection so this is appropriate for

customers who enjoy exclusiveness and selectiveness in their purchasing journey
such as Rolex target market.

● Using the AR Watches app (Primary, 2019), consumers would be able to make use
of this anywhere at anytime.

● There is a high chance of their targeted market using this app because according to
Perez (2017) 35-44 year olds spend up to 2 hours a day downloading apps.

● As well as Rolex’s use of social media apps such as Twitter is appropriate to its
targeted audience as 35 year olds and above are estimated to spend 2.5 hours on
social media a day (Statista, 2021)

● As stated above Rolex makes good use of their social media.
● Their website is also very informative although it is more of an

information site than a shopping site as orders can not be made
from there

● The brand has made it easier for their targeted audience to find
a physical retailer in any country using their “Rolex Store
Locator” option.

● It will equally be beneficial for for their website to have an option
to find other online retailers as well because:

● since the COVID Pandemic, 36% of online consumers now shop
online weekly, an increase from 28% before the pandemic
(Blake,2020)

● According to UNCTAD (2020) 70% of fashion and accessory
shoppers now make at least one online purchase every 2 months
since the COVID-19 outbreak Source: UNCTAD and NetComm Suisse eCommerce

Association (2020)

Promotion

Price

● Rolex retailers use payment options such as Monthly
payments, Payment with Credit cards, Paypal and Apple Pay.

● According to Statista, 93% of people aged 35 onward are
aware of Apple Pay while only 23% of tem use it which is
encouraging compared to the below 20% of other age
brackets.

● 35% of adults 30 and over prefer to pay with credit cards and
2% of them are considering using nontraditional payment
companies like PayPal, and that’s twice the percentage for
those aged 50 and over (Wex, 2015).

Source: (Porter, 1985)

Digital marketing techniques integration

● Late to the social media game and tried to keep away until 2012 when a youtube
channel was introduced.

● Have used famous and people of perceived excellence to represent the brand
● More recently have developed an online presence whilst still retaining the traditional

values when promoting via well known figures.
● Incorporated an omni channel offering with a virtual reality experience for the

consumer similar to the in store experience offered to target the 35-44
demographic

● Could be at risk of overuse of social media if they post too much while straying
away from a previous minimalist approach to promotion.

Conclusion

● Rolex have kept traditional methods of their digital marketing intact when modernising their
approach.

● The company has faced a lot of external threats but always have found a way around them and
come up with a solution.

● They have good consideration of their targeted audience when considering their digital marketing
techniques, although in regards to price they can consider making use of other payment methods
as the watches are very expensive and people can benefit from the “buy now pay later option”

● They also have a good understanding of current markets and trends despite being a brand that is
116 years old, they were able to make use of new digital trends to market their product to old and
new generations alike.

References:

● Bhasin, H., 2019. SWOT analysis of Rolex – Rolex SWOT analysis explain. [online] Marketing91. Available at:
[Accessed 22 April 2021].

● WILLETT, M., 2013. 4 Simple Ways To Spot A Fake Rolex Watch. [online] Insider India. Available at:
[Accessed 22 April 2021]

● Pappachan, B. (2016) The marketing plan of Rolex. Available from:
https://www.slideshare.net/bonnypappachan/the-marketing-plan-of-rolex [Accessed 24 April 2021].

● UNCTAD and NetComm Suisse eCommerce Association (2020) COVID-19 has changed online shopping forever,
survey shows. Available from:
https://unctad.org/news/covid-19-has-changed-online-shopping-forever-survey-shows [Accessed 24 April 2021].

● Thomas, C. (2021) Digital Marketing Strategy Lecture week 5: Price. Digital Marketing Strategy[online]. Available
from:https://my.uwe.ac.uk [Accessed 24 April 2021].

https://www.slideshare.net/bonnypappachan?utm_campaign=profiletracking&utm_medium=sssite&utm_source=ssslideview

● Wex (2015) Millennials: How they pay today. Available
from:https://www.wexinc.com/insights/blog/inside-wex/millennials-how-they-pay-today/ [Accessed 24 April 2021].

● Woodruf,J . (2019) What is Premium Pricing Strategy?.Available from:
https://smallbusiness.chron.com/premium-pricing-strategy-1107.html [Accessed 24 April 2021].

● Blake, M.(2020) 50 Showing The Lasting Impact Of COVID-19 On Consumers. Available from:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2020/10/19/50-statistics-showing-the-lasting-impact-of-covid-19-on-consume
rs/?sh=3d4504c5261f[Accessed 24 April 2021].

● AR Watches (2018) Try on Virtual Watches Through Augmented Reality. Available from: https://ar-watches.com/blog/2
[Accessed 24 April 2021].

● Primary (2019) ROLEX (WATCHES OF SWITZERLAND GROUP)CELEBRATING THE EXCLUSIVE UK UNVEILING
OF THE ROLEX BASELWORLD COLLECTION. Available from:
https://www.primarylive.co.uk/case-study/2019/rolex-watches-of-switzerland-group/ [Accessed 24 April 2021].

● Statista (2021) Daily time spent on social media by social video viewers worldwide as of 2nd quarter 2017, by age
group. Available from:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/267138/social-media-usage-per-day-global-social-video-users-age/ [Accessed 24
April 2021].

● Ivy Panda (2020) Marketing strategy of Rolex Evaluation Essay. Available from:
https://ivypanda.com/essays/marketing-strategy-of-rolex/ [Accessed 24 April 2021].

https://www.primarylive.co.uk/case-study/2019/rolex-watches-of-switzerland-group/