There is no doubt to any newcomer that the watch marketing culture is old fashioned. It is stuck in a time warp, and has been for so long now that no one out there is prepared to make the first step towards positive and constructive changes.

While the Big names rule the world, thanks to aggressive advertising sustained by sound financial backgrounds, many of the smaller firms/manufacturers are fighting each other to share what is left of the market. Content with small market acquisitions, their “marketing strategy” is to cross their fingers hoping that sales, somehow, will increase, thanks to the efforts of the ever changing new agents or distributors. If sales don’t increase, the distributor is automatically at fault, due to not being persuasive enough to break into the market, therefore a new distributor is sought and a pattern is thus perpetuated.

A year of success and the sale of a few dozen pieces is seen by these manufacturers as a sign of success and glory. One distributor is gone and another will come along, nothing is lost and a number of timepieces have been sold. Following a pattern of the kind seen in at least a dozen countries may mean sales volumes, but it will be far from bringing credibility on the brand.

Mostly, distributors fail on their quest to sell large quantities of watches, or to make the brand even remotely popular. The few and rare distributors that really know and care about watches and the industry have to struggle with manufacturers demands that make little commercial sense, have no vision of the future and generally have poor or no marketing understanding of the region in question. Extra discounts offered by the manufacturers to the distributors under the voice “advertising” clearly portray a dim and poor comprehension on the part of the manufacturer on capital control, movement and schedule.

We know of some brands that have changed four distributors in one year. It seems common and surprisingly so acceptable, but in reality it is somewhat sad and demoralising. Changing so many distributors is done with no forward planning and without recognising and admitting that such changes are extremely harmful to the brand public perception.

After all, the distributor is to sell to shopkeepers and traders alike, but how can the latter feel comfortable with a brand if the supplier changes so often?

We say “Continuity Creates Confidence,” and others may say “Rome was not built in a day”. We also say that each market place is very different.

The race is now open to supply new and stronger markets like Russia, and the countries formally belonging to Russia, China and others in the Far East, and to ignore taking proper care with the building up of the given brand name in European countries wrongly believing that these territories are saturated.

When something starts to go wrong, under the narrow vision that Europe is set in through traditions, it causes difficulty for new brands to break in. Instead of understanding circumstances and the need to bring changes, companies use the common ostrich reaction of hiding their heads in the sand.

Should manufacturers really believe in the quality of their products, they should start to listen to those that have marketing experience in the sector and a foot hold in the market place, instead of chasing unrealistic dreams based on no efforts or on people with little or no experience of the watch industry.

In building a network of credibility, fairness, professionalism, trust and reliability, we know that our customers and partners look at us with confidence. We cannot let any of our customers down, because it will mean letting ourselves down and losing our self-respect. For this reason we thank all of the many manufacturers that are continuously writing to us requesting collaboration, but would like to stress that we will only entertain discussions with those that are seriously interested in a constructive relationship. Our aim is to work to build up your brand desirability for a long term success. If you do not feel that long term success is what you are seeking, then we are not for you.