Product strategy

Problem statement
Swatch, leader in the low-price watch industry segment, is currently finding itself competing with a growing number of licensed fashion brands. The company needs to implement astrategy that will avoid this threat in order to maintain leadership.
Situation Analysis
Company:
SMH, formed in 1983 due to insolvency of SSHI/ASUAG merger.
SMH has 9 global brands– Swatch is the most profitable
Represented in all the segments except in the low end – SWATCH ?
Focus on message
Vertical integration, decentralized marketing and portfoliomanagement
Customers:
Young people with no previous interest in watches
Intensely loyal
Impulsive customers driven by the low price
Fashion / design consciousCollaborators
Artists, designers, industrial designers (creativity is a must)
Retailers- particular locations
Context:
Swiss industrial recession due to the entrance ofJapan, China and the U.S.A in the low end segment
Swiss industry, in all segments (low, medium and high) is fragmented
Newcomers: licensed fashion brands
Competition:
Asianmarket: China, Japan, Hong Kong.
Benetton, Fossil, Guess, Relic, and other own- label watches
Indirect competitor: Timex (American)
Alternatives
After evaluating the SWOTanalysis (Exhibit 1), we can state the following alternatives:
Recommendations
Having said that, our recommendation is to maintain their leadership by coming up with radical innovative ideas that canattract new customers, keep the existing one’s loyalty and increase growth rate and profitability.
Implementation Plan
The future of Swatch will depend on how innovative and creative the companycan be when launching new products and what new distribution techniques they can implement to differentiate the product from others. Here is a four year plan that will maintain Swatch’s positioning…