IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/zbw/hsgmrs/275873.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Selling luxury watches in Asia: the changing position of independent distributors

Author

Listed:
  • Donzé, Pierre-Yves
  • Theurillat, Thierry

Abstract

Asia has increasingly become the place to sell luxury goods as a result of economic growth. Swiss luxury watch groups have all turned to new Asian markets since the late 1990s, with the help of key intermediaries such as local distributors and retailers. However, facing the verticalization strategies of large groups to improve the control and even to develop in-house retail management, independent distributors have needed to change their business models and offer new kinds of services to access customers. This article gives two examples of local independent distributors' new strategies to cope with verticalization by large groups. While the first company, The Hour Glass, turned to mono- and multi-brand stores for independent luxury brands in South East Asia, the second one, Hengdeli, specialized in retail by running in-house shops for the market expansion in China of one of its main partners, Swatch Group.

Suggested Citation

  • Donzé, Pierre-Yves & Theurillat, Thierry, 2016. "Selling luxury watches in Asia: the changing position of independent distributors," Marketing Review St.Gallen, Universität St.Gallen, Institut für Marketing und Customer Insight, vol. 33(5), pages 50-57.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:hsgmrs:275873
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/275873/1/MRSG_2016_5_50-57.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Leïla Kebir & Olivier Crevoisier, 2007. "Cultural Resources and Regional Development: The Case of the Cultural Legacy of Watchmaking," Chapters, in: Philip Cooke & Luciana Lazzeretti (ed.), Creative Cities, Cultural Clusters and Local Economic Development, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Zhan, Lingjing & He, Yanqun, 2012. "Understanding luxury consumption in China: Consumer perceptions of best-known brands," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(10), pages 1452-1460.
    3. Hugues Jeannerat & Olivier Crevoisier, 2011. "Non-technological innovation and multi-local territorial knowledge dynamics in the Swiss watch industry," GRET Publications and Working Papers 01-11, GRET Group of Research in Territorial Economy, University of Neuchâtel.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hugues Jeannerat & Leila Kebir, 2012. "Mobility of Knowledge. Knowledge resources and markets: What territorial economic systems ?," GRET Publications and Working Papers 02-12, GRET Group of Research in Territorial Economy, University of Neuchâtel.
    2. Hugues Jeannerat, 2013. "Staging experience, valuing authenticity: Towards a market perspective on territorial development," GRET Publications and Working Papers 05-13, GRET Group of Research in Territorial Economy, University of Neuchâtel.
    3. Thierry Theurillat & Pierre-Yves Donzé, 2015. "Retail Networks and Real Estate: the case of Swiss luxury watches in China and Southeast," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 15-28, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    4. Pengji Wang & Adrian T. H. Kuah & Qinye Lu & Caroline Wong & K. Thirumaran & Emmanuel Adegbite & Wesley Kendall, 2021. "The impact of value perceptions on purchase intention of sustainable luxury brands in China and the UK," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 28(3), pages 325-346, May.
    5. Park, Judy, 2014. "What women want: Creation of a luxury brand," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 57(2), pages 247-257.
    6. Huang, Youlin & Qian, Lixian, 2021. "Consumer adoption of electric vehicles in alternative business models," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    7. Jin, Ting & Prentice, Catherine & Shao, Wei, 2021. "Identifying antecedent conditions for luxury brand purchase," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    8. Sindy Liu & Patsy Perry & Gregory Gadzinski, 2019. "The implications of digital marketing on WeChat for luxury fashion brands in China," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(4), pages 395-409, July.
    9. Bhukya, Ramulu & Paul, Justin, 2023. "Social influence research in consumer behavior: What we learned and what we need to learn? – A hybrid systematic literature review," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    10. Yoo, Jungmin & Park, Minjung, 2016. "The effects of e-mass customization on consumer perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty toward luxury brands," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(12), pages 5775-5784.
    11. Pierre-Yves DONZÉ, 2011. "The Comeback of the Swiss Watch Industry on the World Market: A Business History of the Swatch Group (1983-2010)," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 11-14, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    12. Pizzetti, Marta & Chereau, Philippe & Soscia, Isabella & Teng, Fangyuan, 2023. "Attitudes and intentions toward masstige strategies: A cross-cultural study of French and Chinese consumers," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    13. Cristini, Hélène & Kauppinen-Räisänen, Hannele & Barthod-Prothade, Mireille & Woodside, Arch, 2017. "Toward a general theory of luxury: Advancing from workbench definitions and theoretical transformations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 101-107.
    14. Jacob, Isaac & Khanna, Monica & Rai, Krupa A., 2020. "Attribution analysis of luxury brands: An investigation into consumer-brand congruence through conspicuous consumption," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 597-607.
    15. Kebir Leïla & Jeannerat Hugues, 2013. "Creativity, plasticity, quality: on the emergence of a new food offering in Paris," ZFW – Advances in Economic Geography, De Gruyter, vol. 57(1-2), pages 27-38, October.
    16. Tatjana Mihailovic & Tiziano Vescovi & Andrea Pontiggia, 2017. "The Beauty Ideal in Chinese Luxury Cosmetics: Adaptation Strategies of Western Companies," Working Papers 07, Department of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia.
    17. Balmer, John M.T. & Lin, Zhibin & Chen, Weifeng & He, Xinming, 2020. "The role of corporate brand image for B2B relationships of logistics service providers in China," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 850-861.
    18. Liu, Sindy & Perry, Patsy & Moore, Christopher & Warnaby, Gary, 2016. "The standardization-localization dilemma of brand communications for luxury fashion retailers' internationalization into China," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 357-364.
    19. Bartikowski, Boris & Cleveland, Mark, 2017. "“Seeing is being”: Consumer culture and the positioning of premium cars in China," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 195-202.
    20. Grigorescu Adriana & Ion Amalia Elena, 2020. "Innovation and product management – The direction of the 21st century luxury market," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 14(1), pages 1035-1045, July.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:hsgmrs:275873. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://imc.unisg.ch/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.