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Never thought I would do this, but I am doing a project for my MBA and along side me a colleague has picked grand Seiko to work with. He is struggling to get data, so I offered to post, if you can , please that would help
What 3-4 things do you value for the most as a watch customer?
Thank you
Residual values, company history, build quality, service facilities/support for long-term ownership
Obviously all interrelated!
What s great topic for a MBA project and a great company!
For me..
History
Movement
Quality
Uniqueness
For an MBA project I’d expect some sort of structured survey.
Can’t see a few random posts would be much use.
Quality
Design
Value
Support
History - and this may be of the manufacturer itself - or, in he case of a new mnicrobrand, the story behind the individual watch
Quality
Overall Value for Money (not cheapness)
Movement
I assume that's on its way as the next stage. Look forward to answering it when it appears.Quote:
Originally Posted by Montello
History
Design
Service support
Residual value
Depends on the audience, target group you are looking at.
A sample from a WIS forum would not be representative in any way shape or form no matter how large it is...
I would have guessed that Status would probably be the no1 reason for anyone non WIS looking to buy a luxury watch?
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Exactly, I can’t see any mainstream brand making any money from targeting WIS ...Quote:
Originally Posted by Ar.parask
Any ‘data’ from here is likely to be highly misleading.
However, I’ll play along.
Design
Heritage
Quality
Residuals
Legibility
What Omegamanic said! :eagerness:Quote:
Originally Posted by Omegamanic
Service commitment (ie support for historic models)
Integrity of the brand
Inherent excellence of the watch
Value
- Function & features - does it have the features I want - e.g.centre-minute chronograph, WR, lume, etc - and do they function well?
- Reputation for quality - I'm more interested in the actual quality than the marketing driven hype.
- Form - do I like the look of it? Does it fit with my own image of me?
- Residuals /investment value - is it likely to hold its value or depreciate? Though, this does tend to relate to the perceived desirability of the brand, which may be a function of the marketing driven hype.
Good question! I look for different things in different watches though. Will include amongst that:
Backstory.
Looks on the wrist.
Uniqueness (is that a word??)
Value for money.
Good luck:congratulatory:
It's a difficult one to answer as like many of us I use many watches for the different things going on in my life:
Sports: Running, cycling, occasional sprint triathlon, swimming
Outdoors: Working (gardening), hill walking
Travelling: Beach, family visits, city breaks, camping
Indoors: Smart, formal occasions, relaxing around the house
I can't decide whether it's a pleasure or a burden to want to wear different watches for different purposes. Sometimes I wish I had one watch for everything, but then it wouldn't be a special occasion when I put it on, and my one-watch would get pretty beaten up.
I think for me the watch has to represent my personality. I like dive watches. It's a very basic qualification but I'm proud to say I have done a lot of diving in the past. Even though I will probably never dive again to be honest, for me there's a carry-forward from those days, like a permanent reminder in the background, a souvenir.
Talking of memories I wear one of my Dad's old watches for outdoors work. It's not a smart or particularly expensive watch, but it gives me that link with the past. I wear it fondly and with pride. It's a little like silk underwear, you know you have it on, it makes you feel good but there's no need to show everyone.
I'm getting forgetful with age, so when I'm staying away for a few nights I am really worried about forgetting/losing one of my nice watches so I bought a cheap but attractive diver that has been with me for so many trips now it's getting a heritage of it's own, so a bit self-defeating as I don't want to lose those memories!
I think mainly I have to be proud, in some way, of what I have on my wrist. It had to be difficult to find, or have history, or be unusual, have a strong back-story, that sort of thing.
:tickled_pink::tickled_pink: Choked on my morning porridge!Quote:
Originally Posted by catch21
OP - if your friend has a survey page - that may be useful - and she may want to open it to more social media rather than the biased few that patronise watch fora.Quote:
Originally Posted by Montello
Hang tags
Warranty cards
Free stickers
1) Looks / Design.
2) Quality - movement, finishing etc.
3) Heritage - company or model.
4) Initial Cost. (servicing / residuals are not huge factors in my buying decisions when it comes to something as emotive to me as a watch).
In addition, the question seems a bit odd to me. Are we valuing the watches, the value associated with the name, the policies and strategies of the company, or the economic value of the company? I don't think that these should be conflated, as they can come apart.Quote:
Originally Posted by Montello
Best wishes,
Bob
The right name on the dial
The lifestyle it gets me purely by buying a thing in a shop
The ladies that can't resist me just because I have xxx bauble on my wrist
The brand has to let everyone know I'm a winner
Celebrity endorsement does it for me. As soon as I put my SMP on I become Bond, just older, fatter, with less hair and much less money.
A nice box.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MartynJC (UK)
I have asked the colleague if he is interested, he does claim that you guys have given him plenty. Cheers
Echo the views that a structured survey is needed. 20 people could reply to this very open question and give 20 completely different factors they consider. Your MBA friend will learn little from this data.
I guess that's the fundamental difference between quantitative and qualitative surveys.
For quantitative you want tight structure and a representative sample, for qualitative you are hoping to see patterns emerge from far less structured data. The idea is to explicitly avoid leading the cohort and to allow their lived experience to inform your research.
Or perhaps I'm being hopelessly charitable.
That their watches are an intelligent balance of compromises, well engineered and with a decent and authentic history. A brand is only as good as the watches in it.
There is this 2016 paper which I think may help you. (The link below will download the file.)
The impact of the wristwatch on the Self
https://mega.nz/#!hmogiACB!HgdKrOK1s...8JsA3jR1mXhfhg
“We cannot hope to understand consumer behavior without first gaining some understanding of the meanings that consumers attach to possessions.” - Russell Belk
1. The integrity of the maker.Quote:
Originally Posted by murilloinf
2. The quality of the product.
3. Trust.
This.Quote:
Originally Posted by Omegamanic
No disrespect to OP but this kind of survey won't cut the mustard even in an elementary school.
How do you present the information gleaned from here?
I asked my friend to pose a question on a watch forum, which he did asking- what do you value ON a watch brand?
About 20 out of a membership of thousands responded, some taking a piss.
Based on these responses, I conclude that the small fraction of membership who chose to respond on one U.K. based forum value x,y,z IN a watch brand.
MBAs ain’t what they used to be ...
Value for the money
Build qualitiy
Original design (I hate interpretation)
Reliability (name)
Poslano sa mog FRD-L09 koristeći Tapatalk
Design first. If I don't like it. Don't want it.
Customer support.
Build quality.
Brand history.
Were they ever?Quote:
Originally Posted by Montello
Brand history
Quality
Robustness
Residuals
Design
Build quality
Value for money
Residual value (generally irrelevant as I rarely buy new)
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Almost sounds like the guy doesn't know what to put in his survey, and the comments on this thread will be used to form the future survey.
All seems rather trivial for an MBA though.
Me too actually.Quote:
Originally Posted by GregR_
Brand name (history, cachet/prestige, selling point, public perception)
Quality (movement and case finishing, suitable durability)
Style (does it look good? is the design appropriate for the style?)
Vertical Integration Level (inhouse vs modified vs outsourced movements; percentage of parts bought elsewhere)
Residual Value
Just a thought on perceived value..... Don't forget that few non-wis people know what a Grand Seiko is... They know what a Seiko is but can't see any difference between the two, so this must have an effect on the cachet of the watch. I'm sure that a lot of people would only pay big money for a big name watch. Somebody once said to me that if he paid Omega money for a watch he wouldn't want it to say Seiko anywhere on the dial.....
Even people that I thought were "into" watches sometimes have no idea. I wore my Seiko Tuna to a family event, my Uncle has two Panerais, an IWC, a couple of Speedmasters and a collection of military watches. He didn't know the difference between my £1000 quartz Tuna and a £100 Argos catalogue Seiko.Quote:
Originally Posted by Barryboy
A friend of mine who has a small collection - Hamilton, Bell & Ross, Longines, Omega - saw me wearing a 7a28, and liked it until he saw it was quartz. "It's actually really interesting, because it's the first quartz chronograph." I said. His interest didn't last long enough for me to finish the sentence.
To a lot of people Seiko are £100 watches. These people would never spend thousands on a GS.
performance
visual appearance
support costs
brand cache/desirability/brand name
I agree as do several others - though ‘value’ needs some further unpacking when it comes to luxury watches. Resale will be a factor in value, as will rarity. ‘Bang for buck’ means defining ‘bang’, that x-factor that makes some watches glow. This makes value hard to define, beyond saying the sums seem to add up and you’re willing to reach for your card.Quote:
Originally Posted by Omegamanic
However few are willing to admit that prestige is a factor, or marketing is an influence. Hopefully prestige is itself a result an excellent design language and sustained quality, leading to a history of desirable products that are worth the asking price, and hold their value. But in practice, it helps if that brand is synonymous with high end, expensive and luxurious, and so advertises the wearer. A luxurious brand image affects the desirability of even the lower end products, and that in turn props up resale. Ultimately, we want a logo on the dial that adds a certain aura, that a different logo or a sterile dial wouldn’t provide. As watch fanatics we might be able to see past this and buy a watch purely because of its objective qualities, but in the real world it’s everything.
Watches are `man jewelery` for most people so there's a likelihood of receiving the same answers from most guys.
For me it's total reliability, sturdiness and legibility. The rest (residuals, heritage, company history, wowing other non watch people on holiday etc etc matter not a jot.