1. Octob
er
2015
Pray Watches
Clay de Souza
Marketing
Consultant
[PRAY WATCHES
MARKETING
STRATEGY]
[This paper outlines and highlights key digital and luxury marketing strategies
for Pray watches.]

2. 2014 was foretold to be the year that tips the scales, with more than 50% of
well heeled customers discovering, actively looking and shopping for luxury
items by means of digital channels. This evolution is encouraged by shoppers
who are online to save time, yet remain likely to finish the purchase in-store.
Going by an April 2013 Luxury Institute study on the multichannel
purchasing habits of United States Internet users with incomes of at least
$150,000, 48& of those surveyed discovered information about luxury fashion
online by means of a computer. However, only about a 1/4th actually finished
the purchase online.
Moreover, eMarketer discovered that a monstrous 74 % of purchases inquired
on smart phones and tablets are completed in-store.
This brings me to the first strategy:
Mobile
We are inclined to consider that mobile consumers as akin to desktop
consumers, but on different devices. This is just not the case.

3. Most mobile time is simply “mobile” aka “phone time”. Digital marketers and
I in particular have been struggled to find that right perfect time to market
digitally but recent times are changing all of this.
With more than 70% of daily Facebook and Twitter users on a mobile device,
marketers must think mobile-first.
For marketers marketing luxury products this is particularly challenging as
device constraints and consumer expectations limit the richness of the
experience.
But with my skill and creativity, I will embrace the constraints without
compromising brand promise.
Understanding the purchase intent journey
I have been trying to figure out what makes people purchase as long as
Marketers have been selling, nevertheless it is a disjointed challenge and
gathering the data at every step has been unattainable.
Digital Marketers have made a lot of progress due to the likes of Datalogix
(which I would for us to use) and others and, as a result we should are on the
verge of the next evolution, if we even almost completely “wire” the journey.

4. The one main constant in the modern world, is the Smartphone.
In the next phase of digital marketing, understanding how and why consumers
buy will be vital to attracting the next generation of affluent shoppers.
Omnichannel movement continues to gain traction
Our ability to reach any given consumer across our strategies will emerge and
quickly grow with proper implementation which incorporates devices. This
will enable you and I to better understand the customer journey and the
patterns likely to drive discovery, exploration and consideration. We can utilize
a multitude of automation software products to help us with this including (but
not limited to) Marketo, HubSpot, and neustar.
With more than half of U.S. affluent consumers soon discovering new luxury
products online, it is imperative that we understand how these trends
converge.
Making connections between channels will be essential as well. “Can I
schedule a consultation from my phone?”, “Can I easily share what I have liked
on the Web site with an associate?”

5. Social + mobile + storefront = Magic
Mobile applications are the key bridge from digital to the “store”. I will look for
major innovation in a few categories that will extend this magic, specifically
apps that enable shoppers to feel connected to the luxury experience, such as
Tourneau’s virtual watch tray that allows online research with pick-up in-store
or social shopping apps that enable consumers to “like” and manage products
through Pinterest, Wanelo, Polyvore and ShopKick.
I will need to also watch and learn from mass-market retailers’ innovation and
use of digital wallets such as Apple’s Passbook and Google Wallet that can
store gift cards as well as brand-specific apps that enable shoppers to manage
and receive in-store redeemable mobile offers from anywhere.
The last mile
Vicinity-based mobile notifications that pull information from the app
categories above are closing the last mile between the retailer and the
consumer.
Apple’s iBeacon (Bluetooth SMART), NFC and other location-based
technology will finally begin to take hold.

6. I as a marketer know that getting someone into the store is 90 percent of the
challenge here.
Once there, it is a matter of experience, discovery and driving toward high-
value products.
With Apple’s deployment of iBeacons, I can now communicate with
consumers and track everything from how many got close to the store, entered
the store, and which products they browsed and bought.
For digital marketers, the long awaited online to offline closed loop reporting
will finally be a reality.
Be everywhere
Luxury marketers from empirical research are notoriously skilled at creating
rich experiences from fashion shows to print ads, they have been slow to go
deep on digital.
Content is currently the fuel that drives digital marketing. As Burberry has so
deftly shown, reaching new affluent consumers requires broad content creation
and distribution strategies.

7. From Instagram and Vine videos to maintaining a Tumblr, I like luxury
marketers must find key audiences and engage in their worlds, adhering to
their rules.
Being early adopters of new social mobile technology can give us credibility –
watch, learn and be ready to jump-in.
But content strategies are hard to form overnight, so I must work now to see
how I can apply my essence and promise across emerging platforms. We
should do it now so they can be more nimble in the future.
Social Mobile convergence and luxury’s traditional focus on building
experiences that drive loyalty is great for marketers ready to take advantage of
the ability to tell a cohesive brand story across channels.
Brands that are able to personalize the experience throughout the customer
journey, up to and including the last mile, will see that the dividends drive
serious business value, which will only accelerate as millennials grow in their
purchasing power and share of affluent luxury consumers.
In luxury brand management, most industry players have realized that
experiences are essential. But most of what I know about designing customer

8. experiences stems from my hospitality work with Hilton Worldwide, as well as
additional research. Luxury brands are an entirely different proposition and
require a very specific approach to brand management and marketing. Based
on extensive research of the market in collaboration with Pernod Ricard,
here are six things you need to focus on in order to design and market a true
luxury experience.
Advocate beliefs
Luxury brands should advocate beliefs to customers rather than simply rely on
brand values. Beliefs go further; they’re more specific and, consequently, more
segmenting. Unlike mass brands, luxury brands should not strive to please
everyone, but those customers whose beliefs align with their own.& tech
Be more than a logo
When consumers think of a true luxury brand, they’re likely to think of a
whole set of visual icons, rather than one single logo. These can include
monograms, brand symbols, logos, colors, patterns, images and even concepts.
A good example of this is Bottega Veneta, whose leather goods display no
visible symbols or logo, but are instead recognised by the weaved leather

9. pattern of their products. Then there’s Chanel. Think of the brand and you’ll
think of black and white, the number five, the camellias, pearls, or a little black
dress. You so far have a good logo to work with.
Involve the customer in a ritual
A true luxury brand cannot stop their offering at the product; they must go
beyond that to offer unique services or rituals. This can start with something as
simple as attentive sales people and prompt customer service, but it should
really go beyond that to create a consumption “ritual” that allows customers to
experience the brand.
Perfume brand Le Labo does this very well. Using the premise that the quality
of perfume deteriorates over time, it revolutionized the consumer buying
experience by offering a special personal experience: each Le Labo perfume is
hand-blended and individually prepared in front of the customer at the
moment of purchase. The glass decanter is then dated and the customer’s
name is printed on the label. After taking the perfume home, the customer
must let it marinate in the fridge for a week before using it. Through this ritual,
buying Le Labo perfume becomes more than an exclusive product; it becomes

10. a personal experience. Another good example is Porsche, which innovated the
delivery process by allowing customers to pick up their new car right off the
assembly line in Germany.
The store is a temple
Luxury brands must pay extra special attention to the way they sell and
innovate at the point of purchase. Before, it was enough for luxury brands to
use brick and mortar stores to sell their products, but they must now aim to
design multifunctional, controlled spaces that create brand experiences and
communicate brand beliefs. These types of stores function almost like a temple
for discerning consumers.
An example of this is Prada, which embarked upon a unique project with
Dutch research studio AMO and renowned architect Rem Koolhaas. The
result of this collaboration was a wide-ranging project that included special
“epicentres” – stores designed to provide a working laboratory for experimental
shopping experiences. BMW World in Munich is another example of a
temple-like showroom, where consumers can “experience” the brand rather
than simply buy the product.

11. Pull customers into an exclusive circle
Mass brands define who their customers are and “push” products towards
them. For luxury brands, the roles are reversed: consumers must be “pulled”
towards the brand with the promise of belonging to an exclusive community.
Many consumers may want access to this circle, but only a select few who truly
share the brand beliefs can really belong.
To this end, luxury brands should create artificial barriers or initiation rituals to
select which customers gain admittance. If a customer wants to buy a premium
Apple product, all they have to do is pay the price. But Hermés customers
must form a long-term and intimate bond with the brand if they want to be
offered the opportunity to buy one of the manufacturer’s “it” bags. Rather than
putting customers off, this behavior creates a sense of belonging to a special
circle. Customers stay loyal and are rewarded for it.
Communicate legends to establish a myth
Mass brands compare themselves with competitors and communicate their
advantages over them, but true luxury brands should not do this. Rather, they
should aim to communicate the legends associated with the brand to establish
a myth. Rolls Royce achieves this by inviting a select few of their customers

12. to manufacturing facilities to see and experience the company’s storied
production process in person.
Myths should be conveyed indirectly and should be consistent in every point of
delivery, including products, stores and marketing. Luxury brands often
achieve this by inducing a degree of mystery or by making a connection with
art to communicate myths in an elevated way. Chanel actively keeps the myths
associated with its creator, Coco Chanel, alive and these myths feed the brand
to this day.
Public figures
Public figures or celebrities have traditionally been employed as one of the
marketing mix in luxury brand advertising and they still continue to garner
attention, credibility and impact.
Public figures can span from film stars to music personalities, from sports
personalities to royal families and even the designer themselves.

13. But because celebrity endorsements are no longer exclusive to the luxury space
and extensively used and abused across mass categories, they take a different
meaning when it comes to luxury brand endorsement.
Not only does the public figure’s associated values and personality have to
resonate with that of the luxury brand’s aura, but there is a distinct difference
in the way celebrity role is crafted, executed and strategically used.
Beyond traditional advertising – largely print in selected media – less in-your-
face advertising tools are employed such as accessorizing or dressing celebrities
for their walk down the red carpet, product placements within movies and
television programs and invites to special events.
This strategy attempts to remove the appearance of “selling” while still
promoting the product by making it seem as a part of the celebrity’s lives,
thereby positively affecting the consumer’s attitudes, brand value and purchase
intention.
For example, Chopard has been official partner of the Cannes Film Festival for
the last 14 years, showcasing and premiering its collection by accessorizing
celebrities on the red carpet.

14. Long-form-commercials or short-films have also used the celebrity-factor.
Chanel, for instance, recently created a three-minute film with actress Keira
Knightley who replaced Kate Moss in its ads for its Coco Mademoiselle
fragrance.
Other previous faces of Chanel have included French star Catherine Deneuve
and Nicole Kidman, who represented Chanel No. 5.
Similarly, as a part of its “core values” campaign, Louis Vuitton used its Web
site as the online medium to showcase its celebrity endorser’s journey and his
or her story to bring to life how the brand has been promoting the art of travel
and inspiring legendary journeys.
Placement
The retail branded environment in luxury branding is all about heightening
the consumer’s brand experience and amplifying the brand aura.
Hence, the branded environment and the movement of truth is where it must
“live” the brand by orchestrating immaculate detailing that engages all senses
of the discerning audience.

15. Starting from the choice of store location, the chain of touch points that
consumers interact with, the salesperson’s presentation and the impact of each
touch point is critical in creating a unique indulging experience.
That said, today’s evolving luxury consumers are increasingly looking beyond
the typical sophisticated, over-the top, cosmetically elegant presentation or
even the exclusive invites, privileged previews.
With the increasing democratization of luxury brands and the rapid emergence
of masstige brands, luxury consumers have become more discriminating and
demanding.
These consumers seek a more knowledgeable and professional assistance and a
trusted and reliable collaboration helping them to manage their stature and
lifestyle.
Not only has this led to the new business offerings, but luxury brands are also
increasingly investing in training and empowering their sales staff.
Another important point to note within the placement factor is that it is not
limited to the physical environment where the brand retails, but it extends to

16. all of the environments or consumer touch points with which that brand
associates itself.
This spans from the extremely selective niche media where it advertises to the
sports, events, art and conversations with which it identifies.
For example, Rolex associates itself with more than 150 events in golf, sailing,
tennis, motor-sport, arts and equestrian tournaments rather than with sports
such as football or cricket that have more of a mass following.
Public relations
Public relations in luxury branding plays an enormous role in image
proliferation of the brand, thereby subtly influencing public opinion.
PR is also employed to convey other supporting messages and attributes of the
brand that cannot be explicitly captured in advertising, but are by no means are
less important to create brand’s personality, mystique and emotional values –
whether it is via the pedigree factor or via public-figure any of the previous
seven P’s mentioned.

17. It is also a sophisticated branding machine for maintaining ongoing relevance
and dialogue with the luxury consumer, especially in fashion, technology and
seasonal trends-driven categories.
At a tactical level, PR is used to generate buzz and convey brand news, point of
views of inspirers and influencers including celebrity talk or the designer speak
and a crucial support for brand activation such as the fashion weeks, sport
events and themed previews.
Pricing
While few have resorted to sales and discounts, most others play it by adding
more value to the purchase such as gift with purchase, gift certificates or
rebates for the next purchase, multiple item discounts, online or email
exclusives, more loyalty points and no shipping and handling charges by online
retailers.
Luxury brands also use as a channel luxury retailers such as Harvey Nichols
and Saks Fifth Avenue that offer annual sales via slightly lower prices.
Another strategy employed by luxury brands is creating an extension into a
secondary line with relatively lower price points such as Giorgio Armani’s

18. Armani Exchange, Roberto Cavalli’s Just Cavalli, Prada’s Miu Miu and
Alexander McQueen’s McQ lines.
The Challenge
As eCommerce presences throughout the luxury industry accelerate, luxury
apparel retailers find themselves with a unique challenge: How do I create a
tailored experience to our brand loyal customers by the click of a button? More
so, how can I deliver a curated experience that mirrors the traditional in-store
experience, without point-of-purchase face time?
Because of the nature of the industry, these questions are often difficult for
luxury marketers to answer my research finds. The marketing strategy requires
more sensitivity to customer relationships than in other industries, based on a
few key findings:
1. Luxury consumers demand authentic, personal interactions. They
expect to share memorable and meaningful engagements with the products
and services to which they are loyal. Similarly, luxury consumers feel a
sense of ownership in the brands they identify with.
2. These consumers psychologically desire particular lifestyles and
experiences. It’s important to understand that for these shoppers, perceived
product value increases over the lifetime of the product, making it very

19. important for luxury retailers to stay engaged throughout the customer
lifecycle, not just at point-of-purchase.
3. Luxury consumers identify with product authenticity, and consequently
lose interest in brands when they become overexposed and fall mercy to
brand dilution.
So how can luxury retailers deliver the same compelling customer experience
in an online setting, and continue to develop unique relationships, so customer
retention is achieved?
Targeted email campaigns are a proven way to engage with your customer
base. These engagements involve personalized interactions, allowing loyal
relationships to be formed, and then retained.
The Solution
In brief, here are just a few ways luxury apparel retailers will strengthen
customer retention by including retention automation in their email marketing
strategy:
1. Thank your customers by triggering post purchase email messages,
increasing customer lifetime value.

20. 2. Identify your best customers based on product, purchase and customer
data or an RFM analysis, and reward them to strengthen customer loyalty.
3. Target churning customers through win-back and cart recovery
campaigns, to earn profitability on otherwise lost sales.
4. Personalize your email marketing campaigns with automated product
recommendations based on previous purchase behavior.
The Result
By leveraging product, purchase and customer data in email marketing
campaigns, luxury marketers will increase retention rates and customer lifetime
values, and engage in long-term customer relationships, which will reveal vast
unforeseen amounts of untapped revenue.
The 9 Pillars of Retention Automation framework help marketers like
me plan and implement retention marketing campaigns through key stages in
the customer life-cycle. Build the 9 Pillars of Retention Automation into this-
your marketing campaign and start retaining customers today.
As a B2B Marketer, I’am Responsible For a Lot

21. I am on the hook for more than just moving prospects through the funnel and
delivering leads to sales. I’m responsible for managing the customer
relationship. But how does it feel to the customer when that transition takes
place? All too often, the first contact with sales feels like starting the
conversation over again. And for customers who have already invested time
and energy learning about a company and their products, this can be a jarring
experience. Great composers use consistent melodic themes over the course of
a piece. As a marketer, it is my responsibility to ensure there is harmony and
consistency over the full lifecycle of the customer relationship. But linking the
conversations that marketing and sales have with prospects depends on my
ability (and willingness) to share insights that are born from data.
What if you were to approach your role as not only getting a prospect ready for
sales—but also getting sales ready for the prospect? Marketers typically think of
sales acceleration as shortening the sales cycle (abbreviating the time it takes to
make a lead sales-ready), but it’s time that we extend the concept to include
what we can do to help sales close on the deal faster. By doing so, you will
prepare sales to continue, rather than reinitiate, the relationship that began
when a prospect first clicked on one of your search links or a banner ad.

22. Ready to start building stronger customer and prospect
relationships?

24. Keep Sales and Marketing on the Same Page
If a composer wrote an incredible music score, but handed the orchestra pieces
of paper with only the title, what would be the result? Or even worse, what
might it be like if the musicians received sheet music but chose to ignore its
directions and notes? The result would be cacophonous. Unfortunately, due to
frequent disconnects between sales and marketing, this kind of dissonance is
frequently felt by prospects and leads.
We hear over and over again how the educated buyer is completing more of
the purchase journey before contacting sales. As a result, marketing
departments like yours are being held directly responsible for revenue.
However, for most B2B sales, customers will talk to sales before making their
final decision. Think about how the transition feels to your customers. Do they
feel like they’re continuing a journey or starting a new one?
If you’re accountable for revenue, you have to think beyond the lead to how
(and if) it is developed. That’s why there’s more incentive than ever to meet
expectations not only for lead quantity, but also for lead quality. Further,
marketing must start thinking about the continuity of the relationship after the

25. lead goes to sales. We’ve got more of a vested interest in the outcome than ever
before, so we need to take a more active and collaborative role with sales.
It shouldn’t be that hard. As marketers, we spend a big part of our lives trying
to figure out what customers care about and how we can tell a differentiated
story so they’ll buy our stuff. Sales cares about the exact same thing. The key is
that we need to stop thinking about the “handoff” between sales and
marketing, and start thinking about how to integrate the conversation.
Improvising On a Consistent Theme
Jazz musicians are adept at taking a melody and finding new ways of
interpreting and presenting it. One musician can start a theme and the next
can improvise off of it, expanding and exploring. That same interplay should
exist between sales and marketing. By the time sales picks up a lead, the
relationship “theme” has already been established. So how do you make sure
that sales is taking advantage of and building on that foundation?
There isn’t a big secret or any kind of magic—it’s really about increasing
transparency and improving communication. The better (and faster) the sales
team understands what marketing has done prior to the transition, the easier it
will be for them to pick up the lead. Most importantly, marketers have to
remember that customer information and insight don’t just come from digital

26. footprints. Insights also come from the interactions that sales reps have directly
with clients. The more that sales sees that you’re embracing what they’ve
learned, the more receptive they’ll be.
Have you ever watched drummers count off the introduction of a song? They
make sure the band is paying attention, and then provide a starting time (often
by clicking their drumsticks together). This helps the band get aligned to the
rhythm so they can start together. That’s what marketers need to do to start
creating organizational alignment: Make sure that the entire organization is
paying attention and then establish a rhythm that everyone can agree to.
Everybody is already driving to the same outcome: building a relationship with
a prospect or customer. But we need a central point, a “click” if you will,
around which we align. Customer data can be that click. By using real
customer data, not only will we create better alignment with sales, we’ll
develop better marketing, because it’ll be more aligned (and more responsive)
to what customers actually want.

28. Key takeaways
In conclusion, the key this marketing strategy is to boil down to the following
three points:
• Product excellence by itself in not enough. The luxury brand must perform at
an experiential level as well.
As luxury consumers evolve, not only does product quality act as a point of
differentiation, but also as substance to justify a premium value and pricing.
• While pedigree factor is important to celebrate the years of mastery or lineage,
it is crucial to generate ongoing relevance and dynamism through the persona,
PR and public-figure factor.
• Luxury brands must continue to maintain a certain degree of exclusivity and
stature with the paucity factor and the placement factor – from the retail
experience to the touch points with which it associates itself.