27 July 2008 - 2:03Marketing Luxury: Jaeger-LeCoultre

A few years ago, we helped Dr. Romanelli develop and implement the international marketing program for a co-branded product line he was doing with Jaeger-LeCoultre. The idea was to excite influencers, reach tomorrow’s luxury watch buyers, and get today’s buyers into the shops….around the world. Judging from the amount of global press coverage, traffic to the campaign site, and some spot checks at retailers where the watches sold-out, the project succeeded.

So we were happy to see this week that JLC is continuing with this PR/marketing strategy, making it happen with a fascinating and beautiful production collaboration with Marc Newson. It’s a good roadmap for how an old luxury brand can get the message out that it is fresh and relevant:

• Browsing daily newsletter from CoolHunting.com

• See a blurb on a new Jaeger-LeCoultre/Mark Newson collaboration (via Watchismo)

• Remember that JLC has a history of surprising product collaborations with artists

• Notice that the collaboration seems true to the JLC brand and technology

• Follow a link to the JLC site to see what else they’re doing.

• Note the global-ready and equestrian-inspired splash page

• Explore and see another JLC project with Alicia Keyes, and something else with Leonard DiCaprio

• Impressed with a live webcam of the “Manufacture” (JLC workshop since 1833)

• Understand JLC in a different way: the brand is relevant, luxurious and innovative. The watches, a product of craftsmanship, heritage and imagination.

• Post in own blog, proliferating the brand and the story.

A  weak link though is the JLC site itself. It is not nearly as engaging or imaginative as its product collaboration (which are nowhere to be found on the site). For the Dr. Romanelli project, we created a playful micro-site that illustrated the concept interactively, and designed/produced theatrical window displays for energy and focus at the retail level. That level of follow-through on execution isn’t apparent with this latest Marc Newson project. I also wish I could just sign-up for a JLC newsletter about future collaborations (without registering for the “Le Club”), and it would be good to see past collaborations too (JLC have been doing this for many years).

But overall, an effective job at communicating that JLC is a luxury brand with imagination.

- Michael