WL: Your brand is one of the few that is stand-alone, not associated with any larger group or conglomerate. How does that impact your brand DNA?
PB: I think my brother and I are the only two people in the world possibly who can say that they are running an international watch brand started by their grandfather. If you look at the other independent or stand-alone watch brands they have either been taken over by another family or have gone bankrupt and taken over. We are the only watch brand that is completely family-owned. You have to understand, my grandfather owns one hundred per cent of the shares and the third generation is now here, so that makes Raymond Weil completely unique. We could have sold the brand, we get offers everyday and some are nice while some are not nice but it is not what we want to do . As long as the family is happy running the business, as long as we are growing in numbers, and as long as we are enjoying the business, why should we stop? It is in our blood, in our DNA. I like to compare the watch industry to the beer industry. Earlier in restaurants you would find different types of beer because many families were making their own brands of beer, now you only see a few because most brands are owned by larger groups. So we have a dream to keep running this family-owned company. To our retailers, they have a certain interest to have the brand because we offer solutions and flexible discussions. We discuss with them the way forward, the way to improve our business together and they know they can rely on us. So I believe that for a brand, being family-owned is important. And it also gives us opportunity to travel, because we want to give the customers direct contact with the family. I travel 42 weeks, with only 4 weeks of vacation and other time spent at Basel.
WL: What is your perception of the Indian market and how do you feel Raymond Weil is positioned?
PB: What I know about India is that it is a strong emerging market. But while my father loves it so much, he wants to keep it high-level. We have a very select distribution here. But it is probably the one place in the world were we have such a large number of stand-alone boutiques. We have some in the Middle East, two in Singapore, one in Vietnam and two in China. But in India we have three now, and soon four stand-alone boutiques, making it the number one country in the world for Raymond Weil boutiques. We could have had more multi-brand stores and go public but my dad wanted to keep it exclusive. I think we have the right product and also have the right name. A few years ago, I read in I think Time magazine for India that Raymond Weil was considered as one of the top five luxury brands, it was five years ago before we got all these stand-alone boutiques. So I don’t see why we shouldn’t do well, especially with new products like Freelancer and Maestro. And we had so many Indian customers at the booth during this fair that I guess it’s a sign of pretty good future results.
WL: You are very well connected with the public through your Facebook and Twitter accounts. You have also started an ad campaign for Greater China. Would you be starting something like that for India as well?
PB: Probably yes. We are now doing research to show whether there would be any interest in having an Indian icon or not. We did it for China because we believed that it was important to have an icon in that country. They needed to understand what the watch brand really is, maybe a bit more than other markets. In India, the watch market and consumer are a little bit ahead. Those that are buying watches don’t need to associate a face with the brand. ForRaymond Weil, I don’t think it is necessary. That is my personal opinion. But for the time being, we will definitely analyse this. And if the analysis shows we need an icon, then we will do it, but I would rather not do it than choose the wrong icon. We had a bad experience four or five years ago and I would not wish to repeat it. You have to understand that in a family-owned brand, when we sign on an icon, it’s like taking money out from inside our own wallets and giving it because we have been working hard for that money, it doesn’t come from the stock exchange . So we have to make sure that the person will help the brand.
WL: Knowing the brand and your own connection to music, as well as most of the brand icons being artists, India will have a lot to offer in that sense, don’t you think?
PB: That is something that I did not investigate yet. We did some work on what should be the marketing campaign over the next few years and you can see on the reports that Raymond Weil as a company has a great connection to music and we want to, in the future too, reinforce that musical flavour in our communication and marketing. So it’s good to know that India has so much to offer, as you will surely know. And if we should go for it, we will. Our watches have been our brand ambassadors but that was years ago. We have to keep with the times and it cannot be so today. We cannot count on those who bought our watches 25 years ago alone. That is why we are on social media platforms, and we have to get the right campaigns and right retailers. So we need to reach the younger consumer to make sure the brand has a future.
WL: So you want the watches that you come out with to be designed and aligned for a younger audience? And do you see any trends in sales or certain lines?
PB: The communication is oriented towards the younger consumer. In our lines, the Jasmine watch is designed for the younger audience while the other lines are more established. We try to reach everyone from the ages of 25-50. In terms of trends, Maestro and Jasmine watches do very well in India and Singapore. They probably embody our growth there with the beautiful design and value. In America, Freelancer and Noemia do well and Nabucco in Europe.