News With its new collection of ladies’ watches and a promotional campaign produced by two contemporary artists, Piaget, the traditional brand par excellence, is modernizing its image and its clientele.
"Possession is a very accomplished and aggressively priced product. It is targeted at customers who, hitherto, were not necessarily interested in our brand: women between the ages of 20 and 40. By launching it, our goal clearly is to win new market share". The General Manager of Piaget, Philippe Léopold-Metzger is not one to mince his words. He is laying great store by this new line of ladies’ watches and does not hesitate to say as much.
Even so, it must be admitted that Possession has what it takes to be a storming success among its targeted public. Its price, firstly: 4,500 francs for the basic model in 18-carat yellow gold, 250 more for the white gold model, whereas previously the starting price in Piaget’s ladies’ range was around 8,000 francs. The Possession watch thus ideally complements the jewellery collection of the same name, launched with enormous success at the beginning of the 1990s with roughly the same core price of 5,000 francs.
But more than anything, Possession is a style: a flat gold ring set with one or more diamonds turning endlessly around the dial. The hands tick off the exquisite hours of this very feminine jewel watch, recognisable by its exclusive Arabic numerals. Always and never the same, the Possession watch makes it very easy to mix bracelets – plain or decorative on top, coloured underneath – in tune with fashions, seasons and moods. Faithful to the spirit and style of the collection, it proclaims its affinity with the magical and haunting word - Possession – engraved in the gold of its case.
To accompany the launch of this timepiece – it has been on sale in Japan since the end of July and in Europe since mid-September - Piaget has completely revamped its advertising. The old approach failed to give sufficient expression to some of the brand’s values, such as extravagance, flamboyance and exuberance, and targeted a customer base older than the one at which the Possession line is aimed. Orchestrated by the Saatchi & Saatchi agency, the new campaign bears the signature of two world-renowned French artists, Pierre & Gilles, who subtly blend avant-garde and kitsch. Collaborators since 1976, they have become famous by creating an art that bears their own stamp, in the form of painted photographs, and which reaches its apogee in the series of portraits produced for Piaget: magical, sumptuous garden decors mirroring their fertile imaginations. The undoubted star of this promotional campaign, which combines newspapers, magazines and posters and which will be at its most prominent in the run-up to Christmas, is the actress Marie Gillain (see photo).
In view of all this, one can easily understand why Philippe Léopold-Metzger declares himself to be "at peace" with the future. Indeed, Piaget should have little difficulty in confirming its excellent first-half results, which are perfectly in line with those of watch manufacturers in the Richemont group, namely sales growth of more than 20%. The future is therefore particularly bright for the company’s watchmaking activity – with sales at present evenly divided between men's and ladies' watches – having grown consistently for several years and today accounting for more than 75% of the firm’s business. And there is nothing to indicate that this progress is about to stop. Quite the contrary.
With a 700-strong workforce, 450 of whom are employed in Switzerland, the manufactories in Plan-les-Ouates and La Côte-aux-Fées have at their disposal a global distribution network of 825 points of sale with the company operating 44 of its own stores, including the Piaget outlet scheduled to open in October in Moscow. The great advantage of this network is an already well-established presence in China (25 points of sale including five Piaget stores) and in India (twelve points of sale and one Piaget store in Bombay), which Philippe Léopold-Metzger proposes to double before too long!
October 07, 2005
