2014 Premium Watch Consumption Trend Survey

As a luxury that successful people can display at any time, precision-made high-end watches have an annual value-added rate of more than 20% 30%. The small size, large value, and easy inheritance make watches always occupy the luxury goods. top spot in consumption. From the perspective of the global watch market, as early as 2012, China has surpassed the United States to become the world's largest watch consumer.

After years of rapid growth in mainland China's luxury goods market, the emergency brake in 2013 means the arrival of an inflection point. However, this does not mean that the purchasing power of the Chinese people is declining or the overall market is shrinking. On the contrary, it is found from the latest luxury watch consumption trend survey conducted by "CEConline" magazine and CIMIGO survey company that as more Chinese people can freely enter and leave the country Under the influence of multiple factors such as price, exchange rate, and category, in 2014, high-end consumers will be more inclined to go overseas to buy luxury watches such as luxury watches.

Strong demand for high-end watches

The average annual household income of the high-net-worth individuals participating in the survey is more than 500,000 yuan, and more than 30% of the respondents have an annual income of more than one million yuan. The consumption of luxury goods is at least 40,000 yuan. Respondents came from first-, second-, and third-tier cities in China, with first-tier cities accounting for 51% of the total.

The survey shows that, different from the mainstream demand for gift-giving in previous years, the main motivation of this group of people with higher requirements on quality of life to buy high-end watches is the need to highlight their identity, self-reward and personal preferences in business situations. Among them, 20% of the respondents in 2013 spent more on high-end watches than the previous year, and planned to spend more in 2014; 25% were relatively stable, spending the same on high-end watches for two consecutive years.

When it comes to what brand of fine watch to buy, most people make their own decisions about the watch brand they buy. However, 10% of women and 5% of men are also willing to listen to a referral from an in-store salesperson. 37% of people who hear or see a watch from a premium brand will buy it immediately. Another 38% will buy within 3 months. But 22% of women will take longer to consider, and only 15% of men will take more than 1 year to complete a purchase.

Most respondents like precious metal materials, classic and simple designs, and medium-sized high-end watches. Among them, 31% of men prefer large-scale high-end watches; women prefer precious metals and new watches. Materials, on-trend styles, inlaid jewels and fine watches in small sizes.

Hong Kong has become the first choice for overseas purchases

In recent years, during the discount season, the news of Chinese local tyrants queuing up overseas to buy luxury goods is endless. Annual spending overseas totaled US$102 billion, a significant increase of 41% from US$73 billion in 2011, and Morgan Stanley released a report predicting that by 2015 Chinese tourists will spend as much as US$194 billion overseas.

Due to exchange rate changes and tariffs, the sales price of high-end watches of the same brand and style in the domestic market is 20% 40% higher than that in foreign countries. Respondents do not buy high-end watches in mainland China. Price advantage, abundant supply of styles and guarantee of genuine products are the main reasons for them to go overseas to buy high-end watches. Hong Kong is their first choice for buying watches.

Most of the Chinese business owners interviewed this time have been to Hong Kong. Sixty percent of them go to Hong Kong at least twice a year, and 59 percent of them go to Hong Kong for leisure or business trips. Among the bosses who have purchased a high-end watch in the past two years, 57% chose to buy it in Hong Kong.

Social media are leading the way

The survey also reflects that the channels for bosses to receive information on luxury watches have also undergone great changes. Traditional media and new media have jointly influenced the In their cognitive process of the brand, the official website of the watch brand plays an important role.

If we decompose the whole process from brand recognition and impression to purchase desire to final purchase into five stages, brand recognition and impression, product understanding, price comparison, purchase decision and after-sales, we find that For the bosses, the print media has the greatest impact in the initial stages of "brand recognition and impression" and "understanding the product". The bosses who participated in the survey generally do not easily buy unfamiliar brands, and magazine advertisements can directly convey the brand connotation they express to them. Among all the categories and formats of magazines, the advertisements in the paper version of financial management magazines have an impact on the bosses' "brand recognition and impression" stage of 14%, and the impact on the stage of "understanding products" accounts for 11%. Advertisements in magazines have 11% and 8% influence in these two stages, respectively.

The influence of online media at this stage should not be underestimated. Online media, including electronic print media, are important in the entire purchase decision-making process. Portals, search engines and watch brand official websites play an important role in the entire purchase process. 21% of the bosses believe that the word of mouth in the circle of friends is very important in their entire process from the desire to buy to the final purchase, especially in the initial stage of brand awareness and impression.

Social networks are generally popular among target consumers. 65% of the respondents have Weibo accounts, and more than 80% have WeChat accounts. WeChat official account. However, 30% of respondents in second-tier cities and 35% of bosses with annual household income of more than 2 million do not have WeChat accounts.

The image of the watch recognized by most people in this survey is consistent with its brand connotation. Surprisingly, the famous luxury brand Hermes (Hermes) watch left consumers with the impression that it is not "classic". , high-end, limited, value for money", but "modern, young, warm, friendly", perhaps because its advertisements appear less in financial management magazines often read by corporate executives and more in fashion magazines middle.

84% of bosses prefer Swiss-made watches, while a whopping 92% of respondents from second-tier cities prefer to buy Swiss watches. Among all high-end watch brands, Rolex (Rolex), Omega (Omega) and Longines (Longines) have high brand recognition and share, ranking the top three. VC (Jiang Stanton), IWC (IWC) and Cartier (Cartier) have the same share (9%). In a similar survey in 2010, Tissot (Tissot), Omega and Longines ranked in the top three for brand awareness. In the survey, we also found that Rolex, Omega and Longines brands are liked by both men and women, while VC and IWC brands have more male fans, and Cartier has more female fans.

In short, in 2014, high-end watch brands will continue to lead the Chinese luxury consumption boom, and more than 30% of people still want to buy watches in China, and personal use has become the mainstream. Although the domestic watch brand stores have limited contribution to sales, they still have a lot to do in enhancing brand reputation and pre-sale and after-sale consumer service experience! As the largest consumer of luxury watches, Hong Kong brand stores should carefully study how to combine social networks, print advertising content and event guidance, and do a good job in the O2O interactive business model as a tool to promote purchases and retain customers!