At some point of your life, you may have the urge to start your own online business and really become self-employed. After some research, you find that starting a watch brand is something worth trying. But hold on a minute. Is it still a good idea to start a watch brand or company today?
Our company VAST is a watch manufacturer based in southern China. Thanks to this role, we have witnessed some amazing success stories, and some failure ones. Let us be honest. Roughly 7 out of 10 new watch brands we have worked with failed in the end – not because of product quality but inexperience managing a business. However, the rest 30% of our clients made it, with their business growing each year. That is to say, there is still chance of success.
Some people would ask, “What do you think makes the difference?” Well, our sales persons keep close contact with our clients, so they as onlookers have got some idea of these either success or failure stories. In this blog post, we will list a few factors that you had better consider before starting your own watch brand or company.
Market Segmentation
Before ordering any watches from your manufacturer, you should spend some time thinking about what your main selling points are. If you can’t list a few, you will soon be struggling with your selling. The watches market is competitive, and people have lots of choices. Why do they have to buy from you?
This is all about visualizing who your potential buyers are. Focus on a specific group of people, learn about their needs, and tailor your watch designs to suit their needs. The best solution is to create watches that people can’t buy from anywhere else.
Marketing Campaigns
We suggest that new watch companies should have someone good at marketing on their team. The reality is – watch designing and manufacturing are the easy part, especially for suppliers like VAST; marketing becomes the difficult part. If marketing is done well, there will be substantial revenue to keep the new watch company or brand running. If not, it will fail soon.
Note that we are using the word “marketing” instead of “sales”. They are different. Sales is about assisting potential buyers with their purchase, while marketing is about establishing channels for people to find your products. Our clients who successfully started their own watch brand are all marketing experts.
Pricing Strategies
Even today, watch retailing can still have a good profit margin. A quartz watch costing 20 USD can be sold at 60-100 USD. Chronograph watches costing between 25 and 30 USD can be sold at 80-150 USD. There are high profits out there. However, be careful with your pricing, as it can greatly affect your sales. Don’t set your prices too high. People will not spend the same money on your watches as they do on equivalent big brand watches. And low pricing is a good strategy in some countries. It all depends. Make sure you spend some time working out the best pricing strategies.
Starting Capital
As a watchmaker, we sometimes got inquiries from crowdfunding projects. There is nothing wrong with crowdfunding – it is a great invention indeed for startups. Also, crowdfunding is a great way to test the soundness of your business idea. There is nothing to lose.
Our advice is that you spare extra money for emergencies. The more, the better. Watch manufacturing probably accounts for most of your project expenses, but import duties, photo-shooting, and marketing campaigns also cost money. It would be a pity if you run out of money when your order is under production.
Hopefully this blog post provides you something to think about before taking your first step. If you are ready, please contact our team and we would be very glad to help you out.