Campaigns

Carl F. Bucherer’s Approach to Targeting Chinese Travellers

by

Genna Meredith | January 09, 2017

Speaking with the brand’s CEO, Sascha Moeri, to discuss Carl F. Bucherer's latest approach to generating awareness among a smartphone-savvy audience of Chinese travellers: the Made of Lucerne City Guide.

In 1888, Carl Friedrich Bucherer opened a jewelry and watch shop in Lucerne, and his name rapidly became a synonym for quality and originality. Lucerne was the site chosen by Mr. Bucherer for making his vision come true with the promise, still today, that one can experience Lucerne and its unique terroir within the beating heart of their timepieces.

With key long-time brand values centered on craftsmanship and heritage, the brand revealed their new brand identity at Baselworld 2016 and put Lucerne, the brand’s home in the heart of Switzerland, at the center of its communication.

“Our mission is to shape this future with respect to the brand’s distinct heritage,” Carl F. Bucherer CEO, Sascha Moeri was quoted as saying.

Luxury Society spoke with Moeri to get further insight:

It was recently announced that Carl F. Bucherer has launched a mobile-first campaign focused on Chinese Travelers; can you explain the concept and the objectives?

We worked closely with digital strategy and marketing firm Digital Luxury Group (parent to Luxury Society) to develop a campaign that had three goals; first to maximize the impact of the new brand positioning, second to strengthen the link between Lucerne and Carl F. Bucherer, and third to create an emotional connection between our audience and our brand.

Together we created an interactive travel experience in the form of a mobile city guide that targets users at key points in their travel decision making and travelling process.

In addition to providing our own recommendations on how to enjoy the city the Carl F. Bucherer way, we invited travel bloggers and photographers to experience Lucerne themselves and share their journey through their own eyes.

Why a City Guide specifically? And why focused on Lucerne?

Lucerne is a city whose spirit has shaped the brand since 1888. For Carl F. Bucherer, Lucerne is more than just our birthplace, it is the inspiration and energy behind everything the brand does.

As a brand we wanted to bring the city to life through our own eyes with a list of places curated for the curious traveller to explore.

How do you plan to generate traffic to the stores?

We implemented a multi QR code activation plan where users can scan one of three QR codes from a variety of sources, both on and offline. Each QR code gives users a different opportunity to interact with the brand.

For instance, we placed a QR code on outdoor advertisements featuring Carl F. Bucherer’s Global Brand Ambassador Li Bingbing. When scanned the users receive a special welcome message from Li Bingbing herself thus helping to strengthen the association between Li Bingbing and the Pathos collection she wears.

We also featured QR codes at the point of sale so users could find out more about the city guide and the watch itself. A few hours later the user receives a trigger message about promotions at their local Carl F. Bucherer store.

You decided to focus on a mobile-only city guide, why?

Data from Digital Luxury Group revealed that over 50% of the traffic for luxury watch brands comes from mobile devices, and in particular smart phones. In addition we know that China’s population is strongly mobile, so going mobile-first was essential for our campaign.

What is the activation plan around the campaign?

In addition to working with influencers in both the watch and travel/photography space, we have a 360° activation plan that includes search engine marketing both with Google and Baidu, social media focusing on Weibo, WeChat, Facebook, Instagram, and importantly an offline link in the form of QR codes targeting our Chinese audience.“

Interested in learning more about Social Media and how it affects your brand?

How do you plan to measure the success of the initiative?

We are tracking and measuring what the most popular places visited in Lucerne by Chinese travellers are, what are the most popular pieces of content both in terms of being engaged with and being shared, and most importantly who are the customers entering our boutiques.

What are the challenges of targeting Chinese abroad, and how is this campaign going to tackle these?

Lots of our Chinese customers discover our brand or purchase our timepieces when abroad so it is key to reactivate them. That is where our CRM initiative with WeChat comes into its own. With branded content and trigger messages, we generate interest and invite users to the Carl F. Bucherer stores to experience the timepieces live.

When a potential customer is already in the store, we are providing additional information about the product and the brand in Chinese.

Our global brand ambassador Li Bingbing highly supports our Digital Lucerne Guide with messages and her own sightseeing tips, encouraging visitors to try the very same collection that she wears.

What about the future? What are your plans for 2017 and beyond with the city guide and campaign generally?

We are excited to reveal that our Global Brand Ambassador Li Bingbing will be visiting Lucerne again in 2017 to visit our upcoming new Boutique at the Grendel. So look out for more updates to come!


China | Travel | Watches