Branding Strategy of Rolex

Rolex, the one and only. The watch brand is famous all over the world for its unique quality and high-end watches. People know Rolex as a remarkably expensive watch brand as well. It is a distinguishable, desirable brand that has its unique place among other watch manufacturers in the market. Various implemented strategies and factors helped Rolex to build its fame and success. The effective branding of the company was one of the most influential factors that have landed the brand in the present powerful position. Let’s dive deeper and explore the branding strategy of Rolex in detail.

Let’s start by discussing the brand identity of Rolex through revealing the personality of Rolex.

For this purpose, let’s discuss the following post from the Instagram page of the company.

The post is quite typical for a watch manufacturer. It is something that anyone would expect to see on a social media page of such a brand. The photo of the post is sleek, elegant, strong, and promising. It has some type of masculinity and power to it that gives a sense of reliability, authority, and quality. The picture shows a beautiful and careful blend of small components and colors in the mechanism of a watch, which emphasizes how important are details to Rolex.

The post description is transferring detailed and clear information about the product depicted in the photo. All the strong and outstanding attributes of the product are listed in the caption one by one. Besides giving a strong description of the product, the caption gives a general impression about Rolex as well. It described Rolex as a leading, reliable, high-quality, and innovative brand that knows what it does is self-confident and driven to show excellent performance in everything.

All the listed details show that Rolex is an influential and leading position and has authority to some extent among other watch manufacturers in the market. These characteristics identify that Rolex is a representative of the Ruler brand archetype. The motto of this archetype is “Power isn’t everything. It’s the only thing!”

What does the Ruler brand archetype stand for?

Desire: to rule and control

Aim: tocreate a successful, fortunate, and strong company, community, or family

Strategy: show authority and leadership

Moving on, let’s go through the messaging levels of the archetype.

Level One: shortage or absence of balance, order, and resources.

Level Two: to take the role to control and change the state of your life.

Level Three: to manifest and show authority in your surrounding .

Level Four: to grow into a leader in your society, sphere, or community.

Ruler brand archetype will be a favorable and promising identity for your brand if it has:

• a product that is sold at a moderate to high price
• a product with a lifetime guarantee
• a high-end product that is used by powerful people to strengthen their influence and status
• a product that makes it easy for people to stay more organized
• desire to stand out among other regular and populist brands on the market
• leading position in the market

Let’s continue our journey of Rolex’s branding strategy by telling the story of the brand.

Many people know Rolex as a Swiss brand. The company was founded in 1905 in London, England by Hans Wilsdorf who was only 24 at the time. The company originally carried a different name and was engaged in the distribution of timepieces. In 1908, the company was named Rolex and in following years the manufacturing was completely moved to Geneve, Switzerland. Back then wristwatches were not as popular as they are now.

The founder of the brand loved wristwatches and had a desire to create wristwatches that would be elegant enough to become as popular as traditional watches carried in pockets. He had the vision that was relevant to the changes in the market back then.

More and more people were becoming engaged in various sports, extreme activities which were making pocket watches inconvenient. There were easily damaged and broken in such conditions. Hans Wilsdorf managed to bring his innovative idea to life through Rolex watches. From the very beginning, Rolex was standing out from others in the market by its outstanding quality and attributes.

In 1910, watches by Rolex watch received the Swiss Certificate of Chronometric Precision and became first ever wristwatches hat were granted this certificate. Rolex has become a watch manufacturer that introduced the first waterproof watch ever. This new launch became a new standard of quality and benchmark on the market. The company managed to successfully maintain its outstanding quality and become one of the most respected brands. The initial values of Rolex remained the same, and the products of the brand still become trendsetters and benchmarks in the market.

Now, let’s continue with the Brand elements of Rolex to understand its identity better.

Brand elements are crucial aspects of the brand identity of every brand. The list of brand elements may be extensive, but not all of them may be applied to each brand. The list of brand elements may vary depending on the industry, products, and other aspects of the brand. The crucial brand elements of Rolex are the following ones:

Name: The word Rolex doesn’t have any meaning. There is an interesting story behind the name creation of Rolex. It was created by the founder Hans Wilsdorf. He wanted a short and simple name for his brand that would be easy to memorize and spell in all languages. Also, he wanted it to look symmetrical and good on watches. Mr. Wilsdorf started combining different letters of the alphabet to come up with the name for his watches.

He ended up with a long list of names and didn’t like any of them. Finally, he found the ideal option of name for the brand by accident. He describes that moment of enlightenment as follows: “One morning, while riding on the upper deck of a horse-drawn omnibus along Cheapside in the City of London, a genie whispered ‘Rolex’ in my ear.”

Logo: The logo of Rolex is among the most successful and recognizable ones. It consists of the brand name and a five-pointed crown. The crown is placed directly above the name of the brand, on the letter “L”, which is the central letter. It seems like Rolex carries a crown which gives it a sense of power, royalty, and status. In the beginning, the logo of the brand was depicted in black. Later on, it was upgraded, and two iconic colors replaced the black color. Till today those two colors remain the main characteristics of the logo that make it so recognizable.

The letters of the logo are colored in green, while the crown has a yellow-goldish color. These colors change depending on the model of watch that the logo is placed on, but the official logo is depicted in these two colors in advertisements or other promotional materials. The crown is the element of the logo that transfers all the associations with its symbolism. It speaks of strength, achievement, success, etc. The logo makes Rolex products a desirable reward, achievement, and not just expensive product.

Theme Line: Various taglines have been used in is various advertisements and promotional materials of Rolex that can be easily misinterpreted as a slogan for the company. In fact, the slogan of Rolex is the following:

“A Crown for Every Achievement”

It is not short but is not too wordy as well. The slogan transfers an interesting, clear, and motivating idea. It associates the brand with success, desire, goal, etc. The slogan speaks about the confidence and power of the company. It knows its role and position in the market and minds of the customers.

Rolex watches are associated with achievements and become some type of reward for such events. People typically would buy Rolex whenever they can effort it. The price of Rolex watches is remarkably high which makes Rolex purchase a symbol of success, gain, and so on. The slogan of the company is quite recognizable and is easily associated with the brand.

Color: Color is another brand element that helps to recall and identify brands easier and faster. In the logo section, two iconic colors of the Rolex slogan were mentioned. Both green and gold colors have been an inseparable part of Rolex throughout most of its history.

The gold color of the logo crown makes direct associations with the quality, prestige, and precious material like gold used in making Rolex watches. Even though Rolex is not using its iconic green color in its watches as much as before, the color still makes customers recognize the brand instantly.

Packaging: Rolex watches always come with a luxurious presentation box. This box mainly comes in milky-white or the iconic green color. Inside there is a special cushion that holds the watch ideally. The box also includes a Genuine Swiss red chronometer hang tag and an owner’s manual.

Rolex packaging has the usual luxurious and prestigious feel to it that completes the watch ideally. The boxes of the company are made from high-quality materials and look sleek and nice. From time to time the boxes are changed connected to a special edition or lines of watches.

Style: Rolex offers a wide range of watches with different styles suitable for any wrist. The selection of Rolex watches ranges from classic to professional ones. All the watches of the brand combine functionality and style. The customers may choose not only between models, but pick the materials, dials, bracelets, and bezels to have the watch that is more suitable for their taste.

Next up, let’s discuss the brand equity and positioning of Rolex.

Brand equity measures the overall perception that consumers have of the brand. Brand equity is usually formulated through the experience that customers receive from the brand. Good experience creates positive perception and feeling in the minds of customers towards the brand. Each company should be remarkably careful and attentive to generate positive brand equity, as it can be extremely hard to change negative brand equity.

Rolex has strong brand equity in the watch manufacturing sector. The company is successfully managing to maintain its image, trust, and loyalty from the customers. Rolex keeps its powerful position thanks to using unique, exquisite, and high-quality materials. Rolex is considered a luxury and prestige brand that provides outstanding experience and feeling through its products.

The company does everything to maintain the recognition level of the brand. Rolex sponsors various sport events, games, etc. Such activity and various promotional campaigns help the brand to stay on top and keep its unique place in the mind of customers. In 2020, the Rolex brand was valued at nearly $7.9 million, compared to the $6.4 million in 2018. The fame and desirability of the brand are continuously growing, and the brand successfully maintains its position in the market.   

Summing up, Rolex is undoubtedly one of the most powerful and renowned names in the watch manufacturing industry. The company stays loyal to its initial believes and values and strives to maintain the amazing quality of its products. Carefully chosen and implemented branding had its crucial role in the success of Rolex. All the brand elements were thought of thoroughly and chosen attentively to bring visible results. The dedication and strong branding of Rolex will continuously help to strengthen the brand further and retain customer loyalty. That’s all for the branding of Rolex. For more blog posts like this, visit our main page.