Ice-Watch continues rapid expansion with new product development

The Ice-Watch pop-up store at Schiphol Airport

Having sold 10 million watches in 100 countries after just five years in existence, Belgian watch brand Ice-Watch is continuing its rapid growth with new watch lines and partnerships with other manufacturers on non-watch products.

Travel retail is crucial to the brand’s growth strategy, making up around 5% of sales – a figure that is expected to double in 2013 to 10% and double again to 20% in 2014. It has been just two years since Ice-Watch launched in the sector, but its timepieces are already sold on 55 airlines, with each airline selling at least two different models.

While still a relatively new player in the cruise market, it is currently present on over 30 ships (cruise lines include H&B, Pullmantur Cruises, MSC and Starboard). About 60 to 80 watches are sold on ships every month.

The Ice-Chrono Electrik line – just launched in travel retail and already doing well – will be added to the inflight collections, along with eight models of the Ice-World collection. These additions will be available for a limited time or only in certain geographical zones, alongside the Sili Forever range, the brand’s best selling and iconic collection in ten bold colours.

The brand’s bright colours and simple designs are meant to stand out in all retail environments and attract consumers across nations, cultures and generations. The Ice-World collection, which consists of eight destination-specific watches including a UK model with a Union Jack face, is expected to appeal to travellers. Ice-Elegant is expected to do well over Christmas.

One of Ice-Watch’s selling points is its collectability, especially with its positioning as an ‘affordable luxury’. Boxes featuring the same colours, feel and finish as the watch within can double as a money box; smaller boxes have been developed for the inflight market.

High quality packaging is supported by sound marketing media (literature, website and videos) and eye-catching POS materials. Ice-Watch’s strong branding has helped make a success of shop window advertising (resulting in +250% rise in sales at London Heathrow Airport) and recent pop-up shop projects (e.g. at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol). The Ice-Watch store at Singapore Changi Airport was given a Gold Level award in the airport’s Quality Service Management report.

At the recent TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes, Ice-Watch also unveiled non-watch ranges in partnership with other manufacturers, such as the Ice-Phone. These, coupled with expansion on the domestic market including new flagship stores in Paris and Geneva, have been planned to support the brand overall.

Now well-established in Europe, Marketing & Communication Manager Nathalie Deroanne said: “Now we are ready to approach the US and Asia.”

INTERVIEW WITH ICE-WATCH FOUNDER & CEO JEAN-PIERRE LUTGEN

The Moodie Report spoke to Ice-Watch CEO Jean-Pierre Lutgen about the travel retail branch of his rapidly expanding watch brand.

The Moodie Report: What is the company’s strategy for the travel retail market?

Lutgen: ICE SA [the new name of the company] wants to centralise and harmonise its offering, while offering more choice in terms of the key models of the various collections.

The strategy is also founded on stronger, more global partnerships with international stakeholders and several local partners in Malaysia, South Korea, Dubai, Philippines and so on.

After only two years of being present in travel retail the brand has been swamped with requests to expand its offer. New collections have been on sale since October in the duty free shops all over the world, as well as onboard planes and cruise ships.

“An optimal visibility in duty free/travel retail will help to further increase Ice-Watch’s brand awareness“

Jean-Pierre Lutgen Founder & CEO Ice-Watch

How does travel retail fit into the company’s overall growth?

Travel retail gives the brand more visibility, global display options and a dynamic distribution network, which is complementary to its conventional distribution and e-commerce.

We are particularly attentive to getting maximum exposure and visibility: opening of new points of sale, listings in inflight catalogues and advertisements at key airport areas and in magazines. An optimal visibility in duty free/travel retail will help to further increase Ice-Watch’s brand awareness – not only among travellers and businessmen, who have very strong buying power, but advertising in these environments will also support brand development in domestic markets.

Buyers in duty free/travel retail are always looking for up-and-coming brands that have potential and reputation. With our leading position achieved in the fashion watch segment (GFK Jan-Dec 2011) in the main European markets, the Ice-Watch brand is now attracting attention from most duty free/travel retail business partners.

After just one year, we achieved a strong presence in the duty free business in Europe, so our plan is now to put more effort into penetrating the duty free/travel retail market in the Asia Pacific region and the Americas.

Which lines are best suited to travel retail?

For the inflight business we recommend all our best selling retail collections and particularly the collections with a silicone wristband (versus the solid wristband collection which require a mechanical band adaptation done by a jeweller). We also provide a special inflight packaging for most collections.

For the duty free and cruise business we always recommend that locations start with our Sili Forever line with the vivid colours that created the success of the brand. This collection is still our best seller even after five years on the market. But we have been swamped with requests to expand our lines to include all our new collections in order to align our travel retail range with the global retail offering.

Does the company expect to produce lines that are exclusive to travel retail in the future?

So far that is not part of our strategy. Instead we are aiming to have all our lines in our flagship stores around the world, but we do expect to undertake some kind of exclusive travel retail promotions.

Travel retail exclusives are not easy because we need to ensure the attractiveness of a line in Cali, Frankfurt, Dubai and Tokyo. However, in the future we may consider developing niche collections that would be particularly suited for this segment thanks to international appeal.