zOwie Omega Discussion Forum

: If Omega are to compete with
: Rolex they need to learn from Rolex.

I disagree for a large number of reasons.

ROLEX can get away with a lot of stuff because they have the most incredible global name recognition of any watchmaker. It would be foolish for other brands without that unusual strength to try to follow in the same footsteps.

The details of the technical merit and quality are not something that 99% of luxury buyers understand. They want 'the best' but beyond that they are clueless on grasping the details. That's why Ambassador-based marketing works best in this industry--most people understand it.

So I believe your suggestion of trying to be a "me, too" copying the ROLEX method would be a dismal failure. Instead, I believe OMEGA should get it collective head out of its collective rear and forge the 21st century solution of selling luxury watches. OMEGA should adopt the slogan made famous by the second largest American rental car agency: "We're number 2, so we try harder!"

Particularly in the USA, the OMEGA authorized dealer network is failing. Stores no longer have the ability to keep knowledgable staff and often rely on generic commission salespeople. Ones who often can't even grasp reading the watchmaker's catalogs or answer even childishly basic questions about watches.

Plus with the high product costs and low margins, many dealers can only carry a tiny selection in-store for people to see. Order something sight unseen from a catalog--who needs a n authorized dealer for that? Thats what the Internet is for.

OMEGA no longer sells accessories like straps direct to customers, but it is near impossible to get them ordered through many auth dealers. They either are too inoompetent or don't want to bother selling custom order small dollar items.

The weakest link in OMEGA's chain is in poor delivery of products at the customer retail end of the business. OMEGA can compete better with ROLEX by addressing this weakest link with better tools for educating the sales staff and the customers at the authorized retail stores and coherently displaying their full catalog of watches. The OMEGA website is great for this, but have you ever seen a jewelry store with an Internet terminal for accessing product in the showroom?

I also would prefer to have accessory sales via the Internet and take this poorly handled task off the dealers--who in general do such a pathetically poor job of handling it because they just don't seem to want to bother with such high effort/low profit custom orders.