Thinking about it, anyone who's read any of my relatively few posts knows that I'm basically a grumpy old contrarian (in a much younger body - or so I'd like to think). So it'll come as no surprise that I'm pretty vehemently anti-'Brand Ambassador'.
First of all, the 'ambassador' moniker just rubs me the wrong way. They're not ambassadors; they're just people who get paid to endorse a brand, wear its wares, get photographed with a product...which if you ask me (no, I know you didn't actually, but I'm gonna tell you anyway) is pretty far off from being an ambassador or any form of emissary for the brand.
And 'brand' gets my goat too - can we have 'watchmakers' and 'manufacturers' instead of 'brands' please? I'm not interested in brands and image, I'm interested in the watches, darnit, and the marketing machines have gone (in my not-so-humble opinion) far overboard with the lifestyle messaging shtick. But then I'm not a fanboi for just about anything or anyone, and the things that I would endorse no-one has heard of anyway.
Anyway - I'm doubly turned off by the aforementioned music, acting, and sports 'personalities' (who rarely seem to have much personality - I'm afraid I have met a few - we inevitably have very interesting conversations about them, along the lines of 'but enough about me; why don't you talk about me now?'). Hey, watch brands! If you want to market to me (and I know you don't really), then sell me the product instead of some sort of lifestyle concept for the imagination-deprived.
So as far as I'm concerned,
- AP - much as I love the 'new' 15202 and my wife's lovely ROC and the Jules Audemars case etc. - well, they're completely barking up the wrong tree.
- PP's advertising is very good but its omnipresence makes me wonder just how much of each PP watch sale goes right in to the marketing budget; you never really own a PP, you just pay for the magazine advertisements unto the next generation.
- VC - much better - ads that focus on the product and they don't blanket the media.
- ALS, even better...I can barely remember the last time I saw a Lange advert...that's how I like it.
- The IWC 'men'-focused advertising makes me very, very unlikely to buy an IWC watch.
- And seeing Nic Cage, Leo DiC. et al endorsing watches is also a sure-fire way to send me running elsewhere.
I'll concede that Richard Mille's relationship with sportspeople may have some merit, but I still don't want to wear a watch that bears someone else's name.
Strangely enough, I too have thought that the Rolex ads involving people are very good; they involve people who generally have made a real contribution to culture, knowledge, etc. - people who are not just flash-in-the-pan slebs - it doesn't really make me want to buy a Rolex, but at least I respect what they're doing.
If DeBethune doesn't do advertising, all the better for them. Everyone else is splashing out on endorsements, marketing and advertising, which pushes the prices of the products up...they can then ride on the coat-tails of the others, setting their prices accordingly, but with a (theoretically) higher profit margin...brilliant!