The swatch group was formed in Switzerland in the year 1983 under the leadership of Nicolas G. Hayek. Originally the company was founded by a merger of two Swiss watch manufacturing division’s which are ASUAG and SSIH which was named SMH (Swiss Corporation for Microelectronics and Watchmaking Industries Ltd). The group was renamed as Swatch group in the year 1998. Nicolas G. Hayek (CEO), strongly constructed new opportunities and rooted a new culture. In the coming decade, SMG Group expected to get the most prestigious watchmaker in the world. (Diderich, J. 2010)
Strength * It has a distinct identity all over world * Swatch Company has around 28,000 employees across 50 nations with about more than 900 boutiques. * It has customer royalty | Weakness * Rise in competition from other brands * Sponsoring and advertising is not productive. * Market becoming fragmented. | Opportunist: * Emerging market with a huge population like India and china can be the primary target. * Innovation and trends * It had recorded sales in the year of 2011 (Anonymous 2011) | Threat: * High cost of production * Competition from other top brands * Plastic and metal price increasing, making raw material costly. |
Challenges
When it comes to challenges, the few most common challenges in terms of a market is firstly and most importantly competitors. Three main competitors for swatch groups are:
Seiko Holdings Corporation
Citizen Holdings Co., Ltd.
Compagnie Financière Richemont SA.
Apart from competition there are other challenges in an external environment like technological advancements, changing government policies, different target markets, change in tastes and preferences. Apart from these external problems as watch manufacturing unit there is something called as delivery, to deal with after sale. When it comes to delivering, the first significant challenge is transportation. Apart from creating availability and targeting