Daniel Wellington: A Contemporary Watch Brand with a modern-day Business Model

The story behind the growth of Daniel Wellington; abbreviated as DW, a contemporary watch brand specializing in minimalistic yet sophisticated designs is beyond admiration. As coincidental as it may seem; the brand started its’ journey on an aircraft, where the founder of DW Mr. Filip Tysander met a British gentleman while on a trip to the glorious sunny British isles. The name of the British gentleman seated next to Tysander in the plane was Mr. Daniel Wellington, while Tysander was amused by this mans’ life and stories, he had a keen eye on the wristwatch Wellignton had worn; his fondness for wearing vintage watches with old NATO Straps intrigued Filip Tysander to decide to create his own line of watches when he got back to Sweden from his vacation to the British Isles.

Today, Daniel Wellington is a $200 million business venture that relies solely on social media promotion. DWs’ competitors include Timex, Casio and other brands in the range of $100 to $500.

Some of the ways Daniel Wellington has managed to lead, and disrupt the high-end business models of brands such as Rolex and Fossil are mentioned below:

   Manufacturing operations in China

Although Daniel Wellington bills itself as a Swedish Company, due to the relatively low production cost proven in China, DW has managed to find several parts needed for the production of the watch; easily from China. Most of the DW product is made and assembled in China under the guidance of the parent company.

Not to mention, Filip Tysander formerly operated a Necktie Store. Having had experience with Chinese factories during his previous working experience, Tysander knew exactly what strategy to take in order to initiate his new Wristwatch start-up.  Having understood the ways that global brands including Apple lower their production cost, Tysander comprehended that sending the manufacturing and supply chain out of the home country will be the ideal strategy to capitalize on.

   Affordability

Through careful market analysis and planning, DW understood that Millennials’ earn on average $33,000 in Europe and perhaps lesser in other Countries. Creating a luxury line of watches worth a million dollars was not a winning strategy, especially in an era of high market volatility and economic instability. Focusing on developing a watch for everyday use without lowering the expectations of the customers’ DW priced their watches at $149 and $299.

  Social Media Marketing

Daniel Wellighton follows the basic rule of “Go where the customers are”. The company avoids marketing on conventional platforms; instead they market on Social Media. Not only do they maintain a persuasive website as a method of advertising, but they work with other social media personalities that will aid in reaching a larger audience.

The company gives free watches to key influences (i.e: prominent Youtube Personalities, and Instagram users) in exchange for video reviews, and pictures that are shared on their social media pages.  Today, DW has an instagram page of more than 1 million followers’ surpassing its’ competitors.

One of the most important lessons other businesses could gain from the story behind the brand Daniel Wellington is to take calculative risks by identifying your target market, researching that market and deploying the business in the researched target market effectively!

Visit: https://www.danielwellington.com for More Information