Axcent has a winning formula established. The company’s still new, but is making great strides toward improving its marketing strategy and establishing itself dominantly in its segment. Axcent of Scandinavia (Sweden) labels its watches “fashion accessories” in order to differentiate its product. Although it targets the relatively low-end of the watch market, the Swedish have a flair for design that gives the watches cool, modern lines and an avant-garde appeal.
Axcent’s success can be measured not only by its sales volume and revenue, but also by its visibility on the big screen. Its products have appeared in a number of recent movies. But perhaps even more important is the growth that the brand has experienced in Asia.
It’s unclear right now to what degree the watch industry has honed in on the future. There’s really a compelling case in the Far East, in the spirit of Axcent’s example. The developing Asian economies hold within them tremendous possibilities. For example, most of the economies have remained underdeveloped for decades. India, China, Vietnam and a host of other nations in the region are currently experiencing high single-digit annual growth.
A number of luxury brands in other sectors have already come to this conclusion. Individuals within these societies save a larger percentage of their incomes than those in other areas of the world. As wealth continues to accumulate, watch for consumer spending to increase. Watches are status symbols in the West. The East, it could be argued, is incorporating aspects of Western economics and culture into their own. Axcent watches appears to comprehend this. They also know that certain elements of Eastern culture can be turned into selling points. These “fashion accessories” work well with Chinese and Japanese fashion. In cultures that tend to value uniformity over individual expression, Axcent’s colourful, attractive pieces make even more of a statement.
