Longines created a limited-edition collection and a highly detailed book honoring their rich history. The men and women that started their brand back in 1832, in Saint-Imier, Switzerland.
It needed an interactive way to share the book with the general public and also display the watch collection to increase its brand awareness and positioning.
The physical book was a luxury item that was gifted to the most loyal customers and potential buyers. Handing it out to every single person would have diluted its impact and resulted in a waste of resources. Most of the store visitors were not at a stage in their lives to be able to invest in a luxury watch. Longines wanted to improve its brand positioning with this young audience to turn them into future customers.
The user was a young watch enthusiast that visited the Longines store with the intention of experiencing the watch but not buying. They were familiar with the brand but could not afford them yet. They had no intention of making a purchase at the time, but buying a luxury watch was a future goal.
Their goal was to experience the brand without the social pressure to buy. They were familiar with the brand and wanted to learn about the collection and history without commitment.
Increase the brand's positioning with potential customers at a very early stage in their journey with the brand. Build loyalty before another brand gets them.
Acquire users' contact info for future marketing opportunities.
Display the same information as the physical book in a scalable, financially sustainable way.
We created an exclusive web-based app that was run exclusively on iPads at the store. It displayed the digital version of the book and the watches from the collection. While overall we aligned with the aesthetics of the main website, the main content related to the collection and book had a black and white style, to convey elegance and heritage.
We turned the book pages into a horizontal gallery that could be scrolled from left to right. We used the elements of the physical pages but separated the elements to simulate a parallax effect and create the illusion of being inside a long journey with many different layers.
The book was never meant to be displayed in a digital format, but the customer wanted the layout to mirror that of the physical version. The amount of text and aspect ratio were less than ideal for screens.
We had to seamlessly display the watch collection and overall content of the app with the official website, since we were pulling content from it. At the same time, we needed to give the piece the historical feel it deserved.
We conducted in-store interviews to understand the drivers and motivations of our audience.The demographics of the audience were 22-32 y/o males and females. Middle class watch enthusiasts from big urban areas in China. English speakers with experience traveling abroad. They had considerable disposable income to live a better-than-average life, but not enough to afford luxury items like watches, or jewelry.
Some resonant brands were Starbucks, Mercedes Benz, and Apple (but they did not buy Apple watches).
The psychographic research revealed that they were motivated by the prospect of a luxurious lifestyle. They cared deeply about social status and owning objects that would traditionally led to it. They leaned conservative and appreciated traditional aesthetics. Tech savvy.The competitors were other luxury watch manufacturers, with a more traditional profile, like Rolex and Mont-Blanc. Since the audience was young and not very educated yet on the uniqueness of each brand, the brand perception was very similar to others in the space. All relevant competitors had a long history and they all sold similar styles.
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