Product details

In the existing and established world watch markets, Hayek developed, marketed and commercialised a new product - the Swatch watch. This watch captured and increased its country''s share of world watch market from 15% to 50%. It became a fashion-oriented youth product and a collectable cult object. At a stage in the product life cycle, the sales and share price of the Swatch watch started levelling out; hence Hayek, being a marketer, realising the above fact, started looking into the car market to develop a new and innovative product. This is a diversification strategy in which they use the knowledge of their partner, Mercedes. In this case study students have to analyse factors such as: success factors, product development process, marketing research and name choice. The teaching objectives are: (1) to allow students to understand the importance of innovation and new product development; (2) to provide an opportunity to appreciate the importance of the various sources of ideas in generating new products, for example in this case the role of Hayek; (3) to allow students to make recommendations for Swatchmobile''s name and related strategies.