Casio had a record sales year in 2013 announcing year-on-year value growth of 18.6 percent, which is three times the overall market growth for the UK.
While Casio brands G-Shock and Edifice were major factors in the growth, figures from watch industry analysts GfK show that Casio also took an increasing share of the ladies watch market thanks in large part to its Sheen brand.
Brand awareness also grew ‘sharply’ in the UK according to Casio’s own annual brand survey,
Purchase Intent for G-Shock was up seven percent to 23 percent and Casio Edifice saw purchase intent of 34 percent, up 14 percent based on 2012 results. While 27 percent of respondents listed Edifice as a ‘Favourite Brand’, up seven percent from the previous year.
The association between Edifice and Formula 1, the brand sponsors Infiniti Red Bull Racing F1 team, was also increasingly recognised, up 17 percentage points on 2012 figures to 43 percent.
“This uplift in sales and brand awareness is a clear indication that our investment in marketing for Casio premium watch brands is paying dividends. It demonstrates that not only are the campaigns commercially sound, but are helping to develop and strengthen the brand image too.” Said Casio’s head of marketing, Tim Gould.
2013 saw Casio invest its largest ever spend on UK advertising. This included a cinema advertising campaign for G-Shock; Sheen sponsorship of The Only Way is Essex and Edifice’s sponsorship of the Infiniti Red Bull Formula 1 team.
Casio also sponsored all of Discovery UK’s motoring programming in a campaign that featured the Edifice Infiniti Redbull watch. This £300 RRP timepiece experienced the fastest growth of any model in the brand’s history, outselling any other Edifice models more than five times over.
Casio is set to build on this strategy in 2014 with a further G-Shock cinema advertising campaign already scheduled to begin in March, featuring the Royal Air Force ski team putting a G-Shock Aviator through its paces on a snow-topped volcano in Chile.
GfK’s Quarterly Update of UK watch industry figures will feature in the March issue of WatchPro.
