Brand Comparison Essay

In a highly competitive era, where there’s a vast array and endless choice of products on the market, brands can achieve and retain their success when they are able to keep their consumers interested in their product/s and make consumers feel that they are buying a product specifically tailor-made for them. This can be achieved in a multitude of ways, mainly though, by engaging a positive approach towards the different “Levels of a Product”, which will be analysed and compared for two wristwatch brands: Rolex and Apple Watch.

Before going about comparing the two brands and their products, one must first define what a product is:

A Product is a set of attributes, tangible or intangible, created through a production process in order to fulfil

“Craft, above all” (http://www.fastcodesign.com/1665375/the-6-pillars-of-steve-jobss-design-philosophy) His philosophy seemed to have worked a his design principles did affect how people perceived the product, slowly but surely the design shaped what consumers believed the product to be.

Jobs stated that people do judge books by their covers and first impressions were everything. And this is proven by the success of the iPhone and the iPad

“every iPhone is better than the last one. I doubt very many people are out there who are waiting for the reviews to come in before buying a new iPhone, and people who do fall inside that demographic are likely just going to wait for the next (print) issue of Consumer Reports. Almost the exact same thing can be said for the iPad. The Apple Watch, however, is a totally different animal. It's a whole new product line for Apple, with an entirely new operating system and usage patterns”

However, moving on, Apple have launched the design as their “most personal device ever” and so it is, with “their array of different bands” (http://toucharcade.com/2015/05/15/the-apple-watch-review-week-1/) The bands are functional in the sense that there is no need for the artistry of a watchmaker to size the band on your wrist however one review did point out that

“I feel like I might be wishing it was sized the traditional way if any of the tiny clips and clasps that make up the link band end up failing. The butterfly clasp itself feels incredibly delicate too, although that's me judging it against the new Rolex Glidelock clasp and Oyster bracelet which admittedly isn't very fair considering the exponential price difference. Grading on a curve of smart watch link bracelets, Apple wins here hands down.”