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Staff post about: Jean-Claude Biver Become an Author

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"We never enter any sport or event because of personal connections or preferences," says Biver. "Our decisions are motivated through our customers. Wherever our customer goes, he must meet Hublot. It is our goal to make the customer feel that we belong to his world, to his lifestyle, to his emotions, and to his dreams." Throughout Biver's career, he has made it a priority to cultivate partnerships with key people and organizations that further his brand. They were not necessarily, however, people or organizations that were particularly close to Biver. Rather, they were people and organizations that fit within his branding strategy, that fit within the lives of his target customers.

"Our involvement in sport is motivated because sport belongs partly to the world of our customers," he says. "And our objective is clearly to belong to the world of the consumer. Be it in the materials he is surrounded with (Carbon, Kevlar, Ceramic and so on) or in his leisure and holiday activities represented through sport."

To that end, Hublot has entered into partnerships with Manchester United and Alinghi, among others, creating special limited edition watches.

"The main challenge was to believe that we had the right concept," Biver explains. "Usually brands decide to link themselves to one or two sports. We on the contrary decided we should link ourselves to our customers. And meet him wherever he goes. On the sea, on the GP circuit, on the football field, on the polo field, and so on."

From a strategic perspective, Biver tries to ensure that the partnerships he creates will enhance his brand's credibility and reputation on the global scale. "It is important for us to be the first, or to be unique, or to be different," he says. "With football, we were the first luxury watch brand to enter football. It is difficult to believe but both the Euro and the World Cup have never had an ‘Official Timekeeper' nor and ‘Official Watch.' It has now become crucial for Hublot to maintain its exclusivity at this level of sponsorship, both in F1 and football."

Creating these partnerships depends on understanding the customer, says Biver. For instance, "the people in the Middle East are very sensitive to luxury. People of the Middle East have always considered that watches express your status and personality and as a result they have a true appreciation for watches. They appreciate the workmanship, the quality of the product and are truly passionate about watches. This is what makes the Middle East such an enormous market and can only be developed further. Even though the population is small, the tremendous wealth and watch consciousness of the consumers makes the market quite vast."

It is also, for instance, the reason why Hublot just opened a new boutique store on Madison Avenue in New York. The fact that it is located right next to Hermes is no accident. Hublot's customer is also a Hermes customer, and where the customer goes, he must meet Hublot.

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