Second question

Luxury brands have been notoriously late to the table when it comes to adapting
social media — but Rolex, perhaps unsurprisingly, is right on time. The Swiss
watchmakers, who relocated from London to Geneva in 1919, were recently
ranked at #57 on Forbes’ list of the most powerful global brands, and that’s not
surprising either: a Rolex is a potent power symbol, an object of beauty, and a
feat of craftsmanship. All content marketers and social media professionals
could stand to learn from the high level and consistency of Rolex’s branding. It’s
not often that social media channels feel like a natural, smooth extension of
overall marketing efforts, but with Rolex they do. This consistency has paid off
for the watch makers, acquiring over 3.6M Facebook followers (despite being
strangely silent on Twitter and Instagram).
Last year, the decision makers at Rolex decided the time was right for a shakeup.
Unlike with most "shakeups," however, there wouldn't be widespread corporate
reorganization, and scores of merchandise wouldn’t be cut. Instead, Rolex
executives decided that it was time for the company to launch its first branded
Facebook page, a herculean leap for a brand that has, for decades, closely
monitored its reputation and only made tweaks — in both its watches and
marketing strategies — after subjecting them to significant scrutiny.

"Creating buzz is not the intent," the brand told Mashable ( an online news portal ).
"We craft our content thoughtfully, privilege quality over quantity, talk only when
we have something to say and when we feel it's right."
Agency partners who’ve worked with Rolex tell a similar story. The heritage
lifestyle label doesn't do random, they say, and its late arrival to the social media
party was no mistake or oversight. Rather, they believe, Rolex's reticence was a
calculated play. The brand knew it would not diminish its legacy or lose its loyal
support base by staying away from social media at first. It wanted to know
everything it could about social marketing and engagement data before it took the
plunge.
Rolex online marketing strategy
When Rolex made its long-awaited jump into social media, it didn’t roll out all of
its assets at once. Instead, it segmented its approach, starting with a YouTube
launch in 2012. When it introduced its branded YouTube channel, Rolex was wise
not to bloat the page with product ads, which consumers generally shy away from.
Instead, Rolex used the platform to launch in-house documentaries about topics
that matter to the brand and its devotees, like Himalayan expeditions and deep-sea
missions to investigate the polar ice caps. "Our communication on social media
enables a better understanding of the brand, its universe, and its values," Rolex
tells Mashable. Agency sources say Rolex, on YouTube and its new Facebook hub,
practices extreme caution and strategy calculation. Rather than publishing content
for content's sake, the brand meticulously selects what media tells the brand's story
best. Rolex also prides itself on social listening, i.e., scraping brand mentions from
its own and other social networks and using that data — what people are saying
and how they're saying it — to identify what consumers want to see from the brand
on social media. Last July, after mining Facebook comments, Rolex observed that
users wanted to learn more about the distinctive features of its watches. One in
particular, the quirky roman numerals on Rolexes, piqued commenters’ curiosity.
In response, Rolex launched a “Did You Know” series to explain why Rolex uses
IIII, the “Clockmaker’s Four,” instead of IV. The post was a hit. Out of all the
content on Rolex’s Facebook page, the Clockmaker’s Four explainer garnered the
most likes — nearly 119,000. For Rolex, the success was a sign that its careful
social listening paid off and created brand advocates. Though Rolex has only been
on Facebook for a year, it’s already made a splash. In the social network's “prestige
category,” Rolex has the highest engagement rate. Agency sources say the brand
believes its starting to listen to the right conversations on its social channels, which
also include a Pinterest page. The goal for Rolex, they say, is to identify what will
matter to its customers not tomorrow, but ten years down the road.
Rolex considered before entering late to online marketing is making their
advertisements limited in this medium and also making it well crafted. This
enabled the company to maintain its age old brand status in the online stage. And
only in 2013 did they ventured into Instagram which they fully utilized to interact
with the consumers and market. Also they used existing consumers to boost their
reputation and the premium quality of the Rolex watch.
The major reasons for the limitedness of online marketing strategy of Rolex
 Customer value
Rolex wanted to understand the new generation consumers and align them
with the brand. For they required a means to identify the interest of
consumers and wanted to know the movement of the designs in the market.
The online medium useful in this case as it allowed Rolex to determine
customer wants.
 Creating new customer base with the established brand image
Another reason for this strategy was to expand the customer base of the
brand. Rolex didn’t want the new generation to see itself as an ‘old man’s
watch’ but they also didn’t want to lose their brand value. As a result they
only created a well-designed online advertisements in limited online
platforms like YouTube where they have their own channel and also in
Instagram.
 Backlash prevention
Though online platform provide many advantages they can also provide
huge backlashes. Twitter is an online platform which is an example for this.
As a result the company wanted to conserve their brand status by utilizing
the required online advantages. This enabled the brand to maintain its
prestige among the new generation while changing its marketing style
 Effectiveness of the Platform
Another critical factor is the effectiveness of the online promotions as
providing promotions in all the online platform cannot give you with the
same results. At the end it can only become a cost for the firm. Without
reaching the desired results. And only a few good promotion activities are
necessary for a firm to make a good impact on the online Medias. Rolex
understood this and thus concentrated on the limited online activities they
issued and made them effective and enabled them to communicate what they
want effectively.
 Clarity of Communication
The promotional activities can only be useful only if they are interpreted in
the same way as the firm wanted it to be. Here lies the problem as these
clarity requires huge concentration and effort by the organization to create
them. Along with many trials to test its effectiveness. This prompted Rolex
to limit its advertisement and promotional activities in few online platforms
which enabled them to be more specific in delivering message and enabled
them to identify consumer movements in the changing market. It made them
experts in these platforms.

 Creating a sense of premium

Rolex being a premium brand also needed to say the same status to its
customers and the world through its online platforms. As a result they
intentionally advertised and done their promotional activities in a limited
manner. This enabled them to fully utilize their existing brand status to
create WOW felling among the consumers around the world. And creating a
sense of limited availability among the consumer of their product.