“Young people, which we once were, will always follow their heart”
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Franco Cologni
President of the FHH Cultural Council
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Coming here to Lausanne, and reflecting on the theme of this Forum, I asked myself a very simple question: imagine a young man, between 18 and 24 years old, just an ordinary young man, not some golden boy. What does he know about fine watches and true luxury? What does he think of them? I rather fear that his knowledge amounts to little or nothing. At the very least, he knows nothing of what we know both fine watches and true luxury to be. Or perhaps he has his own opinion that we need to study and understand.
I don’t doubt you’ve asked this question yourself, and that you are here today because you know, deep down, that these young generations are of the utmost interest to fine watchmaking and luxury.
Not only because their hopes and expectations are profoundly different from ours, but also because their lives revolve around networks and social relations whereas we inhabit an elitist, structured, hierarchical world.
For these two worlds to communicate, we must engage tomorrow’s youth, hence customers and markets which are less geographic and more groups of individuals. These individuals mature and change, and raise urgent questions as they do. These individuals are not consumers: we don’t deal in consumables. They are clients, patrons whose modalities we have yet to discover.
As I see it, today’s debate will lead us to reflect on four overlapping themes: education, motivation, interaction and ascension.
Words can be counted. Words carry weight. And when they are not only spoken but committed to paper, they carry even more value.
Education: access to school, university and training is a fundamental value which empowers young people to choose their way in contexts of work and culture.
Competitiveness in education – by which I mean the capacity of governments, universities and schools to provide a very high standard of teaching – is becoming an indicator of a country’s success and the keystone for students’ progression towards greater wellbeing.
Better educated young people are potentially more interested in what we do. This is why investment in culture and education on an international scale creates a more solid base from which to understand authentic luxury goods, which have a profoundly “cultural” content.
In a word, young people need education, which signifies information, knowledge and experience.
Motivation: it’s important to understand young people’s motivations and what drives them forward.
Our values and wishes were quite different. However, new definitions of success, today’s levels of expectation, and the unexpected distribution of wealth should alert us to the fact that young people’s motivations with respect to fine watches are constantly changing in space and in time.
Traditional marketing, it seems, is already lagging behind market trends, a sign that new ideas and tools are needed to understand why young people must engage with, enjoy and seek out our values, so that these same values might become the benchmark for who they are and how they appear to others.
Traditional marketing, it seems, is already lagging behind market trends, a sign that new ideas and tools are needed to understand why young people must engage with, enjoy and seek out our values, so that these same values might become the benchmark for who they are and how they appear to others.
Interaction: it’s an outdated belief to imagine that young people are simply the receptacle for choices we make.
Young generations aren’t passive customers lacking focus. While they may seem more pliant or easily influenced, they actually value interaction.
When a young person sends a message to a leading brand, via Facebook or some other social media, he or she expects to receive a considered answer within minutes. The brand is no longer cut off behind four walls; it is open to dialogue.
Young generations want to dialogue, they want to be involved… an attitude we can identify as typical of the true luxury client. This desire for exchange is stronger than ever thanks to social media and the continuous interaction that young people want and expect.
To consider tomorrow’s clients not as a final destination but as a partner in a dialogue is a revolution indeed.
Ascension: it’s become something of a cliché to say that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Similarly, few would deny that the twentieth-century bourgeoisie, once a powerful social class, has all but disappeared. Where does reality – that of the young generations – lie? Where are they and where are they heading? How do they aspire to improve themselves? Youth craves new discoveries: first to discover values, then the beauty of an object (such as a watch) that is, among other things, symbolic of a longed-for, asked-for prestige. Through values and beauty, a person attains the difference, the identity that make them a recognisable individual. One, none, a hundred thousand: the young man or woman who will be our client tomorrow will be this one, this recognisable figure of style and good taste.
“Ascension” must be joined by another word: employment. It is essential that we consider youth employment in terms of education, international mobility and ever-greater flexibility if we are to seriously envisage not just an increase but a plausible increase in earnings.
When debating these four points, we’ll follow lines of thought other than the usual reflections on what young people want, what they do and where they are going. We will look deep into ourselves, as managers, experts or simply as representatives of a more mature generation.
At which point it may be worth remembering that young people, which we once were, will always follow their heart.
Let us hope that at the end of today, we will see young generations not as an opportunity to exploit, a grey area to negotiate, or a threat to avoid, but for what they are: the key to our future.
