This is a masterclass in positioning.

@Hublot CEO Jean-Claude Biver explains how he freed a struggling luxury watch brand from their product and developed a one-word positioning statement that has made them one of the biggest luxury watch brands today.

Hublot had a successful range of nautical-inspired watches in the 80s that fused gold time-pieces with rubber straps. This was controversial, even provocative, and established them as a small but interesting watch brand.

After a while the gimmick began to grow old. The founder retired and sold the company to Mr. Biver, who immediately saw the problem: they were trapped by their product.

But how can you move a luxury watch brand beyond the unique rubber-gold combination that inspired the brand?

"I realized that we're not a product but that we have a message, a concept, and that concept is fusion. In 1980 when we put gold & rubber together we created fusion - the only time they were together was in the big bang. They never met again until we connected them with Hublot"

"Fusion must be our message, our philosophy, our religion. Once we have this religion developed, THEN we can develop products that don't need rubber any more because fusion can be applied to ANY material."

"I was able to free Hublot from the product and give them a message, and from that message new products could be born."

Fucking genius

Watch Mark Ritson explain how Hublot executed on its positioning not only in product development, but their marketing strategy and advertising.