Swatch Website Analysis
MEMORANDUM DATE: March 29, 2011 TO: Kenny Barn FROM: R&D Team SUBJECT: Website analysis of Swatch and Rolex As you have requested us to come up a website analysis of our competitors, we are proposing you this short report about the websites of Swatch and Rolex. The purpose of this investigation is collecting the data, examples and providing a way to follow from the competitor websites to prepare an efficient and effective website for your company. We hope that, by considering the positive and negative aspects of these websites, your company will create the most efficacious website which is suitable for our brand profile.
At the first stage, it is decided to analyze our main three competitors: Rolex for the luxury and timeless chic watch line, ToyWatch for the moderate level price and funny, fashionable watch line and at last but not least, Swatch for the relatively lower level price and funny, fashionable watch line. The reason for choosing these companies is that these three brands are perfect matches as competitors for our three main product lines. Yet, because of we have a limited time to do imply our website, we choose the two important companies to report among them: Swatch and Rolex.
The reason to eliminate the ToyWatch is its similarity with Swatch and being a combination of all categories. The criteria we used in this analysis mainly focus on; •the content which are purpose, audience, efficiency in reflection of company profile •the organization containing design, images, texts, layout, navigation and technical aspects of the site. This criterion is created by grounding on; •“10 Principles of Effective Web Design” from Smashing Magazine •“Useful Tips for Effective Web Design” from Smartwebby. com •“20 Do’s and Don’ts of Effective Web Design” from webdesignledger. om ANALYSIS OF SWATCH’S WEBSITE Swatch Group is a Swiss based company producing fashionable, dynamic and relatively cheap watches since 1984 and they perform globally. You can see the detailed analysis of its website according to the criteria introduced you before. CONTENT In the content part, the message of the website provides to the target audience in a matched way their company profile are investigated. Purpose of the Website: The purpose is giving detailed information about their products, their specialties and making the products attractive for the potential costumers.
They provide fairly enough information about their collections. Audience: The target audience is “middle-income families” and generally “youth”. •The people who seek a career in the company are also their audience and they provide really good information for this people. They put a ‘Jobs’ part in the website and provide a very well information about their open positions and the necessities to apply these jobs. •Moreover, there is a ‘follow us’ part in the website and there are Facebook, Twitter and YouTube links of the company. This is a very good strategy to see their potential customers who are young people.
Brand Image and Culture Reflection: The effect of the website in reflection of the companies’ culture and philosophy is listed as; •The content and the format of the web page are giving their colorful products prominence. •Also, we can easily understand that they give importance art, fashion and sport in their watches and by putting a bigger part for these kind of products rather than the others, they show this message to the world. ORGANIZATION In the organization part, visual and technical aspects of the website attracting the attention and providing the aim of the website are examined according to the criteria.
Design: The most important points about design are as following: •The web page’s background color is white and the other parts of the site are very colorful. By doing this they feature their colorful design of the watches. •Graphics and flash scripts have an elegant design but they do not bore the user, because they use colors very well in the website and they reflect this to the graphics. ?The usage of the links and hyperlinks are effectively placed. The information is broken into digestible parts and user friendly designed. Images: The images in the website are as follows: The images are well designed, mechanically effective and there is not an excessive usage of the images. When you take a look at their collections part, you see that they visualize their products and for the people who want to look at the product more deeply, they put an optional zoom part. •The only drawback they have is that sometimes graphics and images are loading slowly due to big size of the file. Figure 1: Main page of the website you can have an idea about the images and design of the website Layout: The website uses an effective layout, using a white background color to make the site easily readable.
Also, the background color enables the products to easily seen. Navigation: The reader can easily go through the website, but sometimes they can face some difficulties about searching what exactly they want. The relationship between pages is clear and easy to find and clearly labeled. Figure 2: Navigation linkages on the main page Mechanics: Mechanical requirements and aspects are listed in this way: •The site has no missing pictures or broken links. •The graphics can be seen from all Internet browsers such as Google Chrome and Firefox, but sometimes there can be a need of additional updates for the browsers. The page shows well in the PC’s, however I do not think that the page will show equally well on the smart phones due to big size of the graphics and images. Credibility: Site includes contact person with e-mail address, the date created and updated, the materials are original with no copyright infringement and have a FAQ part. Figure 3: The bottom part of the pages including FAQ, contact us, sitemap links and privacy and copyrights information. ANALYSIS OF ROLEX’S WEBSITE Rolex is a Swiss watch-maker has a reputation with its luxury watches considered as a status symbol. They usually described as jewelry, not watches.
Considering this place of the Rolex in the market and the criteria, Rolex’s website is analyzed in the following part. CONTENT Purpose of the Website: As a luxury watch brand website, purpose is giving information about Rolex, including collections, the past and the present of the brand, store locations and providing purchasing assistance. Their purpose is sufficient by looking from the customers’ point of view. Audience: As we can understand from the general scan of website, intended users are the current and possible future customers. Site doesn’t put emphasis on other users like people seeking career in Rolex.
Brand Image and Culture Reflection: The way of the reflection of culture and image by website can be listed as; •The website strongly reflects the brand image of Rolex. Website is prepared in an elegant way and it presents the Rolex as a luxury brand. A user of the website easily can understand that Rolex is not only a watch; it is the indicator of the luxury life style. •The website is presenting the companies’ culture effectively. Especially the special parts of the website listing the sports and culture activities and showing Rolex’s sponsorships and supports put importance on company culture.
Content of the Knowledge: The important observations about the content of knowledge are listed as; •Details about the topics a user can probably curios about are given in an efficient way but there is no information for the users other than customers such as supplier, dealers or people seeking a career in Rolex. Also there is no link for any other corporate website, if there is any. •Content is well designed and it is distributed into digestible parts for easy understanding. •Content is also proper for the regular users.
There is no special part for the latest news but the site is opened with a kind of slide show presenting latest collections and activities from Rolex. •There is no knowledge about the prices or there is any online shopping part. ORGANIZATION Similarly with the previous analysis, visual and technical aspects of the website are examined according to the criteria. Design: The most important design issues in the website are listed in following ways: •The pages are designed by considering the intended audience, the brand image and culture of Rolex.
Hence, it only provides information about the products, news, the structure and culture of Rolex. •In a quick scan, pages are seen visually pleasing and professional. Graphics, Flash and scripts have an elegant design with the shades of a vivid black. Images: Observations about images can be said as; •The level of image usage is sufficient for the website. There is no so much image confusing users or there is not a few image making the website boring and useless. •For some models of watches, the website provides more images from different poses or even videos. Yet, for others, it doesn’t provide this opportunity.
To clarify, for some watches, you can find images showing the watch on the wrist but for some, there is only a standard picture of the watch. This point affects the unity of the content negatively. • The quality level of images is high and images are bright. Figure 4-5: Some images from the website Layout: The features of layout of the site are listed in this way: •The page layout is a vivid black enhancing readability. It helps users not to lost in different and complicated colors. •The shiny vivid also supports the brand image because the vivid black is considered the color of nobility.
Hence, layout is chosen also as a supporter of brand image. •It fits 800×600 monitor and these is no need to scroll to the right. Text: The text is used in these ways: •They use white color for the text and it makes easier reading on black layout. •There are no spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. •There are mechanical errors with the sentences on the watch model pages. They are in such smaller fonts that it is not possible to read. Also, there is no zoom button on that page so this can be considered as a problem with text. •The type and fonts of used in text are same for all website.
There is no confusion. •Paragraphs are not too long. They are in a considerable level. Navigation: The most important points about navigation are; •Visitors can easily get around the website. •The categories of navigators are proper for the main purposes of the intended users •Links are well prepared. For instance, when a person enters the site, he/she will probably look for the models of watches and site opens with the latest collection link. •Content under the navigators are related with the navigator. Also linkages between pages provide opportunity to discover different parts of the website. Headings are descriptive and clear. Figure 6: A text and navigation example from the website Mechanics: The mechanical features of the site are; •Site works well with all browsers. •It is shown well both on PC and Mac. •There are no missing and broken images or graphs. Download Time: The positive and negative points for download time; •The site has a download time in the entrance of the site. Yet, considering the high Flash basis, it is in a considerable level. •Waiting the download is only required at the very beginning of getting around the website. After that point, there is no waiting time between linkages. There is no waiting time to see the images and videos. •Also there are “view in html” and “full screen” options for different speed of the internet connections. Credibility: The credibility issues about the website can be listed in this way: •There is no information and contact address of the developer team. •There is no update dates. •The content is original and there are warnings about the ownership of the materials in the site by Rolex. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS After these detailed analysis, we can give you a brief summary and the important recommendations as followings: Swatch and Rolex are good examples for our “luxury” and “cheap & fashionable” watch lines. •Websites are important places to reflect your brand image to the customer so websites should be coherent with your brand image. •For funny and fashionable line, you should design a funnier and up-to-date website just like Swatch. For your luxury watches, you should create a higher quality and elegant image. Hence, website should be in the same direction with your brand image. •Being user-friendly is one of the most important things for a website and so you should position the images, layout and navigations properly.
Your website should be a good source for everything related with your company. Unlike Rolex, the website should include the pages or links for the employee or suppliers relationships, as well. •The other important thing for a website is quality. A website should always present the higher quality content without any mechanical problems. In order to have more detailed information and discussion, we would like to have a meeting with you and your team on April 4. For further details, you can call us on +90 312 290 50 42 or send an e-mail to rd@watches. com. tr
