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LUXURY BRANDS
The value of being seen as part of a well-connected group of brands
By our African Marketing Confederation News Team | 2025
Study of the global luxury watch sector shows how a brand’s ‘coreness’ positively affects the prices of its products.
While paid advertising helps make some luxury watch brands more desirable, new research shows that non-paid media coverage – such as news articles and reviews – also plays a significant role.
Specifically, the way media promotes luxury watch brands – whether it groups them together or treats them as separate – can affect how they perform in the market and what prices they sell for at auction.
Kim Claes, Visiting Assistant Professor at Cornell University in the US, and Frédéric Godart, Associate Professor at Instead Business School in France, study the issue in a paper titled ‘What Keeps the Market Ticking? The Role of Third-Party Audiences and Cognitive Embeddedness in Shaping Competitive Dynamics in Luxury Watchmaking’. It is published in the peer-reviewed Strategic Management Journal.
Photo by Oguz Kagan Cevik from Pexels
The researchers found that brands perform better when they’re mentioned alongside other brands that are frequently grouped with many others. This may seem surprising since in crowded markets, brands usually try to stand out. But Claes and Godart argue that there’s value in being seen as part of a well-connected group of brands.
The researchers’ primary finding is that a brand’s ‘coreness’ – how central its name is in relation to others mentioned in media reports – positively affects the auction prices of its products.
Thus, the more frequently a brand or business is mentioned alongside other prominent brands, the more it is perceived as representative of the industry. This positive effect is amplified when it receives frequent and favourable media coverage.
Brand and businesses are not perceived in isolation
“We argue that firms are perceived and evaluated not only in isolation, but also by their relationships with other firms, as found in media narratives,” Claes explains.
Claes and Godart analysed a comprehensive dataset from the luxury watchmaking sector, which covered media reports and auction data. Some of the brands they studied include Cartier, Omega, Patek Philippe, Rolex and Tag Heuer.
Their findings highlight the importance of understanding how brands are positioned within media narratives. Being frequently mentioned with other core players not only enhances a brand’s own visibility; it also improves its value among consumers, as higher coreness increases a brand’s conspicuous and investment value.
Understanding this can potentially help luxury watchmakers – as well as luxury brands in other sectors – to strategise their marketing efforts and manage their public relations more effectively.
“This research provides valuable insights into how third-party audiences, such as the media, shape competitive dynamics in the luxury watchmaking industry,” Claes says.
“By focusing on cognitive embeddedness and the concept of coreness within networks of brand names in media stories, we illustrate how media representations influence buyer
perceptions and market outcomes.”
You can find out more about the study here.
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