Richard Mille, for those who are unaware, is a luxury watch brand owned by (you guessed it) Richard Mille. His watches are notoriously expensive, with collectors such as Drake boasting several watches by the brand worth well over $750,000 a piece.
Richard could easily build his luxury watch brand to rival Rolex, but he doesn’t. He’s not interested in chasing the mass appeal of these other high-end brands, mainly because he created his own to avoid the headaches that come with mass production. Instead, Richard focused on the art of creating one of a kind watches.
As a result, the brand attracts serious watch collectors, and increasing the demand within this wealthy demographic has resulted in these watches reaching their current prices.
So how does a business owner replicate this kind of business model?
Firstly, market research.
Richard never intended for his watches to be mass produced, and in order to make the company successful from the get-go it was essential for him to understand his target market.
You must create a product/service that is tailored around your demographic’s demands, and make sure it’s at a quality that they expect or will see value in.
Secondly, creating a demand.
Here’s the thing about selling something “high-end”; even though you’re selling a smaller volume of products, you’re going to have potentially larger marketing costs. The marketing cost will be justified by the increased profit; but you’ll need to eat your vegetables before you can enjoy the desert.
The higher the demand you create, the bigger the price tag on each individual sale.
For Richard this included featuring his watches on the biggest superstars in sport, an extremely expensive pursuit. But this all adds to the story behind the watches, thus furthering their worth.
Thirdly, actually deliver.
If you’re charging an industry leading price for your product or service, you should be delivering something special. Once people start seeing the quality of your product/service organically, this will only result in the demand growing.
In the age of cancel culture, ripping off clients will result in your brand falling ten times as quickly as you built it.
However, because you’ve built the brand around supply and demand, you shouldn’t be providing a sub-par product/service. People are using you because they expect quality, and because of this you owe it to them to take your time and achieve great results.
If you rush and the quality starts dipping, the worth of your brand will either plateau or shrink.
SIR THORNEY 