Reclaiming Youth Relevance:

Overview

A well-known watch brand with decades of heritage was facing a modern challenge: its core customers were aging out, and younger shoppers weren’t coming in fast enough to replace them. Facing sustained sales declines and rising competition from stylish, lower-cost alternatives, the brand needed to course-correct.

Challenge

What was once a strength—legacy positioning—had become a liability with younger audiences. The brand’s classic appeal no longer translated into modern relevance, and teams lacked clarity on which consumers to target.

They needed a clear segmentation framework to pinpoint high-potential audiences, guide decisions, and align teams on where—and how—to win.

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Solutions & Insights

Starlight began with digital intelligence and social listening to understand how consumers discussed the brand and its competitors. This revealed a perception gap—strong heritage, but lacking style relevance among younger audiences. We followed with a custom market segmentation survey, identifying distinct opportunity groups, then partnered with the brand to select and activate two high-potential target segments.

By embedding these segments into everyday workflows—from marketing and merchandising to product and e-commerce—the brand sharpened execution across the board.

Within months, they halted a sales decline, returning to flat YoY performance. Refreshed email and paid-social campaigns outperformed previous efforts, lowering CAC and improving engagement—proof that knowing your customer changes everything.

“Chris and his team didn’t just give us segments—they gave us clarity. Everyone from marketing to merchandising now knows who we’re building for and why.”
— Chief Marketing Officer, Confidential Watch Brand