Movado Names Stéphane Gerschel as Chief Marketing Officer
The Movado Group Inc. has a new senior executive among its ranks. The watchmaking company has announced Stéphane Gerschel as its new chief marketing officer.
He arrives at Movado with vast luxury experience honed at both Kering and LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton. Most recently, Gerschel was the global brand managing director for Pomellato. Previously, he worked as Bulgari’s senior director of international communication and as international communication director for Veuve Clicquot.
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Gerschel has now relocated from Milan to New York City, where he is tasked with helping elevate the Movado brand while also growing its global resonance. He will also be in charge of marketing activities for the company’s subsidiaries and its licensed goods. Gerschel, who started his new role on April 18, reports directly to Movado Group chief executive officer and chairman Efraim Grinberg.
Gerschel enters into a company whose marketing arm was long overseen by Mary Leach, who passed away in February 2021 after an aggressive battle with cancer. The role had been vacant for more than a year, with Grinberg saying: “Mary was obviously a very special human being — special to both me and the company. We wanted to take time to formulate what we needed as the world changed. I didn’t just want to replace [Mary] and I don’t view Stéphane as a replacement — we are building on a marketing role.”
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Elaborating, Grinberg said: “The world has changed from a traditional advertising venue to much more content-oriented and social media exposure. I think Stéphane has grown up in that environment from a global perspective. We are just very excited to have him on board.”
For Gerschel, the move was significant. “I don’t change jobs every day — I’m here for the long run,” he said. “I’m happy to make the move, and since I have arrived in these first few weeks I’m going from good surprise to good surprise.”
He added that he was attracted to the company because of its “human values [that are] at the center of everything.”
Movado is on a long-term strategic track to elevate its offering, with Grinberg noting that the company’s average purchase price is up 15 percent since before the pandemic.
“Movado is always an aspirational brand and an accessible brand. It’s aspirational but it’s not beyond people’s reach, so it’s a very fine sweet spot that we believe we can continue to elevate,” he said.
Grinberg added that this is a strong selling point in today’s inflationary climate, saying: “We make luxury affordable to people in an inflationary environment. We have prided ourselves, no matter what products we sell, on offering great value to the consumer. So, if the consumer spends $250, I want it to feel like $1,000 and if it’s $1,000 I want it to feel like $3,000, and so on — so they are getting more value than what they are paying for.”
Gerschel said this will be an asset in his new role. “I think this is exactly it, you have a brand with a very rich history and one of the best street credentials in the watch business that has a very good sweet spot positioning with potential to grow,” he said.
Given his experience in the fine jewelry arena, Gerschel will also help Movado on the product side as the firm looks to grow its jewelry business — which will soon expand into the fine jewelry category.
“One of the things we did going back three years in Movado is making sure that as we launch new product, we are working on marketing initiatives and prototypes at the same time — it lets us really think about why something belongs in our brand,” said Grinberg.
Gerschel added: “I think we will be working, particularly with the core Movado brand, on a lot of development potential — especially on ranges of geography, like in Asia. On the assortment, bringing jewelry and very good jewelry to Movado is a good idea in my opinion.”
According to Grinberg, Movado’s jewelry line will begin to show signs of Gerschel’s influence in the second half of the year. But it will continue, “over the next several years — we are not in a rush, our business has done really well and we have no reason to be in a rush. It’s more of an evolution.”
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