Cascade Effect and Bremont Watches
This article is commenting on the recent popularity of a new watch brand in the U.K., Bremont Watches. They wanted to create a watch that was a British watch that would have a British identity. The watch was made in the U.K. with all the assembly being doing in the country and only a few parts of the watch were shipped there from elsewhere. They were trying to get a rebirth of industrialized watch making in Britain and 70% of their watch is added on British soil. Giles, one of the brothers that started the company claims, “For us, being British is very valuable.” They wanted to differentiate their brands from other brands by having it be “British.” Without it being the original intention of the brothers they have become the flag-bearer for British watchmaking. Creating these watches in Britain has not been cost effective due to Britain not having all the necessary materials. Bremont has unknowingly created a cascade effect.
There were a lot of features of Bremont watches that created this information cascade. Information cascades are often started from not a lot of information and a few key figures making initial decisions in the market that the rest of the consumers follow afterwards. A large part in this cascade being created was due to the people identifying with the British watch and wanting to fit into the norm and identity of other British people. It was the “hip” and “in” watch to own. If everyone else is wearing the popular watch you want to fit in. You can see the decisions the people before you made in either buying or not buying the watch, but not necessarily the reasons behind their decisions. This means after there are enough initial people who bought the watch the rest of the people also bought the watch assuming that the people before them had information about the watch that they do not that made them buy the watch. This creates an information cascade.
This also shows networks and how a product can spread through word of mouth by people sharing when they got the watch and then information spreads through the ties they have making the watch become popular more quickly. There is also direct benefit to buying the watch and fitting in with the group identity. The benefit was that everyone else was doing it so then you are pushed into also wanting to own a Bremont watch.