Blockchain and Clienteling
Antonio Carriero, Chief Digital and Technology Officer, BREITLING
At Breitling Technology (let me drop Digital-) is not only a business enabler, Technology is about empowering customers. And this is our mantra, engage and empower any Breitling customer.
It was suddenly very clear that Blockchain (Technology) could play an important role in the direct relation between Breitling and its customers and it goes beyond the immediate Transparency and Traceability of the watch. Let me present the details of our solution.
Each Breitling watch has a Digital NTF Twin/Certificate – we call it Digital Passport – based on the Blockchain (Technology). We partnered with the Arianee Consortium to generate our Digital Passports, available for download, simply by scanning the QR Code of the watch warranty card.
The Digital Passport is the canvas to connect with all our customers and empower them with additional services resulting in a transformation of their experience with Breitling. With the Digital customers can anonymously connect with Breitling. Anytime. We use Blockchain technology to empower customers, ensure Transparency in the product life cycle but also to provide tailored and product-compelling services. For example, embedded Tradability: the Blockchain secured ownership transfer or a watch in the context of a sales transaction. We bring to the individual vendor and the buyer the same capabilities we have in our stores: a traceable and secured ownership transfer. This allow us to connect the community of Breitling owners. And from November 2021 we will provide a global trusted trading platform for that engaged community. Eventually leveraging the underlying crypto currency to support any trade transaction.
We strongly believe that the Arianee Protocol and open source decentralized infrastructures are the path to generating the needed trust for an absolute Transparency, as well as guaranteeing the respect of our customers' privacy. Arianee leverages the characteristics of Blockchain to offer brands and owners a relationship based on anonymous ownership. Owners do not have to share any personal details to entertain a relationship with the brand from which they own a product. And owners do not need to have any privacy and security concerns anymore. An anonymized communication channel between the brand and the product owner. A new dimension in the Clienteling that focus on providing innovative services and anticipate needs. As a brand we have do not store any customer data. All the information is consigned into blocks of the public chain.
We use Blockchain technology to empower customers, Ensure transparency in the product life cycle but also to provide tailored and product-compelling services 
We have been promoting this framework through our participation in the Arianee Project Association and governance for more than 2 years which gathers 34+ members from the luxury and fashion industries but also integrators, service providers building value for final consumers. We have built our ecosystem with the collaboration of Dentsu.
Staying anonymous has become a privilege for customers willing to maintain a relationship with their preferred brands. Arianee certificates come with that level of privacy while encouraging a true relationship between brands and product owners.
A relationship based on ownership is also a major benefit VS usual customer relationship management where brands lose track of their products and cannot communicate with their customers for legal reasons such as GDPR, product’s lifecycle reasons such as secondhand resale or because of the distribution channels used such as third-party resellers.
The first Breitling collection powered with Blockchain was the Top Time Limited Edition that we launched back in March 2020. Since October 2020 any new Breitling watch comes with its Digital Passport offering proof of ownership, and life cycle Transparency, following every footstep of the watch since the day it was bought by its first owner. The full Traceability achieved proves crucial for second-hand transactions that will be directly enabled in the Digital Passport, providing Tradability feature to any Breitling watch owner. Finally, since February 2021 all the Breitling watches in the trade have a Digital Passport, and on demand (conditions apply) we can generate a Digital Passport for your Breitling (recent, vintage, etc.). Obviously, Blockchain Digital Passport creation and activation is fully integrated and automated with our production and supply chain ERP.
Breitling watch owners around the world enjoy an enriched watch ownership experience overall with tailored suggestions stemming for new added value services offered. This is achieved with full client’s anonymity, maintaining the same relevance of recommendations. For example:
- Repair/service: the owner initiates and follow a repair with Breitling based on a proof of ownership of the watch from the certificate
- Lost & found: the owner flags the certificate of a lost or stolen product to Breitling. Customs and resellers have access to a registry of flagged certificates maintained by Breitling
- Insurance: the owner ensures a product via Breitling based on the information embedded in the certificate
But how does it work?
The Arianee protocol provides standardized data structures, libraries, and APIS so that we could develop with our partner Dentsu the ecosystem allowing Breitling to send a message to a watch owner, via the certificate (Digital Passport). To do so we use Salesforce Sales and Marketing cloud engine. As the sender Breitling does not need to know anything from the owner but his/her public key (a random alphanumeric chain of characters).
Therefore, all our customers, can join Breitling loyalty program, anonymously and independently from the purchase channel: direct acquisition on breitling. com or in our Boutiques and at our retailers Point of Sales.
Of course, the owner of a Digital Passport can opt-in or opt-out from messages anytime. But why should he/she opt-out when with our solution we guarantee the anonymousness and the most complete access to Breitling custom services and offering, linking back the brand and the customer.
