China'S Luxury Consumption Boom Is A Window.

As of last year, the total consumption of luxury goods in China has increased to $9 billion 400 million, becoming the world's second largest consumer of luxury goods.

At the end of May, the commercial blue book published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and other units: the China business development report (2009-2010) is remarkable. As of last year, the total consumption of luxury goods in China has increased to $9 billion 400 million, with a global share of 27.5%, and for the first time surpassed the United States, becoming the second largest consumer of luxury goods in the world, after Japan.

In the next 5 years, China's luxury goods market will occupy the first place in the world.

In fact, China's real luxury consumption path has only taken 20 short years.

20 years of rapid expansion, it has created a world's second "future" or "the world's largest consumer".

In 2009, when we entered the post financial crisis era, faced with the repeated atrophy of the old customers in the west, the most top sellers in the world saw the great power of "Chinese consumption" in a timely manner; in the first half of 2010, in the Chinese market with strong demand, the world's top brands, like a screaming sports car, stepped on the accelerator to China to expand their business, and more luxury brands came to life.

The industry even said that China might be able to win the luxury consumption in 2012, not even by 2015.

In the face of the booming luxury consumption feast, what we want to know is whether the Chinese can really afford it?

"The soaring consumption of luxury goods in China is a window which reflects many abnormal realities in today's Chinese society."

Professor Wang Ning, a sociology professor at Zhongshan University, said.

Luxury consumption has always been accompanied by controversy over luxury consumption.

Those who like luxury goods prefer to endure hunger and hunger to squeeze buses and buy LV.

It is ridiculed that they do not understand the spiritual connotation of luxury goods, but they are consuming "LOGO". But they themselves think that if luxuries do not have LOGO, is it still a luxury?

What is luxury?

Professor Lu Xiao, a professor of luxury management at the school of management at Fudan University, has six characteristics in the definition of luxury goods: absolute quality, high price, scarcity and uniqueness, advanced aesthetics and multilevel emotion, long history tradition, legendary brand story and non functionality.

Hong Huang, a cultural celebrity, said, "luxury is a handicraft made by any intention."

Psychological counselor Shu Liu Min believes that luxuries are "non practical and scarce, which are mainly used for aesthetics".

The understanding of luxury goods is different for everyone.

Even inside the luxury goods industry, there is no uniform answer.

It is the vagueness of the definition of luxury that makes the luxury itself controversial.

"Gold jewelry, jade painting and calligraphy can also be used as a hedge investment.

How much does it cost to buy a sports car and wait for you to go to the market?

If you look at those pawnshops in foreign countries, those who fail or lose money in gambling will be forced to drop the list and sell them very cheap!

Mr. Chen, a 30 year old businessman from Zhejiang Province, was very rich. In an interview, he expressed a strong view of "anti luxuries" and said he had never bought his wife's famous brand bag.

"My wife spends more than 20 thousand of her pocket money every month, but she can't accept that it costs 10 thousand yuan to buy a bag.

Do not say that the LV and CUCCI of the main street are rampant. Even if the real bags are placed in front of us, we do not think they are nice from the aesthetic point of view.

Mr. Cheng, a 40 year old businessman from Guangzhou, saw that luxury brands were making money out of their pockets.

Because he himself should often get rid of money and voluntarily deliver luxury packages to customers.

"In order to safeguard the needs of customers, I am not a bit cold on luxury goods.

How much is the cost of the bag? It's the most expensive five hundred or six hundred yuan. It's not even leather, it's the quality of artificial leather. "

Mr. Cheng told reporters that he was walking on the sea step by step. His life creed was "disgrace with luxury", so he opposed the consumption of luxury goods. He also disliked the so-called "bragging" of so-called brands: "what is the distinctive intrinsic value and symbolic value, the social status or emotional value of brand communication."

That's all about girls.

Montagut and Pierre Cardin, who are popular when we were young, are now not even seen.

The first thing a pragmatic businessman thinks is whether the cost of luxury is worth the money.

This is totally different from the starting point for luxury fans to consider things.

Wolfgang Latzler's book "luxury brings prosperity" points out that luxury goods manufacturers will try their best to maintain low cost and avoid waste, but the problem of cost is generally second.

"Famous brand is to achieve excellence and perfection in this product, and what is the consideration of ordinary commodities within the prescribed cost range?"

Even sunglasses, which are not famous brands, Miss Yu explained to reporters the difference between luxury and ordinary products and why she followed luxury brands.

No LOGO, luxury?

"If you don't have the luxury LOGO, do you think they're luxuries?

You will spend the same money to buy it? "

Mr. Chen of Zhejiang businessmen told reporters that he saw that people around him bought LV or Porsche, or did they buy another LOGO?

"If a LV bag is not LV, give it another LOGO, so many people buy it to show off?"

This view of Mr. Chen represents a lot of general views that do not consume luxury goods.

Reporters heard that most people opposed to luxury consumption believed that "those who buy luxury goods, most of them are buying a LOGO."

Professor Jia Jia Wen, director of the brand research center of East China Normal University, does not agree with this view. He told reporters: "it is like" roses are not fragrant if they are not roses. "LOGO is just a sign, just like everyone has their own name.

Luxury has become a luxury product because of its history, culture, quality and technology, and so on.

Professor Ho said that luxury consumption also has different levels and stages.

At the initial stage, some consumers may occasionally buy luxury goods. Without LOGO, luxury goods will no longer be luxuries. They consume "symbols". For advanced stage luxury consumers, LOGO is not important, they consume unique characteristics that meet their needs.

Hong Huang told reporters that LOGO is just the need for marketing, not the need for luxury goods. The use of LOGO is only the need for commercialization of luxury goods.

"Many Japanese luxury goods are expensive, and the technology is very good, but refuse to take this step. They refuse to brand themselves and commercialize them.

As a result, these brands are well known and recognized in Japan, but they do not take the road of European luxury internationalization.

In fact, I am more interested in this luxury.

Go to Japan to find such things during the Spring Festival.

Hong Huang said.

Is it worth living for things?

Spend half a year to save money to buy a Chanel jacket, and the white-collar women who crowded the subway with LV limited edition bags are no longer news.

And in the fashion circle, those girls who have come out in the early days are more tired of news.

Hong Huang told reporters that the people in her fashion circle were not more tired than other industries.

"In fact, if we know how to appreciate, rather than have to possess, if we are to enjoy, not to show off, we will not be particularly tired.

PaulLing, a Singaporean overseas Chinese, is keen to collect all kinds of watches and famous cars. It has over 12 years of experience in IT and banking industry.

PaulLing told reporters that he loved watches and sports cars.

"Such as Patek Philippe (PatekPhillip), Vacheron Constantin (VacheronConstantin), Audemars Pigeut (AudemarsPiguet), Arago (A.Lange&Sohn) and other brands, they can make me feel the heart of the watchmaker and the tradition that has been handed down for many years.

Each clock from different manufacturers reflects different personalities and the beauty of mechanical watches given by watchmakers.

The beauty of the appearance of a watch is only a small part of the value of the watch. "

In an interview with the Executive Club of the Westin Hotel in Shanghai, he was wearing a Patek Philippe and blackberry phone.

It is understood that he currently has Vacheron Constantin Limited (Vacheron Constantin RoyalEagle), Patek Philippe (PatekPhillipeWorldTime), and the 62 edition of PaneraiPAM62Radiomirlimitededition (PanNai RadiomirPAM), many of which are limited by the world's clocks and watches.

PaulLing has a liking for the expression of the small hands, and is also partial to the five big chateau, but seems to dislike the famous brand bag.

"If you have more money, you will not feel that you have more money.

I think buying luxury goods should buy its quality, at least the car can be used to open it, the watch can be used to see the time, and the list can be passed down continuously to my descendants. "

And his motto for good wine is "drink less, but drink the best!"

Hong Huang also objected to the fact that low-income white collar women pursued luxury goods unrealistically.

"If you bear enormous pressure of life, you have to save half a year's living expenses to buy bags, which basically belongs to" no shit and no toilet suction. "

But this is not a luxury issue.

I will never allow my daughter to do so. "

Professor Ho Jia - Hang feels that urban white-collar workers are frugal and save money to buy a LV bag, as a reward for their own gifts, and experience the feeling of luxury.

"But it doesn't have to be too fascination and become a malformed consumption.

When you really have self-confidence, you don't care about others' opinions.

But in any case, I hope there is no such extreme situation: squatting on the road to eat lunch, but wearing Armani. "

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What is the psychology of a luxury country?

In people's imagination, a standard "Chinese luxury consumer" has two kinds of split images: usually wearing Amarni suit, a office in high-grade office buildings, fluent English, annual vacation to Europe for one month, or another "terrible" situation: wearing Pierre Cardin's suit, wearing Goldlion belt, telling a salesgirl in Hongkong with a strong accent Mandarin to buy a Rolex gold watch.

According to the research by Yang Qingshan, Secretary General of China Brand Strategy Association, China's current luxury goods consumption population has reached 13% of the total population, and is still growing rapidly.

The rapidly growing Chinese are realizing their dream of luxury in various ways.

Just a few years ago, the luxury brands around the world were not concerned about China, but rather a few "Little Dragons" in Taiwan and Hongkong.

Yang Qingshan explained this: the consumption growth of luxury goods in a country should be about two times that of its GDP growth.

Therefore, when Asians face their suddenly increased wealth, they do not hesitate to choose the symbol of "luxury and wealth" - luxury goods to show their new economic and social status. This is a very natural psychological need.

He talked about a small town in the Chinese mainland where he once visited. People there do not know what the pizza is, but the expectation for luxury is that "when I have money, I must have a pizza".

For Miss Gao, who works in an advertising agency in Shanghai, her pizza is priced at 5700 yuan erragamo white satchel. She hesitated for a long time before buying this bag.

"After all, I graduated from school last year, and now my income is only about 4000 yuan a month. In order to buy this bag, I didn't buy a dress for two months, and I had lunch every day in the company.

But we all pay attention to the brand, especially some female colleagues from Hongkong, who have very good eyes. It will be a matter of time to see what shoes you wear and what bags you wear.

Compared to the suit, a bag can be carried every day for many years. It will not be out of date for a long time, and the quality of the whole person will be different after they are carried out. It will be the most cost-effective consumption. "

Sun Zhe, a columnist for fashion magazine, once referred to Miss Gao as the "girl Bovary" who stayed at the stage of brand buying: because they did not earn enough money, they could only hint that they were also part of the wealthy class by buying relatively inexpensive accessories.

Such consumers occupy a large proportion of luxury goods with relatively low price.

PWC's analyst Yue Zheng pointed out that there are two differences between China's luxury consumption and foreign countries: first, most of the luxury goods purchased in China are young people under 40 years old, whereas in developed countries, the market is dominated by 40-70 year old middle-aged and elderly people. Besides, for Chinese people, luxury goods are mostly concentrated on personal necessities such as clothing, perfume, watches and so on. In Europe and America, housing, automobile and family travel are the luxury that we all aspire to.

This shows that China is still not rich enough, and on the other hand, it reflects the different lifestyles of China and the West: the high-density crowd encourages the comparison of consumption.

"This shows that in China, consumers of luxury goods are younger than foreign countries. At the same time, the emphasis of Chinese luxury consumption is still on display of personal status."

Jiang Caifen said, in fact, in contemporary American society, conspicuous consumption is not the American preference and character.

AmericanDemographics, an American business magazine, has published a ConsumerExpenditureSurvey (CES). It claims that the attitude of Americans towards consumption is not so conspicuous, but rather practical.

The view from the United Kingdom is that the real luxury brand represents a whole elegant temperament, and they will not treat someone else with an expensive backpack on their shoulders.

That is to say, luxury is not a necessity in life, it can express an attitude towards life.

For example, the elegance and comfort advocated by COCOCHANEL, the founder of Chanel, has revolutionized the fashion of women's clothing around the world and became the pride of the French.

However, it has apparently not reached such a level for Chinese people who have been in contact with international luxury brands for less than 20 years.

Yang Qingshan's survey shows that unlike many people imagine, the main force of Chinese luxury consumption is actually the middle class.

The Paris Peregrine company defines them as family assets of more than 300 thousand and annual income of more than 100 thousand.

"Of course, if we want to consume luxury goods regularly, the standard should be higher," Yang Qingshan said. "I think these people who earn 20 thousand yuan to 50 thousand yuan a month should be more typical luxury consumers."

According to his estimate, by 2010, this population will increase to 250 million.