Can China Produce "Luxury"?

Europe 6 years ago Luxury goods The popular question is: can China produce luxury goods? The answer is always: impossible!

But look at the present China, reality has overthrown all the ideas. In 2007, China was in jewelry. clothing Consumption of luxury goods such as perfume and leather goods amounted to 8 billion US dollars, accounting for 18% of the global market share and 13% of the total population. International luxury goods have been stationed in China for 10 years. In 2010, Hermes set up a joint venture in China to build up a traditional Chinese brand. "Can China produce luxury goods?" when asked this question, people hesitated, perhaps still waiting. But Michel Gutsatz, Professor Michel, gave a positive answer.

He said, a luxury. brand It needs seven factors: cultural background, creativity, skill and quality, inheritance, service elite, high price and general appearance.

cultural background

"Luxury brands should be based on their own national culture." Christofle, Hermes, Prada, Farrari in Italy, and Swatch in Switzerland all reflect the local cultural characteristics in brand design. China is also a country with profound culture. For example, silk and tea are good things that can be developed vigorously. Whether it is "up and down" or "NE Tiger", it proves the strong attraction of Chinese traditional culture. In addition, there are also many native brands in China, such as "Zhou Dafu" in 1929, and "Zhang Yu" in 1892. China's luxury brands should make full use of Chinese traditional culture and integrate it into the brand.

The important role of creation

"All luxury brands have one thing in common. They all place the creator's name on LOGO. Tiffany & Co. creator Charles Tiffany, Christofle Charles Christofle creator, Bvlgari creator Sotirio Bulgari, creator of Louis Louis, etc. This proves that creativity plays an extremely important role in a luxury brand, and it also illustrates an important problem: the new brand was born in the designer's mind. Without a good designer, it is impossible to create a luxury brand. No matter what brand, designers are always very important. The essence of luxury brands is creation and design.

"China's luxury brands should cooperate with Chinese designers. They grow in China and have the Chinese mentality to adapt to the Chinese market. " China already has a group of excellent designers, such as Alexander Wang, Phillip Lim. But this is far from enough. "In order to train more design talents, China should build more art and design institutes."

Skills and quality

"Traditional technology should be inherited and developed. China's luxury brands should help preserve these traditional technologies and maintain them and develop them, as Hermes and Chanel did in France. In addition, we can never compromise with quality. "

inherit

"Famous brands in China have already existed for a long time. Awakening them is the foundation for developing new brands. " The famous brand "twin sister" of Shanghai, which was once famous in 30s, gradually ceased production after public-private partnership in 1950. But in 2010, Shanghai Jahwa company launched the "double sister" and made it the brand of "high-end cross-border fashion". Not only has it produced beauty products, but also has launched jewelry and other ancillary products to become a real lifestyle brand.

"China's luxury brands should make full use of the imperial heritage." There is a famous restaurant "Li Jia Cai" in the alley of Yang Gong House on the east side of Gong Wang Fu in Beijing. The inscription on the sign of "Li Jia Cai" is Pu Jie, the younger brother of the last emperor Pu Yi. Li Shanlin, the grandfather of his founder Li Zijia, was trusted by Ci Xi during the Tongzhi and Guangxu years of Qing Dynasty. I am in charge of the royal palace. Li Shanlin had a real biography of his grandfather. At first, there was only one table for every day, only ten persons to eat, and 200 yuan per person. Now we have another house, plus two small tables, but we can eat at most twenty people a night. Former US President Clinton, former British Prime Minister Major, Jackie Chan, Jin Yong and other domestic and foreign celebrities have been guests of Li Jia cuisine.

Service elite

Salvatore Ferragamo is the star of shoemaking industry. Audrey Hepburn, Sophie Loren, Marilyn Monroe and others were loyal supporters of him. Quality is always the constant pursuit of consumers.

"China's affluent consumer groups have complex consumption views. Those who are in the minority but play a vital role have a low-key way of life - paying more attention to quality than brands.

High price

If you can't determine the price of an item, you will ask yourself how many hours it takes to make it. "But in the luxury industry, we should discard the traditional pricing methods and pursue high prices."

Wang Kai, general manager of Zhou Dafu, said Zhou Dafu's fixed price mode had brought great resistance to development. "This is a huge change of consciousness in first tier cities and second tier cities. Customers' attention is no longer a discount, but a service that we can provide for them and a price structure. "

General image

"When you mention France, you think of Hermes; when you mention Italy, you think of Ferrari (Farrari); and when it comes to Switzerland, you will think of Swatch (Swatch)." When we mention China one day, we will think of a brand. That will be the day when it comes to fame and success.

China can own its luxury brand, so there are new problems. How to manage the brand of luxury goods?

Professor Michel thinks, "brand management system includes products, supply chain, propaganda and personnel. We should clarify the responsibility of CEO, and we should make clear that the director of foreign affairs should be criticized. The details are as follows:

In addition, Professor Michel gave several suggestions:

First, identify customer needs. If customers can meet the needs of materials, symbolism and experience, customers will buy and pay a price premium.

The second, third major tenet of management is to create emotions in products, to fill market vacancies in distribution, and to create a consistent brand image in publicity.

Third, brand management skills should be established with European brands and experts to learn from them. Import luxury brand talents from Europe, build a team of Chinese and Western mix, create a new brand with European luxury enterprises, and cooperate with brand management experts to redevelop the existing brand of value.

For example, "up and down", "unicorn jewelry". "Unicorn jewelry" is the first independent international jewellery brand that combines traditional Chinese culture with French skills. In addition, Herborist perfused Chinese herbal medicine and adopted the operation mode of Western brands.

China can have its own luxury brand, but Professor Michel believes that one thing needs to be remembered: it is impossible to build a luxury brand within 30 years.

In 1978, Hermes (Hermes) was 42 million euros, while Bvlgari (Bao Jiali) had only 10 million euros in 1980; until 1992, the size of Gucci (GUCCI) was less than 200 million. Today's luxury tycoon is only a small company at that time. In 2008, Bvlgari (Bao Jiali) reached nearly 1 billion 100 million, turning 100, while Hermes and Gucci also reached nearly 1 billion 800 million and 3 billion 100 million respectively. This shows that it takes at least 30 years to build a luxury brand.

The conditions for China to breed luxury goods are ripe, but it still takes time to build up a real luxury brand. But one day, China's luxury goods will have to divide the world. On that day, maybe China's Shanghai is "Oriental Paris".

Michel Gutsatz (Michel Gutsatz) is a Chinese columnist of "Chinese". Director, MBA, EMBA and DBA, Marseille School of Commerce, France. He founded and developed MBA, an international luxury brand management professional at ESSEC business school, and worked with many international luxury brands. At the same time, it is also a consultant of The Scriptorium company. Previously served as managing director of White Spirit, director of human resources and corporate culture of BELLE Bally (Switzerland). Its blog "BrandWatch brand observation" (www.michelgutsatz.com) has become an important reference material in the field of brand management.

China can own its luxury brand, so there are new problems. How to manage the brand of luxury goods?

Professor Michel thinks, "brand management system includes products, supply chain, propaganda and personnel. We should clarify the responsibility of CEO, and we should make clear that the director of foreign affairs should be criticized.