The "Endorsement" Crisis Of Luxury Goods

For many luxuries in China

The public events triggered by micro-blog have made me debut. However, all the recent public topics will find an interesting phenomenon: whether the former Red Cross scandal or the recent case of Li Shuangjiang's son driving and beating, in many public events, many luxury brands are always implicated in "innocent".

Media coverage has amplified this connection. As people now talk about Jocie Guo, he naturally associates with Hermes. When it comes to Li Shuangjiang's son, he will never forget his unlicensed BMW car.

When more and more

For foreign luxury goods that have always been high profile, they are encountering the crisis of brand "endorsement".

From a brand perspective, no luxury product does not want to be associated with celebrities.

The brand needs to be endorsed and endorsed through endorsement, through the association with stars, the atmosphere, cultural mode and the association of good life can be conveyed to the public, so that its brand can be penetrated into people's concept through some symbol.

However, these luxury brands are more and more unwilling to see that luxury brands in China and some high speed developing countries are showing positive images of Linping.

Moreover, luxury brands have always had a contradictory mentality on the Chinese market: on the one hand, they want to expand the size of the consumer group, sell more products to maximize profits, and on the other hand, try to flaunt themselves as a minority lifestyle.

However, the "minority" is beyond control.

This has led to the fact that some luxury goods have become a way of life for a few people.

For example, in many foreign high-end car brands, BMW has been sparing no effort in implementing the younger generation, and has achieved remarkable results.

In the Chinese market, they are keen to look at the younger and richer new class, and implement a younger brand strategy, which makes them proud of their sales performance.

However, some owners' bad performance in public events has embarrassed BMW.

In the early case of the BMW accident in Hangzhou, when Li Gang's son ran into a case and then hit the son of Li Shuangjiang, the "BMW" brand was forced to associate with the public outrage.

How to isolate their brands from negative public figures is a big confusion for many luxury brands in China.

In addition to brand endorsements caused by bad public figures in public events, the manipulation of competitors will also prevent many luxury brands.

For example, in the United States, there is a topic called queen Snooki, who is known for her indiscretion in words and deeds. She is not exposed to confusion in her private life, but is arrested because of disturbing public order.

Surely no fashion brand is willing to relate to such a star.

But people find that every time she is exposed by the media, she will always have a COACH bag.

In fact, the biggest threat to luxury brands in China is not the impact of Shanzhai.

For Shanzhai, at least, we can avoid risks through legal means and other means.

However, once a luxury brand is always associated with negative public figures, whether it is because of the misconduct of its users or the counter placement of competitors, it will make the fragile public image of foreign luxury goods in China more precarious.

In brand management, Baer brand image model, widely referenced, points out that brand image is a three-dimensional combination of corporate image, product image and user image.

In the three, the former two can be promoted by the subjective efforts of the enterprises, but the image of users can hardly be changed by direct management.

For luxury giants in China, raising their brand's affinity to the public and cultivating loyal middle class fans may be the only solution.

For affinity, most luxury brands are deliberately keeping high above the top. Otherwise, they will turn social welfare into another show of dignitary gathering, rarely go deep into the heart of the middle class, and make long-term investments to pass on the essence and values of their brand culture.

For the middle class, they also want to become a luxury brand consumer group, but due to the lack of investment in product localization and research and development, let alone the brand experience and brand reputation of the future hardcore consumer group.

Luxury brands may feel wronged in the face of the unspoken disaster of being endorsed.

As a matter of fact, all international luxury brands should ask themselves whether to do enough to cultivate the Chinese society around the lifestyle they advocate, and do they really help the Chinese middle class build up a more positive culture and corresponding values, and do they protect the culture that the Chinese are losing, rather than shouting slogans?

Any brand will have a crisis. When the brand is closer to the psychological distance of the local ordinary consumers, it will make itself more truthful and avoid many misunderstandings.