Luxurious Encirclement: The Hidden Worries Behind China's Luxury Consumption

World class luxury goods such as LV, Hermes, Ferrari and so on have flocked to the ground to rush into the Chinese life and have led to a surge in China.

In June 9, 2011, the World Luxury Association and the China Trade Promotion Association trade promotion center jointly published the blue book of the 2011 official report of the World Luxury Association. The total consumption of China's luxury goods market reached 10 billion 700 million dollars (excluding private aircraft, yachts and luxury cars) from the end of February 2010 to the end of March 2011, which exceeded 1/4 of the global total, and nearly 2/3 of the world's luxury brands entered China. It is expected that China will surpass Japan in 2012 and become the world's largest luxury consumer.

With the rising tide of luxury consumption in China, people can not help but reflect on the possible existence of China's wave.

Luxury consumption in China

When the whole society is gradually entering the stage of prosperity and prosperity, when the wealth of society is not merely satisfied with survival, the luxury lifestyle and the popularity of luxury goods are almost inevitable.

But luxury consumption is one of the main reasons why many people worry about China.

First of all, the phenomenon of "getting together" in luxury consumption in China.

There are generally six categories of luxury goods in the world.

First, all kinds of expensive works of art in the cultural and art market; second, luxury goods belonging to the means of pportation, such as automobiles, sailing ships, etc.; third, luxury goods belonging to personal equipment mainly refer to high fashion and clothing, perfume, leather bags and watches; fourth, leisure travel, such as luxury cruise, cruise and high grade hotels; fifth, luxuries in living, such as all kinds of expensive bedroom accessories, sixth, luxurious food, such as expensive liquor, condiments, etc.

For Chinese people, most of the luxury goods are concentrated on personal necessities such as clothing, perfume, watches, etc. in Europe and America, housing, cars and family travel are the luxury that we all aspire to.

For other types of luxury goods consumption, China is still in its infancy.

Secondly, China's luxury consumption presents a characteristic of "not rich and extravagant".

The average level of luxury consumption in the world is to buy around 4% of its wealth. In China, it is common to achieve "dream" by 40% or more. Even these groups constitute an important part of supporting luxury consumption.

This group realized its dream of purchasing luxury goods through efforts to save money.

They often spend on luxury discounts, and are keen to buy some top brand accessories such as ties, leather shoes, leather bags, and so on, implying that they are also part of the top consumer class.

Thirdly, luxury consumption in China shows a trend of "younger".

The consumption of luxury goods must be based on abundant economic wealth. From the rule of social wealth possession, the main wealth of the society should be concentrated on the middle aged and elderly people aged 40 to 60 years old. They are the main body of luxury consumption.

But on the structure of Chinese consumers, 73% of Chinese luxury consumers are less than 45 years old, and 45% of luxury consumers are between 18 and 34 years old.

This ratio is 37% and 28% respectively in Japan and the United Kingdom.

Finally, China's luxury consumption also shows a tendency of "gift".

Luxury goods can satisfy people's pursuit of quality of life, and even reflect their personal status and status.

But in China, the phenomenon of the separation of people who buy luxury goods and those who use luxury goods has become a peculiar phenomenon, which has made luxury corruption a phenomenon that can not be ignored in the wave of luxury consumption.

The New York Times article points out that the total amount of luxuries purchased by bribing officials accounts for almost half of the total consumption of luxury goods.

Western luxury goods companies are also aware of this. Thierry Gal, President of Dunhill China, said: "Dunhill has always been a favorite brand of Chinese businessmen and government officials."

As early as 2004, when German Stephen brought 90 pairs of LOTOS glasses to Beijing Wangfujing to try to launch sales in China, he insisted that government officials would be a huge potential market in the Chinese market.

What are the characteristics of China's luxury consumption that mean to the whole society? What are the reasons why China's luxury consumption has such distinctive characteristics?

Misunderstood luxury

Wolfgang Latzler defines luxury in bestseller luxury brings wealth: "luxury is a lifestyle that is wholly or partly perceived by its own society as extravagant, mostly determined by products or services."

Luxury goods are internationally defined as "consumer goods that are unique, scarce and rare beyond the needs of people's survival and development needs".

Luxury does not only mean the pursuit of better quality and service, higher prices, but also implies the social status and uniqueness of luxury goods owners.

From this point of view, luxury is a neutral word with no commendatory meaning.

But in Chinese traditional understanding of luxury often means wasting property and pursuing excessive enjoyment, which implies a kind of criticism.

This misunderstanding leads to a totally different attitude towards luxury consumption.

Luxury itself is a concept with rich meaning, so it is easy to lead to different social mentality in luxury consumption.

The popularity of luxury goods is closely related to human nature. People are always in a pursuit of desire and satisfaction, and are always looking for better, more advanced and more perfect process.

The fine quality and perfect technology in the luxury goods satisfy human's pursuit very well, thus driving the whole society in the process of pushing forward and pursuing the ultimate.

For example, "Mercedes Benz" pursues top quality, "Rolls-Royce" highly admired handwork, Ferrari promotes sports speed, and Cadillac creates luxury and comfort.

From this point of view, luxury consumption has a strong positive value for the whole society. This is also the goal pursued by many international luxury brands, hoping that their products will always be at the forefront of fashion.

But luxury consumption in our country pays too much attention to the other meaning of luxury goods. It even takes away the luxury and individuality of luxury goods. Instead, it regards luxury as a means of displaying status and identity and debases it to the "extreme".

The misunderstanding of luxury goods has caused a series of "incredible" consequences.

For example, the consumption of luxury goods in China is mostly on the part that can be displayed outside, such as clothing, watches, jewelry, leather bags and cars. But the luxury and food that emphasize the connotation and taste are not enough.

The most serious consequence of this misunderstanding is the gift giving of luxury consumption.

Luxury goods have become a symbol of status as a symbol of their elite or even upper class nobility. Whether businessmen or officials, whether ordinary people or social elite, will be able to own luxury goods as a benchmark for showing their social status and status.

But the price of luxury goods is not high enough to be enjoyed by anyone. Those who can own luxury goods must be those who possess wealth. The most popular understanding of this wealth is money.

When the wave of luxury goods began sweeping across the whole society, it was a great shock for the officials.

The ancients said that "academic excellence is the official career". Officials have been occupying an advantageous position in traditional Chinese society.

As Chinese people pursue more luxury goods, people are increasingly trying to highlight their status and identity by buying luxury goods. For officials, the contradiction between their economic status and psychological self expectation makes it impossible for officials to rely on rental power to obtain extravagance.

For our civil servants, their statutory income can only be considered as middle level, so it is difficult to join the ranks of luxury goods consumers through their own income.

Faced with this gap, when officials are trying to show or show off their social status and status through luxury goods, there is a "unexpected encounter" between luxury and power.

And because this kind of "encounter" is difficult to be effectively curbed, this gift oriented luxury consumption will still occupy an important part of the market.

The symbol of "power" in luxury consumption

In modern society, people often convey information to others through the medium of objects, and define their identities through these objects to show their social status.

In other words, people in modern society construct their own identity and uniqueness by manipulating and controlling their outward appearance, through the information and symbols they create and pmit.

This labeling method can quickly classify a person and apply the characteristics of this type of person to this person.

Every element of luxury goods embodies a certain cultural connotation. People express their symbolic power through the cultural taste contained in different luxuries. This power is not a kind of government power, but a cultural influence and ability to distinguish others.

For example, the clothing of luxury brands, from its most primitive cloth, including its color, style, workmanship and other aspects, implies a symbolic meaning.

In the Research Report on the new consumption behavior and lifestyle of new China in 2006, the new market monitoring organization of Beijing pointed out that the main purpose of luxury consumption is to show identity and identify with luxury goods.

In the survey, 55.7% of respondents believed that luxury goods represented "exquisite quality of life", while 45.2% thought it was a symbol of "user status status".

This shows that the new rich class is faced with the sudden increase in wealth, the imitations of the way of life of the developed countries, and the higher desire for their achievements, so that their high-end consumption targets are mainly on the symbol of fashion, achievement and identity.

The choice of "luxury symbol" -- luxury goods to show its new economic and social status is a very natural psychological need and desire satisfaction.

It is understandable for the rich class to show their economic strength through luxury consumption, but the trend of gift giving in our luxury consumption must be vigilant.

When luxury represents the status and status of symbolic power and the public power of officials, the trend of luxury "gift" will be inevitable.

Therefore, the traditional Chinese "gift giving" tradition and officials' luxury corruption inevitably blend together, and luxury goods become a tool for officials to flaunt their status. Luxury has also become a weapon for briber giving their best.

Just like the netizen "General Secretary of Hua Guo Shan" reveals on micro-blog.

In a dinner party, a bureau official in Beijing wore a Patek Philippe watch worth 700 thousand yuan and showed it to everyone.

This means that officialdom is very particular about position and order.

When he was with a businessman, he wanted to show that he was the boss. He wore a Patek Philippe. He had a great presence in the world.

When the new rich class shows their economic strength and status with luxuries, when the officials display their power and status with luxuries, another group of young people in luxury consumption in China is displaying their individuality through luxury goods.

Focusing on the 80's "2011 China luxury report", it is pointed out that for young consumers, the most important reason for purchasing luxury goods is the "self" incentive.

Some social psychological factors, such as status symbols, are no longer the most important factor, and they are second in the report this year.

Consumerism is a mainstream consumption trend that emerged in western developed countries after World War II, advocating sense stimulation, pursuing unrestrained material enjoyment, pursuing conspicuous and extravagant consumption, and taking it as the purpose of life and the value of life.

This tendency of consumerism is especially popular among young people. With the introduction of the background of reform and opening up and economic globalization, coupled with the impact of Western luxury culture, the consumption desire of young people is strongly stimulated, thus forming a "youth predicament" that consumes more desire than payment power. It also makes the situation of "not rich and extravagant" more common among young people.

Whether it is the new rich class, or the official class, or even the youth group, in the face of luxuries, a special consumer item or way of conveying identity and personality, it shows a sign of unexpected sign and frenzy of brand, which is very similar to that of Japan.

Harris, general manager of WGSN Asia Pacific, said in a visit that the enthusiasm of Chinese people for luxury goods today showed her 20 years ago in Japan.

"The Chinese are repeating the Japanese luxury consumption craze.

In the late 1980s, the Japanese plunged into the "symbol infatuation", which led to a luxury brand war. The luxury group was highly United for the first time and devoted all their minds to the same consumer market.

Now this situation has been replayed in China.

Face concept VS luxury consumption

Although China has established the socialist market economy and pays more attention to the freedom and development of individuals, some traditional Chinese social and cultural concepts still have a potential impact on people's behavior patterns.

The unique tendency of luxury consumption in China is closely related to this.

People all over the world know that Chinese people pay attention to "face". In China, "face" represents prestige, represents social status, and includes personal achievement and character. It is a person's "self" and social influence.

On this basis, the psychological distance between individuals and others is formed, emphasizing the relationship between personal achievements and character and the size of "face", especially the characteristics of "face" and "giving others".

On the contrary, the "ego" in western culture is highly individualistic and self centred.

Therefore, Westerners pay attention to their taste in luxury consumption, and do not follow suit and follow the crowd.

The luxury consumption in China is dominated by the concept of "face". It focuses on other people's concerns and recognition of luxury goods rather than their personal feelings, leading to the phenomenon of follow suit in consumption.

Chinese customers buy luxury goods abroad. The criteria for choosing luxury goods are not the cultural connotations and qualities of luxury goods, but rather the requirement that domestic friends and relatives can identify with them.

Even in the 80's consumer group pursuing individuality, this herd mentality appears.

In the 2011 China luxury report, it is pointed out that young consumer groups are obviously inclined to mainstream luxury brands, and young consumers clearly have no interest in learning more emerging international brands.

Behind this tendency is the concept of "face" that Chinese people always like to get recognition from others.

In addition, when luxury consumption becomes a symbol of status and identity scale, in order to enable people around to recognize their status and identity, they often seek this kind of "face" through the pursuit of luxury goods, which makes many luxury consumption groups in China "not rich and extravagant", because people around the world can not simply determine the status of a person's property through his senses, but he can easily classify him into a certain social class based on his external clothing brand and driving.

Because in the view of ordinary people, different economic conditions determine different purchasing power, and then determine different consumption levels, thus dividing the members of luxury consumption into respectable groups and strata.

Such a diffusion effect of "face" has led to the rise of luxury consumption in China, but this consumption psychology is obviously not mature, and it is also unfavorable to the healthy development of the luxury consumer market in the future.