Domestic Luxury Market Downturn, Consumers Favor Personalized Brand

Not long ago, American consulting firm Bain and the Italy luxury industry association released the global luxury market monitoring. According to the report analysis, the growth rate of global personal luxury consumption in 2014 will be only 2%, which is the lowest growth rate since 2009. Among them, the Chinese market will see the first negative growth of luxury goods since entering the mainland of China.

The industry believes that luxury goods in the Chinese market is gradually moving towards a downturn. In the past month, the earnings report of major luxury groups has confirmed this judgement.

Burberry's recent first half earnings report showed a 7% rise in performance and a slower trend in the ring than in the second half. Prada's medium-term results recently announced that net profit fell by 21% over the same period last year.

The first three quarters of 2014 released by the luxury giant LVHM group showed a sharp decline in sales growth of only 4%, while the figure was 25% in 2012, while LV's leather goods sales were at an all-time low of 3%.

Some analysts believe that the downturn in luxury market in China is due to the Chinese government's anti-corruption actions.

According to the analysis, the changes in the Chinese market are not only related to the reduction of gift consumption resulting from the "frugal order" in China, but also by more and more Chinese consumers.

　　 for example The British Burberry windbreaker priced at 29 thousand yuan at the Chinese website is only 330 thousand yen (19 thousand yuan) in Japan, while 2395 euros in France (about 18 thousand and 800 yuan). The price of the same LV bag, French official website and Italy official website is nearly 1000 yuan less than that of China's official website.

Miss Li, a fashion buyer who lives in Milan, Italy, agrees: "anti-corruption is only one reason, and more importantly, consumers are becoming more rational and no longer blindly follow suit and start paying attention to cost-effective."

Once upon a time, Chinese tourists were queuing up outside the luxury stores. "We are buying buyers, and we have to rush for goods with our compatriots in the tourist season." Miss Li said, "now there is seldom such a scene of domestic tourists buying, many customers buy luxury goods are looking for purchasing, can save money."

In addition to being more and more rational, consumers are also starting to pursue personalization instead of blindly worshipping luxury brands.

"LV of the main street is hard to distinguish between true and false. And Gucci, logo is boring. " Consumer Wang told reporters. It is true that the classic logo of luxury brands is no longer a gaze, but rather a glare. "Because the full bag of logo is very popular, for fear that others will not know what brand they are carrying." Ms. Wang said.

Not only consumers, luxury businesses have also found that the tastes of Chinese consumers are changing. Armando Branchini, vice chairman of the Italy luxury goods industry association, said in an interview that the quality of Chinese luxury goods is rising from the small pieces with the brighter trademark as the bigger the better.

In this regard, the major brands are different. Gucci's products began to "de sign" in recent years, actively developing more exclusive leather products, using more non-traditional colors and avant-garde designs, and at the same time limiting the products with obvious trademarks to 10% or less. LV's leather products also started more darker designs. In addition to some classic styles, they still used classic presbyopic patterns, and embossing and water ripples began to be applied to the latest product design.

In October 28th, the largest luxury brand Coach (Coach) announced the first quarter of fiscal year 2015: the continued weakness in the US led to a year-on-year decline in overall sales of 10%, while sales in North America dropped by 19% to $634 million over the same period.

As a representative of light luxury brand, Coach was once touted by the North American and Chinese market. However, this year, besides the sluggish local market, the performance of the Chinese market is not satisfactory.

"In the past few years, Coach was very popular in China, and many American purchases were made on behalf of Coach." Yang Meng, who specializes in purchasing American goods, said, "but this year, Coach is not as popular as it used to be. Coach has indeed been hit by the presence of more young brands in the Chinese market.

The Internet is becoming more and more developed, and the exchange of information is getting more and more smooth. Chinese consumers are more and more sensitive to the global market. Michael Kors, Kate Spade, Tory Burch, DKNY, Furla, these young brands have become rising stars.

Although the cake in the luxury market is big, the competition is fierce, and the homogenization of the brand is becoming more and more serious.

Take the classic LV Neverfull as an example, this bag is an open zipper free shopping bag design, and the bag in this market is too numerous to mention. Almost every brand has its own Neverfull. Brand imitation is serious, and its own innovation is not enough. It is also an important reason for the public's aesthetic fatigue to luxury brands.

"Consumers are more interested in personalization. Whether it's a luxury item or a luxury brand, personality design is the life of a brand. Industry analysts believe.

The continuous cooling of the luxury sales market in China has led many big brands to lose their sales confidence in China, and some big brands have even begun to withdraw. The industry believes that luxury brands only focus on the current growth point of interest, and do not dig deep market demand. The decline of performance should be adjusted timely to conform to the mainstream development direction of the current market.

Some experts pointed out that in the future, luxury goods would like to restore good performance in China and need to restructure channels. The Chinese market is still expanding and the prospect is optimistic, but the opportunity is to leave the brand that caters to consumer demand after market segmentation. The change of the luxury market will become a good opportunity for the transformation of the consumer market.