Wealthy Chinese People and the Chinese Version of the Brands Websites

For some big luxury groups, I have been conducting many qualitative studies (focus groups and interviews) on the Chinese HNWI and/or the Middle Class concerning their relations to the brands websites. All these studies tend toward the same idea : ahead of all other media, the website is the brand’s key point in promotion.

What is going on in a Chinese head when surfing a brand website?

At first, the consumer’s curiosity is stirred by a brand stimulus:
by a commercial break or a special advertising feature on TV,
through magazines and newspapers, by some advertorial or advertising,
on the internet, through forums, e-commerce websites, social media…,
on the point of sale in an advertising framework or when listening to the advice of a clerk,
by word of mouth when invited to a friend’s house.

Following this stimulus and often on the same day, the consumer flings onto the internet (Google or Baidu) to find the chinese version of the wished website. The pages which are mostly looked at describe the products of the brand and its background history. Aware of this phenomenon and rightly so, many brands include some detailed pages about their background which are specially written for their Chinese customers.
 

The Chinese Luxury Brands Marketing “Best Practices”

Each according to its field, the chinese luxury brands intended for the inhabitants are today very successful. These brands not only show some creativity in the way they think up their products but also in the different marketing processes they use.

“Zhao Yi” is a jade brand only located in Beijing where it owns two luxurious shops and a VIP club. Why was this VIP club created and what is going on there? It is a place where Zhao Yi  organizes some advanced lessons of gemmology for its best customers.  These lessons of course make the customers more and more demanding concerning the quality of the gems but they also attach them to this brand which is today so selective regarding the choice of the jades it offers.
The now well-learned customer can feel proud and show off his knowledge around. He can also explain why his buyings are so valuable and what made them so expensive; he becomes somewhat indebted to the brand for the learned knowledge.  A new relationship customer/brand.  

Moutai and the Emotional Marketing

Standard Bottle of Moutai

What do you know about the Moutai? It is a chinese sorghum-based white spirit fermented several times and 60° distilled.
Our ignorant western palates regard it as a “rotgut” but, in its country, the Moutai is considered as a delicate beverage with a rich bouquet. Anyway, being today the most famous and drinked white spirit in China, Moutai has invested in an intense media policy with the aim of conquering more and more new market shares.

“Moutai, the national drink”. At first and from an occcidental point of view, this slogan seems rather standard and institutional but, in its country, it looks extremely subtle and makes every Chinese people’s heart pound with emotion..
So ok for “the national drink”, but what about the Nation in question? It is a modern notion for, if China has been a vast Empire until 1911, the Chinese Nation as we, westerners, mean did not exist yet. It is Mao Zedong who has created this Chinese Nation, a Chinese State as we understand it. Mao Zedong is and will always be considered as the modern Chinese Nation’s Father.  

French Vintage Wines and the Chinese Media; Towards an Effective Promotion Policy

Zhenji did realize that its customers in the Bordeaux area (see references) were asking themselves many questions about their chinese advertisements. Most of the time, it is the extreme opacity of the concerned media that is to blame as well as a lack of knowledge of the local media landscape.

What is worth knowing about the publication number:
Whatever they are (charged or free, sold in newsstands, sent to databasis or put in some strategic spot like a hotel, a tasting house or a restaurant) all chinese media are subjected to censoring so that their publication number is nothing else but a publishing permit. A publication number, french (isbn) or coming from any other part of the world, becomes illicit in China so that this kind of medium will not be distributed  through the country, especially in wellknown hotels, restaurants or tasting houses which reject them systematically.

Only a few magazines, those which are sent to some VIP databasis, can break this rule:  Poh Tiong, a singaporean journalist, is  enjoying this exemption as it is sent to amators of wine and not placed in hotels.
 

The Place Vendome and its Surroundings have the Wind in their Sales

Since the beginning of 2009, the brands of the French Place Vendome in Paris did start some various and profitable approaches towards the Chinese customers. One used to believe that Chinese customers went shopping only at the department stores or along the Champs-Elysees and that free Chinese individual buyers did not exist. But the Place Vendome gives the proof of the contrary everyday.

Lets talk about sales results:
According to “Global Blue”, the leader institute concerning duty-free shopping which works with most of the Parisian brand names, “the duty-free turnover made with the Chinese tourists has increased by 80% up between 2008 and 2009. In the Vendome area and for the first time, the Chinese tourists average basket overtook the Russian’s one; more than 2.700 Euros have been reached on their side against 1.800 Euros on the Russian’s. On the Place Vendome duty-free market, they stand at the fourth place behind the Japanese, the Russian and the US customers”.

China Union Pay Sales Figures

On the other hand, the China Union Pay Card compares the results running from January until May 2010 to those from January until May 2009: The Paris (France) total turnover has increased by 20% up. As for the Place Vendome’s share in the sales made in Paris, it has gone up from 6% to 12% of the total turnover which means a 2,5 points progression.

What has been done by the brands of the Place Vendome ?

By the end of 2008, Zhenji (the new name of the Chinedge company) suggests that the Vendome Committee should prepare the “Place Vendome and its surroundings” special supplement with the upmarket lifestyle Chinese magazine “Target” , supplement which would be delivered to 100.000 HNWI readers in Mainland China.
The objective should be dual:
First, introduce the great number of famous establishments of the Place Vendome in order to give the Chinese people to understand that here is the Parisian spot for luxury goods.