The incredible, shrinking life cycle of luxury brands in China

The world is in awe at the pace of Chinese development, the speed with which they have become fashion experts, their ability to adapt to the modern world faster than the speed of light. How can one not be amazed when, in two years only, a district like Sanlitun – a “disneyland” of brands – is created from scratch. In the field of luxury, the Chinese are said to do in five years what the Japanese did in twenty years.

This is all very fine, but the accelerating knowledge of luxury in China also has important negative impacts on the very brands that are at its core: the life cycle of a luxury brand in China finds itself substantially reduced, while the Chinese “consume” the brands when they are firing from all cylinders.

For example: Five years ago when I started specialising in China, I visited the most prestigious Bordeaux vineyards and offered to help them sell to the Chinese. China at the time was not drinking red wine, distributors such as ASC or the Torres were selling “grands Crus” only to rich expatriates, and producers from the Bordeaux region had serious questions about Chinese taste for wine. Since then, the Chinese government has launched a campaign in favor of wine and against 60 degree rice alcohol, Bordeaux wines have marketed China with notorious success, and the whole of China has started buying up Chateau Lafite, as witnessed by the prices seen at auction houses such as Sotheby’s and Christies… particularly in Hong Kong.
 

Weibo, tracked by the authorities with our blessing

I am very surprised. Last year Sina Weido was just starting and Tencent Weibo didn’t exist, yet Google was exiting the Chinese market because of disagreements with the Chinese authorities regarding censorship. Furthermore, Americans and Europeans were holding symposiums here and there condemning restrictions to human rights in China, which blocked and are still blocking major social media players such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and others. 2010 was both the year when social media experienced explosive growth in the West, and when China refused to bow to this western “democracy of the instant”. Compounding this was the massive western media campaign presenting Google’s and others’ problems in China as human rights issues.

While the Jasmin revolution in the Arab countries was showing the power of Facebook or Twitter in mobilising crowds and organising resistance, on the other side of the globe, Weibo was spreading like wildfire in China, promoting brands and star bloggers such as the Han Han and Hublot couple. Weibo was dedicated to mass consumerism, and was developping powerfully, while protected from western competition.

And now,  a dazed West discovers a Weibo that is more userfriendly and popular than Twitter or Facebook, and alliances are starting to take place between Weibo and Facebook. Worse, internet media are calling Twitter a copycat of the latest version of Weibo. Unbelievable reversal of fortunes in just one year, which a number of western brands are taking advantage of to penetrate the Chinese market. Yes, I was surprised in 2011 when, around December 20, in the People Daily, the Chinese government announced it was now mandatory to register on with the central government to own a Weibo. In short, the end of a world of innocence and Chinese grumbling about social media.  

Following the Silk Road, Junlon, a Chinese Jeweler Arrives in Paris

An Chinese jeweler, Junlon,  has set up shop in the Galerie Royale, 9 rue Royale in Paris..

The store is spacious and full of light, the products are abundently exposed everywhere, the walls are white and bare - to open the mind to what the jewels evoke. The craftsmen are French but designed by Chinese and Junlon is the only Chinese brand to produce in France.

Princess Fei Earings - Uighur influence

Junlon masters all sorts of materials, faceted stones or cabochons, whether precious and semi-precious, balls, pearls, that he assembles with all the skill demanded by “haute joaillerie”. But the most striking is the excellence of his traditional worksmanship at the service of contemporary pieces, often minimalist and warm at the same time, like the store which serves as their jewelcase. His creations contain many symbols mainly stories of Silk Road.  For example, the “Four Seasons” collection of rings uses perfectly rounded cabochons, to express time past, present and future turning to infinity.

Golden Abacus - Chinese Influence

Pearls, whether baroque or not, are selected according to draconian criteria. The jewels are both delicate and full of strength. The use of a multitude of small stones, assembled with white or yellow gold, results in finger rings so thin that you can slip them on one after another, according to the day’s mood or clothing. The earrings come in various lengths, depending on the ears or the neck they will highlight.

Women and men can only be seduced, so broad is the creativity, so reasonable the prices (for the time being!

Junlon has decided to take us on a journey, with excellence and humility, through his oniric universe, born on the Silk Road.

Silk Road by Ella Maillart

Silk Road for dummies : Silk Road exists from millemia, starting from Chinese capitals like Luo Yang (Xian today) or Beijing and end in Turkey around Trabzond.or Istambul. It goes through Central Asia,through towns like Kashgar, Samarcande, Khiva, Boukkhara and others. Silk Road was the most important exchanges road between East and West before the reign of vessels and the maritime roads. It has carried from East to West  precious goods, but also technics, ideas, religions which explain that all the cities along thèse roads are a melting pot of several influences Eastern ones as well as Western ones.

Silk road is the ancestor of contemporary global economy.

The Creator of French Loft Story Vamps Sephora in China

Who?
Alexis de Gemini , ex- French ChannelM6 (Big Brother, Popstars, Bachelor and Pekin Express), founded his production company A2G creation in 2009. Laetitia Rambaud, Director, Media and Advertising EMEA at Sephora. Rémi Guigou, Director of the Image of Sephora.Project Managers: Anne Véronique Bruel, President Greater China Sephora, Laurene Dutartre, Marketing Image Manager at Sephora China

What?
The case study “Sephora Beauty Academy”, broadcasted summer 2011 on Dragon TV and the Web, presented at the first evening event China ConnectInTheCity event organized by Laure de Carayon.

How?
30 days of shooting with a team of five French and Chinese 90
10 episodes of 45 minutes broadcasted on primetime, with over 30% audience market share on the Shanghai region
15 million views of episodes on the net
25 million votes combined on the web
51 080 posts around the program on Weibo, one of the Chinese twitters
40,458 blog posts
A production cost equivalent to a programme on TNT in France, or, one third of a prime time on M6.

How?
Alexis de Gemini discovered China with Pekin(Beijing) Express. He moved in shortly after with his family and develops over ten concepts he pitches to brands and channels. “To go to China, it’s better to be small, agile, which many large audiovisual structures can not,” he says. Sephora was seduced by “Beauty Academy”, a format that allows to educate a population consuming more care products than makeup. “In Communist China, there was a total lack of makeup culture. The mother-daughter transmission does not exist. “Beauty Academy is a major competition in 10 episodes, looking for the country best “make up artist”. At stake: a two-year contract with the brand.  

Translating brands into Chinese : a delicate process

Some time ago, I was contacted by one of my clients from the luxury industry. He was in the process of entering the Chinese market through a distributor in the South of China, and had questions regarding the translation of his brand into Chinese. Of course, this is an mandatory step, since the Chinese don’t accept (or understand) the roman alphabet used in the Western world. The brand must be transcribed into Chinese characters and phonemes.

There are three schools of thought in this regard :

- the phonetic school uses Chinese phonemes, that is, Chinese characters which have over time lost their meaning, but reproduce the « sound » of the brand. This is the case for « Cartier » in Chinese – it does not mean anything but sounds good in Chinese, and its assembly of characters without meaning gives it a very western and modern feel.

- the semantic school, on the other hand, seeks to translate the values of the brand while moving away from comparable prononciation. The names carry real meaning by have no relationship to western prononciation.

- the intermediate school focuses on prononciation, while trying to use characters with strong semantic meaning.This is a dangerous exercise, because it is often used and may generate bland names with relatively hollow meaning and referring profusely to « pearl, excellence, noble, gemstone, treasures …. »

My client was telling me of his disarray because his distributor, instead of testing the Chinese translations with a given population, had given the list of proposed names to a Feng Shui master, equipped with a compass and a dial, who set about determining which name would provide the greatest health and prosperity to the brand in China. This is an original technique I had never heard of and which delighted me. Of course the said distributor, when he focuses exclusively on distribution, is excellent.