Kelly-Ann

Olga Kovshanova, MBA, MA
Hotel Professional Extraordinaire
Sales and Guest Relations Manager for CIS, Eastern Europe & Greece
Email: olinka@olinka.info
Professional Website: http://www.olinka.info/
Skype name: olinkaru
M: 230-717-5790 evenings
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kovshanovaolga

I live in Canada and have not been to Canton Road, but my understanding is clearly that each store has line-ups of people clamouring to purchase the best of the best. I do believe what you say, Nathalie, about “consuming” brands quickly, however, I am with the thought that most of the brands you speak of have been in the mainstream around the world for decades and some a century. This indicates to me that the circle of the Chinese who purchase and repurchase is elite in their society and many are familiar to one another.

My thought as well, as China emerges ever-increasingly, the luxury brands will be affordable to a much larger population there. Is there opportunity for the best to survive? I think so, but only if the brand stays put and is patient with the growing pains.

Please contact me through my website for additional information about my company.

Respectfully Yours,
Bob Francis

Americans ran to the security and constancy of the middle so they could keep up with the Joneses…to prove they were no longer poor, not immigrants or modern, progressive and current. It was anonymity, conformity in an improved situation that comforted them. No longer hungry and now first generation assimilated. They didn;t want to lose their gains, so recent was their memory of pre war poverty.

The wealthy Chinese seem to want to prove they are no longer middle class, and want exclusivity. The have security but don’t want the anonymity of mere luxury goods the middle class can afford.
The challenge of being fed and housed are not threatening, but their status is always threatened by the middle class corrupting their gains. Their comfort is in isolation and privilege. So ironic in a culture that used communism to justify dictatorial social policy and wquelch personal freedoms.

Of course both the 1950s American middle class, with its desire to conform, and the wealthy Chinese now have both been foolish, dehumanizing themselves by judging the quality of their lives by material possessions around them and status, instead of examining their self-worth, productivity, creativity, emotional satisfaction and the sense they have contributed something to the world besides consumption.

They share an egotistical fascination with the self, and ignore the greater rewards of a life engaged in real productivity, providing goods and services that make someone else more productive.

This is a higher order of an economy, that values long term growth and human capital. It is something both cultures should aspire to, but do not…yet. Both cultures have ignored their own pasts and those forces which have made them great, for a brief time. But greatness needs to be renewed…it is a dynamic force, and no dynamic thinking has emerged from either culture to
move into a more intelligent future.

Change is slow.