Week In Review: April 29-May 3, 2013

In case you missed them the first time around, here are some of Jing Daily’s top posts for the week of April 29-May 3: China’s Attack On Hedonism A Mixed Blessing For Luxury Brands Xi Jinping is pursuing heavy measures to crack down on luxury consumption by officials. Xi Jinping is pursuing heavy measures to crack down on luxury consumption by officials. Among watchers of global luxury industries, few issues are more hotly debated today than China’s ongoing crackdown on corruption and the corresponding effects on purveyors of luxury goods. The current campaign is the latest iteration of a long-running effort to combat “the illnesses – formalism, bureaucracy and hedonism” in the ranks of elite Communist Party leadership. Thus, the crackdown is not merely a utilitarian attack on China’s troublesome scourge of corruption itself, but also clearly focuses on the aesthetics of impropriety within the ranks of provincial officials. Coming Soon: Topshop Cracks China With First Hong Kong Flagship Topshop will land in Hong Kong in May 2013. In partnership with LAB Concept, May will see the launch of the first Greater China Topshop flagship in Hong Kong. The prime location, announced late last year, will comprise 12,000 square feet across two floors in a prime corner suite within the Asia Standard Tower on Queens Road Central. Split into two sections, the ground floor will showcase Topshop fashion lines in a modern concrete and gloss-white setting in one room, while the second will showcase the company’s accessories and makeup collections. Upstairs, a dedicated shoe lounge stocks the popular footwear collections among glass fixtures and a mirrored ceiling, while by-appointment personal shopping offers Hong Kong shoppers the VIP treatment in a private setting. A Closer Look: High-End Chinese Consumers And Retailers’ “Casino Junket” Strategy Luxury companies hope to court Chinese customers with complimentary shopping trips to Hong Kong and Europe. With two-thirds of Chinese luxury purchases occurring in either Hong Kong or countries outside the mainland, luxury companies must come up with ways to respond to the unique qualities of this market. Yesterday, Reuters pointed out what it calls a “casino approach” that many retailers are taking, in which high-spending clients on the mainland are given complimentary flights to purchase goods in Hong Kong or Europe, where luxury prices are much cheaper than on the mainland. Bottega Veneta Attracts Clients By Sponsoring Chinese Contemporary Art Artist Jinjun Di’s work Youth at Bottega Veneta's Facing Faces exhibition. (Fashion Trend Digest) In a sophisticated aesthetic and marketing strategy combining fashion with art, Italian luxury brand Bottega Veneta recently launched an exhibition of work by Chinese emerging artists and photographers in its Shanghai Bund concept store. In the third exhibition of its kind at this location, the project allows the brand to convey a connection to local culture while at the same time boosting its image. Named Facing Faces, the exhibition, which has been running since March 28, 2013 and will go until the end of June 2013, gathers portrait artwork from multiple local artists. Savvy Social Networking Pays Off For L’Oreal China Singer Li Yuchun. In a press conference in Beijing earlier this month, L’Oreal chairman & CEO Jean-Paul Agon emphasized the positioning of China as the company’s key market in the coming years. L’Oreal’s recent 2013 Q1 report – in which its China revenue helped raise earnings above expectation – reinforces the mainland’s importance as a growth opportunity. What haven’t received much attention, though, are the marketing strategies that have helped the multi-brand conglomerate achieve such stellar results in China markets.

Week In Review: April 29-May 3, 2013

On this page

Published May 03, 2013

Sectors

Insights

Company

Week In Review: April 29-May 3, 2013