Yao Liu: Market strategy for European and Chinese brands 2026

Paris-based consultant Yao Liu has spent more than 17 years working across journalism, communications, brand strategy and advertising in China and Europe. She has worked with Huawei, Google and Amazon in technology, and with Manolo Blahnik, Loewe and Burberry in luxury fashion. Liu is founder and CEO of BeFlow, a Paris-based business consulting, communications, and media representation firm she set up in 2020. She also heads the European office of the Shenzhen-based Bay Area Sustainable Fashion Alliance (BASFA) and works with the Chengdu International Fashion Federation, in both cases connecting Chinese and European fashion. For this C-Suite Visionaries interview, we speak with Liu about her journey across industries and continents, and the changing dynamics of China-Europe business. Jing Daily: You’ve worked across fashion, culture, tech … what marketing wisdom would fit any brand trying to succeed in the China market? Yao Liu: If there is one lesson I have learned from working between China and Europe, it is that localization is never simply about translation. It is about cultural relevance. Brand localization goes far beyond translation. It’s about decoding local cultural codes and embedding them into every dimension of the 4Ps — product, price, place, and promotion. Get the nuances right, and you earn a seat at the table; get them wrong, and you’re invisible. The second lesson is that relationships are a long-term strategy. Always prioritize the greater good over individual or short-term gains. In China, trust is built slowly but lost in an instant — so keep the bigger picture front and center. Play the long game, even when it costs you in the short term. The third lesson is to think in ecosystems rather than individual channels. WeChat, Douyin, Xiaohongshu (also known as RedNote) and Tmall are not isolated platforms. Together, they form an interconnected consumer journey where discovery, influence, engagement and conversion can happen almost simultaneously. Finally, speed matters. China moves incredibly fast. Brands need to listen, learn and iterate constantly. But speed should never come at the expense of authenticity. Data can tell you what consumers are doing; cultural intelligence helps you understand why. For me, the winning combination is simple: move fast, stay culturally relevant, and build trust for the long term. JD: Tell us about your role at the Chengdu International Fashion Federation, and how would you describe the fashion scene there? YL: My role is essentially to build bridges between the European and Chengdu fashion ecosystems — creating opportunities for designers, institutions, brands and industry partners to collaborate internationally. What makes Chengdu particularly interesting is its very distinctive creative identity. The city combines a strong cultural heritage with an incredibly contemporary energy. It has become one of China’s most dynamic creative cities and an important hub for intangible cultural heritage fashion, streetwear, independent designers and emerging forms of cultural and new-service scene expression. The Chengdu International Fashion Federation also contributes to this momentum by organizing Chengdu International Fashion Week — a leading Chinese platform for fashion innovation debuts and premier launches — creating a bridge that connects local creativity with international markets. What I find particularly exciting is that Chengdu doesn’t need to imitate Shanghai, Paris, Milan or London. It is increasingly developing its own voice — and that is precisely what can make a creative city internationally relevant. JD: What have been your goals at BASFA since you started the role? YL: My main objective has been to create meaningful connections between Shenzhen’s Futian District and Europe across fashion, technology, culture and innovation. Shenzhen is fascinating because these industries don’t operate in isolation. Technology can meet fashion, fashion can meet sustainability, creative talent can meet capital, and all of this can happen extremely quickly. My role is therefore to facilitate knowledge exchange, connecting European and Chinese innovators, attracting international talent and partnerships, and helping position Shenzhen Futian as an international hub for sustainable and technology-driven fashion. Europe has extraordinary creative heritage and expertise; Shenzhen has an exceptional culture of innovation, entrepreneurship and execution. Bringing those strengths together can create entirely new opportunities. JD: Talk us through a typical work day in Paris at BeFlow. YL: There is probably no such thing as a typical day at BeFlow — which is one of the things I enjoy most about it. Because we operate between China and Europe, my mornings often begin with what has already happened in China overnight. I speak with partners and clients, review projects and align priorities between our European and Chinese teams. The rest of the day tends to move quickly — shifting between strategy, business development, trend-spotting across both markets, execution, and always keeping an eye on where our company should be heading for sustainable, long-term growth. I might be discussing the European positioning of a Chinese brand in the morning, working on a communications campaign in the afternoon, and speaking with the media, KOLs, institutions or potential business partners later in the day. But the common thread is always the same: bridging the gap between two markets that are commercially connected but culturally very different. JD: What are the key struggles you see Chinese brands facing when attempting to expand overseas? YL: One of the biggest challenges is assuming that success and brand equity automatically travel across borders. A company can be extremely successful and well known in China and still arrive in Europe with very limited awareness. European consumers may not know its history, understand its references or immediately recognize what makes it distinctive. That means localization cannot simply consist of translating Chinese campaigns or changing a few visuals. Sometimes the entire narrative needs to be reconsidered. The challenge is to find the right balance: how do you preserve what is genuinely Chinese and distinctive about the brand while making it culturally relevant to European consumers? I believe Chinese brands should embrace their origins rather than disguise them. But they also need local intelligence — people who understand European media, consumers, business culture, business laws and distribution networks. Building awareness is relatively easy compared with building trust. Trust requires consistency, local presence and time. This is why collective intelligence is so important. Chinese headquarters understand the brand; European teams understand the market. The strongest international strategies emerge when those two perspectives genuinely work together. JD: What are the common misconceptions that brands have when it comes to engaging Chinese consumers? YL: A brand may be iconic in Paris, Milan, London or New York and assume that Chinese consumers will naturally perceive it in the same way. But awareness, desirability and cultural relevance cannot simply be exported. Another common mistake is giving local Chinese teams responsibility for execution without giving them enough strategic autonomy. The people closest to the market understand how quickly consumer behavior changes, which platforms matter, which cultural conversations are emerging and how competitors are reacting. Headquarters need to protect the fundamentals of the brand, of course, but they also need to trust local expertise. The most successful international brands find the right balance between global brand consistency and local decision-making power. Interestingly, I see exactly the same challenge in the opposite direction when Chinese brands enter Europe. That is why cross-cultural management has become such an important part of international brand building. JD: Tell us about your work in fashion. Do you help brands like Zara or Michael Kors excel in China — how and why? Can you tell us about any of your latest projects? YL: [Whether discussing mass market or luxury] the underlying challenge is often similar: How do you make a global brand culturally relevant to a local audience without diluting what makes it distinctive? My own experience in luxury and fashion has given me the opportunity to work with international houses including Graff, Mulberry and Jimmy Choo, particularly in the French market, developing advertising and communication approaches that connect their global identity with local audiences. I have also worked with brands including Tory Burch and Burberry on engaging Chinese travelers in France — understanding Chinese consumer expectations while preserving the heritage and identity of a Western luxury brand. More recently, one project I am particularly proud of was helping organize the first Global “AI + Fashion” Innovation Application Competition and the 2026 FashTech event in Shenzhen’s Futian District. For me, projects like this illustrate where the industry is heading. The future of fashion will not be defined by creativity or technology alone, but by what happens when the two interact. JD: What's your advice for European retailers trying to regain the attention of Chinese tourists? YL: European retailers first need to recognize that the Chinese international traveler has changed. Chinese tourists are increasingly sophisticated, digitally connected and experience-driven. Their relationship with a destination or a retailer often begins long before they arrive in Europe. Over 77% plan their shopping before they even leave home, using platforms such as Xiaohongshu, Weibo and WeChat to research, discover and decide. This means European retailers should not wait for Chinese customers to walk through the door before communicating with them. Once they arrive, the experience needs to be seamless. But digital integration [such as Alipay] is only half of the equation. European retailers also have an extraordinary asset: Europe itself — its architecture, heritage, craftsmanship, gastronomy, culture and sense of place. Stores therefore need to become experiences rather than simply points of sale. Exclusive products, limited-edition collaborations, private services, cultural experiences or visually distinctive environments can give travelers something they cannot obtain through e-commerce. The objective should be to give Chinese consumers an experience worth remembering — and worth sharing when they return home. JD: What are some of the newest marketing evolutions? YL: AI is obviously one of the most transformative changes I have seen during my career, but what interests me most is how it changes the relationship between technology and human intelligence. We can now analyze consumer behavior at extraordinary speed, personalize communication at scale, identify emerging trends through social listening, optimize media investment and generate multiple creative directions almost instantly. This fundamentally changes the pace of marketing. But there is an important paradox. The more powerful technology becomes, the more valuable genuine human and cultural intelligence becomes. This becomes particularly important when brands move between China and Europe. Language can be translated by machines increasingly well. Cultural nuance, emotion, humor, aspiration and trust are much more complex. So, I don’t see AI replacing marketers. I see it raising the value of the marketers who know how to combine technology, creativity and cultural intelligence. JD: What does the rest of 2026 look like for you? YL: The rest of 2026 is going to be very much about turning cross-border ambition into concrete projects. One of my priorities is to deepen the connections between China and Europe across fashion, lifestyle, technology and innovation, building on projects such as the recent “AI + Fashion” initiative in Shenzhen. But there is another development I find particularly exciting: the new generation of Chinese companies expanding internationally. Chinese businesses are increasingly coming to Europe not simply to sell products, but to build brands, partnerships, communities and long-term market presence. This is an area where I want BeFlow to play an increasingly important role — helping ambitious Chinese companies understand Europe, develop the right networks, communicate their stories effectively and build sustainable businesses without losing the identity that made them successful in China. At the same time, we will continue helping European companies understand the extraordinary opportunities — and complexity — of the Chinese market. Ultimately, that is what motivates me: creating meaningful connections between these two ecosystems. Jing Daily presents C-Suite Visionaries — an exclusive interview series spotlighting the most influential executives at the helm of today’s leading brands in art, fashion, commerce, and culture. Get inside the minds of the decision-makers driving growth, innovation, and cultural relevance at the highest levels.

Yao Liu: Market strategy for European and Chinese brands 2026

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Yao Liu: Market strategy for European and Chinese brands 2026

How Bottega Veneta weaved China’s forever it bag