Author Archives: Hartmann Renee

CLN Research Release: Serving China’s Global Luxury Consumer

China is already the second largest luxury market in the world, and with more than two million millionaires today, is on its way to becoming the world’s largest luxury market by 2020.

With more than half of Chinese consumers’ luxury purchases being transacted abroad, engaging Chinese travelers wherever they travel has become an operational imperative for global prestige brands. 

Event: Customer Acquisition for HNW Chinese Travelers

We are excited to be co-hosting two half-day seminars in New York with Jing Daily and ChinaContact at the impressive AW Asia Organization!

Our morning session will be focusing on hospitality, and we will have CLN Advisor Roy Graff in town from London to give his perspective on how hospitality companies can better serve Chinese customers.

China Search Engine Optimization with CLN Advisor TR Harrington

We spoke with Shanghai based CLN advisor TR Harrington who runs Darwin Marketing on the ins and outs of search engine optimization on the Chinese web. SEO in China is unlike other markets due primarily to issues from the China Internet Firewall (aka “The Great Firewall”) and the different search algorithms and policies for China’s “google”, Baidu.

Bain releases new luxury report

Bain recently released their latest luxury study, with some updated numbers and new rankings of brand awareness in China.

Highlights include:

China Luxury News Roundup

Summary: Chinese shoppers arrive in droves to London Christmas sales. Chinese consumers are increasingly seeking out diamonds for fun and profit. Chinese tourists continue to prop up global luxury sales. Second and Third tier Chinese cities driving luxury spending. Chinese tourists tire of group travel. Understanding Chinese luxury consumers can be puzzling. What Chinese women want.

Ringing in the Chinese New Year in New York: Affinity China’s Dragon Week

We are getting very excited for the upcoming Dragon Week we will be hosting with Affinity China on January 23 – 27, 2012 in New York. We will be bringing together 100  High Net Worth Chinese guests for a week of exclusive branded events with luxury brands such as Bergdorf Goodman, Monblanc, Piaget, J. Mendel, Ralph Lauren, Estee Lauder, Tribeca Wine Merchants, Coach and others. We will be releasing key findings from a week of travel and shopping with high net worth Chinese consumers, but in the meantime, please refer to our press release (below), see the Dragon Week Website at http://dragonweek.affinitychina.com/ or contact us (sage@chinaluxurynetwork.com) if you would like to discuss in more depth.

Understanding high net worth consumers’ quest for privacy

One of the most common characteristics of high net worth consumers in China is a desire for privacy. Many of the ultra high net worth individuals do not want anyone to know that they have money, and are typically discrete when spending their money, often using different names and purchasing through family or assistants. While working in PR in China, we were once hired to get someone off the rich list in China!

Online Information and Consumer Purchase Behavior

Market research firm DDMA published a study on the influence of online information on consumer behavior.
Some highlights from the study:

- 59% of female Shanghai consumers who bought medium to high end apparel stated that information collected online had the greatest influence on their purchase decision in terms of bran or style purchased

Countering counterfeits with real product — Coach opens Taobao online pop-up shop

Coach is the first luxury brand to open an e-commerce site on Taobao’s online mall, except for Lambourghini, which has notably sold 0 cars on Taobao!

With more than 140 million e-commerce users in China, China’s e-commerce market is predicted to be the world’s largest in four years.

Second and Third Tier Retail Locations with Corbett Wall

We caught up with Corbett Wall to discuss retail location strategy in China for luxury brands. Corbett is a Senior Vice-President at AEG and partner at CW+, a firm that advises brands on retail location strategy and other key issues related to running retail in China. Corbett has extensive experience travelling to second, third and fourth tier cities walking malls and talking with retail landlords and operators, and has countless stories of brand successes and failures in both first and lower tier markets.