Marketing 3rd Blog Assignment

For this week’s blog, I would like to refer to Timmy Cheung’s first blog post titled “New Money”, in which he talked about the dramatic increasing of high-end luxury market in China for fashion brands such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Hermes, etc. The recent emerging of Chinese millionaires and billionaires are pretty eager to spend big money of international luxury goods. In order to fulfill their demand and grab the potential profit, grant corporations like LV and D&G have quickly react by opening new stores in place such as Hong Kong and Shanghai in China.

Most of the time, those luxury brands are famous for their genuine materials, quality craftsmanship, outstanding customer service and of course the exclusive price. These detailed elements would make their brands symbolize elegant, classy and fashion. However, I think those “nouveau riche” in China are trapped in the trend to take advantage of these brands as a way to show their wealth and social status. Not only in China, but also in other major cities around the world such as Vancouver you will find places such as Holt Renfrew are crowded with these Chinese riches.

Seemingly, this should be a win-win situation for both luxury brands and the increasing Chinese millionaires. However, problems appear such as long line ups in front of these prestigious stores in Hong Kong as well as rude and discriminating sales associates have brought a negative effect to the brand. In my opinion, it is understandable that people purchase luxury good in order to enjoy a tasteful lifestyle. However, everything has a limit. There are thousands of other ways for those “nouveau riche” to show their richness and a sense of belonging than just spend so much on these luxury goods. Meanwhile, for those brands, just imagine that if everyone would able to take a luxury handbag to do grocery in the supermarket, can their brand still represent elegant, classy and fashion at all?