Foreign companies seek partners at Luxury China

The second "Luxury China", a three-day top brand exposition, launched on June 22 at the China International Exhibition center.

The exhibition, co-organized by the Chinese Chamber of International Commerce, has attracted 300 well-known brands from more than 20 countries - including the Swiss,Italy and Malaysia - to participate, showcasing various items including the world's top luxury vehicles, furniture, works of art, jewelry, wrist watches and so on.

Looking for local partners and publicizing enterprise culture are said to be the main reasons for many international high-end brands to take part in this exhibition.

Overseas luxury companies hope Chinese consumers are shifting their focus onto the brand experience and moving away from one-off celebrations. The main difficulty for them to enter the Chinese market is to move the consumer's shopping habit towards luxury goods, exhibitors of Luxury China expressed.

"In China you have to invest in a brand if you want to respond to the market. This is not required so much in Europe because the public is able to judge and choose the products – not because of the brand but because he likes it, he wants it, and buys it for what it is worth," said Alessandro Chili, the CEO at Media Marketing 43, an Italian consultancy company focusing on tourism, gaming and publishing, as well as organizing and representing international fairs and events.

"For us, high-end goods mean that the product has high-level quality with excellent after sales service. What we are seeking is the uniqueness of our clothes, so hand-making bespoke products are one of our advantages," said Daniela Collicelli, who's in charge of customer service for Sartoria Silvio Zanella, an Italian tailor-made clothing service provider.

Although the middle class is the strongest driving power in the Chinese luxury market, those small luxury companies have to depend on the upper class to expand their business in China.

"We are approaching the upper class because the middle class approaches luxury through brands, in the first instance. So it's more difficult, when you want to send something very good, but is not yet a well known brand, because it's not known in China; it's not easy," said Alessandro Chili.

A large number of foreign brands treat China as their biggest priority market with a large potential purchasing power.

"I got the information about Luxury China from the Internet, and I came here to seek a business partner, because the European market is losing its power," one foreign visitor Alessandro Contarw said.