Luxury brands evolve with exhibition

Jointly organized by the China Chamber of International Commerce and Zhenwei Exhibition Co Ltd, Luxury China 2013 opened on June 22 and will run through June 24 at the China International Exhibition Center in Beijing. Hundreds of luxury brands from local businesses and overseas family firms have been shown at the event.

Luxury giants like Louis Vuitton, GUCCI and Burberry have already established a strong consumer group in China, while small- and medium-sized high-end luxury European brands, representing high quality and have already garnered heavy public praise, are just now starting to target Chinese customers.

Marina Zhai, project manager of Luxury China Expo Organizing Committee told China Daily, "The real upper income consumers in China are more focused on unique and private custom products. These types of customers do not want to follow the trend of buying so-called big brands in China. Middle class shoppers are lured to buy globalized big brands while high-end consumers seem to have changed their appetite towards unique and customized products and membership services. It will cost up to one million yuan ($162,900) to schedule a private custom overseas journey,"

During the exhibition, Alessandro Chili, director of the Italy delegation and also the owner of Media Marketing 43, told China Daily that many of their companies come to China to develop business partner relationships and said that it takes time for new brands to become familiar with Chinese consumers.

"We approach the upper class consumer because they are open minded toward new brands, while the middle class approaches luxury items through brands at first, so it's more difficult when you want to sell something very good that doesn't have a popular name yet, and because it is not known in China, it's not easy," said Alessandro. Their business strategy for China is closer to unique and quality-driven, not solely about being a brand

The exhibition has attracted several Swiss brands of watches and clocks in order to branch out of Europe by developing more cooperative business partnerships.

Although Swiss watches experienced a decline in China last year, it didn't impact their business, said Arnaud Nicolas, CEO of SWIZA SA Manufacture. The target consumers of their products in China are talented businessmen. "Most of our customers buy our clocks to put it on their desks, not just to tell time, but also to remind them of their success," he added.

According to exhibition's organizer, many high-class consumers of golf clubs, horse enthusiasts and VIP members of private banks were invited to visit this year's fair. Due to the higher priced exhibits and the increased number of exhibitors, earnings were originally expected to exceed 50 million yuan from last year.