Why mainland consumers have an big appetite for luxury goods
Mainlanders are voracious consumers of luxury goods, but their reasons for doing so are different from those of Westerners, writes Bernice Chan
In a Nike television commercial from the 1990s, tennis stars Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi jump out of a New York cab, set up a net at a busy intersection and start playing on the street. The pair are seen to be breaking the rules, challenging convention.
But when Nike's Just Do It tagline is given a Chinese context, viewers get a different message altogether. Ads shown in China reinforce the idea that one can yong yundong, or use sports to fit in, to get what you want, to win or fail. People are seen exercising and playing sports. Olympic hurdler Liu Xiang, whose injuries forced him to drop out of the 2008 Beijing Games, is shown as if trying to make a comeback.
They want to be seen as citizens of the world, absorbing foreign influences in a Chinese context
The Chinese Nike ad subtly demonstrates that the society is based on the Confucian and Taoist beliefs that stability, rather than individualism, is the goal of societies and is better achieved collectively as a group.
That's according to Tom Doctoroff, Asia-Pacific CEO of advertising agency JWT, who offered a number of insights during a presentation at the Asia Society on how 1.3 billion potential customers think. His latest book, What Chinese Want, explores the mindset of the Chinese consumer, and shows how they use material goods - particularly luxury ones - to construct an image of themselves.
According to the 2013 Julius Baer Wealth Report, affluent Chinese consumers see buying luxury products and services not as an occasional treat, but an integral part of their lives. From 2011 to 2012, the report says, the percentage of consumers with annual household incomes of more than US$78,000 doubled, as luxury purchases expanded into a wider number of categories, including watches and wine.