Ari Pugh is a business strategist and sociologist who specialises in luxury in China. She is currently in-house at Louis Vuitton and has been working in high-end luxury for more than a decade. In that time much of her work has been framed by the lens of cultural consumption and the socio-cultural values that were being expressed through luxury. We should add that her views are her own, and don’t represent the views of LV.
How would you describe the current influence of the Chinese market on the global luxury landscape?
For sure it remains a key battleground. Over the past year and a half, what we’ve seen is a slow downturn of growth, particularly for Western houses within that market.
And at the same time, we’re also seeing a maturing market with higher expectations, notably amongst Gen Z and millennial consumers. It’s creating a competitive space and a tighter battle for Western luxury brands.
They [younger consumers] are considering value for money in a way that people maybe weren’t 10 or 15 years ago. At the same time, there is a growing concern for individualisation. Consumers are thinking more about self-expression, getting that piece that’s specific to me and not just what’s being prescribed to me.
I would say that trend points to high expectations and strong experiential value. It’s creating a need to enter the market with a very specific value proposition. You can’t just walk into China anymore.
How has the balance of power shifted or has the balance of power shifted?
I think we’re in the middle of a major power shift. Obviously, China is a key battleground, the largest, if not one of the largest markets for most luxury brands.
We’re seeing China, or ‘made in China,’ move from a centre of production to the centre of trends themselves. We’re seeing a Chinese cultural identity that’s really finding its voice and sense of self-expression. All of this is contributing to more balance in terms of where creative cultural capital is coming from.
What are the most striking ways in which Chinese consumers are shaping global brand behaviour?
Global brand behaviour is shaped in the sense that you now need to enter the market with a lot more strategy. You need to have a balanced cultural persona.
For a really long time, brands had Chinese New Year campaigns, mid-Autumn festival campaigns and so on. But now we’re kind of seeing entire brand revisions. I love this example: Lululemon adapts something 40% of its product assortment to the Chinese market. At this point it’s not just like, ‘Oh, we’re Lululemon, we’re gonna open a store in China.’ It’s ‘we’re gonna enter the Chinese market almost as a Chinese brand.’
How about in terms of style and trends?
So far it’s happening kind of softly, I would say. On one hand the major luxury brands show collections in China. And this drives the visibility of Chinese design and also brings those two languages together.
And now you also have Chinese brands that are showing in the West and this Chinese diaspora. I think like the less siloed it gets, the more you see kind of a natural creative dialogue emerging between the two groups.
How is China’s digital ecosystem now setting benchmarks for global marketing innovation?
Emotional storytelling: individualisation, customisation, personalisation, and all of that are absolutely paramount. I also think we’re seeing Chinese brands specifically learn how to quickly adapt to regional preferences.
Brands now know that Rednote is a key driver for discovery and we know that Douyin [TikTok] is kind of a key driver for purchase. And so what we’re seeing is that brands are building platform specific strategies that tell a shared coherent story through different lenses.
And I think, you know, we’re seeing a lot of these brands really embrace digital innovation. AI especially is sort of a tool for creativity and collaboration and customization at scale. It’s creating a scenario in which brands need to sort of think five steps ahead to be competitive.
What lessons are western luxury houses learning from the new generation of Chinese high end brands, if any?
I think that Western luxury houses are becoming aware that they have stronger localised competition I think. It’s now something like over 50% of luxury consumption in China is domestic brands, which is crazy, yeah and it’s like 6% year-on-year growth which is not insane, but it’s that’s pretty significant, right?
There are three key takeaways I think western brands now need to know for the Chinese market:
- Know your cultural relevance. Where do you fit in?
- Localisation is key. So know your markets. Adapt to cities, adapt to the specific culture of a city, whether that’s in terms of communications, posture, retail product assortment and all of that.
- Enter with something that makes sense.
How are Chinese brands redefining what ‘Made in China’ means in the luxury context?
Obviously we’re seeing a lot of growth in domestic brands. We’re also seeing China move from a purely producer space to a creator space.
What I love to do when we talk about this is to look outside fashion and look at art and design, which are also exploding in China right now and I think are actually almost more impactful on the western market as of right now.
Chinese contemporary art and Chinese design are attracting collectors and western interest in a way that is starting to happen in fashion but isn’t quite there yet. Probably because average consumer in this segment is more of a VIP client, so they’re not really getting that aspirational segment.
The more we see brands or creators start to express themselves with a Chinese approach to design, the more that we’ll see that crossover into fashion and other elements of luxury – it’s an exciting prospect.
What challenges do you see ahead for Western luxury brands in the Chinese market?
First of all, maintaining growth in an increasingly competitive landscape – competition for market share is going to be a lot more significant going forward. I think there’s more scrutiny on Western luxury brands too.
Chinese consumers are just more sensitive to quality perception towards what they’re getting, not just buying a label. And then I think probably most significantly, economic headwinds.
We’re for sure not out of the woods. So, targeting aspirational consumers and getting that growth by volume is gonna remain a challenge specifically when you have that VIP client, that’s more and more and more targeted by kind of every luxury brand.
So I think in that context, figuring out how to rebuild interest and engagement with younger generations, adapt to new norms and behaviours and operate in context. It’s not like before, let’s say. The years of the Chinese gold rush are over.
Can you highlight some luxury brands to keep an eye on Chinese luxury brands, the rising stars, if you will?
Yeah, sure. I think Icicle is probably the one that is really getting a lot of visibility in the west. EXCEPTION de Mixmind – I know it is a huge favourite of the Chinese First Lady. Pronounce, for a movement in the menswear space. And then, my absolute personal favourite because
It’s sort of the ultimate signal to me of what’s going on in this market and summarises our entire conversation: Kim Jones, the designer, just went to Bosideng, which is a Chinese sportswear brand and outdoor active wear brand.
