Controversial Analysis about the Consumption of Luxury Brand - Essay Example

Yushan Zhang ENGL 108 Due 4/09/12 Controversial Analysis about the Consumption of Luxury Brand Since late 1990s China and Asia in extension has been showing a great appetite for luxury goods that continues to increase with every passing year. According to Goldman Sachs (KPMG, 2006), the celebrated World Bank economist, China luxury market topped $6 Billion in 2004, which translated to 12% of the world luxury market. Considering that this figure does not include luxury yachts and private jets, both of which are more or less instruments of luxury, point to the veracity of China population’s apparent great appetite for luxury goods nowadays. This has been attributed to a number of social and economic factors. Two of these factors namely the increased adaptation of the western lifestyle among the China population and especially the youth and the increase in consumer buying power within this population, are considered the driving force behind the obsession with luxury brands. Luxury is a subjective concept which is ever evolving. However, to most of us, luxury is basically an inessential but desirable things or a state of obscene comfort or indulgence. In this regard, one can looks at luxury brands as any other product whose only difference from its counterpart is only in its extra premium that is not backed by obvious functional advantages. However, consumers are always willing to pay the premium simply because of a set of unique characteristics, recognizable, reputation, or exclusivity of the luxury brand. The irony of these features working for a luxury brand is that majority of them vary across culture and therefore societies, something that can essentially be blamed on varying consumer attitudes and belief. This particular characteristic of luxury market exposes it main contradiction because it exposes the greatest level of hedonistic and irrational that consumption can ever get. In this paper I will be exploring the contradiction and ironies of the phenomenal surge in luxury market in China. In doing so, I will use an interview that I have conducted to a Chinese youth by the name Crystal. This will complement the tomes of literature on this topic that are available and that I will be heavily relying on to navigating this topic. Chinese are paying attention to luxury brand, a phenomenon that is raising the overall price of the luxury brand without necessarily adding any functional advantage on them as would be expected. They also cut across various retail sectors that include; footwear, jewellery, perfume, liquor, automobile, cosmetics, and fashion wear and accessories. One thing that one notes about the luxury brands that the Chinese people appear to prefer is that they are all from Europe. In this, my friend “Crystal” explains to me that the European preference is informed by a number of reasons. Almost all these reasons are hinged on three main features namely; the need for exclusivity, recognizability, and reputability (Wang, Sun &Song 346). It is the obsession with these features that is fueling the craze with luxury brands not only in China, Taiwan or Hong Kong, but almost all over the world where this phenomenon has taking root. In China in particular, this obsession has become a threat particular to the youths who have been reported to be going to extraordinary extents to identify with the luxury brand. This in the context of financial difficulties that section of the China population finds itself in makes the obsession with luxury brand extremely dangerous. A recent research that was conducted on the Chinese population between 20 to 45 years earning less than RMB 3,000 every month found that a majority of them regarding luxury brand as a symbol of success and also make somebody appear to have a good taste, with only a small percentage of the respondents regarding those owning luxury brands as “shallow (Calum, 12).” The same survey also reveal that a majority of the Chinese youth long to buy luxury brands despite not being to do it presently. There is no doubt that these findings of this survey are consistent with my own findings from my interview with my friend “Crystal.” It is my opinion that people would be better advised to considered the benefits that a product bring forth to a consumer before purchasing it instead of doing it for any other reasons. The need for exclusivity, recognizability and to be reputable is the main reasons why luxury brands are finding favor with the Chinese. In fact, it is this need for exclusivity that European makers are using to make super profits in China and other Asian counties where this phenomenon has also taken root. By in increasingly portraying their brands as a preserve for the elite and the educated, luxury brand makers are creating a demand for their product. The strategy of creating market through dangling the carrot of exclusivity is so effective that even the recession could not unmask the blind irrationality behind it if the phenomenal sale of Italian luxury cars in the Chinese market during the period is anything to go by. I strongly believe that Crystal statement to the effect that he can save for a shopping holiday in Europe reinforces the reasoning among the youth of their desirability of luxury brands. I also believe that the need for exclusivity is going to characterize luxury brands’ sales for many years to come. Noteworthy is the way the obsession with luxury brands is also been used to drive investments in the way of makers of these luxury brands. This claim has even been alluded in a recent publication of the Wall Street Journal, where the authors states how lots of people with serious money are more than willing to invest in luxury car makers because they are convinced that their market will always be lucrative (White, 14). This is another manifestation of obsessing with luxury brands because such investment is not anchored in any economic rationale. Social stratification has also played a major part in promoting luxury brands in China. For instance, the Chinese society is increasingly getting stratified where the elite are trying as much as possible to exclude themselves from the rest of the population. This is even made worse by the absence of clear demarcation of the social classes like aristocracy and such classes in western society, which therefore creates a situation where the society takes upon itself the task of creating those boundaries. This coupled with the Chinese high regards for social status has made them easy prey of the makers of luxury brands. A demonstration of this can be seen in the Chinese luxury consumers legendary focus on external social needs than on internal individual needs” (Wang, Sun &Song 348). To them luxury brands are important factors that can be used to judge ones position in life. This therefore makes luxury brands important tools of saving face within the Chinese society. Therefore by buying more and more luxury brands a person in China can assure him/herself a notable position in society. Further evidence of this phenomenon can be found in a title like GuiFu, which is a term that has been coined to refer to wealth ladies who are not only regarded with respected but are also known for their fine taste of dressing in Taiwan. To be a GuiFu your consumption of luxury brands as to be legendary. Otherwise, you will not be able to impress anybody if your dress code is basically made up of locally-made and available fashion-wear. Therefore as one climbs up the social ladder in China Taiwan and Hong Kong, which is even more westernized than China, one thing that remain true is the need to remain unique in your taste of not only in your dress code but also your approach to life. For instance, shopping in European capitals where one can be assured of obtaining the value of uniqueness and exclusivity when your purchase these luxury brands. It is only by shopping for luxury brands in European brands that a Chinese can be seen to be identifying with the west and therefore able to get a western image which is the desire of many Chinese and particularly the youth (Chen, et al 6). The media and particularly the newspaper, portrayal of the high-end society has also contributed greatly to this obsession with luxury brands not only in china but also majority of Asia countries. A good example of this obsession in Taiwan can be seen in the comparison of Mrs. Leung of C. C. Leung with the flamboyant Ms. Sun, who is undoubtedly one of the most conspicuous self-made GuiFu (Chen, et al 6). There are some people who have attributed this behavior to the desire of the Chinese to be part of an attempt to assume aristocratic roles that they cannot get in the Chinese society since the aristocracy does not exist as is the case with Europe. Looked from the perspective of colonialism, the obsession with luxury brand is probably more or less a product of post-colonialism. It is therefore proper to look at this phenomenon as neocolonialism, which the Chinese population is just too naïve to let the west perpetuate. We can even draw parallels between this neocolonialism with the Crystals desire to travel to the west for shopping or just visit. Or even the obsession with designer clothes from the west but not from the local designers who are also quest as good as those one can be found in the west. This just shows the contradictions that have been occasioned by the desire for western-made designer clothes and other luxury brands that the west has to offer. Sociologists have since registered their concern about this state of affair. This they claim is because this habit can entrench extravagant spending not only to those who have but also the have-not, a phenomenon which is slowly manifesting itself in China’s social fabric. This characteristic has also manifested itself in Crystal’s willingness to spend as much as RMB 20,000 on shopping for luxury brands if he had the money. This exposes the irrationality on consumption that has been created by the demand for western luxury brands. Most of people who prefer to buy luxury brand do not pay attention to the culture of luxury brand. All what they do is to follow the trend that other seemingly successful people in China have set. It is part of role modeling that successful people on ordinary people. Only that this time, the ordinary person is emulating not the virtues of the role model by his tastes. In this regard, every time they see the successful among them using certain brand products, they will always develop a desire for such a product without seeking first to consider the rationality or lack of it before coughing certain among of money for that particular product. The reason the so-called “democratic” people would like to buy luxury brand can be found in social comparison and other influences. These people always consider luxury brands as appropriate tools of proving their position in society and solidify their relations, which is why you will always hear people saying things like “I want people to always know and acknowledge my expensive luxuries, and have them compliment these luxury brands that I own”, (Wang, Sun & Song 351). This therefore shows the immense pressure that people in China find themselves in as far as buying luxury brands is concerned. Just like I have notes, the media has also been in the forefront of aggravating this situation which has culminated in a situation where the Chinese people are literary held captive by luxury brands. A good example of the part that the media has played in creating the situation has been summed up in a recent publication of The International Herald Tribune magazine. In this regard, this publication pointed out that “you are what you wear, (The International Herald Tribune 23) which basically demonstrates the obsession with a desirable western image among the Chinese folks, which is at the heart of the luxury brands from the west. In a nutshell, Chinese view of luxury brand consumption is a class thing that many have been using to save face. However, being a tool of status symbol, luxury brands provide their European producers with a perfect opportunity to make quick and super profits by simply maintaining their exquisiteness without necessarily adding any functional advantage on the product. Work Cited Korea Times "Chinese buy luxury goods worth $7.2 Billion on Holiday." Korea Times, 2 Feb. 2012. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 6 April 2012 The International Herald Tribune "In China, the lure of patrimony; Special Report: Luxury." The International Herald Tribune. 9 Nov. 2010. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 6 April 2012. The International Herald Tribune "In China, you are what you wear." The International Herald Tribune. 23 Feb. 2007. LexisNexis Academic. Web. 6 April 2012. Badenhausen, Kurt. "Japans New Brand Fund." Financial World 166.7 (1997): 16. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Apr. 2012. Calum, MacLeod. "Notoriety shadows Chinas heirs." USA Today n.d.: Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Apr. 2012. Chen, Annie Huiling, Hung, Kuang-Peng, and Peng, Norman. "The Impact of Guifu on Identity and Behavior in the Mass Market." Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal 39.3 (2011): 419-423. Academic Search Complete. Web. 6 Apr. 2012. Wang, Ying, Shaojing Sun, and Yiping Song. "Chinese Luxury Consumers: Motivation, Attitude and Behavior." Journal of Promotion Management 17.3 (2011): 345- 359. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Apr. 2012. White, Joseph B. "Yes, People Buy Ferraris in a Recession." Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition 31 Mar. 2009: D3. Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Apr. 2012. 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