Luxury brands cash in on Chinese culture
AS THE Chinese Lunar New Year approaches, global luxury brands are launching limited edition products to welcome the Year of the Tiger.
Most of the items highlight the image of the tiger, one of the 12 Chinese Zodiac animals, and others feature Chinese elements such as the colour red and Peking Opera.
At the duty-free stores in China’s island province of Hainan, tiger elements and red can be seen almost everywhere. Limited edition luxury Lunar New Year items are a big hit, covering cosmetics, clothing, bags, watches, and wine.
“For the upcoming Year of the Tiger, Armani has launched limited edition products including jackets and sweaters, which are selling well,” said Yang Qiulin, a salesman in a duty-free store in Haikou, the capital of Hainan.
Li Chao, a tourist from Zhejiang Province, bought a limited edition eye cream with red packaging featuring a tiger at the Estée Lauder counter.
“It looks very festive, and conveys a feeling of the Chinese Spring Festival,” she said.
China is an increasingly important market for global luxury brands. The Bain & Company Luxury Study 2021 showed that since 2019, the Chinese mainland’s share of the global market has almost doubled, reaching €60 billion last year.
The exploration of Chinese traditional culture by international luxury brands reflects an attempt to integrate into the huge Chinese market, said Liu Feng, a researcher at Hainan Normal University.
The duty-free market is an important sector for luxury goods consumption. Hainan reported 49.5bn yuan (about R118bn) of offshore duty-free shopping last year More than 81 million domestic and overseas tourists visited Hainan in 2021.