Erwan Rambourg's Bling Dynasty Revisited

“If you are dull or complacent or you don't renew your assortment or message quick enough, it's an open market. There are lots of competitors out there who might be doing a better job.”

On the product evolution:

“Luxury products have to evolve because everyone wealthy can have access to a Vuitton handbag or a Cartier watch. That's why the Vuitton handbag, if you look at Jeff Koons, that was a very interesting association because the handbags were around art and known artists. It wasn't about, I'm able to purchase a Vuitton handbag, it was about, I actually know who [Vincent] van Gogh is and I've been to a museum.

“You're moving from a basis of, I can tick the box off, I can afford a high-end handbag to, actually, it says a lot more about me and my cultural openness, that I know who the impressionists are.”

On the importance of the digital luxury platforms:

“[Tmall's Luxury Pavilion, JD.com's TopLife and VIPlux] are already quite relevant even though they've only been around for 8 to 10 months for some of them.

“This is a question of convenience. Most of the .cn's in China don't have a lot of traffic and so, if you actually want to capture sale with that younger generation, you have to accept as a brand that you will have to go on multibrand platforms. The higher-end brands won't want to go.

“The end game [for digital relevance] will probably happen between those three [platforms]. The brands will want to arbitrage between the three. I think the logic is that Luxury Pavilion will generate the most traffic, so theoretically, in terms of bang for your buck, you could think that that's the best option. At the same time, you might have a willingness not to be just with Tmall.”

On the gender shift:

“Six, seven years ago, Chinese luxury consumption was essentially male driven and now it's essentially female driven. Women in China became more financially independent. And so, for example, in jewelry, you've moved from a market that was essentially driven by gifts for the big stages of life — weddings, births, et cetera — to a market that's really driven by self purchasing and impulse purchasing.

On why the crackdown on graft was good for luxury:

“Obviously, it wasn't good for the sales figures in some years, but I think it's good overall for the business in the sense that you are only driven by end consumers now, you're not driven by people who are buying for others and artificially boosted by either the economy or government-related issues.

“If you're not buying luxury, oftentimes it's just that you're not at the level of income that would enable you to, but if you could, you would. The sentiment of paranoia or of being monitored or being under pressure, that's evaporated. Chinese consumer confidence is at a 25-year high, equity markets are doing OK and basically Chinese consumers are very enthusiastic and are willing to spend and there's nothing holding them back.” ■