Chinese Luxury Brands: The New Creative Phase and Identity in the Local Market

Abstract

The emergence of luxury in contemporary China is evidence of the international strategy of global luxury brands, and, at the same time, enhances the role of China’s luxury brands — not only Chinese luxury customers — as an influential force in the development of the industry in this country. China’s increasingly affluent consumer segments have had a catalyst effect on international luxury brands since 2005. Louis Vuitton, Zegna, Armani, Gucci, and other luxury brands entered the Chinese market at the beginning of the 1990s, certainly before the luxury market represented the current consumption segments in generating exponential revenues. The market looks completely different now, with a consumer market that did not exist until the end of the 1990s and that is about to be in a dominant position for top-end retail worldwide.