Luxury brands need a deeper view on Chinese culture | WARC | The Feed

Luxury brands need a deeper view on Chinese culture

Luxury brands need to become more curious about the Chinese aesthetic and stop offering surface-level takes on localising their offerings, says a “culture guru”.

What’s the problem?

In recent years, many luxury brands have been pulled up by consumers for perceived stereotyping or aesthetic condescension, notes Sen Lin, Head of Culture, Strategy & Insight at Carat China.

How can brands fix it?

Be useful for the culture, don't be the culture; eg Häagen-Dazs created a unique experience for Chinese consumers by reforming ice-cream as ice-cream mooncakes.

Take the opportunity to lead cultural trends and values; Gen Z is actively seeking brands that share a vision to make the world a better place.

Key quote

“The optimal state of a luxury brand’s ‘localisation’ effort should centre on bringing forth new and authentic cultural experiences, and co-growing new cultures together with their local consumers.”

Sourced from WARC