Thesis luxury digital communication in china

2016 DISSERTATION
SKEMA BUSINESS SCHOOL
MASTER OF SCIENCE IN LUXURY & FASHION MANAGEMENT
LAST NAME: Dam
GIVEN NAME: Caroline
NATIONALITY: French
TITLE: LUXURY DIGITAL COMMUNICATION IN CHINA:
"How the digital communication of luxury brands affected the consuming behavior in
China?"

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ABSTRACT
Year: 2016
First Name: Caroline
Family Name: Dam
Nationality: French
Title: Luxury Digital Communication in China
How digital commerce plays a significant role in nowadays luxury retail market?
SKEMA Business School, Sophia Antipolis
Today, the society in which we are living is moving so quickly that many luxury
retailers need to adjust their communication campaigns and develop an adequate
strategy to target the consumers. It goes through new transaction platforms such as
e-commerce websites and virtual exchange applications such as social media. On
one hand, Net-A-Porter, a digital-pure player, unveil a strong growth driven by
competition among other online pure players, department stores, retail sites and
brands online stores. On the other hand, Instagram, a social media, helps to create a
digital narrative content, a storytelling to include the customer in the heritage of the
brand. It is especially the case of China, where the luxury consumption became wildly
spread in fashion capitals due to their sudden high purchasing power related to their
national economic rise.
However this topic may lead to few questions. Is it an opportunity or a challenge?
How will the brand identity be distinguished from FMCG if democratized and
accessible to a wider clientele? What will be the next coming trends?
With such concerns, it is necessary to understand the evolution of the trends in the
digital world of luxury retail markets.
The following article will analyze the way digital commerce changed traditional ways
to trade in retail markets. It will also stress on the possibilities and challenges it
encounters today. As well, the research gives an analysis on the forecast of the
digital luxury.
Keywords: China, brands, communication, digital, e-commerce, luxury, social media,
retail market
Supervisor: BOYAVAL Fabien

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PREFACE
The subject is an attempt to find an answer to the situation of the luxury
industry in China, where communication and marketing are facing the evolutions of
innovation and digitalization. It aims at bringing solutions to the distress of the actual
luxury communication challenge to maintain the brand loyalty and keep drawing a
new clientele, by taking into account the market alteration in terms of purchasing
ways and needs.
The choice of the subject has been obvious to me as it is a concern that is much
related to the experiences I have been through and the interest that increased
throughout years. I have always tried to be as close as possible to the topic to
understand luxury and its codes, especially in China where the luxury boom has
recently draw my attention. Even today, the insights brought to the subject are not
fixed and is able to evolve in a fast changing environment.
Achieving the present thesis represented a real challenge to me. The main difficulty
remain in staying focused in the core of the subject by finding the most relevant and
accurate information to it. Indeed, many other fields enter into interaction and it was
not easy to narrow down the information. In addition to this, a good organization was
necessary to perfectly balance with the internship, the moral and physical exhaustion
and the pressure of the required work.
Along with this challenge, I would like to express my appreciation to Mr Boyaval for
the help and guidance received in the research, Adrien for his support all along, my
friends and my families and also, the persons who gave their opinions for the
interviews and the survey.

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ACADEMIC YEAR 2015-2016
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4
LIST OF FIGURES, TABLES 7
INTRODUCTION 15
LITERATURE REVIEW 17
METHODOLOGY 33
RESULTS 34
DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS 36
1. INCREASING USE OF MEDIA IN THE COMMUNICATION STRATEGY OF
LUXURY BRANDS 38
1.1. Chinese consumer behavior shift in the 21rst century 38
1.2. The possibilities of introduction of Internet and digital in the luxury market41
1.3. Digital business development in China since the 21rst century 43
2. DIGITAL COMMUNICATION OF LUXURY BRANDS IN CHINA 48
2.1. Endorsement on Internet and other media canals 48
2.2. Polyvalence of applications and mobile technology 52
2.3. Revolutionary means of payment 57
3. CONSUMING BEHAVIOR IN CHINA 60
3.1. A fast consuming way related to strong information flow 60
3.2. Importance of digital communication of WeChat: a tool to inform and earn
visibility visibility 62
3.3. Daigou with Wechat : a tool to promote items across countries 66
CONCLUSION 70
REFERENCE LIST (alphabetical order) 73
APPENDIX 77

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Today, worldwide market is led by the rise of global tourism and social classes
merging. In fact, consumers purchase more abroad than from their own country,
resulting to a real category of global household growing. This has been enabled by
Internet and other linked tools to make online researches on flights and hotels before
flying to another country. The expansion of digital tools has found an increasing part
of members and users around the world, not only classified as a consumer but also
as a company. This occurred a few years ago in a very rapid growth, especially
starting from the 21th century. The globalization had a big role in setting up a
favorable environment to the development of new technologies among rich and more
and more emerging countries. For very high-end companies, the presence of such
tool was seen at first as a threat as this didn’t match with their core value of
exclusivity. This created two different ways of reaction in the luxury field. On one side,
the reluctant companies preferring the use of traditional communication and
marketing methods are not welcoming the idea as digital is synonym of the end of a
physical store, client return, customer experience and the omni channel. On the other
side, some companies saw an opportunity in the digital boom and use it intensively to
create and promote an innovative image of the company. The market is at the point
to change the rules of the game.
Indeed, it’s especially the case in China that ranked one of the first countries in
the world in terms of size or economic growth. Spending three times more abroad
than inside Mainland China, the good purchases have been encouraged by a tax free
policy in Europe that enable to have the luxury prices at even lower prices. In addition,
the use of websites, applications and other digital tools such as Wechat, Alipay and
Taobao modified the way a person consumes luxury goods. The intensive presence
and use of QR codes at several places, articles of followed pages via applications
made the flow of information even faster than other countries. Clearly, in a country
that faces a rapid economic growth such as China, the average revenue and
purchasing power of the inhabitants are high enough to access more easily to the

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consumption of luxury goods, than before the national economic growth. In the
following pages, we will attempt to find the most relevant answers to this research
question: How the digital communication of luxury brands affected the consuming
behavior in China?
Firstly, the investigation gives insights on the way companies modify and
adapt their strategies to communicate better with the main target that has strong
divergences on the way of thinking and the cultural differences, using media as the
main tool in the super developed market in terms of IT. It goes through an in-depth
explanation on the society situation before the 21th century and the introduction of
Internet and linked tools. It depicts the fact that Chinese people increased their
consumption of mobile devices and time spent on Internet for daily purposes. This
massive use of digital assets changed their consumption behaviors towards luxury
goods. Also, to understand what made this technological introduction in this ongoing
market so different to the developed ones, it is essential to apprehend the given
possibilities of Internet and digital tools in the luxury market. This section analyses
the different specific uses of Internet in China and how luxury brands take advantage
of it. Then, the last idea would tend to show how digitalization of luxury is perceived
by consumers as well as companies since the 21th century.
The following part that brings answers to the main question is on the way
luxury brands communicate digitally in China. It means that it has to adopt the
countries codes and modify the strategies used in Europe as the target is different
and has specific expectations. Elements on the communication led by brands will
enlighten this part. Brands use several canals to promote their products such as
partnerships with celebrities and endorsements. Indeed, the biggest influencers are
those who share and give personal opinions online, on blogs and represent important
allies. Also, apart from these collaborations, some platforms are massively used by
Chinese consumers. Device applications are used daily and have polyvalent
purposes, which give them a stronger importance for any exchanges, whether it is
social or sales. And lastly, China shows an advance in means of payment thanks to
their QR codes and Alipay allowing people to have phone relying and not having
credit cards on oneself. In-depth explanations on the different kinds of payments and
the way it is used will be given

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The last section relates the consuming behavior in China to analyze their
luxury purchase process in the recent years. Their fast and massive consuming way
is related to a strong information flow. With Internet available on their fingertips, they
find required information easier and in a more convenient way. Moreover, as for
luxury companies, WeChat represents a significant tool to be closer and interact with
the potential follower, as the application enables to send individual messages among
other functionalities. Visibility and brand awareness can thus be conducted efficiently,
by being present on the most used app in China. Although users have found many
advantages using WeChat, the last part depicts the pro and cons of the daigou
phenomenon that occurred and was emphasized a few years ago. From a social
media created to chat and exchange with friends, it has become a platform used to
make business around luxury goods reselling, benefiting from the price gap between
Europe and China due to imported good tax. The development of this activity and
involvement of a lot of Chinese people spending some moments in Europe has
become problematic for many luxury brands that attempt to find a solution to stop this.
Finally, it is necessary to conclude by bringing answers to the question that
has been asked. The effects of the digitalized luxury communication on the Chinese
consumer behavior brought positive and negative points. Also, this section aims at
treating the expected outcome and trends in the coming years.

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List of figures,tables
Figure 0 Gross trading volume of China’s online shopping market (2004-11)
Source: So, S., Westlang, J.C. (2010) Red Wired - China's Internet revolution [E-Reader Version].
Retrieved from http://www.scholarvox.com/catalog/book/?docID=45003861
Figure 1.1 Number of luxury brands recognized in China (percent):
Source : Etude sur les tendances du luxe en Chine. (2013, April).
Retrieved from http://www.webandluxe.com/04/2013/une-etude-sur-les-tendances-du-luxe-en-chine/

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Figure 1.2 A slowing boat
Source: Some Chinese economic indicators are moving in the right direction; others are not. (2014, January 25).
Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21594999-some-chinese-economic-
indicators-are-moving-right-direction-others-are
Figure 1.3. Taobao home page
Source: Olivier (2014, December 24) 5 tips to build a good website in China. Retrieved from
http://marketingtochina.com/5-tips-build-good-website-china/

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Figure 2.1. Dior official website
Source: Olivier (2015, March 13) How luxury brands can use digital in China.
Retrieved from http://marketingtochina.com/how-luxury-brands-can-use-digital-in-china/
Figure 2.2. Tmall home page

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Figure 2.3. China censorship and Chinese websites
Source: Gombert, K. (2015, November 12). Le luxe n'est pas incompatible avec le digital, en voici la preuve. Retrieved from
http://bfmbusiness.bfmtv.com/01-business-forum/le-luxe-n-est-pas-incompatible-avec-le-digital-en-voici-la-preuve-929002.html
Figure 2.4. Credit card owners don’t use their credit cards to shop online
Source: Nicole. An Overview of Popular Online Payment Methods in China How to get paid by your Chinese customers.
Retrieved from https://chineseseoshifu.com/blog/online-payment-methods-china.html

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Figure 2.5. Transaction volume in Q2, 2014
Source: Nicole. An Overview of Popular Online Payment Methods in China How to get paid by your Chinese customers.
Retrieved from https://chineseseoshifu.com/blog/online-payment-methods-china.html
Figure 3.1. How often do you search luxury product information online ?

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Figure 3.2. WeChat Monthly Active Users (million) 2011 – 2015
Source: Campbell, J. (2015, November 26) Why is WeChat so important for digital marketing in China.
Retrieved from http://www.tongdigital.com/2015/11/26/wechat-important-digital-marketing-china/
Figure 3.3. WeChat Features
Source : Braizaz, M. (2016, May 20). Que faut-il savoir sur les réseaux sociaux asiatiques ?
Retrieved from http://www.womenology.fr/non-classe/que-faut-il-savoir-sur-les-reseaux-sociaux-asiatiques/#more-13252

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Figure 3.4. WeChat professional account
- Olivier (2013, January 31) Comment développer son Marketing avec WeChat?
Retrieved from http://www.marketing-chine.com/analyse-marketing/wechat-lavenir-de-la-communication-mobile-en-chine
Figure 3.5. WeChat Moments
Source: Zeim, F. (2015, March 3) Social Media in China: Explaining WeChat. Retrieved from
http://mediaman.com/en/blog/social-media-china-wechat-en/

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Figure 3.6. Daigou items listed on Instagram.
Source: 5 Ways China’s Daigou Market Does More Harm than Good for Luxury Brands (2016, March 6)
Retrieved from https://jingdaily.com/5-ways-chinas-daigou-market-harm-good-luxury-brands/
Figure 3.7. Responses from 3503 attendees at eCommerce China's Sydney
conference
Source: Daigou: The extra 50 million customers hiding in plain sight (2016, June 15). Battersby, L.
Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/daigou-the-extra-50-million-
customers-hiding-in-plain-sight-20160609-gpf8hf.html

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INTRODUCTION
To some extent, it may seem obvious to see how fast the world changed in
few years with the progresses in technology and the use of Internet. These ones
modified the habits and consumption behaviors of many people around the world, for
the developed countries and for the emerging countries as well. People became
migrants, nomad and are looking for a faster and more practical way of life than they
had known from the previous generation. Their capabilities of adaptation became
more effective, but they became more demanding in terms of unnecessary needs
such as luxury goods and of basic needs. A flow of information keeps them updated
with tools such as electronic devices as they are connected anywhere and any when,
making the need for exponential knowledge grow. The intensive use of social
networks is also an element that increases this flow (Heaton, Millette, Proulx, 2012).
The new society developed specific needs that appeared with inventions that did not
exist few years ago.
In this sense, it became urgent to adapt the way to target the new consumer with new
digital tools, especially in the luxury field where the consumer is demanding and
given the best clientele experience (Kapferer, Bastien, 2012). Although not all
companies are ready to cross the step separating them from tradition to innovation,
the most tremendous ones chose the way of digital to catch opportunities it offers. It
enables to approach and analyze a new profile of customer who is surrounded by
technologies and being a confirmed IT user. In order to reach this specific clientele,
the market of an emerging country such as China is a good example of how the
evolution of technology affected the country and brought changes in the population’s
way to consume luxury goods. Brands create a stronger link, are more present in
their daily lives through social media and interfere in their private life with constant
posts. They want to build a closer relationship that lasts over time by identifying the
needs in a closer way thanks to advanced communication strategies (Jolly, 2011).
The frontier between private and public has become blurred and the Chinese
consumer gets more and more addicted to his/her mobile device.

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Indeed, with the market opening of China to the world in 1987, many discoveries in
terms of Internet have been assimilated while other innovations have modulated the
consumption behavior of the population. Purchases through Internet have become
primordial for all necessities, whether it concerns daily products or luxury goods. The
development of applications got them more connected to friends and families than
before. Distance is reduced digitally and people are closer than ever, creating a
global village, especially with the social media. Websites and applications are
dedicated to such purpose like WeChat. For luxury companies, the possibilities are
numerous, apart from its basic use of creating a social network. The mix of different
functionalities existing from Facebook, Twitter or Youtube in an all in one application
seduces users in China.
The current society in which emerging markets are taking importance
worldwide conducts to a question: How the digital communication of luxury brands
affected the consuming behavior in China? In order to attempt bringing elements to
this question, the following research is presented in three parts. It firstly analyzes the
increase of media use in the communication strategy of luxury brands. Then, the
second part treats the way digital communication of luxury brands is implemented in
China. And finally, an analysis of the consuming behavior in China is given.

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LITERATURE REVIEW
In recent years, global society has been shaped by the evolution of several
technological advances. It enabled different digital opportunities benefitting to many
companies around the world who are looking to develop their businesses. It is
especially the case for emerging markets like the BRICS. Peng Cui, Wajda and
Walsh (2015) expressed the case of luxury brands in China. Indeed, China has been
intensively developing its national economy since the beginning of 21th century
thanks to these digital creations that changed it from a country relying on agriculture
to an emerging one on the way to be a developed one. European luxury companies
see an opportunity with IT innovations, but to set up in a new market, they need to
understand the culture without modifying the brand standards at the same time.
Indeed, the brand needs to understand the perception the Chinese consumer has on
luxury consumption before delivering a product with European norms that may not be
adapted to their culture. The main target would be the young generation that holds
the economy of the coming years. Four kinds of profiles among the Chinese
consumers (lovers, followers, intellectuals, laggards) have been described by
Chevalier and Lu (2009). This insight of their perception on luxury goods help in
understanding what they expect and what they want, keeping in mind that brand
standards must remain present in the communication. Moreover, giving the fact that
Eastern and Western countries are both benefitting from technological growth and
use IT devices in their daily lives, their consumption behavior may differ. Zhu, Quan
and Xuan (2010) suggested that IT products consumption have influenced the
cultural behaviors between China and Western states. The research aim to point out
the way the purchasing act is defined by IT items consumption. A comparison
concerning the use of texting, mobile devices and digital assistant of these 2 regions
leads to the fact that Chinese users are more focused on relationship maintained with
the friend circle than the self-emphasized approach of Western users.
The given elements should help to narrow the research areas and find answers to the
way luxury brand digital communication influenced the consumption behavior in

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China. Firstly, an insight on the rise of media use in the communication strategy of
luxury brands will help to settle the background. Then, the digital communication of
luxury brands in China induces concrete actions to reach the target in a new
environment. Finally, the study of the consuming behavior in China contributes to
apprehend the way the digital tools are used in the individual point of view.
1. INCREASING USE OF MEDIA IN THE COMMUNICATION STRATEGY OF
LUXURYBRANDS
1.1. Chinese consumer behavior shift in the 21rst century
To begin with, it is essential to understand the increasing use of media in the
communication of luxury strategy of luxury brands. Indeed, the whole world is looking
at China now because it showed proofs of real advances on technology field,
especially digital platform creation and devices. The increasing use of media in the
communication strategy of luxury brands has become a key asset to develop a brand
activity while adapting the strategies to the demanding Chinese clients and a different
cultural and societal environment. The investigation is focusing on the emerging
market as the developed ones are slowing down while the other ones are
demonstrating rapid growth. The following parts are presenting the behavior shift
before and after the technologies introduction, the possibilities offered to the brands
and the IT evolutions since the 21th century.
In fact, China encountered consumer behavior shift in the 21rst century. Many luxury
brands consider trading and having partnership with an emerging market in particular.
The case of China is worth dealing with because it is a booming market that is also
the most active among the BRICS. Unlike Europe that have been late in the mobile
development rise (Simon, 2016), Chinese IT based start-ups (quoted as unicorns,
high market capitalization companies, in the paper) responded to the demand and
supply rapidly with innovative products and services. They understood that
smartphones will ease the entry of new players in the mobile phone market without
having a policy and industry constraint. In fact, China developed innovative emerging

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technologies since Internet and mobile phone integration. It is essential to distinguish
how the exploration of the possibilities and the diffusion of it were established. Chen
and Daim (2008) gave models to assess these technologies that may suggest
problems like security and reliability at their exploration and integration.
Several steps and difficulties encountered and identified helped modeling the digital
integration. Internet and mobile phone consist today in important assets for Chinese
people. It is essential to know that Internet was developed with computer-based
websites prior to mobile phone (Yang, Wang, Wei, 2014). The transition that was
done drew businesses around mobile phones for companies looking for expansion
opportunities. However the success in web services doesn’t warrant the success of
mobile services. Yang, Wang and Wei (2014) conducted a research identifying the
integration and consistency of the web and mobile service perceived by the Chinese
consumer. It resulted a positive perception of the web service quality that affected the
mobile service quality. Liu and Li (2010) comfort this idea, as the diffusion of mobile
Internet use in China is perceived as enjoyment thanks to its easy use and
compatibility with the user’s lifestyle. Although notable answer divergences were
found from the answers linked to the mobile internet use diffusion stages, the
conclusion remained positive to the transition outcome. It is especially the
acceptance of the mobile Internet by the young consumer segment that has a greater
importance as it remains the biggest portion in China since the unique child policy.
A model has been developed to get findings on the acceptance of mobile marketing
(Gao, Sultan, Rohm, 2010). The young user regular mobile phone usage is mainly
influenced by two factors in the adoption of Internet. The paper finds importance on
mobile platforms risk acceptance and mobile devices personal attachment. According
to the young consumers, the addiction caused by the mobile marketing overpass the
risk of security on personal data while navigating online and the dependence to the
smartphone. From the conscious of such risk, consumer intention to online purchase
creates constant opportunities for brands.
1.2. The possibilities of introduction of Internet and digital in the luxury market
The introduction of Internet and digital in the luxury market allows many possibilities.
Starting with a society that is embedded in the virtual world, it may seem important to

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understand the devotion that is taken into consideration. Apprehending the
possibilities of the introduction in Internet and digital in the luxury market represents a
key element in the comprehension of the current China. The traditional perception of
high end luxury ended becoming almost a commodity to the young rich persons.
They make purchases online in a few seconds without going through a physical store
experience with the touch, the smell, the view of the universe. It quickly sums up into
a massive purchase for one final purpose which is to show off. Rarity and exclusivity
are values from the traditional appeal that is getting less appreciated, but it also
creates another kind of attraction. This new segment of consumers are motivated by
eight factors that are self-actualization, product quality, social comparison, others’
influence, investment for future, gifting, special occasions, and emotional purchasing
(Wang, Sun, Song, 2010). They are mostly driven by an unconditional use of Internet,
being their daily occupation. For companies, this single use of the virtual tool is an
efficient asset to reach the sensibility of the consumer. With a fast data flow, people
access to knowledge and information anywhere and don’t have the constraint of
asymmetric information as there is an information transparency in a certain measure.
New marketing is being developed, new sales techniques are being applied and multi
distribution channels are extending the global business (Theobald, 2003). Innovative
concepts such as the brand e-reputation or brand awareness and images came
along with the discovery. These didn’t exist a few decades ago and they are
complimentary with the e-retailing and e-commerce, as well as the idea of creating a
webpage or sharing a post in a blog or a social media, to be liked, followed,
commented or shared again. For luxury brands, it is a way to understand what the
consumer wants or doesn’t and keep a closer relationship virtually. The traditional
privileged link between an exclusive brand and the customer has become closer and
more accessible than before by a greater number of persons, which offers a
popularized approach.
1.3. Digital business development in China since the 21rst century
Digital business development in China since the 21rst century saw incredible
advances. In 1949, when the Popular Republic of China was created, the country
faced demographic incoherence as the population was becoming old but the

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economy was developing very fast. There was a gap between the available work
force and the speed of the technological revolution.
Figure 0 Gross trading volume of China’s online shopping market (2004-11)
Source: So, S., Westlang, J.C. (2010) Red Wired - China's Internet revolution [E-Reader Version].
Retrieved from http://www.scholarvox.com/catalog/book/?docID=45003861
Today, it has much changed, everything is accelerated and its economic fast growth
modified the consumer behavior. This technological evolution impacted the country
on several fields, whether it is concerning social change, urbanization or globalization
(Hu, 2011). Social network took a wider extent with an increasing number of users
from 1,1 million in 1999 to 16 million in 2006. Since the 21the century, new platforms
like Sina’s story for news, Ctrip for flight booking, Baidu for traffic alert, Taobao for
online shopping or Shanda for payment, create a micro world in which they are the
equivalent to the American system with Yahoo, Booking.com, Google, eBay or
Paypal. This adventure started with online games development (in 2002) and derived
to an activity with greater potential, online payment (in 2005). But according to Hu,
technology was not the only requirement to make this advancement possible.
Examples like Baidu, equivalent of Google in China, don’t suggest customized
solutions, but its applications or MP3 search are tools that made the website so
popular, especially among the youth that is attracted by entertainment and
companionship. Also, along with the internet service development, the mobile phone
market expanded with the wireless possibilities. Indeed mobile data services came to
the market at first for ringtone downloading and game playing. For example, another
purpose associated was the SMS vote for TV shows (in 2005).

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Indeed, many possibilities are offered to the market, since Internet is an instrument
not only for socializing but also for consumption purposes. Digital and social media
rise completed the signiﬁcant impact on all kinds of consumption, even commodities.
To Hume (2014), China’s consumerism is changing with websites like social media
that have a strong influence on followers. They allow companies to share posts and
update on news concerning the brands. The creation of such platform creates a link
between the customer and the brand and increases awareness of luxury brands in
China. For instance, Weibo, one of the most used social media in China launched in
2009, was created to replace Twitter which was blocked in China. Unlike the
microblogging website, WeChat is also another popular communication platform on
mobile devices to send micromessages, launched 2 years later. Also, online forums
are used for discussion and researches about luxury brands, tending to feed the
customer curiosity with self-investigation. According to a KMPG survey, 70% of
potential consumer search concern luxury brands at least once a month. For these
luxury brands, it represents an opportunity to settle their e-reputation, online
presence through Internet social media and mobile applications. Along with the
surveys, in 2010 McKisey & Company found out that mobile and online IT are used to
search items with best values, a behavior linked with the Chinese cultural value of
extreme care in spending money, and purchases relying on word to mouth advises.
However, although the progresses related to Internet were on the way, one
problematic still remains today. The question of censorship in China, like the Great
Firewall, is limiting access to global information. The filter is supposed to “regulate
the internet, but also to provide a healthy environment for the future to grow”
according to Kou Xiaowei, a deputy director of the General Administration of Press
and Publication (GAPP), a key government body in the regulation of online games. In
this sense, it is true that Internet is the sector with the most freedom, dynamism and
success among all other sectors.
2. DIGITAL COMMUNICATION OF LUXURYBRANDS IN CHINA
2.1. Endorsement on Internet and other media canals

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For a luxury brand, a good image is one of the key elements to raise reputation and
awareness to update creativity and trends and attract customers’ curiosity. Although
mobile advertising may not be a pleasant experience and generate negative attitudes,
it also tarnishes the image of one brand when not used properly. For instance, the
convenience of short messaging service that brands take advantage of, especially
when no consent is addressed creates a direct link between the brand and the
mobile phone user. However, it can also give a bad image to some labels (Tsang, Ho
and Liang, 2004). On the other hand, to provide a good image, actions led by the
brand can be reactive or proactive. It is reactive because the concern is triggered by
the consumer that signals status with luxury brands, giving legitimacy to brand
prominence (Han, Nunes, Drèze, 2010). According to the wealth and need for status,
consumers demonstrate a group preference and desire for eye-catching or discreet
products. In this sense, brands play a double role, by creating bags with more or less
logos to be recognized or not, loud or quiet branding to target different kinds of needs.
Then, the action can be proactive since the concern is manifested by the intention to
make partnership with a celebrity. It requires an influent muse to convey brand values
that helps brands to do so. In China, celebrities are declined into different categories
and may play a major role in military service for heroism, maternity for female values
and social harmony, actors for sport and movies and so on (Edwards, Jeffreys, 2010).
Related to our research, the case of internet celebrities is pertinent, and Roberts,
2010, studied the case of Furong Jiejie. The source explains that Furong Jiejie, real
name Shi Hengxia, was a female blogger that became famous around the 2000s
after the publication of photos suggesting sexually assertive postures, dressed up.
The posts impacted the audience which associated her to fame very quickly. She
was considered as the precursor of internet celebrities among Mu Zimei and Liu
MangYan, since her openness on sexuality in a repressive culture points out the
developing tendency of Chinese female bloggers. In fact, it indicated Chinese current
evolution regarding Internet culture growth, state censorship and social cultural
standards. An example with the storygiving “What Makes Love True” campaign of
Tiffany and Co. has been given by Hughes, Bendoni and Pehlivan (2016). Indeed,
using social media, the brand finds inspiration in stories from consumer personal
experiences to co-create marketing contents and modulate brand image. It usually
recalls to famous personalities such as models or actors to play the main role to
narrate love stories and make the viewer identifies itself in the character.

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2.2. Polyvalence of applications and mobile technology
Mobile devices and applications account for a major part of the Chinese user life.
These recent years showed that technology advances, especially in China, did
tremendous progresses in Internet field. Yong Liu, Hongxiu Li, (2010) investigated on
the diffusion process of mobile Internet use (MIU) in China. The research states that
the mobile internet usage is perceived differently by users according to the innovation
and diffusion. The key element here to make mobile internet so welcomed by people
is its ability to make people enjoy the services provided by IT companies, as they are
complimentary with the user’s lifestyle. Five years later, Song, Sawang, Drennan and
Andrews (2015) depicted factors that may show up the differences in China and
Western countries. Eight factors assigned to Chinese behavior toward mobile
technology consumption were found. They are concerning status (gain and loss
avoidance), expectations (utilitarian, hedonic), influence (normative and external),
cost and quality matter. Besides from this cross continent differences, local
dissimilarities popped out as China is a heterogeneous culture depending on the
area of the survey subjects. Considering the fact that divergence exists among
regions, an in-depth insight on the strategy led in China Mainland is required to
apprehend the actual context. Indeed, domestic mobile phone corporations (DMCs),
especially the leaders, lead effective strategies to compete with the rest of the world
(Chang, Wang, Fu, 2009). Although, such companies developed competitive assets
in manufacturing and customer service, they present weaknesses in R&D,
distribution and marketing sales compared to other international big players of 3G
connection. To many luxury brands, the development of mobile Internet draws them
to enter the market and state their own one through a mobile commerce application.
Being present in the Chinese mobile market is a strength for brand tactics since it
allows meeting the expectations of the new generation on e-commerce. To be
considered as legitimate in China, mobile presence is important and applications play
a major role in this market quest. Liang, Ting and Wei (2004) address an
identification of the success and failure factors of some m-commerce applications.
The biggest ones are usually those that enable the possibility to join many combined
services all in one, such as WeChat. From short messaging services to ordering food
with one single app, the mobile revolution gives a big potential to applications and
brands to state business.

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2.3. Revolutionary means of payment
From the previous lines, China demonstrated strong abilities to develop IT services
and adopting new innovations, especially in the mobile domain. To understand how
mobile use occupies a major part of the population life, transactions are at the heart
of the question. This is why focusing on their way of doing transaction is a topic to
study. Mobile payment services were developed a bit later after the growth of
applications, such as WeChat and Alipay. Zhou (2014) gives some characteristics on
the actual usage of mobile payment in China. According to the author, indicators like
the flow, the performance expectancy and the trust in mobile phone from users
persuade them to keep using this kind of evolved payment process. The service
quality also needs to be strong to keep consumers use it. Indeed, for other countries
that didn’t developed mobile payment yet, the case of China on the service
convenience is an example that will affect consumer behavior on mobile payment.
Indeed, the mobile payment use lie on QR codes (quick response), which is a square
code to scan from the mobile phone (Rowles, 2013). Unlike barcodes with numerical
data, QR codes are more practical as they support horizontal and vertical formats.
They are widely used, in particular in China, for many purposes apart from mobile
payment or transfer, such as flight booking, online shopping or friends adding.
Although mobile payment is expected to replace credit and debit cards, some risks
may be associated to its use. As China is at its mobile internet early stage,
consumers manifest an acceptance to the mobile payment perceived risk (Yang, Liu,
Li, Yu, 2015). From the consumer point of view, information asymmetry, service
intangibility, technology and regulatory uncertainties are elements that contribute to
m-payment perceived risks. In addition, privacy, performance and financial risks are
other elements that imply strong negative effects on the consumer view. Having this
in mind, the given elements help supporting m-payment companies in the
development of their strategies.

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3. CONSUMING BEHAVIOR IN CHINA
3.1. A fast consuming way related to strong information flow
Economically speaking, China offers business opportunities since the latest years
and international companies are attracted by their economic boom. To enter the
market, they need first to understand it and understand the Chinese consumer
preferences. Frank, Abulaiti, Enkawa (2012) depict an analysis between China and
Japan, on customer satisfaction, repurchase intention and word-to-mouth. The
comparison of the two geographically close countries, yet different in cultures,
resulted that Chinese consumers have more expectations on product or service
quality and perceived value, experience usefulness and switching costs. However,
brand image and risk switching costs are less taken in account.
Socially speaking, such behavior can be explained by a changing environment of
consumption in China (Hulme, 2014). Middle class underwent a growing
consumerism related to a quest for status valorization. Whether it concerns education,
culture, social relations, lifestyle, preferences have been modified. This category of
the population is characterized by leisure since the consumption of cultural activities
(travel, training, education and sport) overtakes the consumption of commodities.
They have a more individualist approach than a community approach. Indeed,
becoming the biggest part of tax-free shoppers, most of the middle-class Chinese
people purchase luxury items abroad. Cosmetics, watches and bags are the main
objects of their trip, but shopping is not the only purpose of going overseas. The
increase of self-esteem, social capital, self-learning and personal prestige is also part
of their motivations. Locally, online shopping expanded very fast and was eased by
Internet and mobile technologies. The context creates basis for communication,
interaction and consumption and even enables companies to post, share publications,
and socialize with the consumers. Microblogging, micromessaging, online forums and
researches create a platform where people can join and share ideas and information.
In this sense, it helps to increase the notoriety of luxury brands in China.
Hulme (2014) made a distinction among the new riches and addresses a description
of the explosive rich and the cultured one. On one hand, the explosive rich, baofa hu
in Chinese, is the new rich that benefitted from financial success overnight and is
associated as being uncultured. On the other hand, the cultured rich is often

27
associated to Western traits such as possessing Western items and sharing a
Western lifestyle since it is perceived as prestigious, tasteful and modern. The pursuit
of a xiaozi lifestyle (petite bourgeoisie) is part of their lifestyle and they listen to
Western music; watch foreign film, drink coffee and consume foreign products.
Indeed, the luxury market is shaped by rich and less rich people in China. Chen and
Penhirin (2005) participate in providing information for international companies on the
way to enter the Chinese market. They comment on the issues that some companies
may encounter to extend the business target and be more accessible to middle and
lower part of the population. Indeed, they need to think on the way to cease
supplying only to the rich consumers and research preferences of another segment
of the population as this one is the next to grow. Another segment to pay attention is
the young consumers as they are soon the future purchasing generation in a few
years. China economy rose rapidly and one distinctive element of this increase is the
young luxury consumers that grew up in wealth. According to the key values,
motivations and behavior of the survey participants, Ngai and Cho (2012) identified
four segments of these young consumers which are the overseas pack, the self-
established cool, the luxury followers and the spirituals. Each of them has a different
perception of the luxury consumption and firms must take them into account to define
appropriate strategy for the market approach.
On luxury brands point of view, marketing practices in China were led to draw the rich
consumers. However, a controversy disturbed brands’ businesses since the strategy
adopted was not right. Information flow from dissatisfied consumers went to be
diffused in Internet. Few years ago, Chinese media and netizens protested against
foreign companies for marketing practices disrespecting Chinese cultures and social
features, such as Gucci’s ill-treat in Shenzhen workplace. It was rapidly spread over
the web with Weibo. It took big extent, but some other luxury brands were more
careful on their communication strategies, praising Chinese culture and heritage. In
2011, the National Museum of China welcomed an exhibition from Chanel, displaying
art pieces including paintings and drawings.

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3.2. Importance of digital communication of WeChat: a tool to inform and earn
visibility visibility
Every individual in China aims at looking for a place to share own life moments, to be
recognized as a person, to be legitimate, accepted by the social group and create a
place dedicated to one person’s life, whether it is hobbies, travels or families and
friends. Several local platforms enable this, creating interaction among individuals,
society, companies and government. Platforms for microblogging such as Sina
Weibo empower people to be aware of new informations, relate it to other people and
also create self content. Harwit (2014) and Delisle, Goldstein, Yang (2016) address
researches on the growth and influence of microblogs on different aspects, and
explains the way Chinese government controls microblogs. Duan and Dholakia (2015)
also investigated on the way Weibo modified cultural values, and focused their
exploration on the social side. According to them, their personal preferences and
consumption are public and visible from all, and lose the conventional side of desire
repressing and economy. Instead of acting as a group, consumers are transforming
into more individualist persons.
Some other social media platforms such as WeChat observe a form of wireless short
messaging service (SMS) similar to Line, Whatsapp, Kakao and so on. Gan and
Wang (2015) studied gratifications perceived from a microblog and WeChat use. The
comparison exposed three types of gratifications, concerning content, social and
hedonic. The first type is more associated to Weibo for information searches and
sharing, whereas the second one is more adapted to WeChat for networking and
communication. Indeed, according to the purpose of one brand, both tools can be
complementary to implement a campaign or strategy. Pun (2015) conducted a more
in-depth and concrete analysis on WeChat as one of the digital must-have in the
mobile app panel. The specificity of the research concerns the way one library uses
the application to support student needs, such as files sending or group messaging
for class works, using a digital tool. In fact, from an online reference, the library ends
up offering the service through a social media, which is a mean to make it easier and
more accessible to students. Another example of how useful WeChat to any
industries is its promotion of restaurant services. Ghiselli and Ma (2015) investigated
on the understanding of restaurant practices and consumer preferences in China.
Restaurants strongly endeavor to settle presence on social networks to be visible.

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They are active on Dianping, Baidu, Meituan and Wechat to launch their promotional
campaign, update about discounts and special events. The final outcome for these
actions is the solicitation for evaluations and benefit from online ordering and
payment.
3.3. Daigou with Wechat: a tool to promote items across countries
From the previous lines, understanding that Chinese consumer are mobile addicted
is a key element on this research. Indeed, doing business with them means to
understand the consumer behavior and to be very active on social networks and
visible on several applications to be connected with them. A recent phenomenon
came to appear in luxury stores around Europe. For instance, in Paris it became
common to see touristic cars parked near to the Galeries Lafayette or in Milan, where
many Chinese tourists look for luxury discounts opportunities. Most of them target
fashion and luxury capitals to make purchases. Not only for themselves or relatives,
they also created a business around luxury goods based on two major issues:
counterfeiting and price gap.
- The activity finds incentives in counterfeiting, as in China, the number of luxury
item copies reveal a real danger for the brands and impact on the perception
of customers on the brands (bad quality, cheap). Tang, Tian, Zaichkowsky
(2014) suggested that apart from the utility motivation, the consumer perceives
a physical or social risk in the purchase. In fact, it implies social norms,
confusion and ethical issues that push the consumer to look for original
products. However, it still remains other consumers that perceive the
counterfeiting consumption as acceptable on ethic value point of view, since it
creates no harm. Romani, Gistri and Pace, (2012) explain that the practice
creates not only a negative impact but also a positive one since it influences
consumers to pay for genuine products. Two studies were led. One is on the
role of brand awareness in the paradox phenomenon of counterfeiting and the
willingness to pay. The other one investigates the reasons of the consumer
behavior to pay original products. From these studies, three main concerns
were pointed out. The consumer prefers purchasing an original luxury good

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because the act provides an enjoyment on creating jealousy, on making own
self unique and distinct, and provides a quality product that makes all the
difference.
- The business is also driven by the price gap that exists among China and
Europe, using mobile phone and specifically, using WeChat. Indeed, taxation
on luxury is a concept that already existed when Lennard (1918) evocated the
urge of this tax development in 1985 in Europe (Schäffle and Graf in Germany
and Courtray in France). The tax was decided following the hardships of life
during the war and took a huge place in the government budget. In China, the
tax on imported luxury goods had been implemented to protect local economy
development, through a protectionist policy.
Aware of the cheaper price from the direct source, in Europe, many Chinese people
don’t hesitate to travel abroad just to make expenses for shopping purposes and
when it happens, they usually spend big amounts. Some others, mostly recently
installed in these capitals for a short duration, such as students of freshly graduated
people, make benefit of the situation. They purchase on the behalf of potential
customers based in China who are interested in acquiring luxury good at lower price.
They are contacted using their WeChat professional account to keep updated on the
customer requests, communicate on the product specificities and price by voice
messages and send photos as a proof of the authenticity. They also share these
information in “Moments”, so that spontaneous requests can be studied as well.
CONCLUSION
The economic growth of emergent markets such as the BRICS is a boosting
factor and an opportunity for companies to develop their businesses. The country
with the most dynamic growth in the current 21rst century is China. The whole world
is looking for partnership and is solicited to study Chinese consumer behaviors and
preferences to understand the market. Known for its collective organization, the
typical consumer is today looking for individual recognition and self-expression

31
through brand choice (Ye, Bose, Pelton, 2012). Indeed, their self and gender
consciousness is expressed by their need for uniqueness, but one has a negative
influence whereas the other one has no influence on the brand awareness. In fact,
brand sensibility enables the Chinese consumer to have a specific brand perception,
including several elements like attitudes, brand loyalty and eagerness to pay a
premium price. Companies can use these features to modulate a particular brand
positioning and build promotional strategies. Indeed, digital communication for luxury
brands is an important strategy in China, where the consuming behavior is shaped by
Internet and technology era.
Indeed, many companies took opportunities from the economic rise of China which
developed a strong proficiency to create innovative environment including
technologies, Internet and mobile devices. Although the expansion of these tools
represents a significant risk for the consumer in terms of personal data security, the
necessity to use them and the benefit provided overpass the risk fear, especially
among the young consumers. For many luxury companies, the shift from a traditional
in-store face to face with the client into a virtual experience, modified the consumer
behavior and thus, invite brands to change their strategies to this new environment.
This fully connected society has expectations on luxury products, as they perceive it
as European quality, modernity and elegance. However, the act of purchasing a
luxury item has also a strong meaning in Chinese culture since it is a gage for
financial and professional success due to their yield for social status and concept of
“face”. An increasing part of the population was connected and active on several
Chinese websites, local social network specific to China similar to European ones
(Facebook, Twitter, Youtube…). The consuming behavior changed, people use
WeChat every day and brands urge to adapt their marketing strategies to this fast-
growing market.
To do so, companies show creativity in modulating these strategies through
endorsement and social media, but sometimes it is expressed in a wrong way. For
unconsented advertising for instance, such campaign may annoy the member and
lead to a bad perception of a brand disturbing a leisure moment. However, in other
cases, advertisement may have positive effects since the consumer is looking for
legitimacy and individual recognition by the society. This can be provided by getting

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inspiration from celebrities having influence on the population. Also, the high
consumption of mobile devices shape the lifestyle of a Chinese consumer as the
applications created along with the material support give many entertainment
possibilities. From shopping to gaming, many features are presented in mobile
applications and this mini format of computer attracts users for its facility,
convenience and small size. Chinese technological advances give incentives to
European luxury brands to implement decisive strategies to understand the Chinese
consumption behavior and adapt strategies to the advanced technologies. Indeed,
mobile phone is an important accessory that enables mobile payment. The risks
related to personal bank account information is covered by the trust Chinese users
have in the application companies. The ease of its use through a QR code that is
simply scanned to allow a transaction also comes with other purposes such as friend
adding or shopping.
To Chinese consumers, luxury goods have a strong meaning inscribed in their culture.
Being able to acquire a luxury item means to have financial stability and social status.
It is also a way to show-off because they want to be perceived as wealthy people and
not lose “face”. As many mobile applications and online websites are used for
shopping purposes, these are also platforms to let the consumer express his/her
individuality and uniqueness through social networks. Sharing current mood, situation,
activity or last purchase online creates a link among the community. It also helps in
promoting brands, earning visibility and getting information from them. In many
situations, using WeChat may seem to be a kid game to Chinese users, however, it
also has negative sides. Using it to make illegal daigou trade made it an
indispensable communication tool. The daigou phenomenon that appeared recently
in big cities shows the extent to which Chinese consumers behave toward luxury
goods and is motivated by counterfeiting and price gaps between China and Europe.
In big shopping centers or famous streets, luxury stores are targeted to be emptied
by them since the goods are resold to the Chinese market.
At the end, those who are going to reshape the future luxury world in China is
probably is Z generation that grew up with a mobile phone in the hands.

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METHODOLOGY
Starting from nothing, it is not easy to structure the way the dissertation is
going to be written. However, using a broad source of digital information and
bibliographical resources are a starting point to gather the basic information about
the topic and help to structure the coming plan for the dissertation. In my way, I will
start from looking at several articles and online reviews see what kind of information
may be interesting for my topic and then go to the library to borrow some books
related to digital communication, to luxury communication and to Chinese behaviors
nowadays. The three key words are going to help me continue to do my research as
they are the pillar of it.
Then, with the basic information that I gathered, I will know what data are missing to
complete my research and I will be able to point out these gaps. Indeed, in order to
find more data about the research question and fill the gaps, creating a questionnaire
concerning the main issues may help to collect them by asking to a consistent
number of participants.
To do so, I believe that providing both a qualitative design and a quantitative design
will be necessary to help getting more in-depth with the subject and having answers.
The qualitative part is going to deal with present statements, assumptions, forecasts
of the participant about communication, branding and China. It will be about the focus
group and interviews. The quantitative part is going to be about figures and will help
me to weight the proportion of answers that are part of a yes/no question or part of a
subgroup. It will be about survey and experiment.
After having collected all the data and analyzed them, I will complete the answers by
comparing with secondary data collection from other sources and surveys and point
out the differences between the answers obtained from other surveys done
previously and the answers obtained from the questionnaire I realized.

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RESULTS
The personal research was conducted on 21 indivuduals in total for a survey.
It is an attempt to collect diversified opinions from international nationalities, by
focusing on the luxury communication in the European and Chinese point of view.
The repartition of the participants is as follow: 9 Chinese people, 8 French people, 1
Taiwanese person, 1 Irish person, 1 Spanish person, 1 Slovak person.
According to the answer collected, we can observe that 66,67% of them already saw
a foreign advertisement for a luxury service or product, while 76,19% of them never
saw a Chinese advertisement on it. Among those who have already seen a foreign
luxury advertisement, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Burberry, Shiseido and Tiffany were
quoted. It means that their brand image have been communicated well and that the
viewer still remember the brand or the advertisement content. For the Chinese
market, Dior and Louis Vuitton were the brands that have remain in the viewer’s
memories.
Indeed, many reasons make the consumers remember one brand. According to them,
the advertisement campaign is successful because of its original advertising creation
(85,71%), its well-known brand and funny (38,10%) and lastly because it is
storytelling (33,33%). Endorsement by famous celebrities (28,57%) and interest in
one brand (23,81%) play a minor role in the rememberence of a company. For
instance, the most appreciated luxury brands through creative advertisement are Dior,
Chanel, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Cartier, Tiffany and Guerlain. The majority of the ads
were viewed on TV, followed by Internet, with websites and social media like
Facebook and Weibo, and magazines. For social media, Facebook is indeed the
number one, in front of Instagram, WeChat and Weibo that have the same results.
However, TV remains the strongest platform in terms of efficiency, followed by radio,
social media, street banners, flyers.
For most of the respondents, the emotion that is much appreciated and they are
looking for incontestably happiness and joy before peace, rest, melancoly and other

35
feelings. The chances of purchasing a luxury product from an ad that provides a
happiness feeling can go up to 25-50% according to them.
However, in Europe, not only the ads play a major role in influencing the purchase
act of consumers, but there are also other explanations. The daigou activity in
Europe consisting in reselling luxury items to people in China finds motivation in the
authenticity of the product (14,47%), in the limited characteristic (13,69%) and also
mainly to a cheaper price (13,29%). 44,44% of the daigou agents mostly supply in
duty free stores, 38,89% in virtual stores and 33,33% in outlets, while a minority of
22,22% still go to physical stores.
The respondants also gave opinions in the motivation of Chinese luxury good
consumption. Indeed, according to them, the main purpose is because it provides a
certain image (13,85%), have a certain notoriety (13,75%) and help to express
personality (13,17%) among other reasons.
When showing a Tiffany ad called “Opening the possibilities” endorsed by the model
Liu Wen, people appreciate the poetic and storytelling side of the video. To them, it
is different to foreign campaign as there is an inspiring story behind it.

36
DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS
According to the personal research made with the participation of individuals
on a survey, several disparse insights were treated. By taking into consideration the
reviews from author papers and the conducted survey, the following discussion is an
attempt to apprehend the consumer point of view on luxury digital communication.
From the answers collected from a majority of French people and Chinese people,
we can tell that three quarter of them had already seen a foreign advertisement. It
means that globalization helped in providing the necessary tools to consumer to
have a facillitated information flow. Internet and smartphones are used as essential
acceessories in a Chinese person daily life. Indeed, their consuming behaviour have
been evolving over the recent years with China economic trade openness. Their
standard of life has increased and they are more and more looking for better quality
of life. The purchase of luxury products has become part of their desires, and almost
needs for some of them.
The main motivations for purchasing luxury goods finds roots in cultural and social
reasons. It is relevant to say that the “face” concept leads to a quest for social
success through financial success and status position. The quest for an assimilation
to one brand, its image and its notoriety contribute to express one person individuality
and personality in a collective society perceived as a community with strong
interpersonal connections.
Among these advertisements where they are confronted to several media such as TV,
internet websites and social media, only big luxury brands such as Dior, Louis Vuitton,
Burberry, Shiseido and Tiffany were mentioned. However, only the first two were the
most popular because they are well-established brands. Companies’ communication
campaign have strong impact and are successful in China because they know what
the customer wants to see. An original creation, a brand name, entertainement and
storytelling are the ingredients to increase one brand awareness and modulate a
brand image. This is especially shaped by the partnerships with personnalities that
agree on an endorsement. By representing one brand, it influences consumers to
have a sililar lifestyle to the person assimilated to a life model. The celebrity, whether

37
is a blogger, actress of model, has a strong presence online, on WeChat or Weibo.
After viewing the Tiffany “Opening the possibilities” video ad endorsed by the model
Liu Wen, most of the studied subjects find differences and specificities compared to
foreign ads. According to them, the poetic and storytelling side of the video provides
more emotional feelings and a strong message that encourages the viewer to reach
dreams beyond limits. It is not simply an ad promoting the brand in an obvious way,
but it is presented in a delicate way to perceive life.
For the survey respondents, they think that an ad has a 25 to 50% possibility to
influence a purchase act, leading to conclude that a good advertisement is not
sufficient to convince an interested person to buy.
Indeed, not only it is essential to have a good communication strategy, but it is also
necessary to be surrounded by other incentives. The motivation to participate to the
daigou activity, whether as an agent or a potential consumer, are the authenticity of
one product, its exclusivity with limited editions and a lower price. The main issue for
Chinese people to purchase luxury goods inside China are numerous. First, the
counterfeiting activity challenges the legitimity of brands and they lose long-time
established trust from consumers. Then, the lack of service quality remain also a big
issue as it eems difficult to present exclusivity to a big population in China that has
been used to work in repetition and not take time to details, but also because they
became very wealthy and are in a position to purchase any luxury item without
thinking. Today, it is common to see a lot of Chinese touristic cars in Europe with one
main purpose, the mass purchase of luxury goods at good price, as they also benefit
from a tax-free policy. The last issue here is the high price of luxury goods in China,
as the government decided to implement a heavy tax on luxury imported goods that
can go up to 30 of the original price %. In China, the duty rate for importing is 24.5%
and the import VAT is 17%. This is not decreasing over years and encourage
consumers to buy global instead of buying local. The daigou agents recall to
creativity and don’t hesitate to look for the best deals mostly on line, but also in
outlets and in physical stores durign sales periods.

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1. Increasing use of media in the
communication strategy of luxury brands
1.1. Chinese consumer behavior shift in the 21rst century
A luxury product is primarily defined by its essence, the material quality used
to make it, the nobility of the traditional craftsmanship, and the exclusivity of it. Being
a brand to be seen on occasions, the maker brings special care to the details. Also,
to please the future owner of the object, a luxury institution provides an exceptional
customer service. With such appealing features, the fame of prestigious Maisons
have been recognized and spread worldwide, especially for luxury companies from
Paris and Milan. From the 19th century until now, most of them evolved, some
disappeared and some were created to reach a global awareness. Today, many
countries envy the high-end industry from the USA to China. Indeed, it is especially in
China, that most of the activities are regulated as they are now the global leader on
luxury product consumption. Luxury goods are perceived differently in China than in
Western countries. The strong meaning of having the concept of “face” is related to a
pride to show their wealth and social professional success by wearing expensive
brands and exhibiting them. It is a cultural trait specific to China that isn’t so strong
elsewhere. Focusing on its past and fast growing economy will help understanding
better their current behavior on luxury purchases.
In 1987, China accessed to internet and started developing smartphones in a fast
and ambitious way. Today, more than 500 million citizens own a smartphone and
internet penetration is expected to reach 90% of China’s population by 2018. Also,
the rise of the Chinese middle class led to a growing purchasing power and a bigger
appetite for luxury items. It is particularly true that the consumer behavior shift
towards luxury is due to the emergence of computer and Internet that led them to be
a connected population, in particular with the Chinese Gen-Y, born between 1980
and 2000, who is a great spender concerning any luxury product purchase.
According to a recent study on luxury in China by the KPMG audit office, the Chinese
consumption keeps rising despite a global economic crisis. In fact, with uprising

39
Chinese incomes, the demand for luxury products keeps increasing, making China
an interesting market to take into consideration. It is notably true for cosmetics,
perfumes, shoes and handbags for women and watches, cars or alcohol for men.
Only hotels, clubs or restaurants make their preferences equal. Thus, luxury items
are a way to share social status for men whereas it is a form of reward for women.
Indeed, with a better flow of information, more and more brands are recognized by
Chinese consumers, meaning a leverage of the Chinese social status that allows to
have access to luxury products more easily than before.
Figure 1.1 Number of luxury brands recognized in China (percent):
The study also depicts the fact that Chinese people want to increase their
experiences and turn their interests to antiquities purchases or abroad travels,
especially outside of China, which was not really the case before as in the 20th
century, only small percentage of them had a passport. An increase by 71% from the
part of Chinese citizen traveling abroad benefits both to foreign luxury brands and
Chinese brands considering settling abroad. To rank the most visited places, a
KPMG study shows that Hong Kong is one of the most visited town by Chinese
people to make tourism, followed by Europe and Japan due to its fiscal benefits.

40
China is a market with entry barriers and brands have to be aware of that. The actual
target is not easy to reach as it looks for more information and knows more about the
differences between different products.
Although China has a prosperous economy now, it has been affected by
domestic issues. For example, the financial crisis led to a drop of the FDI and in the
export growth even though the currency was kept at a low rate to support long-term
investments. To understand more in depth the current situation for China economy,
supply, demand and credit are three elements to take into account. The first point is
about supplies. The country account for more than 1,3 billion inhabitants today and
companies rely on the cheap workforce to increase productivity. However, labor force
in towns is increasing more slowly due to an age group that is getting older and the
rural Chinese see his income rise faster than the urban Chinese. In a close future,
people living in rural areas and part of the workforce are going to decrease due to a
leverage of their professional position and social status. Second concerns demand in
China, which is having a moderate flow. The GDP started decreasing by 2011
because employment was low, demand was not strong enough to make prices rise
and it didn’t lead to the expected inflation.
Figure 1.2 A slowing boat
Source: Some Chinese economic indicators are moving in the right direction; others are not. (2014, January 25).
Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21594999-some-chinese-economic-
indicators-are-moving-right-direction-others-are

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Last element concerns credit. A stock increase by 20% from the private sector did not
help limiting some loans to cover the debts and no stakeholder was willing to bear the
loss. Indeed, the country’s need on investment is the main issue but the belief that
the loan can be paid back is based on unstable resources. Thus, the loans have
become unsecured and credits are not reimbursed.
Being worldwide leader in wholesaling and retailing at first, China services
have become the first contributor to the GDP in front of industries and agriculture.
The fast evolution of China’s economy is optimist for its future status, shifting from an
emerging country to a developed one.
1.2. The possibilities of the introduction of Internet and digital in the luxury market
Luxury brands have hesitated for a long time concerning the fact of going
digital or not. If they do so, the issue could be that in some traditional brand core
values, they could not consider the possibility to ally the exclusivity of traditional and
quality craftsmanship with commonly used and spread web. Their brand image would
suffer from this because it was going to be a choice and not a possible association.
For many actual brands, their decision remains the same. However, today the online
presence is essential for several purposes such as the management of e-reputation,
awareness, customer definition and so on. The question is about how to benefit from
the web presence advantages by keeping the original brand image at the same time.
Starting from the 21rst century, the numerical era evolved among the markets.
Consumers of luxury products went into an omnichannel logic as 75% of them make
online researches before the purchasing decision. Their behavior changed in the way
that they carry more about the information flow about a certain item before making
the physical analysis in store and/or purchase it. From the browsing to the delivery,
the online customer service must answer to the demands of the customers on the
continuity of the point of sale. To illustrate, Hermès suggest a delivery service for a
tie within 3 hours. Internet also became a tool to stimulate consumers in the universe
of the brand, motivating them to go into an online store on to buy online. Indeed, for
people who apprehend the fact of entering a luxury store, they could be worried and
anxious as they are unfamiliar with the universe and the product prices. It is usually
the case for people who saved to buy a luxury product or wish to offer a quality gift to
some relatives. The web also offers another possibility. It enables brands to

42
widespread their geographical extension. In fact, big luxury brand stores such as
Louis Vuitton are mostly limited to big cities and are less accessible to potential
clients. Being in only 10 cities in France (4 in the French Riviera), the company limits
its sales. Their online website allows correcting this lack and enables to satisfy
demands from further areas.
Although online sales for luxury products benefit the companies, there are still
some codes and rules to follow. Indeed, in order to ally digital opportunities and
brand core values, some practices have to be correctly applied. A sensorial
experience is what brands aim for when a guest visits a store. Warm smiles, light
shades, delicate smell, quality fabrics are as many things that have importance.
Being limited by an online structure, the sensorial journey is gives a deeper memory
for the visitor. To accompany the experience and promote it, brands have to put the
visual aspect as the main element of their web marketing strategy. It has to be
present on the e-commerce site, on advertisements, on social networks and on
emails. Features on the official website such as lookbooks can be suggested to
introduce few products on one image and will reflect the actual trends of the
collection. Moreover, with advanced photo editing options, details of products can be
seen over a simple description and can give a visual idea of the size and
perspectives and a zoom on the fabric quality for instance. To make the item
exceptional, even the description of an e-commerce website has to be creative and
draw the curiosity of the viewer to get to know more on it. As for Rolex, each of the
watch component is explained and linked to its history and is illustrated by high
quality clean visuals. Also, quality of a brand service can go along with online
customization as it is essential to set up a complementarity between the physical
point of sale and the e-commerce site. By having the possibility to choose the colors,
the patterns, the fabrics and to include the initials, the customer can create a unique
product with his/her preferences or offer a personalized gift to some relatives. It was
the case for Longchamp that promoted a customization tool allowing choosing the
size, the colors and the shape of the grip for the 20th anniversary of its collapsible
bag. As well, the exclusivity and limited nature of a luxury brand can be expressed by
the sale of some products on some devices, like Gucci, that sold one item exclusively
on iPad. These kind offers give the user a feeling to be privileged and to establish a
link with the brand's customers. On social networks, brands have to be omnipresent

43
meaning being active with frequent posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vimeo,
Pinterest and WeChat, Weibo, Renren, Tencent, Youku specifically in China.
In the end, digital allows luxury institutions to know their customers better
thanks to data exploitation on criteria such as their hobbies, their location, their age,
their gender and their job position. These data are valuable as they help in
segmenting the customers and help in building adapted online marketing and
communication actions according to the target.
1.3. Digital business development in China since the 21rst century
Why China ? For luxury brands, having a digital opportunity to boost the sales
and help build wider awareness in a fast moving context is an essential tool to
survive and bring more business. For these companies, digital market should not only
be virtual, it aims to reach populations from further and with more presence. Starting
from the beginning of the 2000 years, one market especially has seen its economic
market grow in an exponential way. Today, with more than 1 billion inhabitants in its
geographical surface, China has become one the biggest consumer of luxury goods
in the world and represents 23% of the worldwide market of luxury goods. According
to Rémy Oudghiri, manager of the Trends & Prospective department at Ipsos, a
Parisian analysis office, “all the components are reunited to make of China a field of
digital experimentation that is particularly attractive for luxury brands”. To him,
Chinese amateurs for luxury are more active on internet than the other members of
the BRICS, their Indian, Russian or Brezilian counterparts. In fact, the country is
attractive to luxury brands thank to its caracteristics of being a concentration of young,
movable, eager for Western goods and very connected population. The actual
prosperity of the Asian country is ensured by the sudden boost in the economy
growth. It resulted from many local workers who became wealthy very quickly and
were able to look for a better way of life and a better way of consumption. The
Chinese upper classes developed demanding and sophisticated requests and the
quantity of consumption keeps growing, touching diversified products such as bags,
fragrances, jewels, watches, clothes, cars and so on. According to the BCG office,
China is expected to stand for 40% of the global luxury market in 2020,
corresponding to a possible 8% of annual growth for the luxury industry.

44
Luxury to Chinese consumers ? In Eastern countries, particularly in China,
luxury has a different approach than the approach in Western countries. This is
mainly due to a different culture and mindset. The main finality to this massive
consumption is actually based on the idea of “face”, corresponding to a valorization of
a social success. Benefiting from the weakness of dollar and euro, Chinese
purchasers prefer doing luxury shopping abroad, from Paris to Milan or New-York to
avoid counterfeiting, having a wider selection than in China and escape the tax on
imported luxury items going up to 30%, particularly for bags and jewels. There is also
another end to the massive luxury goods consumption, as quantity of gifts “sangong”
are offered to busniess partners or political members in order to facilitate the
relationships between their businesses. For a brand, the most famous it is, the most
sold it will be in China, even more than in Europe. The Asian country basically
focuses its communication strategy on 3 main channels. Luxury brands target paper
newspapers, usually associating advertisements to celebrities. They also get to be
visible in airports, places where it is possible to target the wealthiest clients. Then,
the most important, they focus digital tools on internet such as on social networks to
stand out from other brands by using opinion leaders, especially on Weibo, where
consumers follow an average of 8 luxury brands. As the main topic of this work aims
at finding answers to the problematic concerning luxury digital communication in
China, the case of intensive Internet use and social networks are explicited below.
Digitalization of luxury is more accessible and less exclusive ? Indeed,
the multi-experiential and m-commerce are making sales figures rise even faster
online than a few years ago when shopping was not digitalized according to Angelito
Tan. The associate founder of RTG Consulting office in Shanghai estimated more
than 60% online sales by wealthy Chinese consumers. Another consulting company,
the Bain & Company office, the market has become the first consumer of luxury
goods in the world in front of the USA with 165 billion euros abroad in 2015. Chinese
households use e-commerce for half of their consumption expenses. In such a
favorable context, the “e-luxury” market can only take the opportunity to increase
their revenues, by taking into account one detail: most of the sales are not transacted
on the official website of the brands but on other online canals. In China, the
equivalent of eBay, Taobao is the website where most deals are done, and where
people sell Dior or Balenciaga items with 50 000 transactions per minute. Being the

45
10th website the most consulted in the world, it draws hundreds of million of internet
users that sell numerous luxury articles, usually directly brought from Europe where
prices are less high. Catherine Jubin, director of the Association of luxury
professionnals in Paris says that ”brands increased their prices in China, in order to
struggle against this purchasing tourism. In China, it is not possible to lower the
prices due to tax levels and cost of commercialisation.” Taobao is one of the player of
the luxury online purchase market. Tmall, JD.com (former 360Buy Group) are also
examples of website used for such transactions by Chinese consumers looking for
luxury purchase at a lower cost. Catherine Jubin also says that “These platforms
have almost none direct link with the brands, although they sell an important number
of luxury brand items. They work a lot on discount and last pieces.”
Figure 1.3. Taobao home page
Source: Olivier (2014, December 24) 5 tips to build a good website in China. Retrieved from
http://marketingtochina.com/5-tips-build-good-website-china/

46
Social network importance for consumers ? Aside from the pro and con the
intensive use of Internet could bring to netizens, social networks also occupies a
great space to web users. In a certain way, social network has similar functions to e-
commerce websites. The fast availability and particularity of answering anywhen in a
few seconds by writing is a specificity of the “live chat”, a tool used by the websites
for the customer service. This is why social network is similar, because texting is
more appreciated than e-mails. Presence in smartphones and WeChat are the keys
for success. To illustrate the importance of social tools for the community, the sale of
a support device to their connections is a main driver. In 2015, the sale of
smartphones in the world has burst thank to Asian emerging countries that accounted
for over 9 billion units sold. This exponential evolution is driven by Asian users who
are fond of instant messaging applications and other social networks. According to a
recent study from data mobile expert AppAnnie in 2016, their use is more intense
than in Europe in terms of number and length of sessions. The most used are
WeChat in China, Kakao in Korea and Line in Japan. Such infatuation for instant
messaging applications is due to functionalities that amplifiy the user experience.
Marc Fanelli, expert in social networks, thinks that these applications are a threat for
Facebook as they are more adapted to the current needs of the users and their plus
is that they are a combination of several application features. From the Facebook
wall creation, the Twitter presenteeism, the Snapchat photo auto-destruction, the
Instagram photo filter to Skype free video calls, the convenience and the gathering of
all the preferred elements in one make them more appealing. Thus, the possibility of
multi-experiential and m-commerce is even boosted by functionalities like shopping
with a smartphone, like Meilishuo, meaning “beauty conversation” in Chinese. With
over 150 billion users, the platform allows sharing their fashion experiences, their
product advices and their good deals.
Reluctancy to be part of the digital game ? Apart from retail platforms,
different companies adopted different strategies. For instance, brands like Coach and
Burberry have been the first brands to start with online purchases on their own
websites, suggesting the store experience on an online support. On the other side, to
Laure de Carayon, organiser of the China Connect conference on Chinese digital in
Paris, “an insitution like Ermenegildo Zegna, one of the oldest luxury Maison that

47
settle up in China, still doesn’t sell online. It’s a choice: for most of luxury brands, the
in-store experience remains essential.” This choice is due to four main reasons:
- The Chinese digital world is a world apart and particular in the way that the
first obvious issue that any foreigner encounter when going for the first time in
China is censorship. Indeed, the government doesn’t let any sensible
information penetrate the country and all the websites are verified. Access to
some websites are slow down. Some brands like Clarins use “content delivery
network” services from abroad to benefit from faster Internet connection.
- Esthetic standards between China and European ones are not the same as a
Chinese e-commerce website is full of informations whereas a European one
looks for a simplified version to facilitate the navigation
- Also, logistic remains a big issue for a country like China with a superficy of
9.597.000 km². To Rémy Oudghiri, working at Ipsos, luxury brands have to
hold a strong control on the distribution channel and master it.
- The fourth and last reason is the online payment system. From Laurent
Malaveille point of view, China has a large number of solutions to pay online
orders. The digital CRM director of Clarins says that most buyers use Alipay,
the Chinese version of Paypal, and Cash on Delivery, with a payment to the
delivery person.

48
2. Digital communication of luxury brands in
China
2.1. Endorsement on internet and other media canals
Having a changing environment can be as threat or an opportunity according
to the implemented strategies and actions. No company is willing to be victim of a
threat so it is essential to turn it into an opportunity. This is why using new
technologies and mastering them can lead to an increase of sales and a wider area
of creativity and innovation. Although all the internal decisions to a brand are bringing
revenues, they are also aiming at spreading the brand awareness and brand image.
To be a maximum visible, occidental brands launch communication campaigns on
several platforms like Weibo, Youku and Baidu, the Chinese equivalent websites of
the American Twitter, Youtube and Google, as there is a big potential in a country
with high density. To Angelito Tan, the co-founder of RTG Luxury Consulting
Company, “the promotional miniclip of Cartier “Destiny”, shooted last year with the
movie star Michelle Chen, was viewed 2,4 million times on Youkou, against 152 000
times on youtube”. With such potential, it is comprehensible that being present to the
consumer life with only the brand and the product are not sufficient. For this concern,
to express the added value that the item could bring to the consumer’s life, the
consumer needs to be identified to a model that has influence on the consumer and
that enjoys using the brand. This is why endorsement is an important path for the
brand to be recognized through an ambassador that reflects the same values as the
brand. It will be personified and perceived as an idol to follow. Such a partnership
between a brand and a celebrity, whether he/she works for movies, music or comedy,
is benefiting both parts. Indeed, on one side, the brand gets more awareness and is
closer to its target, on the other side, the celebrity get paid for his/her fame and the
image he/she conveys.
In China, these persons bring content on social platforms like Weibo and this is
directly transmitted to the millions of Weibo followers. According to the number of
followers, it is possible de determine data on the persons such as their gender,

49
location, age and help brands to narrow their target and find the contents that are
related to the likes of the followers.
In France for instance, applications to share moments of a person’s life are popular. It
is especially the case for Instagram where marketing and communication
professionals seek to be. In only 6 months, brands using the app saw their audience
increase by 86%, thanks to constant, esthetic, trendy posts, instead of a focus on the
product promotion. Brands suggest an approach that aims to touch the lifestyle of the
follower rather than a commercial approach obviously based on sales. Patrick Klein,
founder of Vision Critical in France said that « Social media have considerably
increased the expectation level of consumers – it must be taken in account ».
A crucial step for luxury brands is to be associated with social networks leaders.
These influencers are not managers or politicians, they are simply bloggers and
youtubers. In fact, when dealing with social networks, not to forget the space the
queens of the platforms occupy. Communities of thousands of followers stay tuned
on their digital stars news. For brands, these queens constitute ambassadors from
diverse countries, China, Korea, Russia, Germany, France or UK.
An example of what has been promoted is the Chanel campaign. The Maison
developed an online platform entitled Make Up Revelations with the blogger Lisa
Eldridge. The make-up artist posts make up tutorials on Youtube and is followed by
more than 1 million subscribers. Chanel embraced digital social codes, created
accessible contents for all, and kept them exclusive at the same time. Only few
influent bloggers and creators are allowed to produce exclusive contents on the
brands blog.

50
CASE STUDY
In order to be more explicit on how endorsement is decided and planned to target
China and suggest the benefits it brings, the example of a short film, Lady Blue by
Dior, starring Marion Cotillard for Dior will be explained in this case study.
The 16 minutes film was under the direction of David Lynch and was released in
May 2010. It brought between 2 and 4 million euros revenues. It is the last opus of a
trilogy for the Lady Dior campaign. The first two ones were Lady Black from Olivier
Dahan and Lady Red. The film was firstly projected during the Cannes Film Festival,
then presented to the press and finally promoted on various blogs, websites and
social networks. The constant frequency of the campaign promotion is making the
public involved in the film releases and giving at the same time a rise in the brand
visibility.
Not to forget that China represents an increasing 27% of the luxury market so Dior
needs to put forward local elements to include the population into the brand
development. For this reason, the film is narrated in Shanghai and is starring an
Asian man to reinforce the strong presence of China in the brand’s communication.
Indeed, Internet allows many companies to modulate their brand image using the
current advanced technologies. The combination of knowledge between France
savoir-faire and China well understanding of the local consumer actual trends and
behavior help to build online content in a cinematographic and artistic way. The
audience is captivated by the interpretation of colors and how it is depicted on bags.
The short film created movement along with its release and the previous ones. It
was the leading element for the launch of the 2011 collection in the Dior store in
Shanghai, the virtual exhibition of the website and advertising banners on Chinese
websites and portals. At the end, the campaign collected over 100 million views on
the pages and 1 million followers on the official website.

51
European luxury tends to have more and more presence in China, a market
that has contributed to the explosion of tourists coming in France. To increase this
presence, they collaborate with Chinese celebrities. Such partnerships are usually
under the form of a sponsorship from creators of diamonds or chocolate makers to
these muses of the 21th century. Special treatments such as traveling for free are
only provided to stars with big potential. Luxury brands have a narrow selection of
personalities and being a blogger with millions of fan is not a sufficient condition to be
part of the selection.
Endorsement is a crucial tool for luxury brands to be known and recognized
from the public. Examples of endorsement with personalities such as the actress Tao
Chan, the actor Chen Kun, the writer Han Han or Zhang Zetian account for many
millions of fans. Also, the wedding of the actress Liu Shishi and the actor Wu Qilong
has been sponsored by several brands such as De Beers, Roget et Gallet and
Godiva. Other methods can also be employed by companies to have a faster and
bigger impact. Some of them invite bloggers to talk about them and communicate
about the benefits of it in exchange of an amount of money. The amount is usually
not communicated but Manya Koetse, a Dutch sinologist reveals some of them in her
website. According to her, the lowest average of amount a celebrity like the stylist
and make-up artist Perry (Xiao P teacher) can be paid is 76 000 RMB (10 300 euros)
for an apparition on his Weibo page accounting 36 million fans.
Whether it is a singer or any public person that could help a brand to be seen
or heard or stimulates consumer desires, a partnership could be interesting for both
parts and could be considered. With social network emergence in the 2000 years,
promotion campaigns can have strong impacts on company awareness.
Collaboration between a famous brand and a powerful celebrity can make few words
result into millions of new subscribers. It is especially true when the targeted market
is China because the influence scale of a posted message has a strong impact due
to a large number of social network members (500 million for Weibo and 690 million
for WeChat). To illustrate the speed of the influence of a post, it is interesting to take
the example of an online personality who created buzz in China. Jiang Yilie, 29 years
old, made an amount of 1,6 million euros out of her activity, currently her “business”.
Her fame started since her first video was posted in March 2016 and became more
and more popular in a few months only. Being the biggest social media influencer

52
and humorist on Weibo and WeChat, she has 8 million supporters, a figure that is
twice more than the French equivalent personalities, Norman and Cyprien.
To come back to the benefits of a brand-celebrity partnership, it is not always
happening in the best conditions. Indeed, it is not easy to make such partnership
possible in periods where the economy is not prosperous due to recent terrorist’s
attacks in Paris or Brussels. An unstable political climate may influence celebrities
and Chinese tourist’s decision to go visit European capitals. Another issue concerns
mistakes coming from brands who invite celebrities who already partnered with their
competitors according to Laure de Carayon, founder of China Connect and organizer
of an annual forum in Paris on digital marketing in China. To her, there is not only
one strategy for companies. Targeting celebrities based on the number of followers
may also not be the first criteria to take into account. Choosing a celebrity with less
followers but who is sharing the same values and vision, “opinion leaders”, is also an
important criteria. Thus, it is not a strategy targeting the mass and quantity but the
quality of the partner and public. Indeed, marketing with celebrities in China has just
started and the market keeps growing, meaning strong potentials and opportunities
for brands. It is especially currently, with the emergence of “self-made” celebrities
who get knows directly on social networks according to Manya Koetse.
2.2. Polyvalence of applications and mobile technology
In today’s society, especially in fast growing markets such as China, being a
digital player is an essential component to increase brand awareness. The brands
need to implement digital strategies evolving in a multi digital and social tools
environment.
One of the tools the brands is the search engines. The Search Engine
Optimization strategies apply in a different platform. For most of the world, it may
seem obvious that when making a research on Internet it goes naturally through the
worldwide and commonly used Google, but in a controversial country that
implemented a strong censorship policy, it is not easy for foreigners who would like to
make a simple research.
Indeed, the search engines are different as the Chinese people use Baidu as the
equivalent of Google. This is why the brands need to have a strong presence on
Baidu to be found by the 600 million Chinese netizens. The SEO strategies work on

53
improving the ranks of luxury brands on the top first results when typing the first
keywords on Baidu.
Another tool is the official website of the luxury brand. It is unthinkable to
suggest a website in French for Dior when the targeted country is a big market that
speaks mainly the national language, Chinese. The translation for the good
comprehension of the contents is important, but the website has also to be adapted
into a Chinese version. For instance, the website will display national preferences
and tastes because they are going to differ according to the Chinese culture and the
Western culture. These singularities make some points into strategic ones such as
the best sold products, discounts and customer feedbacks. Change will also occur
more in depth, such as the visibility of the Chinese typography, facilitating access to
another webpage by creating more links or using flash adverts to catch the attention.
All these specificities and details are going to draw the netizen attention and increase
the brand’s official website’s visibility. It is also proper to the Chinese market that the
website suggests specific versions for China Mainland and Hong Kong as their
particular political system made them have a different process for deliveries and
value chain. The official website is a way to share the brand history, values and
ethical and sustainable development contributions but it can also be deducted from
its primary function: its commercial function.
Figure 2.1. Dior official website

Thesis luxury digital communication in china

Thesis luxury digital communication in china

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