The Bling Dynasty: Why the Reign of Chinese Luxury Shoppers Has Only Just Begun

Chapter 4 Deconstructing the Myth

Nobody's going to win all the time. On the highway of life you can't always be in the fast lane.

—Haruki Murakami, ‘What I Talk about When I Talk about Running'

In this chapter, we look at storytelling, the illusion of scarcity and, with Chinese consumers, falling barriers to entry. We try to see how a brand can re-invent itself under the pressure of blasé Chinese and issues of scale. We discuss what ‘going lifestyle' means and what the risks and opportunities of such a move are. (See Figure 4.1.)

Figure 4.1 ‘Going Lifestyle'

The Art of Storytelling

Many brands in luxury project an image of power, which sometimes can border on arrogance and always encompasses great assertiveness.

The power of the brand will have you believe that by owning its products, you will be given some of that power. Power is given by legitimacy accumulated over years of existence and can also be transmitted with a certain retail experience.

When I was a marketing executive at Cartier, I always found it quite daunting to walk into a Cartier store even though I was working for the brand. This was either because I was treated extremely politely or because I felt that salespeople knew I wasn't really there to buy anything but to have a chat and potentially annoy them.

Building sustainable growth on luxury brands is all about storytelling. Brands have personalities, they ...