The Change Of Luxury Market: From Logo To Taste

When you talk about Louis Vuitton, your first reaction is the LV Monogram print and the dark Damier canvas squares. But Louis Vuitton is cutting back on the style. Gucci and coach, which used to sell logo printing, are also introducing "no logo" styles to attract customers“ "No logo" is becoming a symbol of "away from flaunting wealth" and "good taste". Luxury consumers in China no longer like to show off?

　 The era of logo is gone forever?

In March 2013, at the Louis Vuitton show of Paris fashion week, people's eyes not only focused on the pajama like perspective dress of supermodel idol Kate Moss, but also the statement of creative director Marc Jacobs: "Louis Vuitton's monogram and Damier canvas series will not appear on the runway in the future." The luxury giant will increasingly play down its trademark.

This shift is the new brand strategy of Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH group, the big boss behind Louis Vuitton. Before that, Arnold has announced that Louis Vuitton will not open more stores in the future, but will focus on introducing more luxurious products, while reducing the frequency of interlaced letters appearing in the brand. Although logo printed handbags currently account for two-thirds of all Louis Vuitton's products, Louis Vuitton will reduce production year by year in the future and shift the focus to more high-end products with features Leatherwear Products.

So, in June, through unofficial channels, we saw pictures of Fan Bingbing carrying some Louis Vuitton Alma handbags without logo printing. In terms of the actress's influence among Chinese people, such a handbag will become a new "it bag" and become active in the younger luxury consumer circle. It turns out that Alma handbag is also the best selling style in the Louis Vuitton line this year.

Louis Vuitton isn't the first luxury brand to go into logo. Three years ago, gucci began to reduce the production of "double g" logo products. In Gucci's 2013 early autumn handbag series, the logo has long disappeared. The bamboo bag is designed to be square and upright, and the bamboo bracelet has become the most prominent symbol. The package has only a small line of words "made in Italy", and a smaller retro font of "Gucci"; Burberry, which uses conspicuous checks as a visual element, announced that it would remove iconic plaid patterns from nearly 80% of its products; Coach also announced that it would reduce the proportion of logo products and recruited Loewe's former design director, who won the British Fashion Award for best accessories in 2006 designer Stuart Vevers.

Patrizio Di Marco, CEO of Gucci group, also admitted in an interview that the era of logo has gone forever. He said that consumers in today's and future luxury market no longer rely on logos and brand names, and brands must rely on integrity and value if they want to break through today and in the future.

The "transformation" of these luxury brands with logo as their selling point in leather goods market is not a coincidence, but comes from cruel "market data": the first quarter financial reports of LVMH group of Louis Vuitton and PPR group of Gucci show that the sales growth of these two most important luxury products in China are both low single digit. On the contrary, Prada, Prada and PPR group belong to Gucci Bottega Veneta and other brands with no obvious logo have a very high growth rate{ page_ break}

　　 "Low key luxury" is a new demand

Compared with the old generation of consumers who love logo, the new rich pay more attention to the low-key, unique and high-quality brand.

According to the general analysis, luxury goods The de logo of brands has something to do with the change of China's consumption habits.

Chinese luxury consumers are becoming "mature". A group of "more discerning" consumers have grown up. The so-called "rich second generation" consumers have lived in Europe and the United States. They distinguish themselves from the "nouveau riche" who consume big logos with their fashion tastes learned from the west, and teach their parents how to "taste" luxury goods. The urban gold collars, which are concentrated in Beijing and Shanghai, also arm themselves with brands of "thinking", "connotation" and "looking smarter". They are truly global luxury consumers. Their vision is more critical. They have transferred from their previous love of logo to low-key, unique and high-quality brand.

Luxury brands realize that they can no longer simply and roughly sell their own logos, but need to sell their "culture" and "history" to make a new generation of consumers loyal. Chanel has held "cultural exhibitions" in China for many times, turning her handbag and jacket into a "cultural symbol" and talking about feminism, freedom and "low-key luxury" to win the favor of consumers. Prada has won the recognition of the new rich people of knowledge with his literary style of modern art and cultural criticism. Celine has won the favor of gold collar women with minimalism and simple style, and those handbags without logo and rich in "design sense" have caused a rush to buy“ "Taste" has become a new selling point of luxury brands.

The new rich are carefully choosing brands to distinguish themselves from "popular taste". Louis Vuitton's speedy handbags and Chanel's CF flip bags, once popular in the domestic counterfeit market, have been "eliminated" by the new generation of luxury consumers, and more personalized brands such as Maison Martin Magilla, Alexander Wang, Celine, Jil sander, Givenchy and Saint Laurent Paris are highly praised by them.

And the cold headed avant-garde designers like Rick Owens also have a number of loyal users in China. Joyce, I.T. and other buyer's applications to Rick Owens are increasing year by year. Shanghai Xintiandi's by has become one of the largest buyers of the brand in the world. This prompted this obscure punk to come to China in person and investigate the Chinese market for nothing else. According to a person in the retail industry, several niche design brands sit together to check the order applications from China, and it turns out that there are 6 or 70 shops in the mainland that are selling or expecting to sell avant-garde designs. In today's China, the international market, which is subordinate to the small or even the micro market, has won a piece of "cake" thinking of big{ page_ break}

　 Does "show off" disappear because "go to logo"?

"In a rich circle, if a friend wears these clothes, he must catch up with the trend."

From the perspective of romanticism, choosing designer brands and selecting minority luxury goods is because the unique personality of designers has attracted unique consumer groups and formed a small ecological chain based on understanding and appreciation, which is not the case in China.

In the VIP list of Yin Jiasheng, the owner of tips, a Shanghai buyer's shop, most of them are the second generation of stars and rich people. According to him, there has been an advanced way to dress and show off wealth. Avant garde design is one of them: "I don't think they are interested in the culture of these brands. It doesn't matter if the brand is small. They still buy mainstream brands. In a rich circle, if a friend wears these clothes, he must catch up with the trend. Of course, there are more and more customers who want to know more about the brand, "he added," but that's also because it's hot right now. There's a saying. "

Wang Jian of by, another buyer's shop, said more directly: "those fashion editors and avant-garde brand enthusiasts often have no spending power, or they just stare at one or two top brands to spend money on cutting edge. I just want to do business with top customers. They may spend more than 10 million yuan a year to buy Louis Vuitton, chanel and other things from our family. They don't care about avant-garde concepts at all. You tell them that these are good goods, and they feel that they are wearing something different, so they immediately buy them. "

Luxury goods in China at the beginning of most of the capitalist luxury way to show off, so the initial buyers also with "flaunt wealth" color“ "Go to logo" is just a fad and "aesthetic fatigue". In the past 20 years, we need "double g" and "Monogram" to highlight "I have money" and "I have famous brand", when the public is already familiar with these. Fashion pioneers need another tool to show their identity. At this time, they tend to choose some "small circle of understanding", those so-called "brands without logo".

How many Chinese consumers can understand the "Deconstruction" and "profile" of Maison Martin Margie and Celine, which are popular brands in the media? For them, these designs are not "no logo", they are only transformed into "four stitches" and "embarrassing face bags". They just arm themselves with new methods, which is the same as the famous brands that bought big logos 20 years ago. Although they did not buy those big logos, they still hope that the luxury they buy can be identified. This "identification" is not from passers-by, It comes from their class identity.