Abstract
Even though the emergence of Chinese luxury brand is considered a potential risk in the industry, the Walpole 2005 meeting entirely dedicated to this topic concluded that they would not enter the global market soon. In fact, they are still quite absent in France, where only Shanghai Tang and Qeelin have shyly found their small corners. How can Chinese luxury brands potentially reach the saturated French market?
First, we will focus on the difficulties for Chinese luxury brands to enter the French market. Then, we will study further the qualities of current Chinese luxury brands to better estimate their potential and finally, we will focus on the evolutions required for them to come in the French market.
First of all, people usually link luxury to the Occident, and more especially to France and Italy, which seem to have the monopoly in the sector. If we look at the top 15 of luxury brands in 2008, one is from the USA, one is from the United Kingdom, two are from Switzerland, five are French and six are Italians. These countries have had the monopoly of the luxury industry for years and luxury is not a market that evolves quickly at all.
One of the determinants of luxury we have seen in class was "outstanding brand image". Entering the market for any brand is a challenge. And in addition of not having a luxury Chinese brand renowned worldwide, China is even not considered as a country made to produce luxury.
