Skip to main content
BoF Logo

The Business of Fashion

Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.

Patriotic Consumers Are Changing the Chinese Market. Here’s How.

As nationalism grows in post-pandemic China, global brands must work hard to compete against popular local players and tread even more carefully in the world’s largest fashion market.
Red China in Vogue China Oct 2009, Featuring Du Juan, Photographer Chen Man | Source : Vogue China
By
  • Casey Hall
BoF PROFESSIONAL

SHANGHAI, China — As countries around the world close their borders and see lives and businesses decimated by the coronavirus pandemic, nativism is an inevitable, if unsavoury, by-product.

A decades-long globalisation boom has now come under threat even as the world fights an enemy that respects no national borders, with international travel slowing to a trickle and trade facing unprecedented challenges.

“This whole situation is putting up so many barriers, much to the detriment of the global world we have all been living in. There is an increase in nationalism everywhere,” said Chloé Reuter, founding partner at Shanghai-based Reuter Communications. “All of these barriers will really change the world.”

In China – as in many other markets around the world — a turn inwards creates shifts in consumer behaviour that spell opportunities for some players and complications for others. How can global brands navigate a new era that is unfolding fast, one where consumers are more inclined to buy “China-first” and even more sensitive to perceived affronts to their national pride?

ADVERTISEMENT

National Pride Peaks

Chinese national pride has been noticeably high in the month since President Xi Jinping visited Wuhan, the epicentre of the country’s coronavirus outbreak, on March 10: a move widely seen as a “Mission Accomplished”-style flourish, a declaration of domestic victory against the virus.

“China seems to have quite successfully contained the coronavirus outbreak here, which is quite extraordinary for such a large country,” explained Jason Yu, managing director Greater China at Kantar Worldpanel.

According to Yu, if the rest of the world fails to contain Covid-19 as successfully as China, this will further boost the collective sense of national pride, particularly among younger consumers, shaping China’s consumer market in subtle but important ways.

In China, a turn inwards creates shifts in consumer behaviour that spell opportunities for some players.

“It will make them [prouder] of their choices, [prouder] of Chinese brands,” Yu added.

It would be unfair to suggest that there isn’t widespread and sincere empathy from China to the rest of the world as ongoing battles with Covid-19 rage elsewhere, but many here feel that, regardless of missteps at the beginning of the outbreak, China’s homegrown systems — be it healthcare or politics — can be judged favourably against those abroad.

The impact of this mood can be seen across different business sectors in recent weeks. For example, the case of China’s homegrown coffee giant, Luckin Coffee, has shown how post-pandemic Chinese consumers are prepared to rally around their own.

In early April, it came to light that the chain — which in January overtook Starbucks as the largest coffee chain in China, with 4,500 outlets nation-wide — uncovered, by way of an internal investigation, a $300 million inflation of sales data by its former chief executive. Luckin’s stock price plummeted more than 80 percent, plunging its market cap valuation from $4 billion to a little over $1 billion.

ADVERTISEMENT

But Chinese consumers seemed to respond with strong support despite the scandal. A week after the news went public, mobile intelligence service Apptopia noted a huge bump in downloads of Luckin's app. On April 3, Beijing News reported the app's servers received at least three times their normal level of traffic.

Online, the illegality was largely ignored by netizens, with a more common refrain centring on a “save Luckin” theme.

“What Luckin has been doing is basically exploiting the flaws of American capitalism to build Chinese communism. It also created hundreds of thousands of jobs. It will be missed if gone,” one Weibo user wrote.

Pride and Prejudice

Hand-in-hand with this pride is a level of defensiveness that has become more pronounced in China since the outbreak and can be tied with attempts — by the likes of President Trump — to blame the country for the pandemic.

A rising tide of anti-Chinese and anti-Asian sentiment internationally has been documented in various online data analyses this year, but this defensive posture has existed for a while, with Xi Jinping’s positioning of the trade war as an attempt by the US to thwart China’s ascendance being one pre-pandemic example.

While China’s fashion and luxury consumers have become vital for international brands, the perception that the rest of the world wants to keep China down has simultaneously gained prominence. This has created tensions that famously spilled over into the fashion market last year.

Things came to a head when Chinese consumers exercised their power over the bottom lines of many fashion and luxury companies by speaking out voraciously against incidents they perceived to be disrespectful. Numerous controversies saw brands from Coach to Versace and Givenchy widely criticised for products that violated the "One China" policy or were deemed otherwise offensive and several Chinese celebrity ambassadors cut ties with brands as a way of protecting themselves from the blowback.

ADVERTISEMENT

Foreign fashion brands will always be at a disadvantage when it comes to tapping into one part of the consumer psyche: patriotism.

In a post-coronavirus world, market experts believe that these sensitivities are only going to be heightened further, requiring international brands to be more careful than ever.

In a recent report from Reuter Intelligence, rising Chinese national pride was identified as a key trend that international businesses must come to grips with. The report suggests international firms continually conduct group-wide, “China-friendly audits” to ensure they aren’t inadvertently putting themselves at risk of offending their largest customer base, as well as top-down training to each employee on the frontline of brand experience.

“Top positions [could be] occupied by leading Chinese businesspeople and entrepreneurs, more China-based innovation centres and HQs, and permanent socio-cultural ties would firm belief that [a brand’s] love [for China] is real,” it read in part.

But however loyal their Chinese consumers may continue to be and however well they navigate growing sensitivities, foreign fashion brands will always be at a disadvantage when it comes to tapping into one part of the consumer psyche: patriotism.

Patriotic Consumption

“Chinese consumer goods are expanding faster than their foreign competitors, and for sure the rise in pro-China sentiment has given them a boost,” said Derek Deng, partner in Shanghai at Bain & Company. “More importantly, Chinese brands are no longer perceived by shoppers as inferior in quality or design. They are on par with fashionable foreign brands.”

Broadly-speaking, Chinese homegrown brands have been chalking up gains in recent years. Since 2016, brands across 26 categories of consumer goods have grown their collective sales by 15 percent, outpacing foreign brands' 9 percent figure, according to Bain & Company.

The rise or turnaround of major mass market fashion brands in China, such as sportswear leader, Li Ning, and down jacket giant, Bosideng, has provided a playbook for Chinese fashion brands looking to capitalise on the changing values of consumers at home.

Annie Hou, managing partner at brand consulting firm, Harrison & Sudacom, says that domestic brands are doing a better job of reaching young Chinese consumers in smaller cities, all the way down to the country’s fifth-tier.

“Availability also creates awareness,” said Hou. “If you are there you can be seen in their daily life and it makes you more relevant to them.”

Those best placed to compete will be international brands that are willing to embrace hyper-localisation strategies.

This idea of personal relevance is more important than ever. “I think they are proud to be Chinese… they grew up as China was rising in global prominence and [think] Chinese brands are as good as foreign brands in some categories, but not in everything,” Hou added.

The rise of domestic brands in China is not a universal trend across segments and price points, with mass market and prestige the sweet spots for fashion brands, and beauty increasingly dominated by strong local players.

According to Tmall, C-Beauty unicorn Perfect Diary, which recently saw its valuation top $2 billion after its latest cash injection earlier this month, was the overall top selling brand in the colour cosmetics category in 2019. Previously, Tmall's top selling beauty brand lists were dominated by international names such as L'Oréal, Estée Lauder and Maybelline.

Those best placed to compete in this environment will be international brands that can prove themselves equally as agile, flexible and willing to embrace hyper-localisation strategies to meet Chinese consumers on their own terms.

Luxury Spending Reshored

The luxury segment remains a stronghold for foreign players – particularly the heritage players who continue to dominate the market – and will be the last to be squeezed by local competitors. However, Yu, Reuter and Hou all predict a future in which homegrown luxury brands can one day compete with international rivals.

“If you are talking about the very luxury end of the market, I think it will take Chinese brands a few more years to build a brand name that is the equal [of international luxury brands],” Yu says.

Even if serious local competition is even further in the future than that timeline suggests, implications remain. International luxury players must quickly pivot to a new reality: one in which Chinese consumers are not only more ‘China-first’ emotionally, but physically as well for the foreseeable future.

Luxury brands have become accustomed to meeting a large percentage of Chinese consumers overseas. According to Bain, 73 percent of China’s luxury spending took place outside mainland China in 2018. Since Chinese consumers already account for more than a third of luxury good sales worldwide and are predicted to make up 46 percent by 2025, there is a lot at stake.

With travel virtually at a standstill and increased concerns about anti-China sentiment likely to cause hesitation in Chinese consumers re-embracing the idea of travelling abroad, international brands need to rethink their approach to reach Chinese shoppers within China.

Moreover, as the mainland's economic growth is likely to contract for the first time in the post-Mao era, Chinese consumers are looking tighten their belts. Data from China Luxury Advisors suggests 86 percent of high net worth individuals surveyed plan to rein in spending to some degree in 2020.

This means a smaller total consumption pool to be shared among luxury players. Those who have deep ties in the mainland market (and good retail locations combined with innovative Chinese digital operations) are likely to emerge even stronger when the crisis abates, those who do not will suffer the most.

时尚与美容
FASHION & BEAUTY

Shenzhen Fashion Week | Source: Shutterstock Shenzhen Fashion Week | Source: Shutterstock

Shenzhen Fashion Week | Source: Shutterstock

Shenzhen’s Fledgling Fashion Week Continues on Douyin

Shenzhen Fashion Week has been rising over the past five years, with the city's proximity to China's traditional apparel supply chain stronghold in the Pearl River Delta region making it a hub for trendy up-and-coming domestic designer brands. This season's edition, originally postponed due to China's coronavirus outbreak, became the latest Chinese fashion week to migrate online with 70 short-video brand presentations broadcast via Douyin between April 10 and 17. (China Textile News)

Shiseido’s New China R&D Centre to Focus on Green Products

This new centre, in Shanghai's "Oriental Beauty Valley" industrial park, will concentrate on developing "green" beauty products, a major trend even before the virus outbreak in China, and one that is likely to accelerate given the correlation in consumers' minds between the concepts of natural beauty and safe, non-toxic beauty. (Cosmetics Design Asia)

科技与创新
TECH & INNOVATION

ADA Online avatar wears virtual Chloe dress | Source: Ada Online ADA Online avatar wears virtual Chloe dress | Source: Ada Online

ADA Online avatar wears virtual Chloe dress | Source: Ada Online

New Virtual Fitting App Launches with Luxury Brand Partnerships

Virtual fitting app Ada Online has inked partnerships with 30 international luxury brands, including Prada, Chloé, Balmain and Christopher Kane, to allow users to scan themselves to create a 3D avatar that can try on clothing from these brands. The plan is also apparently to allow users to shop via the app, but it appears the e-commerce functions are not online as yet. (Sina)

Meituan Expands Delivery Services to Include Beauty and Clothing

Chinese food delivery giant Meituan Dianping has expanded its product categories to deliver a wide range of goods, including Huawei smartphones, beauty products, and clothes. Meituan will now deliver beauty products from cosmetics multibrand retailer Sephora in 16 cities around China, including Beijing and Shanghai. (Tech in Asia)

消费与零售
CONSUMER & RETAIL

SaSa store in Hong Kong | Source: Shutterstock SaSa store in Hong Kong | Source: Shutterstock

SaSa store in Hong Kong | Source: Shutterstock

SaSa Closes Iconic Hong Kong Flagship

Cosmetics retailer SaSa International will close its iconic store in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, and will not renew its lease. The 650-square-metre, two-storey store has been an iconic part of retail in Hong Kong, but the brand said closing its door would save HK$10 million ($1.29 million) a year, too much of a saving to pass up as retail in Tsim Sha Tsui has plummeted 90 percent on the back of political unrest and the coronavirus outbreak cutting off Chinese tourists from Hong Kong. (Irina Li for BoF China)

Parkson Shutters Kunming Department Store

Parkson Group, one of the longest-running foreign operators of department stores in China, is closing its second property in Kunming, the capital of China's southwest Yunnan Province, when its lease expires in May. Parkson will still continue to operate its Bailian Parkson property in Kunming for the foreseeable future and membership cards and points from the closing property will be honoured there, a spokesperson for the group told state media. Parkson Group's 2019 results show total sales fell 6.7 percent on the year, to 14.18 billion yuan ($2 billion). (Sohu)

政治,经济与社会
POLITICS, ECONOMY, SOCIETY

Dogs have been reclassified as pets | Source: Wikimedia Commons Dogs have been reclassified as pets | Source: Wikimedia Commons

Dogs have been reclassified as pets | Source: Wikimedia Commons

Dogs Are Officially Reclassified as Pets, Not Livestock

China's Ministry of Agriculture has published a new "whitelist" of 31 terrestrial animals that farmers will be allowed to raise for food or other commercial purposes. The long-awaited document follows China's recent nationwide ban on eating wild animals. The proposal specifically states that dogs are "companion animals," and thus should not be grouped among livestock. Over the years, China's black and grey markets for dog meat have drawn heavy criticism from conservationists and animal welfare activists. (Sixth Tone)

China-Africa Relations Sour Over Covid-19 Racism

African officials have reacted furiously to allegations of routine discrimination against African citizens in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, as alleged "carriers" of coronavirus. A video posted on social media showed people of African descent being evicted from homes and hotels, sleeping rough and being refused service in shops. One McDonald's branch was closed for sensitivity training after staff refused service to black customers. (Financial Times)

China Decoded wants to hear from you. Send tips, suggestions, complaints and compliments to our Shanghai-based Asia Correspondent casey.hall@businessoffashion.com.

© 2024 The Business of Fashion. All rights reserved. For more information read our Terms & Conditions

More from China
On-the-ground intelligence and insights from the world’s largest fashion market.

Where to Engage Shoppers This Chinese New Year

While travel to Europe remains muted, Chinese shoppers are flocking to Singapore, Thailand and other Southeast Asian destinations where fashion retailers are hoping Lunar New Year marketing investments will pay off.


Why Chinese Brands Excel at Down Jackets

Local fashion designers experimenting with puffers and other down clothing have scored collaborations with outerwear companies like Moncler and attracted the attention of prominent international retailers like H.Lorenzo.


view more

Subscribe to the BoF Daily Digest

The essential daily round-up of fashion news, analysis, and breaking news alerts.

The Business of Fashion

Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
CONNECT WITH US ON
BoF Professional - How to Turn Data Into Meaningful Customer Connections
© 2024 The Business of Fashion. All rights reserved. For more information read our Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy and Accessibility Statement.
BoF Professional - How to Turn Data Into Meaningful Customer Connections