Issue 4. Luxury Brands in China Bi-weekly: Dior / Moncler / BVLGARI / Goyard

In this issue, Luxe.CO has selected the most noteworthy marketing and innovative trends of major luxury brands in the past two weeks. It can be seen that, once again, several collaborations have emerged between luxury brands and fashion trends, such as Louis Vuitton and Nigo, Dior and Jordan, and Moncler and TAG Heuer and Fujiwara, respectively.

Besides, various brands are still accelerating the launch or updating of their official websites and online stores. Luxury brands are increasing their determination and actions to expand digitally due to COVID-19. You are welcome to leave a comment at the bottom of the article and tell us your thoughts on brand dynamics.

Congratulations to the French luxury brand, Dior, the Italian luxury down jacket brand, Moncler, the Italian luxury jewelry brand, BVLGARI, and the French luxury brand, Goyard, which were selected for Issue 4 of 2020 Luxe.CO Luxury Brands in China Bi-weekly. These four brands will immediately be promoted to the “2020 Luxe.CO Innovative Marketing Award” shortlist!

June 15 - 28, 2020, a total of 18 (listed in no particular order):

1)  The French luxury brand, Dior’s menswear artistic director, Kim Jones, and Nike’s sports brand, Air Jordan, have jointly launched a limited number of sports shoes, AIR JORDAN 1 OG DIOR, and an exclusive AIR DIOR clothing and accessories limited series. Consumers can purchase items through the official WeChat mini-program and offline physical stores. Among them, only 8,000 pairs of the limited-edition sports shoes are for sale in the world, and would-be purchasers need to obtain a purchase qualification through an online lottery.

Comment: As soon as the joint news of Dior and Jordan was released, it became one of the most anticipated joint series for Generation Z consumers this year. The number of readers of this article on Dior's official WeChat account also reached 100,000+. The extension of joint products from footwear to apparel categories has expanded consumers' imagination of cross-border luxury. At the same time, Dior has invited some young male actors and singers, including brand ambassadors, Wang Junkai and Huang Xuan, to perform together to enhance the products’ popularity and influence. Among them, Wang Junkai’s video, which he posted on his personal Weibo account, has more than 100 million re-posts and likes.

Related Reading: AIR DIOR

2) The French luxury brand, Louis Vuitton’s menswear artistic director, Virgil Abloh, joined hands with one of the Japanese fashion pioneers, the founder of the fashion brand Human Made, Nigo, to create the joint series Louis Vuitton x NIGO LV². Kris Wu, Louis Vuitton's global spokesperson used a vlog to record rich details of receiving the series of products and trying on clothes at the store. At the same time, he uploaded a new product trial image on Weibo, which has currently received 900,000+ likes.

3) Louis Vuitton and ELLEDECO jointly recommend a domestic travel destination every week.

4) The Swiss luxury watch brand, TAG Heuer, has once again joined hands with Hiroshi Fujiwara, the Japanese fashion "godfather" and founder of Fragment Design, to launch a joint chronograph "Fragment Design Heuer 02", which is limited to 500 pieces worldwide.

5) The Italian luxury down jacket brand, Moncler, performed its first live broadcast event on Weibo on June 30 to promote the Moncler Fragment and Fujiwara Hiroshi collaboration series. The theme of the live broadcast is "Wandering in a Foreign Land", which presents two scenes of Japanese street ramen restaurants and future studios, and invites artists, Victoria Song, Pang Bo, and Li Chen as guests. The three entertainers share the design highlights and matching skills of the collaborative series with a live broadcast audience, and also discuss Japanese street fashion culture. Besides the online preview, Moncler also specifically created a Moncler Fragment custom car modeled on a Japanese ramen noodle shop, and toured popular landmarks and core shopping malls in Shanghai on July 1 and 2.

Comment: The entire live broadcast lasted for nearly two hours. The Moncler brand ambassador Victoria Song, host Li Chen and talk show actor Pang Bo introduced the product, which attracted 32 million+ views. At the same time, customized themed vehicles modeled on Japanese ramen noodle shops toured Shanghai's popular landmarks and core shopping malls. This combination of online and offline promotional methods has increased the brand’s conversion from traffic to sales.

Related Reading: Moncler Fragment and Fujiwara Hiroshi Collaboration Series Live Broadcast Events

6) Dior Tmall flagship store has officially opened with a pre-sale of perfume and beauty products. The store opened with an online makeup function whereby customers can try products online. The shop simultaneously started a live broadcast on the day of the pre-sale, in which Wu Jinyan, Wang Ziwen, Jing Tian and Huang Jingyu promoted products. More than 2.62 million people watched this live broadcast.

7) Italian luxury brand, Valentino, first cooperated with the spectacles retailer, PUYI OPTICAL, to launch two eyewear series, which will be sold in limited quantities in PUYI OPTICAL's Chinese stores on June 30.

8) Valentino has launched an H5 (mobile website) interactive game entitled "Where did the little spaceship go?" by requiring users to successfully find all the elements from the Valentino fantasy series listed by the brand within a specified time.

9) French luxury brand, Goyard, has released a short film entitled "Goyard Root", in which it tells the story of the earliest work of the Goyard family on wood emissions. At the same time, Goyard lists 6 quiz games based on the content of the film and, upon completing the game, the gamer is awarded the title of "Goyard History Expert".

Comment: The short film is almost 10 minutes long, with French narration and precious historical photos combined with modern narrative pictures, and it shows Chinese audiences the brand’s history in an innovative way. At the end of the article, there is an interactive game, which players can complete to obtain the title of "Goyard History Expert", so that the brand, which has always maintained a low profile, is finally shortening the distance between itself and the Chinese public.

Related reading: Goyard Root

10) Italian luxury brand, Miu Miu, has launched an online project in China entitled "MiuMe". The aim of this project is to invite people from different fields around the world to use mobile phones to illustrate their personal lives. The current Weibo topic "MiuMe" has 4 million+ readers.

11) Italian luxury jewelry brand, BVLGARI, has released a series of adult ceremonial micro-films entitled "AGE OF BLOSSOM", co-produced with Chinese female director, Mai Zi. The series shows the psychological status of three Chinese girls on the eve of their 18th birthday. At the same time, Bulgari has launched a special adult gift of Divas’ Dream series in its WeChat boutique, with an exclusive jewelry box.

Comment: From the important requisite of digging young users to making the product part of their life’s ritual, Bulgari has an insight into the psychological state and consumption needs of young users from a female perspective, and naturally uses it to convey users' brand awareness and emotional connection. This WeChat article currently has 60,000+ readers, and the 4 micro movies have achieved 700,000+ views on Weibo.

Related reading: The World Is in Your Hands

12) British luxury brand Burberry cooperated with Chinese fashion blogger Mr. Bags to launch the 2020 "Pocket" series, which is limited to 100 bags worldwide.

13) Italian luxury brand, Prada, has launched the Prada Timecapsule limited series on the Chinese official website for the first time. The series was released at 9 pm on July 2 with a time limit of 24 hours and a limited number of 50 pieces, each of which has an independent serial number. The project was started in November 2019 and was initially only available in Europe, Japan and South Korea. It first landed in China, the United States, and Canada in July.

14) On the occasion of Father's Day, Swiss luxury watch brand, Ulysse Nardin, released an H5 with the theme of "Leave a minute to talk with father". The H5 tells of fathers’ love in daily life through WeChat voice.

15) BVLGARI announced that Jackson Yee was its global fragrance spokesperson. The official announcement on Weibo was retweeted 1 million+ times within 1 day and has received 500,000+ likes.

16) Moncler has recently announced that Chinese star, Victoria Song, will be its brand ambassador. The official announcement on Weibo has been retweeted 1 million+ times to date.

17) Swiss luxury watch and jewelry brand, Chopard, has announced that singer, Liang Bo, and Olympic champion, Wu Dajing, have become close friends of the " Chopard Alpine Eagle Snow Mountain Proud Series".

18) Dior has officially announced that "Youth with You - Season 2" champion, Liu Yuxin, has become a close friend of Dior China skincare.

Attachment: The latest developments of major luxury brands' online and offline sales channels in China.

1. French luxury brand, SAINT LAURENT’s official Chinese website, YSL.CN, has been officially launched recently with a display of the complete series of Saint Laurent, as well as exclusive selected content. The brand has also simultaneously launched its WeChat mini-program to provide customers with a completely comprehensive digital experience and Chinese consumers can also enjoy brand-specific online services, including YSL gift-box packaging, matching logistics and transportation, a 7-day unconditional refund, 30-day unconditional exchange, and can purchase goods using WeChat Pay and Alipay.
2. French luxury brand, Celine, has officially launched an online flagship store in the form of a WeChat mini-program. The store contains a full range of products for men and women, including ready-made clothing, handbags, small leather goods, shoes, jewelry, accessories, perfumes, sunglasses and travel series, and provides home delivery and self-service pick-up.
3. Italian luxury brand, Prada’s official Chinese website and online boutique, prada.com, has been completely revised to optimize the navigation system by adding short videos to the homepage navigation interface and the opportunity to change the personalized content based on users’ needs. Prada's past fashion shows, special projects, advertising blockbusters, movies, events and other content are presented in the new "Pradasphere" section and users can filter the themes by category and year. Also, a small program specifically for Prada Rong Zhai was revised and launched on June 29.
4. British luxury brand, Burberry, has opened limited-time boutiques in the Shanghai iapm Mall and the Shanghai IFC Mall. The shops display animal installations, such as giraffes, monkey, gorillas and birds of paradise in a symmetrical form. The use of AR interactive technology enables lifelike animals to be seen on a mobile phone screen.
5. Canadian down jacket brand, Canada Goose, has opened a boutique in Chengdu’s International Finance Square. This is the brand's first boutique in Southwest China.

About “Luxury Brands in China – Top Trends” 

It is often thought that the advantages of international top-tier luxury brands are their wealth of experience, superb craftsmanship and use of rare materials. Every luxury brand that has stood the test of time must have an enterprising management team and innovative strategies behind the scenes to keep pace with the times. This is especially true in the Chinese market, where innovation among luxury brands is more agile and bolder than it is anywhere else in the world.

Starting from May 2020, Luxe.CO will be publishing “Luxury Brands in China – Top Trends" every two weeks, promptly selecting and summarizing the luxury brands whose recent work is most worthy of attention. It is worth mentioning that each trend on the list will directly be put into the running for the "2020 Luxe.CO Innovative Marketing Award".

Notes:

1. From the perspective of industry innovation and leadership, the Luxe.CO Committee will select the top 20% with the most outstanding performance to be included in each issue.
2. Each trend on each issue’s list will directly be put into the running for the "2020 Luxe.CO Innovative Marketing Award".

If you want to contact us, please add Hualitea, the virtual assistant of Luxe.CO top WeChat, and note “双周榜”.