Like the pearls that it cultures, Japanese jewelry maker Mikimoto was elegant in how it arrived in Beijing.
At a recent opening ceremony for its new boutique in the city, senior company officials - its president, managing director and assistant general manager from Shanghai - all attended, but none of them made a speech about the company's history or bright future in the market. There were no emcees, either.
The 20-minute ribbon-cutting ceremony and modeling show was accompanied only by music.
That might be the Japanese company's marketing strategy in China - humble and low profile. Unlike other luxury jewelry giants, which have plans to rapidly open new shops across the country, Mikimoto says everything is about first learning the market.
"We started our China journey in Hong Kong. After operating five shops in Hong Kong for a couple of years and receiving a large number of mainland customers, we found that there is not much difference in the demands and preferences between Hong Kong and mainland customers," says Toshiro Tanaka, president of Mikimoto & Co Ltd. "So we expanded to Shanghai, where the business has been going very well. It has given us the confidence to move ahead to Beijing."
The company also has plans to open an outlet in Macao soon.
The president says Mikimoto first needs to learn more from the Shanghai and Beijing markets. The firm aims to make its progress in China safe and cautious.
The new outlet in Beijing, requiring a total investment of 5 million yuan, is in the city's newly opened luxury shopping mall, Shin Kong Place. It displays 300 different items.
"We decided on the venue as early as last July in order to guarantee a prime location in the hall," Toshiro told China Business Weekly during the opening ceremony in Beijing.
"It is a milestone for the brand's presence in the country. We aim to enlarge our exposure to local customers," he notes.
There is a tradition in Japan in which mothers give Mikimoto necklaces to their daughters when they marry. The quality and purity of pearls represent the mother's deep affection.
"We aim to help local customers get better knowledge about high quality pearls, such as cultured pearls and South Sea pearls," Toshiro says.
To do that, the company trains its sales staff extensively and even sends them to Japan regularly to learn and see how cultured pearls are made.
He notes that Chinese customers' level of knowledge about jewelry is much higher than the company expected.
Mikimoto pearls are referred to as hanadama, or "flower pearls", which denotes the highest quality. The defining factors for beauty in a pearl include not only color, shape and smoothness, but also luster and the quality known as "nacre thickness", or the actual thickness of the pearl's layers.
The capacity for Mikimoto to create quality is based on evaluation standards refined through its century-long history.
Mikimoto's experts perceive that minute differences make each pearl unique and they take care and at times go to great lengths to ensure careful matches, considering color, luster and other factors to form harmonious settings.
A necklace must be an art work of spheres, never complete until it is precisely tuned.
Mikimoto products are priced from 1,000 yuan up to 1 million yuan. "We offer a wide range of selection because target consumers are not just the high-income group. We also want to attract the attention of the young and middle income group," Toshiro says.
The Shanghai Assistant General Manager Mirai Ichimura says the best-selling price range in the Shanghai store is between 10,000 to 20,000 yuan.
Mikimoto's interest in young and trendy people can also be seen in its recent collaboration with Yojhi Yamamoto, a designer of men's and women's fashions.
The two agreed recently to collaborate on a collection of 20 pieces, which will be unveiled its United States stores in November, followed by Europe and Asia in 2008.
The new campaign combines the glamorous tradition for which Mikimoto is known with a playful, art deco appeal.
In 1893, Kokichi Mikimoto produced the world's first cultured pearl.
He opened a culturing site in Okinawa in 1914 for Black South Sea pearl oysters. In 1931 his techniques produced a giant pearl.
The company now has 162 points of sale worldwide, including nine wholly owned boutiques.
