As the must market for luxury brands, China market attracts more and more attention from world luxury brands. Even in the gloomy 2009, Chinese consumers still spent a lot of money on luxury products. According to statistics, luxury products consumption increased by 12% in 2009 in China. It is expected that in five years, China will be the No. 1 luxury products consuming market.
None luxury brand can ignore such luring market. As a result, they launched products with Chinese characteristics or opened more shops in China to meet the eager demand of Chinese consumer. However, Hermes figured out a different way. It developed a new collection " 上下" which is operated by Chinese. It is known that this collection will contain garments, accessories, bags and furniture and so on. Its first shop will be opened in September in Shanghai.
Compared with other luxury brands, products of Hermes are much more expensive. Its aimed consumers are those very rich. However, such brand strategy limits its expansion in China market. Its market share in China market is much lower than LV, Chanel and Gucci. Until now, there are less than 20 Hermes shops in China.
According to the report released by Bain& Company, LV, Chanel and Gucci are the brands Chinese consumers will buy first. But Hermes ranks only 9th and this rank never changed since 2006. The release of new collection " 上下" is seen as a good way to remedy.
