Luxury Product Design for the Chinese Market A thesis submitted to the Division of Research and Advanced Studies of the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Design in the School of Design of the College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning 2012 By Gaoyan Shi MFA Zhejiang University of Technology, Zhejiang, P.R. China, 2009 Thesis Committee: Craig M. Vogel, Chair Peter A. Chamberlain Phyllis Borcherding Abstract China has become the world's largest consumer of luxury goods. The noticeable market performance has led to many luxury companies establishing their presence in China and setting expectations for strong growth. In such a competitive environment, the companies that can build their reputation and compete against others in the Chinese market will be those who clearly understand Chinese culture. Among the numerous factors that connect to the performance of business, design is playing an important part that cannot be ignored. However, although there are indeed much research of the Chinese luxury market, most of them are from the economic angle, seldom mention the design aspect. This project studies the design strategy of luxury products for Chinese market. It is based on the research on the current overall market situation of luxury product in China and application of Chinese culture in product design, in order to explore the appropriate design principles. One popular and effective way to attract Chinese consumers is to design culture- relative goods, nevertheless, because Chinese culture is complex and subtle, ii foreign companies inevitably have some misunderstandings and some of their corresponding designs become confusing and undesirable. The phenomena and reasons of cultural misconception are studied in the thesis. Moreover, how to appropriately choose and utilize Chinese elements in luxury goods design is demonstrated here in detail with typical examples, since applying Chinese elements is the favorite and most frequently-used means in Chinese culture- relative design. The objective of this project is to help luxury companies understand the Chinese market better and design suitable luxury products. Both Chinese and international companies can get useful information here for the future product development. iii iv Acknowledgements I would like to express my deep and sincere gratitude to my research advisor, Professor Mike Zender for his guidance and support during my graduate study thus far. His professional knowledge and comprehensive thinking have been of great value for me. I am also deeply grateful to Professor Craig Vogel. His understanding, encouraging and guidance have provided a good basis for the present thesis work. Also, my gratitude is expressed to Professor Peter Chamberlain and Phyllis Borcherding for their generous help on guiding my research direction. I would like to thank Professor Brigid O’Kane, J. Chewning and Steven Doehler for their helpful suggestions. In addition, I wish to thank all my friends and classmates for their cooperation and help. I really enjoyed the time studying and working in DAAP. Finally, I am forever thankful for the support of my family. Their love, patience, encouragement, and support allowed me to pursue and ultimately complete this Masters degree. Thank you, mom, dad, Xia and Aaron. v Table of Contents Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 2. Luxury product and luxury brands ........................................................ 3 2.1 The definition and range of luxury product ....................................................... 3 2.2 The developmental status quo of luxury brands ............................................... 7 Chapter 3. Current Chinese luxury market ............................................................. 11 3.1 Current market performance .............................................................................. 11 3.2 The potential demand for luxury product ........................................................ 13 3.3 The existing problems in the market ................................................................. 13 3.3.1 Differing from western market and not easy to be understood............. 13 3.3.2 Lacking of native luxury brands................................................................... 14 3.3.3 Chinese companies adopting a follower strategy .................................... 16 3.3.4 A considerable number of irrational consumers ....................................... 16 3.3.5 Counterfeit goods existing in the market .................................................. 17 3.4 Market segments and target consumer characteristics .................................. 17 Chapter 4. Cultural misunderstanding in luxury product design ..................... 21 4.1 The phenomena of cultural misunderstanding in luxury goods design ....... 23 4.1.1 Using undesirable colors .............................................................................. 23 4.1.2 Using undesirable shapes ............................................................................ 25 4.1.3 Lacking of important functions ................................................................... 27 4.1.4 Providing redundant functions .................................................................... 28 4.1.5 Using inaccurate Chinese elements ............................................................ 30 4.2 The reasons for misconception .......................................................................... 31 4.2.1 Misconception in the meaning of Chinese elements ............................... 31 4.2.2 Misconception in Chinese lifestyle .............................................................. 32 4.2.3 Misconception in Chinese aesthetics ......................................................... 33 vi 4.2.4 Mold into a rigidly conventional pattern ................................................... 34 4.3 Conclusions ........................................................................................................... 35 Chapter 5. Application of Chinese Elements in Luxury Goods Design ............ 36 5.1 The range and content of Chinese elements ................................................... 36 5.2 The essence of Chinese culture .......................................................................... 40 5.3 The importance of applying Chinese elements in luxury goods design ...... 41 5.4 The application of Chinese elements in current luxury product design ....... 41 5.4.1 Typical example one ..................................................................................... 41 5.4.2 Typical example two ..................................................................................... 42 5.4.3 Typical example three ................................................................................... 43 5.5 Current Problems in applying Chinese culture in luxury goods .................... 44 5.5.1 Underutilization of most of the resources ................................................. 44 5.5.2 Monotonous application .............................................................................. 45 5.5.3 Misunderstanding of the meaning ............................................................. 45 5.6 How to express Chinese elements in luxury product design ......................... 45 5.6.1 Direct Expression ........................................................................................... 45 5.6.2 Concrete Expression ...................................................................................... 46 5.6.3 Simplified Expression .................................................................................... 48 5.6.4 Abstract Expression ....................................................................................... 49 5.6.5 Imagery Expression ....................................................................................... 50 5.6.6 Duplicated Expression .................................................................................. 52 5.6.7 Integrated Expression ................................................................................... 53 5.6.8 Other suggestions ......................................................................................... 54 5.7 Other design principles related to Chinese culture ......................................... 54 5.8 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 56 Chapter 6. Suggestions for future development .................................................. 58 6.1 Suggestions for International companies to promote the Chinese market . 58 6.1.1 Do some investigations before design ....................................................... 58 6.1.2 Ask opinions from Chinese designers, researchers or anthropologists. 59 6.1.3 Hire Chinese designers and researchers .................................................... 60 vii 6.2 Suggestions for Chinese companies that want to establish their own luxury brands .......................................................................................................................... 60 6.2.1 Learn from those famous luxury brands while build own styles ............ 61 6.2.3 Excavate the connotation of culture and promote cultural grade ........ 62 6.2.4 Repackage company image ........................................................................ 63 6.2.5 Kindle the patriotic emotion