The Cult of the Luxury Brand: Inside Asia's Love Affair With Luxury [Hardcover]

Radha Chadha (Author), Paul Husband (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 9, 2007

The Cult of the Luxury Brand: Inside Asia's Love Affair with Luxury is the first book to explore how and why an extraordinary luxeplosion is rocking Asia. And it's not just the glitzy upper crust that is getting swept up in the frenzy-secretaries clutch Burberry bags, junior executives sport Rolex watches, and university students stroll around in Ferragamo shoes.Hong Kong boasts more Gucci and Hermes stores than New York or Paris. China's luxury market is growing so quickly that it will be the largest luxury market in the world by 2014. Even India, relatively new to the luxury scene, has three-month waiting lists for hot items, while in Tokyo, which is the epicenter of the luxury cult, 94% of women in their twenties own a Louis Vuitton bag.Written by world-leading retail consultants who know their way around the Asian market, The Cult of the Luxury Brand draws on over 150 interviews with industry experts and market studies in ten countries. It offers glimpses of Asia's thriving retail scene from glorious flagship stores in Tokyo to bustling local markets in Seoul, and seeks to understand consumers' inner motives for this obsession. Not so long ago, your place in society was defined by your role and your heritage; now it's all about your Chanel suit and your Cartier watch.The luxe cult is so powerful that Asian consumers account for as much as half of the eighty billion dollar global luxe industry. Radha Chadha and Paul Husband describe how to elevate your product's status while simultaneously pumping it out to the masses. They crack the code of the cult, offering a tried-and-tested approach for creating a devoted following for your brand. Whether you are a business professional targeting the Asian consumer or a shopper trying to understand your own love affair with luxury, this book illuminates the mysterious inner workings of one of the world's fastest growing industries. At last a book that arms the fashion industry with actionable insights into the psyche of the Asian luxury consumer. Written with charm and verve, the book reveals the soul of Asia in all its nuanced splendor, showing how the culture of nations shapes its people's fashion sensibilities and passion for luxury brands.- Vivienne Tam, fashion designer Fascinating. The Cult of the Luxury Brand is the first insightful exposition of this dramatic re-framing of traditional Asian values. It is full of insight and vital source material for anyone interested in understanding modern Asians.- Miles Young, Chairman of Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific Excellent and timely. The Asian market is red hot, and by focusing on the luxury brand, we can better understand the rapid social changes taking place in Asia today. A great topic, one that professionals in many fields want to know more about. It's happening now - and Chadha and Husband have got the story, in a way that the competition does not. It's 'hands-on', accessible, informative, professional and lively. - Dr. Kaori O'Connor, leading anthropologist on material culture and fashion, and author of The Way We Wear A fascinating and informative ride through cities like Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tokyo. There is no other place in the world where luxury is the currency of power than Asia, where what you wear speaks volumes about who you are. The Cult of the Luxury Brand is a must-read for anyone who is looking to enter the retail development market in Asia, an invaluable tool in understanding the psychology of the Asian consumer. - Bertrand Pellegrin, Marketing Director of Lane Crawford Painstakingly researched and easy to read, an amazing look inside the luxury brand trade. - Ambar Brahmachary, President of JWT Japan In this superb book, through a series of case studies and insightful analysis, Chadha and Husband highlight new marketing tools that companies are successfully implementing to create and build the luxury cult. This is a must-read book for executives who want to build their luxury brands in the booming Asian markets. - Sunil Gupta, Professor of Marketing at Harvard Business School Savvy marketers can use this information to plan how to penetrate the Asian market. The prose is lively, engaging and witty, elevating this marketing manual into the fun-to-read category. getAbstract enthusiastically recommends it to those with a passion for fashion, a curiosity about the Asian shoppers' psyche or an interest in entering the high end Asian market.- getAbstractContentsIntroduction: Wear Your SuccessPart One: How and Why1 A Love Affair with Luxe2 Finding Meaning in an LV BagPart Two: What and Where3 Japan: An Insatiable Yen4 Hong Kong and Taiwan: Yin and Yang5 China: From Mao Suits to Armani6 South Korea: Indebted to Luxury7 Single-Season Sisters: Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines8 India: The Next China?Part Three: Behind the Cult9 How the Cult is Created10 Advent of the Genuine Fakes11 The Future of LuxuryNotesAcknowledgmentsIndex

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Fascinating. Full of insight and vital source material for anyone interested in understanding modern Asians." -- Miles Young, Chairman of Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific

"Painstakingly researched and easy to read, an amazing look inside the luxury brand trade." -- Ambar Brachmachary, President of JWT Japan

Asia has fallen madly, deeply, hopelessly in love, and the objects of its affection are Louis Vuitton bags, Ferragamo shoes and Burberry trench coats. What spurred this regionwide obsession with Western luxury brands? Radha Chadha and Paul Husband analyze the phenomenon in an in-depth study of the "luxeplosion" reverberating throughout Asia. New money is upsetting old ways, allowing people to buy their way to the top of the status ladder. Chadha and Husband identify how this luxury mania took hold, country by country. Savvy marketers can use this information in their plans to penetrate the Asian market. The prose is lively, engaging and witty, elevating this marketing manual into the fun-to read category. -- The Press-Enterprise, July 7, 2008

Excellent and timely. Chadha and Husband have got the story. It's 'hands-on', accessible, informative, professional and lively." -- Dr. Kaori O'Connor, University College London and author of The Way We Wear

From the Publisher

"Fascinating. The Cult of the Luxury Brand is the first insightful exposition of this dramatic re-framing of traditional Asian values. It is full of insight and vital source material for anyone interested in understanding modern Asians."
-Miles Young, Chairman of Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific

"Excellent and timely. The Asian market is red hot, and by focusing on the luxury brand, we can better understand the rapid social changes taking place in Asia today. A great topic, one that professionals in many fields want to know more about. It's happening now - and Chadha and Husband have got the story, in a way that the competition does not. It's 'hands-on', accessible, informative, professional and lively."
-Dr Kaori O'Connor, leading anthropologist on material culture and fashion, and author of The Way We Wear

"A fascinating and informative ride through cities like Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tokyo. There is no other place in the world where luxury is the currency of power than Asia, where what you wear speaks volumes abou who you are. The Cult of the Luxury Brand is a must-read for anyone who is looking to enter the retail development market in Asia, an invaluable tool in understanding the psychology of the Asian consumer."
-Bertrand Pellegrin, Marketing Director of Lane Crawford

"Luxury brands have become a cult in many Asian markets. In this superb book, Chadha and Husband describe the economic, social and cultural forces that have fueled this trend. Through a series of case studies and insightful analyses, they highlight new marketing tools that companies are successfully implementing to create and build this luxury cult. This is a must-read book for executives who want to build their luxury brands in the booming Asian markets."
-Sunil Gupta, Professor of Marketing, Harvard Business School

"The authors have delved into the psyche and the motivation of the most fascinating consumers in the world. This book is an invaluable tool for investors and managers to understand the path ahead for luxury in Asia."
-Sagra Maceira de Rosen, Managing Director of Reig Capital Luxury & Retail, former Head of Luxury Goods Equity Research, JP Morgan

"Well researched and highly readable, this book goes well beyond merely documenting the luxe phenomenon in Asia. It explains how cultural concepts such as guanxi, conformity and kiasu are given their spiritual edge today through the way luxury brands are used as personal props. It is a fascinating read, and adds texture and flabour to understanding how the Asian century is taking shape.
Mark Blair, author of 360 Brand in Asia and President - International Clients, Ogilvy & Mather Asia Pacific

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing (January 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904838057
• ISBN-13: 978-1904838050
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #129,075 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #22 in Books > Business & Investing > International > Global Marketing

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Shameful, November 1, 2009

By 

Jaime (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cult of the Luxury Brand: Inside Asia's Love Affair With Luxury (Hardcover)

While it poses as research, the book is nothing more than an extended advertisement for luxury brands. The writing is nauseating as the authors gush with empty cliché after cliché. The book contradicts itself at numerous turns, is inaccurate, makes unsupported gross generalizations, and consistently offends.

The book is racist, particularly towards the Chinese. In one passage Chinese customers are likened to a classless prostitute: "it's like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, on Rodeo Drive with a stash of cash. How do you serve a constant flow of mainland Julias without upsetting local customers (p113)." They are sexist as well, repeatedly insinuating that the majority of women buying luxury items are using someone else's money. They note that some women are happily compensated for their husband's affairs by being able to shop and some view their marriage like a financial transaction that presumably fulfills them with the purchase of luxury goods. For these wealthy wives, secondary wives, and mistresses, luxury consumption is important because the longer women can stay pretty through these extravagant purchases, the longer they will be able to "hang on to their man" (124) or get them back if they have lost them. Additionally, in numerous places in the book they note how girls in Asia all desire rich husbands so that they can buy luxury items. And, even within the very small space given to employed, professional women, the authors that these women are high maintenance, thus even working women aren't independent but are destined to be maintained. Finally, and even more shockingly, the authors imply that it is more worthwhile for unmarried women to spend money on luxury goods than having money be "sucked away into childcare and mortgages" (56).

Of course, they are classist as well. They note of rich Hong Kong wives, the better customers are those who "have had plenty of time to refine their senses on Daddy's money, and are well-traveled, overseas-educated, sophisticated women who set their own standards (122-23)." Further, they consistently label those that can afford luxury goods as educated consumers, savvy individuals, and significant people in the world. In one passage, they tacitly approve of a group of Hongkongese that were able to get drivers, maids and valets to line up to buy luxury goods. It seemed as if the authors applauded these wealthy consumers for educating their servers in the benefits of luxury shopping.

The writers are astoundingly irresponsible. In one paragraph they can talk about schoolgirls sleeping with older men to buy a purse, full-time prostitutes wanting the same, people going into so much debt they commit suicide and office ladies skimping on their food budgets to purchase these items. In the next paragraph they can fluidly continue to promote luxury sales, without a thought to the consequences they just outlined. Additionally, they note that it is very important in Asian cultures to own luxury items as they are the cornerstone of self-esteem. They shockingly suggest that it is a positive thing for individuals to base their sense of self on the goods they own, the only problem is that some individuals just don't have the means or education about luxury brands to do so currently. Thus, parents that protest when their teenagers want to buy $500 purses just don't understand. Rather than an argument for promoting more modest consumption they are essentially saying that despite the tragic consequences of desiring such expensive goods, it is just part of Asian culture, it is simply the means by which self-esteem is accrued and thus there is nothing that can be done to stop it.

They seem to see luxury goods as a human right, and any nation that doesn't foster this trend is depriving its citizens. In one quote: "as India's economy develops, the next stages are inevitable and the cult [of desire for luxury goods] is destined to spread. It would be worthwhile for India to get ready for this, by for example, building high-end retail infrastructure, which the country sorely lacks" (47). I can think of a few infrastructural projects that India sorely lacks, and I can assure you that a Gucci store is not on my list. Of Taiwan; "luxury goods have become the great social leveler, and observers talk about the democratization of the market as though a designer logo is every status-conscious citizen's right" (130). Further in this vein, they agree with a theorist that finds that luxury consumption promotes unity and peace, citing that in Hong Kong people all share "the obsession with money and materialism to the exclusion of all else (117)." This is possible because Hongkongese don't have a strong cultural background; "like a good Chinese mistress, Hong Kong has given her body to Britain and now China, but neither of them decisively owns her heart or soul (118)." Why fight if everyone can have nice things? Hongkongese, like a good prostitute, give their body away but save their real love for money, and thus, there is peace.

Though they recognize that some might see "luxe gluttony" as "one of the seven sins" you also might view it as "a twenty-first-century virtue essential for the health of the economy" (104). Hmm, I wonder where they fall. They never interrogate the inequalities that make such expensive purchases possible for the few. They never interrogate who makes these goods or how their conditions of employment might not appear so harmonious. They never even mention the fact that high end brands are at the forefront of presenting unrealistic body images for women and men, and that this in itself is a huge reason for pause. And, as noted above, they mention but do not interrogate the problems with the widespread use of luxury goods as a primary provider of self-esteem and identity. This book is a careless, thoughtless piece of work by individuals who shamelessly promote consumption for the wealthy regardless of the costs.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A five-star book, January 11, 2007

By 

Helena Hu (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cult of the Luxury Brand: Inside Asia's Love Affair With Luxury (Hardcover)

This book is one-of-a-kind in the industry, studying the luxury shopping habits of Asians by analyzing their past present and futures. It's chock full of well researched luxury facts and figures essential for people working in the luxury industry. For luxury enthusiasts, the book has a wonderfully witty and wicked sense of humour that keeps one's reading fast paced and lively.

Highly recommended.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading for anyone doing business in Asia, January 3, 2007

By 

The Grinch (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cult of the Luxury Brand: Inside Asia's Love Affair With Luxury (Hardcover)

Chadha and Husband get right under the skin of the phenomenon that has resulted in Asia accounting for over half of the world's US$80 billion annual spend on luxury brands.
It's a very accessible read and essential for anyone who wants to understand what drives Asian consumers.