Luxury goods in China - Essay Example

Chapter Four: Findings & Analysis Introduction Findings are useful to test the feasibility and the desirability of the proposed study. They are documents that are used to describe, control and provide access to collection of related materials. Findings part of any dissertation is mainly concerned with the study of how the whole paper was carried out. They can serve as the basis of future referencing for a researcher who wants to conduct survey on related topic. Data collection becomes meaningless if they are not analysed properly. In this finding part the researcher tries to analyse the problem statement and seek answers to the questions as mentioned in the research. Research findings help to review the research goals. Research finding is basically concerned with the basics of quantitative as well as qualitative analysis. It has been noted that proper analysis of data is very important to businesses. No businesses can survive without analysing the available data. Analysis of data is the life line of any business. Data analysing is not a decision making system but it is a decision support system. It has been helpful in case of an organisation in the process of findings for the survey research. It provides a statistical treatment with the intention that human bias can be ruled out. It has also been helpful in supporting the critical decision from the findings (Market Intelligence Group, n.d.). Research problems need to be carefully identified and constructed as this will help the researcher to know the type of data that is needed and analysed in an attempt to help to understand the objectives in a precise manner (Tippett, n.d.). In order to conduct the analysis of the data, the demographic details of the respondents were presented in a tabular format and snowball method was applied. The research objective demanded more focus on the teenagers as well as the young girls and ladies who are between the age group 18-30 years. The other main focus of the research was to understand the preference of the domestic and western brands, thus for this reason it is important to change the focus from specific age group and search for those people who have an expertise over it. There were two main objectives for conducting the interview, the first one was related to understanding the preference and habit of Chinese ladies towards the consumption of luxury brands. The second one was with respect to preference of Eastern and Western brands. Thus, to serve the objectives the research questions have been analysed in detailed. A structured questionnaire was prepared and few more questions were added to it according to the requirement of the interviewers. Before going forward to a number of particular and technical questions related to the luxury brands, it is necessary to understand what the perceptions of the interviewees are regarding luxury brands. Therefore the interview session had been started with a basic question which tries to build up an understanding regarding what does the luxury products mean to the interviewees. Mix responses have been collected from the interviewees. The way, they have considered or taken the luxury products have differed from each other. Few among them have emphasised on the quality factor of those products, whereas others have considered it as the unique product that will make them different from others. But most of them are the devotee of the brand name. Brand name is such an attribute of luxury products that plays a significant role in Chinese consumer’s mind. Quite a few of these consumers have considered these as a product, which can satisfy all the demands and requirements of them. Once it has been conceptualised that how the Chinese consider the luxury products then it has to be found out whether the interviewees possess any luxury brands or not. This will specify the products of the luxury brands. Though it was not the objective to find out the most preferred luxury products but through this it can be determined whether the Chinese prefer luxury brands for the high value products or for the low value products or for both. The responses were quite expected. Mostly they use to buy cars, jewellery and fashionable cloths, perfume, watches. The choice of the items stated have been gathered from the reply which has been collected from the interviewees. Few of the responses are repetitive. Fashionable cloths and ornaments are the most recurring choice. The most interesting results from these findings are that all the interviewees not only know about luxury products but they have owned quite a few of them also. Another fact is that, their addictions towards luxury products make them travel in other foreign countries. They usually visit western countries for purchasing trendy dresses and accessories. It is very significant to judge the preference level of the interviewees for the luxury brand and their future planning to frame an idea regarding the potential demand of the luxury brands. It is evident that the responses will be varying from respondent to respondent. Therefore it has been intended to mention the feedback of majority of the respondents and also to list down the most preferable products or goods that the interviewees would like to buy for next time also. It has been already discussed that all the respondents possess luxury products. From the interviews, it is clear that most of them have a desire that they will or have owned the best luxury brand of a particular segment. For instance, the interviewee, who is the proprietor of a textile business, has owned an Omega watch and now she want to acquire a Rolex watch as soon as possible. Thus she wants to enhance her status symbol. The most important fact that has been notice is that none of the interviewee has said that they are not willing to buy luxury brands further in future. It means that there is strong fondness among the interviewees relating to the luxury brands. Nearly everyone wants to buy the best branded product of watches, accessories and beauty products, laptops and cameras. One of them has added that mainly people plan to have electronic products from the best brand in the market. One of the students has planed to acquire her individual luxury car in near future. On a whole it can be concluded that Chinese people wants to own the best luxury brands, if they do not posses that and then they try to acquire those products that they do not have or that they can not access presently but can in near future by using their own income. There are various luxury brands in Chinese market. Even for a similar category of products more than one luxury brands are available. That is why, it is essential to determine the most preferred brands among the interviewees. It will provide a basic idea regarding the most preferable brands and also the luxury products. The most favourite brands can be such that a person may not have possessed till now but planning to buy in near future. In terms of the second question, it is different from the earlier ones, as the question refers to the brands that the interviewee frequently buys. According to the view of the respondents, they like to have products of different brand and they possess different taste for different products. It indicates that they have more than one favourite luxury brands as it differs from product to product. Basically for watches three prominent names have appeared. Those are Omega, Vacheron Constantin and Cartier. Most of them do not possess a watch of Rolex and that is the most favourite brand and they like to have that very soon. Name of three most owned luxury brands have also been highlighted from this interview session. Those brands are Lacoste, Valentino and Channel / Bally. Regarding the most frequently purchased products, it has been proved that the Chinese girls and women mostly purchase beauty products and accessories and bags as they are beauty and figure conscious. In this instance also two names of luxury brands have become prominent. Those are Lois Vuition and Estee Lauder. Up to this all the discussion was related to the likings of the interviewees and their possession. It has been resolute from the literature review that Chinese are love to gift luxury items to their relatives and friends. Therefore discussion had been sifted towards the gifted items. In accordance to the review of the literature most of the interviewees should have received gifts. Now it has to be checked whether they get luxury products as gift or not. Thus buying behaviour of China can also be understood, whether to gift someone is another purpose of buying of luxury brands or not. Names of many of the brands and gift items have been revealed. The nature of the gifts uses to change with the changing age. The kind of gifts the teenagers use to get is somewhere different from the young ladies. The basic reason behind it is that, with changing age relationships also changes. According to an event manager, a new set of groups will be always associated with people at different period of entire life span. Most of the teenagers get cameras, watches and stylist dress materials from their parents, friends and relatives. Among three of the teenagers, all of them got laptop from their parents as a gift. Even one of them received electronic small car recently from her grandparents. The responses that have been received from the young ladies are slightly different. The SGM employee added that she is used to attending various official parties; likewise she also used to arranging parties for office colleagues and managers. On those parties she expects to receive gifts. Mostly the received presents are candles, perfumes and decorative items, such as the paintings and others. One of the married interviewee includes information that she got laptop from her husband. From another married interviewee’s response it has been known that, most of the married women usually receive gifts at the time of their marriage and recently luxury items have been added to this list. Diamond jewelleries are essential part of marriage gifts. Even now a days close relatives’ also present cars and branded watches to the married couples. Now the research process will try to recognise what are the products that Chinese usually present as a gift to others. Through this the researcher will get to know the preferred luxury items that Chinese girls usually gift to their dearer ones. Even how much of the Chinese spent for presenting goods and the trend of giving luxury products among the young ladies and girls can be recognised. A list of luxury products have been generated from the interview session. The gift that the interviewee presented to her family members is different from the kinds of gift she will present to her friends and relatives. Though it is a universal truth but it has a major impact on this particular study as it will enable to understand the consumer buying perception for luxury branded products. It has been found from their responses that they mostly gift beauty products to their female friends as Chinese girls are very much beauty conscious. Even they are also conscious about their skin and figure. Name of two brands have drawn attention, those are Estee Lauder and Guerlain. They prefer to present perfumes and watches to their male friends and colleagues. Cartier and Vacheron Constantin are watch brands which have become prominent while discussing this question. They usually spent more to gift their family members or spouse. Four of the interviewee presented car to their spouse and parents. Most of them are of GM (General Motors). Apart from that they use to gift jewellery and watches also. Even there is a trend to present branded cloths also to the dearer one and family members. It is obvious that luxury products are not similar to the ordinary products that can be bought or owned by any one and at any time. Acquiring luxury brands are subject to having special feelings. The responses can not be analysed in terms of numbers. It will be vary from person to person. Therefore it is preferable that the answers can be written down as a quoted remark. Only responses of ten respondents have been highlighted. From these their perception about possessing a luxury product can be discovered. Respondent One: “Feeling amazing when I bought the first branded watch.” Respondent Two: “I was very happy as I was the first who owned the omega branded watch among my friends.” Respondent Three: “Feeling proud of myself as I have owned that by my own income.” Respondent Four: “When I acquire any luxury products, I feel prestigious.” Respondent Five: “It provides me a sense of being a complete person and raises my expectations and self-esteem.” Respondents Six: “I believe that it is the best way of rewarding yourself for hard work.” Respondent Seven: “When I purchase any luxury product for myself it gives a feeling of self-sufficient woman and inspires me to work hard to achieve it again.” Respondent Eight: “Good, as it provides me more confidence to socialise with relatives and friends.” Respondent Nine: “Looks awesome with the branded cloths as it makes my appearance more stylish.” Respondent Ten: “It enhances my social status, so feel better when I have it or gift it to any of my family members.” From the above responses, it is clear that, having a luxury brands is a symbol of status in the society for the Chinese consumers. Even now ladies also feel proud of themselves as they can acquire any of their favourite branded products by their own income and they do not have to depend on others. It has been already mentioned and is a universal truth that luxury products are different from the ordinary products and it refers that there must be a number of exceptional characteristics in the luxury products which make it special than others. Outcome of these interview transcripts will inform us the characteristics of the luxury brands and what mainly attracts the interviewee more and for what they are ready to pay a comparatively larger amount. It will help to find out whether they look for the quality or only the brand name that plays in their mind. Definitely the responses will be differing from one to another interviewee as this question is completely based upon the perception regarding the luxury brands. Therefore, it is obvious that it will vary from person to person. Even there is a controversy among the researchers regarding this particular topic also. Various characteristics of luxury brands have been drawn by many scholars. Now it has to be determined that, what are the unique characteristic as per the view of the interviewee. According to the majority of the interviewees, the typical characteristic of the luxury goods is the brand name. Even for few of the respondents brand name is the only factor which matters to them. A respondent, who is professor by profession, said that uniqueness of the luxury brands is the main attributes to her. The event manger has added her view also. According to her, a luxury product can provide extra contentment through flattering all feelings and senses at once. Few more characteristics have also appeared from the responses collected from the interviewees. Those are the best quality product, advanced features and most importantly stylish appearance, which have better impact on the Chinese consumers. Teenagers consider the luxury brands and products of those brands as the status symbol. Therefore for them luxury brands are nothing but an aspect for showing-off their status. A human resource manager has highlighted other unique feature of luxury brands. That is the originality. According to her whatever may be the product irrespective of that, all the luxury products are designed originally. This is very much relevant and essential for this research paper to determine the differences between the western and eastern luxury brands, as it will gratify the problem statement. In literature review also it has been found that culture towards the consumption of the luxury products and perception regarding the luxury brands in western and eastern country is different. The meaning of this question is very clear but it indicates two meanings of a single question. It means that through this question related information have to be accumulated. Those are characterisation related differences of the luxury products of western and eastern countries and secondly the comparative analysis of the perception and preference towards these two categorised luxury products. Both the requirements from this question can be answered only by those interviewees who have possessed both western and eastern brands but all of them can provide their valuable reply regarding their preference. Among the 15 interviewees, only 6 have possessed both the western and eastern branded products. Most of them have western luxury products. One very interesting fact has revealed that many of the goods are from such a company which is merged with an eastern country. For example one of the interviewee has a GM (General Motors) car but that basically belongs to the SGM that is Shanghai General Motors. Likewise many of them possess similar kind of branded product. In this respect the car dealer’s view is that for automotive sector, Chinese government has implemented one regulation that is to enter into the Chinese market, foreign companies have to merge with a Chinese company and SGM is an instance of such scenario. Another aspect that needs to be highlighted in this regards is regarding the spending habits. Considering the overall responses it can be said that all the interviewee are ready to spend equal amount for both western and eastern brands, they do not have hardcore preference towards the western brands. But most of the time they found that western brands are comparatively better and can satisfy their taste and requirement. The basic difference between the western and the eastern products is that of style. According to the respondents style does matter for all youngsters and they get and usually acquire stylish stuff from western brands. As per their views, most of the affluent Chinese young girls and women follow the western trends and therefore somewhere a tendency towards western luxury products built up. Likewise it is also necessary to know the similarities between the western and eastern luxury brands. This is a very technical question as without possessing the products, it is difficult to provide answer for these questions. It depends upon the brand, not on the countries regarding the characteristics of the products and how that will be preferred by a particular community. Now because of the globalisation most of the multinational companies have branches all over the world and most of them have merged with domestic companies. Therefore it is difficult to analyse the brands and its products as those companies have somehow lost their origin. One of the interviewees who has own a camera from a Japanese brand, has shared her view and experience regarding the luxury brands. She visited Thailand, and from there she had bought a camera. She has opted for various other brands but after consulting with one of her friends she has decided to go for the Japanese brands. The primary reason behind it was the quality. Again as per the view of the jewellers, who are basically dealing with gold and diamond products, prefer to import from South Africa and other African countries. Therefore it is evident that quality is such an attribute that every luxury brands tries to maintain irrespective of the country from which it belongs. The professor has added her valuable inputs, though she does not possess both the western and eastern products but she has developed an idea from an experience of one of her colleague. She said that technology is the other attribute that has been taken care by all the luxury brands. It happens because of the globalisation and drastic changes in the technological fields. All those questions that have been set for the interview have been analysed in details. Now few questions those are not in the structured questionnaire has also been probed. This is possible because of the interview method. These additional questions will definitely add value to the research outcome. Now it can be analysed in detail. This question focuses on the Chinese market of luxury brands. Intentionally this question has not been asked to the students as they might be having less knowledge in this field. The question is “How do you define the luxury brand market in China?” Seven qualitative answers have been acquired from 15 respondents. Apart from the students few other respondents also doesn’t have much idea about the luxury brand markets of China. Most of the businessman and corporate bodies provide certain valuable inputs. Findings According to the event manager of Nanjing, most of the luxury brands are now trying to enter in China. Presently to survive on the market both the new entrants and the existing brands undertook various promotional activities. They even engage celebrities to promote their brands. As per the view of the marketing manager of the of Shanghai General Motors, Chinese market is now at the growth stage and is growing faster than other countries and it has become possible for the economic condition of the country. Information was gathered about China as they are the number one market for GM. Even it has surpassed the sales volume of their home country also. She has added that now the automobile industries are looking forward to this market and are trying to enter into this market. Referring to one of the surveys of his company regarding the buying behaviour of Chinese consumer, it was observed that Chinese people like the brand name and they like to show-off. From the other responses it has become clear that Chinese have low awareness regarding the brands and therefore they always shift from their choices. Conclusion Possession of the luxury brand has been a trend in market of China especially among the girls of various age groups between 18 years to 30 years old. Girls like to go for shopping and they prefer visiting malls where they get almost everything under one roof. The various characteristics of the luxury brands which have been observed are that it has aesthetic value; it is costly as compared to regular brands. It has also been found that the luxury brands are quite sophisticated to handle as compared to regular brands. They have a classic look which is the reason that people get attracted more towards the luxury brands. The Chinese economy is strengthening day by day as there is an increment in the demand of the luxury goods. Mostly teenagers and unmarried ladies prefer luxury brands. Most of the customers like to pay innumerable number of times for luxury products but there are few customers who pay lesser number of times for luxury products but prefers high value product. The most preferred products for the luxury brand have been perfumes, watches, fashionable clothes, ornaments and laptops and in order to attain these products they would even prefer to go to outside places. They even get these items as gifts from their friends, families and in the similar way they also provide gifts to their friends and families. Eastern brands have been preferred for camera, ornaments which are artificial products. The similarity between the Western and the Eastern brand is that both the brands have high degree of excellence and the technology that is used to manufacture both the product is highly upgraded. However it can be concluded that there is a strong preference for Western brands among the Chinese people. Although domestic brands are bought at times but then that doesn’t serve their purpose. The Chinese people like presenting luxury brands to their relatives or friends. In order to show-off a few of the girls in China prefer buying luxury products. In order to serve the local people of China as well as that of abroad, many luxury brands are entering China. Huge promotional activities are carried out in order to sustain for longer period of time and to make the people aware of the product. It is evident from the findings that if the product’s quality is good then the people of China are ready to pay any amount for that product. An in-depth interview was conducted which had individual intensive interview (Boyce & Neale, 2006). The interviewee must be very clear in the subject matter as well as knowledgeable (Valenzuela & Shrivastava, n.d.). According to the opinions provided by many interviewees, it was found that they want Western brands to enter Chinese market. It was also found that China has been the biggest market for counterfeit product and such transactions has been taking place with India. There is a need for providing strict regulations in order to stop such malpractices; otherwise the luxury brands will lose its identity. References Boyce, C. & Neale, P., 2006. What is the Process for Conducting In-Depth Interviews? Conducting In-Depth Interviews. [Online] Available at: http://www.pathfind.org/site/DocServer/m_e_tool_series_indepth_interviews.pdf [Accessed September 06, 2010]. Valenzuela, D. & Shrivastava, P., No Date. Aspect of Qualitative Research Interviews. Interview as a Method of Research Methodology. [Online] Available at: http://www.public.asu.edu/~kroel/www500/Interview%20Fri.pdf [Accessed September 09, 2010]. Bibliography Clarke, R. & Et. Al. 2003. Invitation to Research Non-Empirical Research Techniques. Home. [Online] Available at: www.rogerclarke.com/Res/51-NonEmp.ppt [Accessed August 29, 2010]. Cerdi, No Date. Brand culture and consumption: Chinese consumers and the foreign brands. Home. [Online] Available at: http://www.cerdi.org/uploads/sfCmsContent/html/253/LI_Chen.pdf [Accessed August 29, 2010]. Cornell University Library, 2009. The Seven Steps of Research Process. Home. [Online] Available at: http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill1.htm [Accessed August 29, 2010]. Teah, M & Phau, I., No Date. The Influence of Personality Factors on Attitudes towards Counterfeiting of Luxury Brands and Purchase Intention. Anzmac. [Online] Available at: http://www.anzmac2008.org/_Proceedings/PDF/S02//Teah%20&%20Phau%20S4%20JM%20P3%20.pdf [Accessed August 29, 2010]. Goddard, W. & Melville, S. Research Methodology: An Introduction. Juta and Company Ltd, 2004. Hoyer, W. & Macinnis, D., Consumer Behavior, types of reference groups. Cengage Learning, 2008. Huang, C. & Lin, T., No Date. The Processess of Building Brand Equity. Introduction. [Online] Available at: www.ntpu.edu.tw/ads/doc/95/paper%20huang.doc [Accessed August 29, 2010]. ICFAI. Marketing Research. ICMR, 2007. Read More