Chinese jewelry lacks the nationalization of products with national characteristics

While many international jewelry brands have entered the Chinese market one after another, some domestic brands have gone their own way and have gone out of the country to dig in gold. Lao Fengxiang is one of them. Its first franchised store opened overseas this month officially opened, marking the beginning of overseas expansion of this national brand with more than 160 years of history. This has caused widespread concern.

In fact, Lao Fengxiang is not the first brand to “eat crabs.” A few years ago, Luk Fook Jewellery and Chao Hongji Jewelry had opened branches overseas. The Diamond Family also stated that it is expected to deploy in Thailand, Singapore and other countries in the future. Some industry insiders pointed out that Chinese jewellery lacks products with ethnic characteristics and the road to internationalization is a bit difficult to follow.

Many brands embarked on the overseas development road In May of this year, Lao Fengxiang and Tailai Jewelry Australia Co., Ltd. formally signed the “Lao Feng Xiang Silver House Australia Sydney Franchise Store”. This is the first franchise store established overseas by Lao Fengxiang and officially opened in August. Opened. As an old Chinese brand with a history of 160 years, Lao Fengxiang has a strong brand appeal among overseas Chinese and a large commercial customer base. The choice of Sydney reflects the company’s strategy of attempting to set up locations in Hong Kong, Macau and overseas Chinese inhabited areas, aiming to break the “short board” of Lao Fengxiang’s strong domestic sales and weak exports.

Lao Fengxiang is not the first Chinese jewelry brand to go abroad, and the internationalization strategy seems to have never stopped in the jewelry industry. In November 2002, Acer Chaochao cooperated with SUNIDA, an internationally renowned jewelry brand, and opened its first overseas flagship store in Singapore. Chao Hongji officially entered the internationalization road. In recent years, Luk Fook Jewellery has opened retail stores in countries such as Canada, the United States and Singapore. The company stated that it will accelerate the pace of jewellery retailing in the Mainland and overseas and continue to identify suitable locations to expand its overseas retail network.

Ning Zhenguo, director of the Diamond Jewelry brand, also revealed that the Macau branch will open within the year and is expected to be deployed in places such as Thailand and Singapore in the future, while at the same time strengthening cooperation with relevant overseas institutions on the midstream and downstream.

Mr. Zhou, a senior industry insider who most stores opened in the Chinese area, pointed out that as a listed company, Lao Fengxiang will inevitably need new positive information to maintain the stock price. The propaganda significance of the overseas opening of this shop is far greater than the actual significance. Ning Zhenguo, Diamond Brand's Brand Director, also believes that many local jewelry brands do not have the ability to expand overseas. The true connotation of international operation lies not only in the transition of products from the domestic to the international market, but also in the management perspective, business scope, and even management of the company. Being in line with international standards is a “cross border” of strategy, vision, and management quality.

It is understood that at present, many brands only open stores in overseas Chinese in the Chinese agglomerations. The target group is mainly local Chinese and overseas Chinese. Both the product design style and the management style are the same as in China. This practice is not really out of the country, and it is difficult to compete with international brands in the local mainstream market. Gu Jiaming, deputy general manager of Zhou Shengsheng’s business in South China, agrees with this. He pointed out that repackaging and marketing himself from the perspective of internationalization will help establish a good reputation in the domestic market, but the image significance is greater than the sales significance.

According to industry insiders, for most local brands, in the dual context of the rapid expansion of the domestic market and the cold weather in the international market, it is better to concentrate on the domestic market than to rush to meet international standards. The relevant person in charge of Chow Tai Fook China clearly stated that the Chinese market is so big that the Mainland is the most central place for development. "We will not blindly pursue internationalization. In the future, we will focus our energy on the Chinese market for a long time."

According to relevant statistics, the total sales of the jewelry industry in China last year reached 250 billion yuan, and jewelry consumption has entered a period of rapid growth. With the rapid increase in the number of affluent groups, it is expected that the total jewellery consumption in the Chinese and Indian markets will be equal to the US market by 2015, and China will become the largest and most promising market in the world.

Ning Zhenguo, Director of Diamond Family Brand: “Two major injuries” in the internationalization of jewelry brands

First of all, compared with the world famous brand jewelry, most jewelry brands in our country lack jewelry products with national characteristics. They have not cultivated a unique national cultural connotation. They mainly use diamonds, platinum, etc., relying solely on advertising bombings and celebrity image endorsements. Being very small, there can be no international momentum and international market appeal. It will only be a flash in the pan or become a follower of the international jewelry market.

Furthermore, the lack of professionalism and quick success of the jewellery companies directly led to the difficulty of making domestic jewellery brands. The formation of a good brand not only requires time accumulation, but also requires optimal allocation of various resources, including positioning, personality, culture, etc., and brand personality is manifested by brand name, product design, product packaging, product promotion, product sales, etc. .

Mr. Chen, a veteran in the industry: The internationalization strategy should not be just overseas. Many Chinese jewellery companies have a superficial understanding of the internationalization strategy. They think that in countries such as France, Italy, and the United States, there are products selling international brands. In fact, the way of internationalization strategy should not be limited to opening overseas stores, there are more ways to try. For example: Integrate international jewelry resources to allow most Chinese consumers to understand overseas jewellery popular information, pass the latest information to domestic consumers, and cooperate with upstream suppliers to ensure the basic advantages of product prices and processes; Cooperation alliances and other methods to introduce international famous brands, use their own brands in the domestic resources, brand reputation, network, word of mouth and other conditions with foreign brands to jointly develop the domestic jewelry market.