IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v69y2016i1p357-364.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The standardization-localization dilemma of brand communications for luxury fashion retailers' internationalization into China

Author

Listed:
  • Liu, Sindy
  • Perry, Patsy
  • Moore, Christopher
  • Warnaby, Gary

Abstract

This paper considers the standardization–localization debate within the context of foreign luxury fashion retailers' internationalization into the emerging Chinese marketplace. Luxury retailers must balance a global–local dilemma, given the challenging trading conditions of a complex marketplace with low brand awareness and loyalty, alongside the need to maintain exclusivity and standardization of brand image across all markets. Qualitative data from 22 luxury fashion retailers currently active in the Chinese market provide rich insights that reveal the decision-making process for marketing strategies that support entry into China. Foreign luxury retailers balance the ‘global–local dilemma’ in China firstly by locating operational management control within the strategic hub of Hong Kong, and secondly by implementing far more adaptive and enterprising marketing communications than seen in other mature markets. At the same time, foreign luxury retailers retain tight strategic control of key branding dimensions at head offices in their home markets, as part of a successful long-term luxury brand management strategy. As Chinese luxury consumers increasingly feel part of a global elite, over-localization may cause confusion over brand identity and country of origin (COO). The insights may be strategically useful for luxury retailers entering or expanding in China and also provide indications of future trends of luxury retailing in China and other emerging markets.

Suggested Citation

  • Liu, Sindy & Perry, Patsy & Moore, Christopher & Warnaby, Gary, 2016. "The standardization-localization dilemma of brand communications for luxury fashion retailers' internationalization into China," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 357-364.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:69:y:2016:i:1:p:357-364
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.08.008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296315003458
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.08.008?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:dau:papers:123456789/11766 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Zhan, Lingjing & He, Yanqun, 2012. "Understanding luxury consumption in China: Consumer perceptions of best-known brands," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(10), pages 1452-1460.
    3. Zhang, Bopeng & Kim, Jung-Hwan, 2013. "Luxury fashion consumption in China: Factors affecting attitude and purchase intent," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 20(1), pages 68-79.
    4. Nadine Hennigs & Klaus-Peter Wiedmann & Christiane Klarmann & Suzane Strehlau & Bruno Godey & Daniele Pederzoli & Agnes Neulinger & Kartik Dave & Gaetano Aiello & Raffaele Donvito & Koyama Taro & Jank, 2012. "What is the value of luxury? A cross-cultural consumer perspective," Post-Print hal-00779336, HAL.
    5. Yinlong Zhang & Adwait Khare, 2009. "The Impact of Accessible Identities on the Evaluation of Global versus Local Products," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 36(3), pages 524-537.
    6. Jean-Noël Kapferer & Vincent Bastien, 2009. "The specificity of luxury management: Turning marketing upside down," Post-Print hal-00493180, HAL.
    7. Shawna O'Grady & Henry W Lane, 1996. "The Psychic Distance Paradox," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 27(2), pages 309-333, June.
    8. Lily Dong & Kelly Tian, 2009. "The Use of Western Brands in Asserting Chinese National Identity," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 36(3), pages 504-523.
    9. Joy, Annamma & Wang, Jeff Jianfeng & Chan, Tsang-Sing & Sherry, John F. & Cui, Geng, 2014. "M(Art)Worlds: Consumer Perceptions of How Luxury Brand Stores Become Art Institutions," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 90(3), pages 347-364.
    10. Kineta H Hung & Stella Yiyan Li & Russell W Belk, 2007. "Glocal understandings: female readers’ perceptions of the new woman in Chinese advertising," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 38(6), pages 1034-1051, November.
    11. Li, Guoxin & Li, Guofeng & Kambele, Zephaniah, 2012. "Luxury fashion brand consumers in China: Perceived value, fashion lifestyle, and willingness to pay," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(10), pages 1516-1522.
    12. Jean-Noël Kapferer, 1992. "Strategic Brand Management: New Approaches to Creating and Evaluating Brand Equity," Post-Print hal-00788649, HAL.
    13. Tynan, Caroline & McKechnie, Sally & Chhuon, Celine, 2010. "Co-creating value for luxury brands," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(11), pages 1156-1163, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sharma, Amalesh & Soni, Mauli & Borah, Sourav Bikash & Saboo, Alok R., 2020. "Identifying the drivers of luxury brand sales in emerging markets: An exploratory study," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 25-40.
    2. Adriana Grigorescu & Amalia-Elena Ion, 2022. "Qualitative Analysis of Sustainability and Innovation Within the Luxury Business Sector," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 13(4), pages 3150-3171, December.
    3. Kauppinen-Räisänen, Hannele & Björk, Peter & Lönnström, Alexandra & Jauffret, Marie-Nathalie, 2018. "How consumers' need for uniqueness, self-monitoring, and social identity affect their choices when luxury brands visually shout versus whisper," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 72-81.
    4. Bilby, Julie & Reid, Mike & Brennan, Linda & Chen, Jiemiao, 2020. "Tiers and fears: An investigation of the impact of city tiers and uncertainty avoidance on Chinese consumer response to creative advertising," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 332-348.
    5. Sindy Liu & Patsy Perry & Gregory Gadzinski, 2019. "The implications of digital marketing on WeChat for luxury fashion brands in China," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(4), pages 395-409, July.
    6. Insik Jeong & Jong-Ho Lee & Eunmi Kim, 2019. "Determinants of brand localization in international markets," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 13(1), pages 75-100, March.
    7. Martin Heinberg & Constantine S. Katsikeas & H. Erkan Ozkaya & Markus Taube, 2020. "How nostalgic brand positioning shapes brand equity: differences between emerging and developed markets," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 48(5), pages 869-890, September.
    8. Gurzki, Hannes & Woisetschläger, David M., 2017. "Mapping the luxury research landscape: A bibliometric citation analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 147-166.
    9. Rohit, Kumar & Shankar, Amit & Katiyar, Gagan & Mehrotra, Ankit & Alzeiby, Ebtesam Abdullah, 2024. "Consumer engagement in chatbots and voicebots. A multiple-experiment approach in online retailing context," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    10. Bai, Huifeng & McColl, Julie & Moore, Christopher, 2021. "Motives behind retailers’ post-entry expansion - Evidence from the Chinese luxury fashion market," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    11. Daniele Scarpi & Gabriele Pizzi & Stefano Prestini, 2020. "Dub or sub: effects of dubbing versus subtitling on TV advertising efficacy," Italian Journal of Marketing, Springer, vol. 2020(2), pages 189-206, September.
    12. Jiayu Qian & Jee-Sun Park, 2021. "Influencer-brand fit and brand dilution in China’s luxury market: the moderating role of self-concept clarity," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 28(2), pages 199-220, March.
    13. Banik, Shanta & Gao, Yongqiang, 2023. "Exploring the hedonic factors affecting customer experiences in phygital retailing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    14. Farhad Aliyev & Taylan Urkmez & Ralf Wagner, 2019. "A comprehensive look at luxury brand marketing research from 2000 to 2016: a bibliometric study and content analysis," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 69(3), pages 233-264, September.
    15. Zhou, Shuang & Blazquez, Marta & McCormick, Helen & Barnes, Liz, 2021. "How social media influencers’ narrative strategies benefit cultivating influencer marketing: Tackling issues of cultural barriers, commercialised content, and sponsorship disclosure," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 122-142.
    16. Cristini, Hélène & Kauppinen-Räisänen, Hannele & Barthod-Prothade, Mireille & Woodside, Arch, 2017. "Toward a general theory of luxury: Advancing from workbench definitions and theoretical transformations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 101-107.
    17. Grigorescu Adriana & Ion Amalia Elena, 2020. "Innovation and product management – The direction of the 21st century luxury market," Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, Sciendo, vol. 14(1), pages 1035-1045, July.
    18. Li, Rong & Laroche, Michel & Richard, Marie-Odile & Cui, Xinyu, 2022. "More than a mere cup of coffee: When perceived luxuriousness triggers Chinese customers’ perceptions of quality and self-congruity," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    19. Ye, Yuchen & Yang, Yikai & Huang, Qi, 2023. "Identifying and examining the role of pop-up store design: A mixed-methods study," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    20. Yanhui Mao & Yao Lai & Yuwei Luo & Shan Liu & Yixin Du & Jing Zhou & Jianhong Ma & Flavia Bonaiuto & Marino Bonaiuto, 2020. "Apple or Huawei: Understanding Flow, Brand Image, Brand Identity, Brand Personality and Purchase Intention of Smartphone," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-22, April.
    21. Rubal Rathi & Ruchi Garg & Aakanksha Kataria & Ritu Chhikara, 2022. "Evolution of luxury marketing landscape: a bibliometric analysis and future directions," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 29(3), pages 241-257, May.
    22. Boojihawon, Dev Kumar & Richeri, Augusto & Liu, Yipeng & Chicksand, Daniel, 2021. "Agile route-to-market distribution strategies in emerging markets: The case of Paraguay," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(1).
    23. Ko, Eunju & Costello, John P. & Taylor, Charles R., 2019. "What is a luxury brand? A new definition and review of the literature," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 405-413.
    24. Rajesh Sharma, 2020. "Building Consumer-based Brand Equity for Fast Fashion Apparel Brands in the Indian Consumer Market," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 45(3), pages 337-365, August.
    25. Yu, Shubin & Hu, Yangjuan, 2020. "When luxury brands meet China: The effect of localized celebrity endorsements in social media marketing," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sindy Liu & Patsy Perry & Gregory Gadzinski, 2019. "The implications of digital marketing on WeChat for luxury fashion brands in China," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(4), pages 395-409, July.
    2. Sharma, Amalesh & Soni, Mauli & Borah, Sourav Bikash & Haque, Tanjum, 2022. "From silos to synergies: A systematic review of luxury in marketing research," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 893-907.
    3. Gurzki, Hannes & Woisetschläger, David M., 2017. "Mapping the luxury research landscape: A bibliometric citation analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 147-166.
    4. Zhang, Lini & Zhao, Haidong, 2019. "Personal value vs. luxury value: What are Chinese luxury consumers shopping for when buying luxury fashion goods?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 62-71.
    5. Ma, Jieqiong & Hong, JungHwa & Yoo, Boonghee & Yang, Jie, 2021. "The effect of religious commitment and global identity on purchase intention of luxury fashion products: A cross-cultural study," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 244-254.
    6. Chan, Wing Yin & To, Chester K.M. & Chu, Wai Ching, 2015. "Materialistic consumers who seek unique products: How does their need for status and their affective response facilitate the repurchase intention of luxury goods?," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 1-10.
    7. Pillai, Kishore Gopalakrishna & Nair, Smitha R., 2021. "The effect of social comparison orientation on luxury purchase intentions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 89-100.
    8. Pengji Wang & Adrian T. H. Kuah & Qinye Lu & Caroline Wong & K. Thirumaran & Emmanuel Adegbite & Wesley Kendall, 2021. "The impact of value perceptions on purchase intention of sustainable luxury brands in China and the UK," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 28(3), pages 325-346, May.
    9. Rosenbaum, Mark S. & Ramirez, Germán Contreras & Campbell, Jeffrey & Klaus, Philipp, 2021. "The product is me: Hyper-personalized consumer goods as unconventional luxury," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 446-454.
    10. Stathopoulou, Anastasia & Balabanis, George, 2019. "The effect of cultural value orientation on consumers' perceptions of luxury value and proclivity for luxury consumption," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 298-312.
    11. Alev Kocak Alan & Inci Dursun & Ebru Tumer Kabadayi & Kenan Aydin & Fikret Anlagan, 2016. "What Influences the Repurchase Intention for Luxury Brands?-The Relative Impacts of Luxury Value Dimensions," International Business Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(5), pages 11-24, May.
    12. Kauppinen-Räisänen, Hannele & Björk, Peter & Lönnström, Alexandra & Jauffret, Marie-Nathalie, 2018. "How consumers' need for uniqueness, self-monitoring, and social identity affect their choices when luxury brands visually shout versus whisper," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 72-81.
    13. Chailan, Claude, 2018. "Art as a means to recreate luxury brands' rarity and value," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 414-423.
    14. Sangeeta Devanathan, 2020. "Indian Consumers’ Assessment of ‘Luxuriousness’: A Comparison of Indian and Western Luxury Brands," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 9(1), pages 84-95, January.
    15. Zhou, Shuang & Blazquez, Marta & McCormick, Helen & Barnes, Liz, 2021. "How social media influencers’ narrative strategies benefit cultivating influencer marketing: Tackling issues of cultural barriers, commercialised content, and sponsorship disclosure," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 122-142.
    16. Lama Halwani, 2021. "The Online Experience of Luxury Consumers: Insight into Motives and Reservations," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 15(11), pages 157-157, July.
    17. Cheah, Jun-Hwa & Waller, David & Thaichon, Park & Ting, Hiram & Lim, Xin-Jean, 2020. "Price image and the sugrophobia effect on luxury retail purchase intention," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    18. Shao, Wei & Grace, Debra & Ross, Mitchell, 2019. "Consumer motivation and luxury consumption: Testing moderating effects," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 33-44.
    19. Ko, Eunju & Costello, John P. & Taylor, Charles R., 2019. "What is a luxury brand? A new definition and review of the literature," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 405-413.
    20. Huan Chen & Ye Wang, 2017. "Connecting or disconnecting: luxury branding on social media and affluent Chinese female consumers’ interpretations," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 24(6), pages 562-574, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:69:y:2016:i:1:p:357-364. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.