The Bling Dynasty: Why the Reign of Chinese Luxury Shoppers Has Only Just Begun

Conclusion The Bling Supremacy

To get rich is glorious.

—Deng Xiaoping, inventor of the ‘socialist market economy'

The Bling Dynasty, a generation of first-time Chinese buyers of luxury products, should remain the main influence and a positive one for now on the destiny of luxury goods brands throughout the world. Of course, it is a more appealing story for journalists and a more reassuring one for investors to present the luxury goods industry as a global one. I think that story is factually wrong.

And while CEOs will want to say that the next Chinese for luxury items are the Indonesians, the Middle Eastern consumers, the Brazilians, the Russians, the Nigerians, and so on, I believe the next Chinese for the foreseeable future will be other . . . Chinese!

Thinking about incremental growth, those recent up-and-coming luxury consumers will still be dwarfed by the next Chinese accessing the space.

Moving from an influential dynasty to a dominating supremacy, this is what the brands will have to deal with. Is my brand Chinese enough? Is my brand too Chinese? How do I think about advertising and public relations, design teams and product development, capital allocation, human resource constraints, production, acquisitions, my headquarters' location . . .

The supremacy is forcing brands to become proactive and a good deal smarter.

With the Chinese consumer's dominance, hope—of growth—may be turning into fear—of overdependence.