Why are there no luxury Asian brands?

Post by **nakatago** » Sat, 16 Jun 2012 12:35 am

JR8 wrote:
ecureilx wrote: I was talking about the Asian Luxury thing, to a former boss of mine ... He said that there aren't many Asian Luxury brands in Asia, because, in his eyes, for a lot of Luxury Brands, you pay for the Heritage of the brand, apart from the Quality .. unlike new brands.

Afterthought: so why is my sister in law currently on Facebook gagging to buy a pair of Kate Spade (estbd 1993) rubber sandals (aka flip-flops) for c$120?

Some designers are just that good in gaining perceived prestige.

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Sat, 16 Jun 2012 12:38 am

nakatago wrote:
JR8 wrote:
ecureilx wrote: I was talking about the Asian Luxury thing, to a former boss of mine ... He said that there aren't many Asian Luxury brands in Asia, because, in his eyes, for a lot of Luxury Brands, you pay for the Heritage of the brand, apart from the Quality .. unlike new brands.

Afterthought: so why is my sister in law currently on Facebook gagging to buy a pair of Kate Spade (estbd 1993) rubber sandals (aka flip-flops) for c$120?
Some designers are just that good in gaining perceived prestige.

And why are none of them Asian? Rather blows the otherwise plausible 'heritage' line out of the water...

Post by **nakatago** » Sat, 16 Jun 2012 12:49 am

JR8 wrote: And why are none of them Asian? Rather blows the otherwise plausible 'heritage' line out of the water...

My guess is Asians are just too geared for communal living. Everything anyone does is for the the group and an individual who is not the leader taking credit would be shunned. It's only recently that Asians has become more comfortable with individual who are the leaders/kings/general/president/prime minister being recognized. Note that famous Asians in history are usually leaders of some sort.

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Sat, 16 Jun 2012 1:10 am

An alternate view would be that as an average citizen you can only make a name and get remembered in a democracy.

ecureilx · Post by **ecureilx** » Sun, 17 Jun 2012 12:23 pm

JR8 wrote: Afterthought: so why is my sister in law currently on Facebook gagging to buy a pair of Kate Spade (estbd 1993) rubber sandals (aka flip-flops) for c$120?

Ah, that is Marketing, according to Philip Kotler, at work

Kate Spade's CEO, Craig Leavitt's success is a major case study on leveraging on Social Media, to fuel it's demand.

For the rubber sandles, nope .. no comments ..

Post by **nakatago** » Sun, 17 Jun 2012 1:43 pm

Rubber sandals....

Before all this flip-flop, havianas nonsense people back home thought of them as provincial, unrefined, a symbol of the unwashed masses.

Now, everyone raves about how practical and comfortable they are just because someone slapped on a Brazilian flag on the thong and printed flowers on the rubber pad.

poodlek · Post by **poodlek** » Sun, 17 Jun 2012 2:00 pm

nakatago wrote:Rubber sandals....

Before all this flip-flop, havianas nonsense people back home thought of them as provincial, unrefined, a symbol of the unwashed masses.

Now, everything raves about how practical and comfortable they are just because someone slapped on a Brazilian flag on the thong and printed flowers on the rubber pad.

I still quite literally don't get what the difference is. While I do wear flip flops most of the time (nice molded ones made by hush puppies...they truly are comfortable!) I in no way would ever consider them to be a status symbol. Quite the opposite, actually.

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Sun, 17 Jun 2012 4:51 pm

nakatago wrote:Rubber sandals....
Before all this flip-flop, havianas nonsense people back home thought of them as provincial, unrefined, a symbol of the unwashed masses.

Flip-flops is what the Brits have always called basic rubber sandals for as long as I can remember. Branding them is what seems to be new.

poodlek wrote: I still quite literally don't get what the difference is. While I do wear flip flops most of the time (nice molded ones made by hush puppies...they truly are comfortable!) I in no way would ever consider them to be a status symbol. Quite the opposite, actually.

There is none, apart from the name badge. That is why the logo is so large and prominent. Sometimes it has the inadvertent side-effect of suggesting a lack of wisdom, 'You paid HOW much for a pair of rubber sandals!!!?'

the lynx · Post by **the lynx** » Sun, 17 Jun 2012 10:24 pm

Well the ones from Hush Puppies, Camel and Birkenstock are really made with real good stuff (and not just regular rubber ones you see in Ipanema and Havianass), so I think those are really worth the buck...

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Sun, 17 Jun 2012 10:29 pm

the lynx wrote:Well the ones from Hush Puppies, Camel and Birkenstock are really made with real good stuff (and not just regular rubber ones you see in Ipanema and Havianass), so I think those are really worth the buck...

My missus dragged me into Birkenstock @ City Hall to show me how they cost about three times as much in SG as in Germany (i.e. what an efficient shopper she is

). Frankly I think they're quite ugly. Haven't tried Camel or HPs.

zzm9980 · Post by **zzm9980** » Mon, 18 Jun 2012 4:32 pm

JR8 wrote:
the lynx wrote:Well the ones from Hush Puppies, Camel and Birkenstock are really made with real good stuff (and not just regular rubber ones you see in Ipanema and Havianass), so I think those are really worth the buck...
My missus dragged me into Birkenstock @ City Hall to show me how they cost about three times as much in SG as in Germany (i.e. what an efficient shopper she is ). Frankly I think they're quite ugly. Haven't tried Camel or HPs.

Besides everything costing 3x as much here, I've also noticed that brands that were hot in the 80s and 90s in the States are expensive here. Ocean Pacific? Converse? Those brands are sold at Target (think Giant for those of you who don't know what Target is) in the US for 1/5th to 1/10th the price they are here. Sketchers and Fossil (from the other thread) are like that too. They're budget/cheap in the US, but are marketed as upscale here.

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Mon, 18 Jun 2012 4:53 pm

zzm9980 wrote:They're budget/cheap in the US, but are marketed as upscale here.

Funny how that works isn't it. Like Replay in Italy. Talking about old US lables how about Guess lol...

Post by **nakatago** » Mon, 18 Jun 2012 4:56 pm

zzm9980 wrote:
JR8 wrote:
the lynx wrote:Well the ones from Hush Puppies, Camel and Birkenstock are really made with real good stuff (and not just regular rubber ones you see in Ipanema and Havianass), so I think those are really worth the buck...
My missus dragged me into Birkenstock @ City Hall to show me how they cost about three times as much in SG as in Germany (i.e. what an efficient shopper she is ). Frankly I think they're quite ugly. Haven't tried Camel or HPs.
Besides everything costing 3x as much here, I've also noticed that brands that were hot in the 80s and 90s in the States are expensive here. Ocean Pacific? Converse? Those brands are sold at Target (think Giant for those of you who don't know what Target is) in the US for 1/5th to 1/10th the price they are here. Sketchers and Fossil (from the other thread) are like that too. They're budget/cheap in the US, but are marketed as upscale here.

I have the same impression with Cotton On and Uniqlo except that instead of being budget, they're mid-scale in their countries of origin and not 'upscale' like they are here.

JR8 · Post by **JR8** » Mon, 18 Jun 2012 5:04 pm

nakatago wrote: I have the same impression with Cotton On and Uniqlo except that instead of being budget, they're mid-scale in their countries of origin and not 'upscale' like they are here.

Uniqlo... when they launched in London the whole sizzle was how cheap they are.

Talking about Japanese how about Muji? (Maybe not in SG, but many Brits will have heard of them). That started as the in-house 'no name' brand in the Japanese supermarket equivalent of Asda (for Yanks read Wallmart), suddenly it goes abroad and becomes a brand.

morenangpinay · Post by **morenangpinay** » Thu, 05 Jul 2012 5:47 pm

how bout kenneth cobonpue furniture?
upscale in philippines...upscale in europe and america and featured in some hollywood productions

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