SHANGHAI - THE PARIS OF THE EAST ONCE MORE?

My kids are attending an international school here in Shanghai, and I have been in numerous “heated discussions” with the school over why they have to study French. My logic is simple – I would prefer them to spend all their time studying only Mandarin, the language of the future, and not wasting time on French, a language that is slowly becoming provincial from an international perspective.

But whilst I feel justified from a rational standpoint, I hate the fact that globalization and borderless commerce are fast eroding and making extinct the beautiful traditions of national cultures - whether it be language or any other aspect of a country that cannot stand up to the onslaught of homogenization.

It’s already happening to packaging design in China. A simple commercial equation is ensuring that category after category of Chinese brands is beginning to bend to the standard “globalized template”. The equation goes something like this:

1. Developing-market consumers desire international brands;

2. International brands command premium and category leading positions;

3. Local brands copy international brands for a slice of the higher-margin pie;

4. Developing markets become Developed, and are left with fewer brands that all play by the same/international design rules.

Of course there are exceptions - brands that, for example in China, win by leveraging their local provenance and national resonance – but they are the exception not the rule.

Take the Beauty category for example.  A quick glance (which is all consumers give a brand as they shop) at the Chinese beauty brands below would suggest they are international. They play by the design rules popularised by Parisian beauty brands: monochromatic colour palettes,  centralised or right/left-hand justified typography, minimalism. They’re intended to “fool” the consumer, and they do it extremely well, at a masstige level.

 Image courtesy of www.meifubao.com

 Image courtesy of en.shxiafei.com/

 Image courtesy of www.longliqi.com

Image courtesy of brand.yoka.com/cosmetics/chando

So what happened to the Chinese aesthetic, the Chinese notion of beauty? Where is the grace, poise, elegance and intricacy that for 5000 years has been the hallmark of the Chinese beauty aesthetic? It is still here in a small pool of local Beauty brands - but a pool that still the same is reducing.

Images courtesy of www.herborist.com.cn

Isn’t it a sad horizon that in 5 years from now, in Tier 1 cities, Chinese consumers may be forced to choose from the same array of brands as their American/European/South American counterparts, with a only few niche brands able to occupy the narrowing shelf space left for a commercially viable Chinese “positioning”?

Hopefully the double whammy of a retro renaissance will come sooner rather than later…..before its too late, and globalization’s perverse Darwinism forces the survival of the conformist. 

Addison James, CEO Asia