Master thesis regarding the average Chinese consumer and luxury goods in China

[KrisGerdes]

Hello Chinese-Forum

 

We are two danish guys who are currently in the process of writing our master thesis at SDU in Denmark. We are studying a cand.merc in Global Marketing & Innovation Management. 

 

The focus of the thesis will take place around the average Chinese consumer and their willingness to buy luxury goods. This is a very interesting topic since the middle class in China have seen a significant rise in the last couple of years, meaning that more and more people in China have more money at their disposal. 

 

Luxury goods in China has throughout a long period of time been a very important factor when showing their social status, which is some of the assumptions that we though about when preparing our master thesis. 

 

So far we have has a hard time collecting reliable data we can use for our thesis. When we discovered this large forum we thought we might be able to conduct our survey here. To give you a better understanding of what it is we exactly are investigating, here is our research question:

 

How can materialism explain the increased demand for luxury clothing in China, and is there a correlation between materialism and the growing focus on online sales?

 

If you have about 2-3 minutes to fill out our survey, it would mean the world to us! The only requirement is that you are either a Chinese resident or family connections to China. 

 

Disclaimer: The survey is 100% anonymous and will only be used to conduct our master thesis. 

 

Survey: 

https://surveys.enalyzer.com?pid=f7k3m8ki

 

We really hope you have the time to take our survey, and therefore help us make the best master thesis. 

 

Best regards, 

Jacob Callesen & Kristoffer Gerdes

[Lu]

I'm afraid there are not that many actual Chinese people on these forums, we're mostly foreigners learning (or using) Chinese. But good luck with your research, must be quite useful to a lot of people!

[Wippen (inactive)]

3 hours ago, KrisGerdes said:

How can materialism explain the increased demand for luxury clothing in China, and is there a correlation between materialism and the growing focus on online sales?

I covered the topic of increase in purchase of luxury goods in China with a Chinese teacher over four lessons.

The teacher indicated that it was considered prestigious to buy foreign brands, moreover the quality was considered better. I remember one article mentioned that Chinese consumers tended to western brands rather than their own luxury brands which do exist. There was a mention that the Chinese lack selfconfidence (as a nation) which was one factor. I haven't got the articles to hand but could dig it out.

Do bags go under clothing? If so that was one of the larger segments. 

Seem to remember China had gone from a tiny slice of luxury goods in 2005 to now be over 25% of market in terms of value.

[Hofmann]

3 hours ago, KrisGerdes said:

average Chinese consumer

You say that this is the population you wish to sample, but your survey asks questions like "What is your purpose in Denmark?" I think you need to clarify something among yourselves.

[Wippen (inactive)]

Following Hofmann's comment I had a look at the survey design. If I were doing the Survey, I would probably not have used the word "materialism" and if it needs to be mentioned I may have provided a definition.

All the personal Information should go at the end of a questionnaire - not at the start. Also People have to choose three luxury brands, you don't allow for just two.

Have you done a Pilot study? Your research design will dictate the analysability and realibility of your data.

This question leaves room for interpretation

What is your typical budget when purchasing luxury goods in Danish Kroner

Is this a one off purchase, once a month?

Anyway, that is as far as I got. Spending time on the questionnaire design is important....

[irene001]

I can tell you the average salary in a big city like shenzhen, shanghai, beijing is above 8,000 CNY/per month. And it's even less for some small cities.  Maybe 3000-5000 CNY/per month. But there is a big difference between the rich and poor. There maybe  25% people belonging to middle class people at most.  If a product is higher than 2000CNY, it must be  luxury product. However, product price range from 500-1000 CNY is accepted by 35% people, product price less than 500 CNY is accept by 60% people. In my opinion, luxury product is only for those 25% people in China. Although, it's still a large number.