From Chinese Brand Culture to Global Brands: Insights from aesthetics, fashion and history

233 Pages·2013·2.34 MB·English

by  Jonathan Schroeder

From Chinese Brand
Culture to Global Brands
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From Chinese
Brand Culture
to Global
Brands
Insights from aesthetics,
fashion, and history
Wu Zhiyan, Janet Borgerson,
Jonathan Schroeder
© Wu Zhiyan, Janet Borgerson & Jonathan Schroeder 2013
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The authors have asserted their rights to be identifi ed as the authors of this
work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978–1–137–27634–6
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managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
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This book is dedicated
to our parents.
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vii
Contents
List of Figures and Tables x
About the Authors xi
Acknowledgments xii
Introduction 1
Chinese branding in the global marketplace 1
From managerial insights to Chinese brand case studies 1
Getting started: The emergence of three case studies 5
Branding and fashion: Some initial insights 7
Emerging global brands 13
How this book is organized 15
1 Global Branding, Fashion Systems, and Historical
Culture 18
Exploring brands in their cultural context 18
Managerial perspectives on global branding 22
Global brand standardization/adaptation 24
The managerial perspective of global branding in the
Chinese context 25
Brand culture and the cultural approach to
global branding 26
The use of historical culture and mythmaking in
global brand development 28
The sacred space of brand myth 30
Myths in global brand development 31
Brand identity and consumer identity 35
Brand image and the imagined community 38
Brand culture in the Chinese context 39
Global vs. local 43
Fashion and fashion systems in the development of
global consumer culture 46
viii CONTENTS
Fashion discourse, symbolic production, and
consumption of fashion goods 48
Fashion and myth-making 49
Global consumer culture and fashion systems 52
Global consumer culture in the Chinese context 54
2 Jay Chou, Pop Star: Chinese Aesthetics and
Contemporary Trends 57
Branding and aesthetics 59
Jay Chou, Chinese music, and marketing 62
The Imagined China as modern-cultured Chinese
features 63
The Imagined China via the representation of
historical Chinese culture and sacred meaning 64
A hybrid image: The Imagined China via the
representation of historical Chinese culture and
fashion discourses 66
The sacred feature of Jay Chou’s hybrid image 67
The fashionable features of Jay Chou’s hybrid brand
image 69
The Imagined China and the representation of
historical Chinese culture 72
The Imagined China, brand actors, and Jay Chou’s
global hybrid image 75
Jay Chou: Strategic use of Chinese culture 76
3 The 2008 Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony:
Branding China for the World 78
Global brand mythologies: Developing a new identity 81
Authenticity, nostalgia, and hyperreality 83
A fashionable identity 87
Chinese identity anxiety 88
Identity anxiety and brand development 91
Imaging the new Apsaras of a modern China 94
Zhang Yimou: Extending the global Chinese myth
market 96
Public discourses of the Opening Ceremony 103
Fashion and the global myth 105
Global myths and Chinese culture 108
(cid:2) CONTENTS ix
4 Shanghai Tang: A Chinese Luxury Brand with
Global Ambitions 110
The significance of design 113
The myth of the modern Chinese lifestyle 117
Distinctive cosmopolitan identity projection through
Chinese cultural codes and global fashion resources 119
A ladder for success 125
Follow the monkey: Anti-fashion and anti-brand
attitudes 127
A reflective, authentic reservoir of historical Chinese
references 129
The dialectical ambivalence of the erotic and the
chaste 131
A lexicon of Chinese symbols 133
Strategically satisfying global consumers: Identity
and social dependency 137
Employees as consumers 139
Global store locations and environments 140
Expressing dynamic and stylish Chinese lifestyles 144
The co-creation and circulation of brands and
cultures 147
Brand culture at Shanghai Tang 150
5 From Chinese Brand Culture to Global Brands 151
A global ethnic diaspora market reach as a global
branding approach 151
The Chinese diaspora 155
Imagined China: Reconstructing the identity
of modern Chinese lifestyle 156
Fashion and irrelevance 158
The circulation and co-creation of brands and
cultures revisited 161
Aesthetics in Chinese-styled global brand culture 161
Implications of the brand culture approach to
Chinese-styled global branding 164
Appendix 167
References 182
Index 213