Wednesday, 2 December 2009

From "Made in China" to "Sold in China", and "The People(Party) Wear Prada"

Two years ago, I blogged about a special program by the CNN called "Made in China" in the wake of the tainted milk scandal. Recently, CNN started to air another "Made in China" program. No it is not that the last program was so popular that they want to bring it back. Instead the new one is a TV commercial rumored to have been financed by the MOFCOM (MOFCOM later denied this) in an effort to promote Chinese products.

The key message is the following:
"When it says made in China, it really means made in China, made with the world."

In my view, if China were really serious in taming the increasingly harsh wave of protectionism, it should make a different commercial on "Sold in China". After all, the best way to gain popularly is letting people know that they can make money from you, rather than the other way around. 

Fortunately, China has firmly established its reputation as one of the best (read as "most gullible") customers for foreign goods. According to the People's Daily, China has become the 2nd largest luxury market. Some interesting sound-bites from the People's Daily story:

"In 2008, China's super-rich bought a quarter of the world's luxury goods.

According to the World Luxury Association, affluent Chinese lavished 8.6 billion US dollars on shiny and pretty things last year.

It's estimated that if China continue to grow at a similar pace, the nation will surpass Japan as the world's largest luxury goods market within five years upping its spending to a staggering bill of 14 billion US dollars every year.

Actually I think China might have already become number one, as the data probably doesn't capture the spending made by Chinese citizens in the fashion capitals of the world. Flying to Paris and return overnight just to get the latest Gucci bag has become a popular sport among the Nouveau Riches in China due to the high tariff and tax in the Middle Kingdom. Moreover, I'm not sure if the data includes the sales in HK and Macau, which are also driven primarily by mainland Chinese consumers.

So here are some ideas for the sequel to the popular Hollywood movie: 
1. The People Wear Prada
2. The Party Wears Prada
3. The Panda Wears Prada
4. The Prada Republic of China
5. Guccina

Warning: please don't forget to pay me royalty (for Hollywood producers) or license fee (for fastfood joints selling toys inspired by the same ideas), or legal actions will be taken. 

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