The Beauty Ideal in Chinese Luxury Cosmetics: Adaptation Strategies of Western Companies

Tatjana Mihailovic (), Tiziano Vescovi () and Andrea Pontiggia
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Tatjana Mihailovic: Dept. of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venice
Tiziano Vescovi: Dept. of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venice

No 7, Working Papers from Venice School of Management - Department of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to determine if the standardization strategies, widely implemented by the luxury companies in international markets, can successuflly adopted in the Chinese Markets. In order to verify this statement, we analyse the luxury cosmetics industry in a market characterized by evident cultural differences. The cultural differences have been studied in term of beauty ideals and consumersÕ behavior and expectations. We study four western luxury cosmetics companies. Although the first moves were mainly shaped on replication and standardization, the cultural differences force the four western companies to transform their orientation towards adaptation. This finding was partially unexpected and suggests that for specific type of luxury products the adaptation and flexibility are required despite the drift to replicate the standardized marketing strategies. These results are consistent with those of other studies suggesting the need for a balanced approach of standardization and adaptation in managing the international strategies.

Keywords: Cross Cultural marketing; International management; Luxury marketing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 21 pages
Date: 2017-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mkt
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