Standing Tall: Japan’s Resilient Luxury Market

“Outlet shopping is perhaps luxury’s greatest ploy to get its goods into the hands of anyone and everyone,” (Thomas, Pg. 246). “But outlet shopping is the antithesis of the flagship, the antithesis in fact, of luxury itself.” (Thomas, 2007. Pg. 247) Columnist Karen Heller explained to Thomas after visiting Woodbury Common Premium Outlets in New York, “The clothes were marked down, picked over and repeatedly pawed, the opposite of how they were originally displayed. Their power to enchant seemed minimized, even at a third the price, smashed together like produce in a storage hold.” Thomas explains how luxury merchandise is purely just that, leftover “luxury” products: overproduction. No longer does luxury embody the experience of pampering nor does it signify class and wealth. Some

For years, Louis Vuitton enjoyed high profit margins from the luxury market in Japan until other competitors such as Prada and Gucci entered the market. Counterfeiting also became a threat to the firm’s brand by satisfying consumer demand at lower prices. Other external global environmental problems included highly priced products, limited availability in stores only, and a heavy dependency on the Japanese market (Pearce & Robinson, 2013, p. 14-18). Moreover, “the after-shocks of the global recession were a threat to Louis Vuitton’s luxury business in Japan”, and Japanese women became less interested in the brand’s products (Pearce & Robinson, 2013, p. 14-18). Alternatively, Louis Vuitton could “reinvent itself and regain what used to be its well-attested

The rapper Kanye West stated “She don`t believe in shooting stars but she believes in shoes and cars.” Malls, Outlets and online resources are the most common sources for shopping experiences for many people today. There are also the many food outlets and sales that encourage people to purchase items that may or may not be necessary. In her essay, “American Consumerism,” Jamie Bentley reflecting on Simon Benlow’s essay “An Apology to Future Generations” that expresses concern about consumers’ negative impact on the environment reveals this generation’s obsession with materialism, with the hope that people will learn to do more with less. The many options available to purchase items create a problem for individuals who desire to have what they

The consumption of luxury goods in China is mounting sharply. Not only those born to elite families, but also many common people are greedy for luxury brands (China, a Booming

Sociocultural: In the recent years, the desire to appear wealthy has attributed to the increased popularity in luxury products. Also, the desire for luxury goods was promoted by effective advertising and TV programming that promoted conspicuous consumption to middle-income consumers. Middle-income consumers also tend to “reward” themselves with luxury items.

For generations, Americans has been brainwashed by the media to believe that what is displayed on television is the ideal perception of what real beauty have manipulated American citizens of what style looks like. Furthermore, with their many brainwashing strategies, that means more and more consumers spending beyond their budget. Our perspectives have been heavily influenced by what they believe is nice, but can we afford it all? With unrealistic combination of goods in store, plazas, and mall, consuming has become a bad behavior of some. In support of my argument of the “Overspending”, author Gladwell’s article “The Science of Shopping” also argues that stores adjust to fit the needs and wants of the shopper are evidently presented. With that being said, we have no idea when we are being manipulated into unrealistic shopping behavior that is influenced by the way the advertisement is presented in visual sight. Author Gladwell gets a “retail anthropologist” and “urban geographer” named Paco Underhill to give breakdown points of how he helps brand name stores influence consumers into persuasion of buying more. However, most of us fall short of that discipline, while being persuaded to overspend during our store visits.

In the United States of America, the top 1% of the population controlled 37% of the wealth in 1922, during Weber’s time. By Bourdieu’s time, in 1976, the wealth controlled by the richest 1% of the American population had shrunk by almost half, down to 20% (Dornhoff, 2012). This means that the middle class had gained more buying power as we headed into the 1980s and 1990s, the era of conspicuous consumption heightened by the growing wealth of ‘dot.com’ billionaires in which consumption of luxury became a common narrative of who we are based solely on our ability to display costly symbols. Today, add in the East Asian market, new Russian oligarchs, oil-rich Saudis, resource-rich South Africans, and the ‘face’ of luxury as we once knew it is

During early thirties and forties which was right after the depression, government and corporate felt the necessity to revive the market. At that time, people thought women were the ones with dominating consumption powers. As Kenon Breazeale quoted in his article, “Women are indeed the shoppers of the world.” (Breazeale, 231). However, some people such as those in journalism fraternity regarded women’s buying power as “gullible vulnerability to consumerism’s trashy faddishness” (Breazeale, 232). Those people spread wide hostility toward women’s taste and argued that men should be the ones with

Beginning from the last years of World War II and then following Japan’s defeat to the allied forces, the Japanese had to endure arguably its most painful few years to date. The majority of Japan’s cities had all been completely destroyed during the war, especially in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where the first atomic bombs were dropped. As a result, the majority of Japanese population had to not only survive the extremes of the seasons in make-shift shelters, but also endure starvation due to the lack of food and water available. However, thanks to the American occupation of Japan following the end of the war, Japan was finally able to recover. The year 1950 turned out to be the beginning of an extended period of Japanese economic and social prosperity. Starting from 1950 to 1990, Japan had experienced unrivalled miraculous economic growth and success in comparison to the majority of other developed countries. For this reason, the Japanese economic success during this period is known by many as the “economic miracle”. There are multiple reasons behind this so called “miracle”, and this essay explores some of these causes. In particular focusing on the major factors which include; the American occupation of Japan, the Korean and Vietnam War as well as social and economic reasons.

Americans live in an era of out of control spending that is driven by materialism. Children at a young age become well acquainted with the idea that owning the newest and best puts a greater amount of value into one’s life. Unfortunately, for many, this negatively translates into adulthood. Materialism is the root of millions of American citizen’s insurmountable amounts of debt. People have the desire to appear to their family and friends as though they are living lifestyles of luxury, when in reality, they are simply digging themselves a hole of debt they will never escape. But not only is trying to keep up a wealthy persona costly, it also entails a vicious, draining cycle that constantly leaves the consumer

This behavior brings competitive advantages to the European luxury brands. Moreover, customers in different countries have different purchase behaviors. For instance, some countries’ customers are willing to move away from common recognized brand, because they want to purchase more exclusive products. Furthermore, because of the increasing speed of globalization, people are more likely willing to travel between different countries. These travelers will buy luxury good during their trips. In fact, Chinese tourists contributed over one third of sales in Europe. The luxury goods industry should notice to adjust the actual demand between local people and tourists in Europe

The Japanese economy, the 2nd largest in the world, accounts for 7.1% Global World GDP, at US$4.6 triliion and a per capita income of approximately US$33,550 (World Bank 2006). As a result of globalisation, literacy levels are at 99% and the general living standards of the

The overall sales of luxury goods in the year 2009 is expected to be more than US$150 billion and Asia contributes 10% to it. The concept of luxury is now not confined to only to Europe and US, the Asian subcontinent contributes majorly to it, with India and China as the newly emerging markets. Professor James Twitchell (2002) comments on the democratization of luxury and the changing consumer psychology These new customers for luxury are younger than clients of the old luxe used to be, they are far more numerous, they make their money far sooner, and they are far more flexible in financing and fickle in choice. They do not

Travel agencies, newspapers and telecommunication providers have all suffered severe competition from internet- based substitutes (Grant, 1991). However, in-store apparel shopping is less substitutable by online shopping. On the one hand, it is a product of high risk; on the other hand, the apparel shopping trips to the city center can be more enjoyable.

With concern to 26 to 45 years old consumers, we believe that a personal shopper service and made ​​to order service might be useful solutions in order to have their loyalty giving them specific services that only luxury brands do. In fact, that way they can get the most out of their luxury buying experience. To finish, we also suggest the creation of events during which the can purchase new collections in advance, generally the day before the collections are officially out in stores.