The luxury brands with the deepest pockets are wowing Chinese luxury consumers. However, the problem is that many luxury brands are not able to keep up because of the expensive demands of China’s ultra rich. The target is on those who spend more than around $158,000k on luxury goods and services.

So what fancies the Chinese luxury consumer these days? One recent night, the ballroom at Hong Kong’s Grand Hyatt hotel was transformed into an elegant Parisian salon. Several dozen very wealthy families from all over China were flown in for a weekend of cruises, property tours and a gala auction. Chow Tai Fook (CTF), a Hong Kong firm that is the world’s largest  jeweller, paid the bill.

Most of us might not think of Costco as a luxury brand. However, with their ability to influence consumers to purchase high end luxury goods for less they rule this niche market. Hats off to Costco many attempted to venture into the luxury for less niche but did not strike gold.

What makes Costco so appealing in this specific luxury market of offering luxury goods at a discount rate may be their marketing approach. It could be that a warehouse club membership is privileged and not a coupon reward. Luxury consumers like V.I.P savings a difference from coupon offers. The luxury consumer is more concerned about quality over the cost of luxury goods.

Costco manages to offer the both of best worlds. A membership club which allows the luxury consumer to feel privileged. Generally, such membership comes with exclusive offerings. Costco offers membership to the masses while only a select few will be able to take advantage of purchasing high end luxury goods for less.

So what does Costco offer when it comes to luxury for less? Costco, the subject of a CNBC documentary “The Costco Craze,” sometimes employs this strategy. That has led some companies to sue the retailer, but most have been unsuccessful. For example, Coach, Chanel, and Burberry handbags, Herman Miller chairs, and Waterford crystal have been known to grace Costco’s shelves over the years.

In some cases, the warehouse clubs partner with high-end brands to offer its members exclusive products at discounted prices. However, some retailers may also obtain items through gray-market buying — a controversial practice in which retailers circumvent manufacturers and buy products through third-party distributors.

Costco’s founder and former CEO Jim Sinegal has no qualms procuring goods through the gray market.

“If the supplier is refusing to sell to us, there’s only one reason why they’re refusing to sell to us. And that’s because the price that we bring the goods to market,” he told CNBC.

The real problem, he said, is “when people try to manipulate the market so that they can control prices and keep prices artificially high. That’s wrong.”

The selection of luxury goods in warehouse stores varies from region to region and store to store. Sometimes finding them is all about luck.

No matter. Just toss them all into a doublewide shopping cart and head to the checkout line.

Thinking about buying a Mercedes-Benz SL550 Roadster?

Costco price: $105,245

Through partnerships with local authorized dealers, Costco members receive a reduced price on cars that’s meant to be haggle free.
Costco’s website lists the makes and models in its inventory, from a Toyota Prius to a Porsche Roadster. It then connects members to a local dealer, who offers a pre-negotiated Costco quote.

For a new 2012 Mercedes-Benz SL550 Roadster, with additional accessories such as a black leather interior and a panorama roof with sun shade, as well as added costs such as a gas guzzler tax, we were quoted 5.8 percent off the MSRP price of $111,725. Costco members are also eligible for additional manufacturer rebates and special financing.

Might be interesting to know Costco offers luxury for less on Remy Martin Louis XIII Cognac, Betsey Johnson Frames, Wedding Dresses by Kirstie Kelly, and a full list of luxury items sold for less.

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These are the most powerful luxury brands in China. Why? Because they are the top 50 most searched for luxury brands in China. Consumer search remains the most significant source of brand recognition and credibility. Online digital identity is the foremost important branding approach for any luxury brand.

The need for exclusivity is no longer the best approach. The focus to capture target audiences and build brand reputation is where it is at. Congrats to these luxury brands who understand the power of target location consumer search.

If you are still not considering targeting Africa’s luxury market you may be leaving money on the table. No question Asia and India are the top two luxury consumer markets to capture. However, Africa is an untapped goldmine and smart luxury brands who venture first can increase profit earning.

This is not news to Ermenegildo Zegna who is scoring major success targeting Africa’s luxury market. The Italian brand has turned its focus towards Africa as it looks to open stores in Morocco and Nigeria this year.

In its latest profit update, Ermenegildo Zegna reported a 90 per cent surge in profits for 2011. Net profits came in at €115.1 million ($146.9m), while company revenue rose 17 per cent at €1.127 billion.

China continued to hold on to its main-market placing in terms of the group’s retail sales (up 28 per cent), while the US market remained strong with a 16 per cent rise. Sales were also up in Germany, France and Italy.

At the close of 2011, Ermenegildo Zegna had 311 fully owned stores in an expanding portfolio. The company said it would open another 50 stores this year, including a third outlet in China amid further expansion in Europe and the US.

The launch of NKILI reminds us of everything exceptionally pretty. For good reason because NKILI means “Seeing Beautiful Things” and plans to take women’s luxury shirt to the next level. The brand concept is that the shirt is the single most important garment in a wardrobe. A luxury PR statement that delivers a message and brand image at the same time.

Creative Director, Tolani Nkili Onajide was raised in Lagos, London and Oxford. She studied Architecture at the Architectural Association School of Architecture, London and the University of Dundee School of Architecture, Scotland. She then won awards and support from business organisations; Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust and Cultural Enterprise Office for NKILI.

The Spring/Summer Collection “Seeing Beautiful Things”,  is influenced by one of the leaders of modern Architecture – Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe’s minimalist design style. He adopted the “less is more” approach and arranged the necessary components of a building to create an impression of extreme simplicity. By highlighting the shirt in its pure form, without distraction,the progressive beauty and craft can be seen. All shirts and Scarves are hand crafted in Scotland by NKILI.

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It’s getting closer and closer to the most treasured gift giving day on the planet. Mother’s Day! A day that no consumer holds back on cost because nothing is too good for mom. For luxury retailers right now is the ultimate time to generate exposure for Mother’s Day gift giving ideas. The more luxury brand exposure leads to brand awareness and credibility.

So what’s topping the list for the best Mother’s Day gifts? In Fashion ROLEX Luxury Watch For Mother’s Day.

Luxury Watches – So hot right now are high-end luxury brand watches. Typically, this was a gift idea for dads but luxury watches among women is becoming a high fashion collection trend.

Top pick:  Give mom a ROLEX ! The Datejust makes the perfect mother’s day gift.

Now, you can’t go wrong with a ROLEX…. For mom.

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Social media is a major concentration of luxury brands. One specific target audience is a desired attraction because of their lifestyle. Luxury brands are very interested in connecting with young and wealthy individuals using social media networking. Which one savvy New York start up is focused on leveraging the gap for luxury brands to engage the young and wealthy specific target audience.

Just launched two weeks ago Merchant Exchange, a small but quickly growing luxury rewards network, targets a group that co-founder Michael Tolkin refers to as “wealthy millennials”—people aged 25 to 35 who spend between $30,000 and $40,000 annually.

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If luxury brands are to sustain they have come to realize that top talent is the frontier. So with that said many leading luxury brands are changing guards in leadership. Out with the old and in with the new. As many as 14 new presidents, chief execs, and chief financial officers and creative directors who started out with big name European luxury brands have been replaced.

Luxury companies are seeking new talent and ideas as they contend with a slowing economy in China and a cut in high-end spending by Europeans. An increasing dependence on emerging markets and the Internet are stoking demand for executives with broader skills, according to Michael Boroian, president of recruiter Sterling International in Paris. He anticipates more changes this year.

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA (MC), the world’s largest luxury-goods maker, hired Sebastian Suhl as CEO of its Givenchy fashion and leather goods brand in March. He is credited with driving competitor Prada Group’s expansion in the Asia Pacific region in his six and a half years with the Milan-based company, latterly as chief operating officer.

Most appointments have come from within the industry and some from within the same company. Mulberry, the Somerset, England-based maker of 595-pound ($944) Cookie Lily leather handbags, poached Bruno Guillon from Hermes International SCA (RMS) to be CEO, while LVMH shuffled at least four executives, including moving Michael Burke from Fendi to head up Bulgari, which it bought for about 3.7 billion euros ($4.8 billion) last year.

Will this truly impact the ability of luxury brands to target China’s luxury market?

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GRAND OPENING – Christian Dior Taipei 101 Tower Opening Event on March 24th 2012

Reaching 508 meters, the Taipei 101 was, for four years, the world’s tallest building. One of the most recognizable, too, thanks to its structure that recalls a pagoda roof. Inside: the boutique. In the windows, the most recent haute couture collection captures the limelight, set before large colored panels carved to mimic the models they back. In the store itself, neutral tones let the collections take the starring role: the leather goods and their fearless colors, the refined timepieces settings. Subtle touches of gold leaf add a warmly modern touch to the precision black and white Dior Homme spaces.

Shoes, ready-to-wear, eveningwear, VIP dressing rooms: the salons are as much intimate spaces as they are public ones, playing on tones of gray in turns deep and light. What’s offered turns out to be a veritable journey, a voyage of awakening that becomes even more so as one discovers the art along the way, specially created for the store: a Chinese woodblock covered in gold leaves by Claude Lalanne here, a Véronique Rivemale mirror there, a video installation by Oyoram on the stairway, an Elisabeth Garouste table somewhere else. The monumental staircase is an experience in itself. A wall of images recalls the rotunda of the Avenue Montaigne store in Paris, projected images of Mr. Dior and of Paris emerging as constants in the vaporous passing of time. Where are we? When are we? In Taipei, unquestionably. But in Paris, too. In any case, unmistakably chez Dior.

Marking the opening March 24th, 2012, of the Christian Dior store in Taipei, a look back at the décor of these historic spaces: In 1946, when Christian Dior decided to open his own couture house, he called upon Victor Grandpierre to transform the interior of the mansion at 30, avenue Montaigne. The two men had met in Cannes, a few years before, and they shared the same passion for the Belle Epoque: the years surrounding the turn of the last century. “Our tastes gelled perfectly in the shared quest for our childhood paradise”, Christian Dior explained in his memoirs. The timing was extremely short, with only a few weeks remaining before the inaugural show of the house of Dior on February 12, 1947. “White woodwork, lacquered white furniture, gray drapes, doors of beveled glass panes, bronze sconces…” – the décor was chic, classic, almost neutral. In reality, it was actually the perfect, distraction-free backdrop to give center stage to the fashions the couturier was preparing to unveil.

What better than gray and white to set off fiery reds, floral prints, and dense embroideries? To make the impressive volume of the dresses appear even more so necessitated a décor of refined purity. That’s how Victor Grandpierre conceived of the haute couture salons: as a jewel box. He was also responsible for designing the small boutique, and the white Dior boxes that still remain the same color today. Next it was the turn of the suite bearing the couturier’s name at the Plaza in New York, then another boutique in Caracas… And, in 1955, came the opening of the big Paris store, adjacent to the historic salons. “In a few days, Victor Grandpierre had created in the new space a boutique that was Louis XVI, Belle Epoque, and very 1955″, Christian Dior stated. In other words: a synthesis of nearly two centuries of decoration in France! “And conforming on all fronts to what I desired”, he added. These days it’s Peter Marino who creates the house’s stores. On Monday, in this magazine, you’ll be able to discover the Taipei one.

By ANDREA JANKE @andreajanke

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Should luxury brands care how target audiences acquire their money? Would it be a smart luxury PR move to be selective even when it comes to target audiences? Exclusivity has always been the origin for many luxury brands.  However, coming off the luxury brand economic recession many are rushing to every market that ultra wealthy consumers are surfacing.

The wealthy elite in Nigeria – upstart business owners, oil industry executives and corrupt politicians — have a healthy appetite for top-shelf brands, but have previously had to shop for them in Dubai, London and Paris. Now though, sellers of luxury goods are opening stores in Nigeria where seemingly gratuitous displays of wealth are the norm.

Since independence in 1960, wealth flowed into Nigeria as crude oil pumped out. The OPEC nation’s easily refined crude remains a top energy source for the U.S. However, politicians and military rulers squandered billions of dollars through the corruption choking the nation’s potential.

Then democracy took hold in 1999, and other industries have since developed in the country of 160 million, including banking and telecommunications. Billionaire Aliko Dangote, whose net worth is $11.2 billion according to Forbes magazine, built his empire on commodities like flour, sugar and cement. Another billionaire, Mike Adenuga, runs an oil company and Globacom Ltd., one of Nigeria’s largest mobile phone service providers.

Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos, along with four other of Africa’s largest cities, will each have consumer spending of $25 billion or more by 2020, according to a McKinsey & Co. report. That’s comparable to spending in India’s business hub of Mumbai.

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