China home of the fashion savvy consumer
Updated: 2008-03-21 11:44
What's the best way to characterize China's economic growth? According to Mark A. Messura, Executive Vice President of the Global Product Supply Chain division of US based Cotton Incorporated, the answer is as simple as a pair of jeans.
China, once seen as "The World's Factory," is changing its image.
"In comparison to other countries, shopping behavior in China is very similar to other markets. The Chinese are savvy shoppers. They're looking for quality." Messura spoke with chinadaily.com.cn today following Cotton-Beyond Your Imagination, an event sponsored by Cotton Council International and Cotton Incorporated.
Cotton has spent two years working with and sponsoring student fashion designers, four of whom presented their creations at the event in a small scale fashion show at Beijing's Wish Club in Chaoyang. The message here was straightforward: the fabric is good for Chinese consumers, and they should wear more of it.
The message seems almost unwarranted. Not long ago the streets of cities like Beijing and Shanghai were lined with the traditional factory blue gray suits, and today jeans are more popular. In fact, Messura pointed out the average consumer here in China now owns three pairs of jeans.
Messura says his company has a "singular" strategy in China, working to support the "use" of cotton – a necessarily vague term given that the company's approach in reality seems dual pronged. It promotes cotton among both Chinese consumers and producers of fashion products.
He said Cotton hopes to demonstrate to consumers that cotton is a fashionable and versatile material, but that "we also work with manufacturers to bring the most innovative cotton products to market."
China has for many years been seen as a source of low cost labor, and for that reason the focus of the fashion industry here has been on production, the result being thousands of textiles factories scattered around the country. It's no small secret in the US or other Western markets that much of the world's clothing is produced in China.
"The key is disposable income, which means consumers have new wealth and spend more," says Messura, who added, "our strategy is to reach out to the individual." In other words, while the producers here are still important, China's consumers are the new targets of fashion interests.
Maybe this is no shock to anyone. After all the numbers, when talking about China's consumer markets, start in the billions. Firms from around the world dream of selling to Chinese citizens, and the dreams only grow as those citizens have more cash to throw around.
According to Messura, the average US consumer has nine pairs of jeans, which means perhaps China has a long way to go. "But that number, the Chinese number, is going up."
And so it seems Cotton will get its way. And China, in the meantime, promises to outgrow its old image and welcome the economic changes in style.