Over the space of 20 years, luxury changed enormously. The Japanese had been a set of new consumers for luxury, but in terms of numbers they hadn’t eclipsed the US as the biggest market for luxury.
China’s ascent into the WTO (World Trade Organisation) made a lot of business people and politicians a lot richer. China challenged the US in terms of luxury market size. On their rise, Chinese consumers changed a lot in their sophistication as they educated themselves on luxury consumption.
These new consumers picked up new traits such as wine drinking. This also meant that luxury goods became new asset classes as Chinese money looked to acquire only the best. Chinese culture in turn impacted luxury design. Chinese new year became more important than Christmas.
Then there was the second generation money. Young rather than old consumers. Consumers who were looking for something less formal, either because they didn’t wear anything but streetwear or they worked in the creative classes rather than the traditional professions and high finance.
The industry had traditionally avoided rap artists and R&B singers, now Jay Z and Beyonce are the face of Tiffanys and Fendi had collaborated with Rihanna.
They no longer wanted to have to wear a jacket and tie to have afternoon tea at the Mandarin. They took an eclectic look more attuned to the Buffalo Collective than Vogue Italia.
You had hybridisation with the street to create a new category of luxe streetwear in a way that also owes a debt to football casual terrace wear and the pain.
Now you have Zegna badge engineering approach shoes from alpine brand La Sportiva and Prada has done a similar thing with adidas’ iconic Stan Smith tennis shoes. Balenciaga with their Speed Sock looks like a mix between Nike’s flyknit football boots and the Nike Footscape sole.
Luxury has traditionally reflected status. Goods of a superior nature that the ‘wrong sort’ of people would never be able to afford. Luxury then became a symbol that you’d made it. In Asian markets, particularly China, luxury became a tool. People gifted luxury products to make relationships work better. It also signified that you are the kind of successful business person that partners could trust. You started to see factory managers with Gucci man bags and premium golfwear to signal their success. Then when the scions of these business people and figures in authority were adults, luxury has become about premium self expression.
PES are a stop motion animation house, whom I was introduced to by Guy, one of the creative directors that I work with. Film food trilogy is one set of films that they did a number of years ago, over a seven year period.
The film food trilogy starts with Western Spaghetti
The second film Fresh Guacamole was short listed for an Oscar nomination.
The final one in the food film trilogy is Submarine Sandwich.
Doraemon and Toyota collaboration for advertisement
The premise in these Toyota films is that it is 30 years later and the human characters have grown up, but have still stayed in the respective relative status to each other. The giant is still a bully for instance and Nobita is still a dweeb.
https://youtu.be/OfnUNmjHzoQ
Big Data China: AI – Surveillance symbiosis
Interesting discussion on the use of big data and machine learning in China. The programmable world with Chinese authoritarian characteristics. Some interesting insights in this stream. The event covers:
how China‘s large-scale investments in surveillance technology is both enhancing the state‘s capacity to repress dissent and providing commercial advantage to Chinese AI companies operating in the facial recognition and surveillance space.
CSIS
It is worthwhile looking at the materials that the CSIS is doing in association with Stanford University on Big Data China.
How LVMH took over Asia
Asianometry looks how Louis Vuitton grew so big in Asia. Japan and Hong Kong took over luxury sales increased in the 1970s due to a massive increase in disposable income. Its interesting that much of it was driven initially by Japanese department stores in the 1960s and Ferragamo was one of the first western luxury brands that they stocked. Louis Vuitton opened their first store in Japan in the Ginza district in the 1970s, they had somehow managed to leap the chasm that stymied other rivals who were traditional medium-sized enterprises like Louis Vuitton at the time. Well worth a look at this video.
Which means the only listings are likely to be old industry listings of state owned firms that foreign investors wouldn’t want to deal with anyway. The second one was: Alibaba scales back global expansion plan to rival Amazon | Financial Times – Alibaba.com’s US operation has failed to meet its initial targets, forcing the Chinese company to readjust its growth plans, according to three people familiar with the operations. The project has also been hit by dozens of staff departures from its New York office. The troubles at its US business-to-business arm come as Alibaba steps up its international push as its domestic operations continue to get hit by Beijing’s tech crackdown, slowing economy and rising competition. However, Alibaba.com has struggled to retain US sellers since its launch, in part down to the difficulty of competing with the prices of global merchants. “US manufacturers aren’t as competitive, the cost of everything is a lot higher including labour. The team do not have enough support internally, so they can’t get enough suppliers and sellers on board,” one current employee said – you could read this as the US is uncompetitive, or Alibaba only manages to sell on cost rather than value (quality, flexibility, after sales service don’t matter).
Aviation sector will be disrupted for years, Qatar Airways boss says | Financial Times – “Covid has damaged the supply chain of the industry . . . I think that it will last for a couple of years — it is not going to go away tomorrow,” Akbar Al Baker told the Financial Times in an interview. Labour shortages in Europe, delays in aircraft deliveries from manufacturers and a lack of spare parts had all affected Qatar Airways, he added. – and this is without the problems that airports have faced in baggage handling etc. If aircraft deliveries were really an issue, why did Qatar pick a fight with Airbus?
HSBC’s past may not help its future | Financial Times – There is no place in the new Hong Kong for a pre-eminent bank which is not institutionally subject to the Chinese government. As China turns inwards, it makes sense for the ruling party to want its own financiers in command of a smaller standalone lender that will be well-capitalised, regionally-focused and prepared to serve national objectives, not global shareholders. The installation of a Communist party committee at HSBC’s Chinese investment banking subsidiary, reported by the FT, is a prelude of what is to come: a slow, patient strategy of small steps designed to make inevitable a break-up already determined on high in Beijing. That is why Ping An has fired the first shot in the final battle over the colonial legacy of Hong Kong — a place China has always called “a problem left over from history”. – the smart play would be to cut the PRC and Hong Kong business off from the rest of the network. While China is the growth engine, it relies on the rest of the network for this profitable wealth management business. Secondly, what will happen with Standard Chartered?
Ideas
Reviving Progress in the UK – there is an issue with the capital injection required by the plans outlined. Would anyone trust the UK government that they would be able to execute in a competent manner on the ideas? I think that the UK is suffering from a crisis of competence as much as anything else.
Associated Press Aims to Drop the Term “Assault Rifle” from StylebookThe Firearm Blog – really interesting change towards more neutral language while the progressive media obsesses about the new SIG-Sauer MCX Spear which is similar in terms of lethal effect to the longer range rifles field during the first part of the cold war. These cold war era designs have been modernised and are available to gun owners across most of the US. The MCX Spear relies on a newer, harder to get ammunition. This ammunition is also harder to fill at home than existing formats like the earlier NATO 5.56mm and 7.62mmm rounds. Older weapons like the Heckler & Koch G3 are a bit heavier but offer a similar performance, yet you wouldn’t get this information from the progressive media. Regardless of your opinion on gun control, the facts matter.
Beijing detains high-flying Tsinghua semiconductor boss, report says | Financial Times – Zhao Weiguo, the former head of an expansive Chinese conglomerate with state backing and deep investments in the global technology sector, has been placed under investigation by officials in Beijing, according to local media. The 54-year-old, who led cash-strapped chipmaking giant Tsinghua Unigroup for a decade, has been out of contact after being taken from his home by authorities in mid-July, reported Caixin, a Chinese business publication.
Emirates statement on operations at London Heathrow – Emirates lays into London Heathrow’s airport chaos. The airport chaos has been labelled ‘airmageddon’, due to the restriction in numbers of passengers who can fly in and out of Heathrow in a given day of just 100,000 people. That’s 25,000 people a day lower than last year. While there is similar restrictions at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport and a complete failure of their baggage system.
China
China’s Collapsing Global Image – China’s image abroad has declined significantly in the past four years, a sharp revearsal from the relative popularity it enjoyed in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe from the 1990s to the late 2010s. While previous Chinese regimes stressed humble non-intervention on the global stage, distributed generous infrastructure funding via the Belt and Road Initiative, and conducted massive soft power outreach programs through media and academia, many of these strategies have been reversed or rendered ineffective. As Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow for Southeast Asia Joshua Kurlantzick notes, “[there] are multiple reasons for China’s deteriorating global public image. China’s overall rising authoritarianism at home, its cover-up of the initial COVID-19 outbreak, and its brutal repression in Hong Kong and Xinjiang have hurt its perception among many foreign publics. China’s continued zero-COVID strategy has cut it off from much of the world, undermined people-to-people relations with other states, and cast some doubt on the Chinese model of development—even among some Chinese citizens.” – worthwhile contrasting with the following research, which implies a negative but more complex and nuanced situation – China seen as better than EU in completing African projects, survey finds | South China Morning Post – Poll of more than 1,000 policymakers on the continent puts priority on physical infrastructure, speedy results and non-interference in internal political affairs. European Union charts higher on quality of products or services delivered; good working conditions; creating jobs for Africans; upholding environmental standards
HSBC installs Communist party committee in Chinese investment bank | Financial Times – I don’t think that it would be beyond the realm of possibility seeing HSBC China and Hong Kong breaking off ARM China style under the auspices of Ping An and the Chinese government. Ping An is actually a cross holding: HSBC is the largest shareholder in Ping An and vice versa. The question is can they take the bulk of the HSBC Asia businesses with them like Singapore et al as well? This could happen based on company structure and western shareholders would be left with the equivalent of an empty husk
Hong Kong Law Reform Commission proposes 5 new offences to rein in cybercrime, with tougher penalties of up to life imprisonment | South China Morning Post – Will this proposed ordinance be available as a charge, with the prosecution claiming the criminal intent is an offence involving national security?” he asked. “Could all social media become a target? Given the wide criminalisation of speech in the context of national security and sedition charges is there a risk a charge under this ordinance will be added?” Davis said he was also worried the proposed amendment would be used to reverse the outcome of an earlier decision by the Court of Appeal in 2019 which limits the reach of an ordinance that prohibits “access to a computer with criminal or dishonest intent” to cover a person using their own tech devices.
Transforming logos for Pride has lost brand impact | Marketing Week – When the mass market starts arguing over who gets the specially altered distinctive asset for the month, it’s probably time to retire the whole code-playing business forever. Monkeys cannot run the zoo – especially the zoo’s Special Surprise Tricks Unit, which designs things to influence the monkeys without them knowing anything about it. Pride month clashed with the platinum jubilee. Brands got involved with the platinum jubilee celebrations as planning got under way by local councils and British embassies by mid-May. The platinum jubilee allowed brands to reach a wider swathe of consumers than would otherwise be the case and increase their relevance to consumers lives. Celebration of pride month was seen as brands ‘deprioritising’ the platinum jubilee on one side, while platinum jubilee critics were seen as been prejudiced in nature. What struck me was the quiet of the voices in the middle ground of the Pride – platinum jubilee dispute. Perhaps its better for brands to stay out?
The West’s Struggle for Mental Health – WSJ – American psychiatrists have been studying rates of functional mental illness, such as depressive disorders and schizophrenia, since the 1840s. These studies show that the ratio of those suffering from such diseases to the mentally healthy population has been consistently rising. Ten years ago, based on the annual Healthy Minds study of college students, 1 in 5 college students was dealing with mental illness. – and depression has surged 135 percent over an 18 year period. The finding are that “The more a society is dedicated to the value of equality and the more choices it offers for individual self-determination, the higher its rates of functional mental illness.”
☕️ Candy in your coffee – this seems to be an extension of the ‘sweet flavours’ available historically from the likes of Dunkin Donuts and other coffee outlets
National security law: can Hongkongers still hold June 4 commemorative events marking anniversary of Tiananmen Square crackdown? | South China Morning Post – political scholar Steve Tsang, director of the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, also said the security law was intended to ensure activities that were deemed unpatriotic could not take place in Hong Kong. “It has been enforced in a way to secure an intimidation effect,” he said. “Unless someone or members of a civil society organisation are prepared to be charged and jailed … they will not hold a public event of any sort.” Lau Siu-kai, vice-president of the semi-official Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies, said a large vigil commemorating June 4 might be seen as an act that undermined China’s sovereignty and therefore was not worth the risk. Asked what kinds of June 4 events might be allowed in the future, the pro-Beijing scholar said: “Some implicit actions, in private, and in small groups, should be fine under the current political atmosphere.” Simon Young Ngai-man, associate dean of research at HKU’s law faculty, said the question centred on whether such acts signalled “seditious intent”, which might risk violating the Crimes Ordinance – an offence punishable by up to two years in prison for first-time offenders. “Note that intending to promote feelings of ill will and enmity between different classes of the population is also a seditious intent,” he said. “The precise meaning of ‘exciting disaffection’ is unclear. Does it cover any kind of criticism of the Chinese and Hong Kong governments?”
Diabetes drug leads to notable weight loss in people with obesity – study | The Guardian – interesting article that touches on multiple aspects of obesity as a chronic condition. The biggest issue is that government’s aren’t looking to treat it as the chronic condition related to an an endocrine system imbalance that it is. I worked on a rival drug to the one mentioned, which is being promoted in the US and other countries at the moment
An Oxford case study explains why SpaceX is more efficient than NASA — Space Business — Quartz – Planners behind projects that attempt to achieve a massive gain in a single leap, they posit, enmesh themselves in psychological patterns that lead to failure. They delude themselves in thinking the actual costs of the project will be much less than expected, because if the real costs were known, the projects would never be attempted. Platforms, on the other hand, grow incrementally. These aren’t just digital constructions but real world activities that share several characteristics: Repeatability, extendability, the ability to absorb new knowledge and adapt to new situations.
Microsoft Azure cross-tenant cloud security flaws concerning – Protocol – “It’s concerning. And it is a pattern,” said Rich Mogull, CEO at independent security research firm Securosis and a longtime security industry analyst. “And so the question is: Do we believe that that’s because they’re under greater scrutiny? Or is it that they have more problems? It might be a little bit of both.” At cloud security firm Orca Security, whose researchers have found two of the cross-tenant vulnerabilities in Azure services, the issues strongly suggest that Azure is not withstanding the pressure applied by researchers to the same degree as AWS and Google Cloud, according to Orca CTO Yoav Alon. – the more things change, the more they stay the same
Deadly secret: Electronic warfare shapes Russia-Ukraine war | AP News – Russian jamming of GPS receivers on drones that Ukraine uses to locate the enemy and direct artillery fire is particularly intense “on the line of contact,” he said. Ukraine has scored some successes in countering Russia’s electronic warfare efforts. It has captured important pieces of hardware — a significant intelligence coup — and destroyed at least two multi-vehicle mobile electronic warfare units.
A primary metaverse leader is leaving Microsoft at the wrong time — Quartz – Kipman’s exit came as a surprise to some AR industry insiders. Kipman has been the leading evangelist for Microsoft’s immersive computing efforts since the launch of the HoloLens AR headset in 2015, which he helped develop. In addition to the HoloLens, Microsoft offers its bleeding-edge Azure Kinect spatial computing depth camera, which captures and tracks 3D objects. The company has also developed Microsoft Mesh for shared AR interactions, supports a wide array of VR headsets via its Windows Mixed Reality platform, and boasts one of the most popular VR communities in AltspaceVR. Quietly, Microsoft has become the biggest name in the metaverse next to Meta, largely due to its focus on business enterprise users. But now that Microsoft is losing its immersive computing champion, where does the company’s metaverse path lead? And why is Kipman leaving at such a crucial moment?
Sheryl Sandberg is leaving Meta. She has roughly 1.6 billion reasons never to work again – that isn’t lives ruined by Facebook, but her net worth on leaving Meta after 21 years at Google and Facebook building advertising sales operations teams.
Sandberg’s resignation has been a long time coming, and was repeatedly predicted since the early 2010s when the toxic nature of Facebook’s ad model became apparent. You had the sense that she viewed herself as a presidential candidate in waiting. Her exhortations to lean in were at odds with the ‘tech bro’ culture that still permeates Meta and other Silicon Valley firms. Sandberg leaves Meta with her reputation in tatters and with less chance of becoming president than More on Sheryl Sandberg leaving Meta here: Sheryl Sandberg calls it quits – by Casey Newton & Axios Login: Sandberg’s ad jackpot
Number of Hongkongers applying for BN(O) scheme rises 25 per cent in first quarter of 2022, likely from families applying before new school year | South China Morning Post – Some 123,400 Hongkongers have applied for pathway to British citizenship since January 31 last year, with 92 per cent of them successful. Canada, Australia have offered alternative routes, but immigration experts say BN(O) and Canadian programmes will remain most popular. – A few observations on this. There has been a strong historic connection between Hong Kong and Vancouver going back to at least the 1967 riots. The South China Morning Post used to have a Vancouver column until April this year. Prominent people like Li Ka-shing had their families there. There is a similar connection with the UK, though I found that I was running into more Canadians than British born Chinese during my time in Hong Kong. Secondly, the dominance of mainland Chinese in creating a threatening atmosphere for Hongkongers in Australia is a big issue
Ideas
Should Cities Disband their Police Departments? – ScienceDirect – the short answer social science data research says no they shouldn’t. The long answer. Unlike the UK, in the US large towns can have their own police forces. There are then county sheriffs departments and state police as well. Closing a ‘city police department just means less responsive policing with less crime solved, less transparent data indicating the quality of policing going on. Crime still happens.
FT’s How To Spend It magazine rebrands as big spenders go out of style | Financial Times | The Guardian – The How To Spend It name was created in 1967, when the FT’s first female employee suggested the wives of its readers might enjoy a section on how to spend their husband’s income. It later became a standalone magazine, riding the luxury goods – and financial services boom – of the 1990s and 2000s. Alice Pickthall, of Enders Analysis, told a 2018 Guardian long read that the magazine was best understood as the “Argos catalogue for rich people” – my issue with HTSI has been less about nice things and more about the lack of quality many of the items have in terms of design, build quality and longevity
Marketing
How the 968CS rebuilt the Porsche powerhouse | Financial Times – ‘You don’t understand: if we don’t get a car at under £29,000 then we’re dead’,” says Gaskell, now 63, a multiple non-executive director, investor and speaker – and a transatlantic rowing record-holder too. He got together with some colleagues to work out how to get a 968 priced at £28,995. “Out went air conditioning, electric windows, rear seat, rear wiper, boot lock – and the big electric driver and passenger seats were replaced with lighter ones.” They got it down to £28,975, then realised they had another problem: “Buyers wouldn’t like saying they’d bought a cheap Porsche.” The solution was to position it as a “lightweight” road-racer. “We lowered the suspension, quietly had a special steering wheel made for us by Italian manufacturer Momo – the factory would have gone nuts if they’d known – and called it the ‘Club Sport’. A couple of professional drivers reported that it was a fantastic driver’s car. We’d accidentally created a game-changer, and in 1993 it was named ‘Performance Car of the Year’.” – interesting tale about innovating in adversity. There are a some bits missing however. Porsche had form making lightweight cars like this, notably the Porsche 911 Club Sport from 1987. So there was a ready use case, concept and language that could be adapted for the cheap 968 rather than a completely new creation as implied by this article.
Media
Amazon to close China Kindle Store after losing out to domestic rivals | Financial Times – Amazon will leave behind a growing customer base of digital book lovers. More than 500mn Chinese listened to or read books on a digital device in 2021, according to research by the China Audio-video and Digital Publishing Association. China’s digital reading market generated more than Rmb40bn ($6bn) of sales last year, an increase of more than 18 per cent from 2020 – back when I started going to China there was a substantial trade in purchasing Kindle tablets from the US and Japan. For regulatory reasons Amazon China has been slow to get into e-books. So local competitors fuelled a parallel trade in Kindles. These tablets were then refreshed and pointed to local e-book stores. It must be galling to Amazon to know that not only did they lose out on e-tailing in China, but the subsidised Kindles from other markets built China’s rivals in e-book sales.
