A qualitative research on the perceptions and consumption of luxury perfumes of Chinese female only child aged between 20 and 30 years old called The Little Empresses

1. The Little Empresses
Perceptions & Consumption of Luxury Perfumes in China
Johanna Pétalas – johanna@petalas.fr, +33 (0) 6 51 73 61 31

2.  Edhec Graduate - Grande Ecole and Double Masters Marketing & Management
 3yrs of marketing experience in luxury and high-end products, EMEA & China
 Cinquième Sens: Expertise technique de la parfumerie et langage des odeurs
 Passions: photography enthusiast, soloist in musical courses, trek in Nepal
johanna@petalas.fr
+33 (0) 6 51 73 61 31
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3. Origins of the topic
 Discussion in 2008 with former VP/MD of L’Oréal Luxury division China
 New customers different from previous generations: The Little Emperors
 Personal passion about perfume & interest to explore it in China
Scope
 Chinese female only children called the Little Empresses
 Luxury perfume market
 Perceptions and consumption behaviours
Objective
 Draw first impressions of the luxury perfume market and the Little Empresses consumers
 Understand the importance of the luxury market & luxury perfumes in China
 Help marketers to grasp the Little Empresses profiles and define the marketing mix
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4. Importance of the luxury and fragrances market A strong appetite for Western perfume brands
 L’Oréal, 2010: 3rd worldwide market with €1 billion revenues (L’Oreal annual report, 2010)  Top 5 cosmetics, perfume & personal care brands in 2009: (Bain & Company, 2010 )
 Chanel, Dior, Estée Lauder, Lancôme and Shiseido
 The fragrance industry, China 2009: $618.5 million, a growth of 9.5% (Datamonitor, 2010)  Represent 40% of the RMB16.9 billions spend
 ….And Top 3 most likely to purchase: Chanel, Lancôme and Dior
 Female fragrances, 2009: Largest with 85.2% of China’s total value and $527.3
million revenue (Datamonitor, 2010)
&
Growing rich and middle-class populations A unique demographics model
 875K millionaires: Beijing (151K), Guangdong (145K) and Shanghai (122K) (Hurun
Research Institute, 2010)  Single child policy & 4-2-1 model so all resources to one offspring
 The HNWI allocation to luxury accounts for 49% of market growth (Capgemini &
Merrill Lynch, 2010 )
 The Chinese middle class: (Cavender & Rein, 2009)
 Wants accumulation of possessions, more leisure & better quality of life
 Drives luxury consumption as they like to display success and status
China offers opportunities for growth BUT perfuming not part of Chinese traditions & habits
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5.  Qualitative Study using a very diverse sample
 Female Single child
 Between 20 and 30 years old
 Born in Mainland China
 Urban: Chinese Tiers One & Two cities and cities abroad
 Students & Employees
 One-to-one semi-structured and narrative interviews using a qualitative guide
 A pre-questionnaire to establish their demographics (social categories, hobbies, revenues…)
…determining three main research questions:
How do Little Empresses perceive luxury and more particularly perfumes?
How do they interact with luxury perfume brands and products?
What influences them when consuming luxury perfumes?
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6.  A Chinese Little Empresses’ profile has been drawn
 Perceptions of luxury brands and products enabled to derive:
 A definition and characteristics of luxury
 The reasons to buy luxury
 And spontaneous recall of brands and products
 Concerning luxury perfumes, analysis conducted to define brands and products
 Awareness
 Positioning
 Pyramids: product salience, imagery, performance, consumer judgment & feeling
Perceptions of perfumes enabled to determine the perfume purchase selection process
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7.  The Little Empresses’ way to gather information has also been explored
 Search for information & communication channel used
 ….as well as
 Their perfume purchase & usage
 Their perception of counterfeits
 Their loyalty towards perfume brands and products
 …and the factors influencing consumers in their purchase:
 The People (peers, family & salespeople), Price, Promotion, Place
A comprehensive analysis of perceptions & consumption behaviours to determine key
marketing actions to promote perfumes to the Little Empresses population
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8.  Key factors to segment the Little Empresses population into four categories
 Possibility to identify and target each group more accurately
 Results and recommendations for all the elements of the marketing mix
A guide to help marketers to grasp their profile, understand their perceptions and consumption
behaviours assorted with recommendations to build the appropriate perfume marketing mix to
target the Little Empresses
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9. If you wish to get the data of this research, please do not hesitate to contact me
Johanna Pétalas
johanna@petalas.fr
+33 (0) 6 51 73 61 31
http://fr.linkedin.com/in/johannapetalas
http://www.viadeo.com/en/profile/johanna.petalas
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