The line between luxury and art is blurring across the world, but it’s doing so especially quickly in China.
With extremely high net worth and a taste for the finer things in life, art collectors are seen as the Holy Grail of customer demographics for luxury brands. As the ultimate luxury item, art has long been a way for labels that produce handbags, jewelry, and clothes to transcend their commercialism though sponsorship and collaborations, reaching prospective customers on a higher level than can be achieved in a retail setting. Thanks to its role as a critical global market for both art and luxury goods, China has become a key location where brands are using museums, galleries, and their own products to reach this affluent audience.
There are many marketing benefits for luxury brands that tap into the influence of the elite art world in China. When holding or sponsoring exhibitions, brands can reach museums’ and galleries’ VIP Chinese networks, who are invited to exclusive openings and exposed to the brand through the organizations’ mailing accounts and social media.
Many luxury brand-sponsored China exhibitions at prestigious museums and galleries merge art, branding, and the products themselves. In the case of branded exhibitions, the luxury products are placed alongside art in an equal setting as in Gucci’s recent “No Longer / Not Yet”exhibition at the Minsheng Art Museum in Shanghai, or the items become art themselves—such as when Dior had prominent Chinese artists design their own interpretation of the classic Lady Dior handbag for its “Lady Dior as Seen By” exhibition. Other examples include Bottega Veneta’s “Art of Collaboration” exhibition that began on opened at UCCA in Beijing on June 8, Dior’s Shanghai exhibition in 2014 and Beijing exhibition in 2015 featuring the Miss Dior fragrance reinterpreted by 17 female artists, and BMW’s Beijing exhibition last month.
(Source: Jing Daily )