The cigar will be accorded special importance in the booming Chinese luxury goods market in the coming years, Oettinger Davidoff Group CEO Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard told “China’s Century” conference attendees this week.
As part of a panel entitled “Luxury in China and the Chinese Luxury Goods Consumer” at the March event in Beijing Hotel from 5-7 March 2013, Hoejsgaard was invited to speak on premium cigars.
In his presentation, he said: “Whereas the world cigar market is expected to rise by +4% in 2014, it will explode in China with a growth of +20% in the same time frame.”
China will then become the third-largest sales market for cigars, trailing the US and Germany, he noted.
The Chinese, Hoejsgaard continued, had already purchased luxury goods worth around US$50 billion in their own country in 2011; a similar amount was spent abroad on the purchase of luxury goods by Chinese tourists, whose numbers have grown to 80 million.
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Oettinger Davidoff Group President & CEO Hans-Kristian Hoejsgaard (left) pictured with China Duty Free (CDF) President Hui Peng |
Cultural differences
Oettinger Davidoff is therefore watching and canvassing the Chinese market carefully, Hoejsgaard said, taking particular account of the cultural differences between Western and Chinese luxury goods consumers when formulating its marketing strategies.
“A Swiss person buys luxury goods that appeal to him personally; a Chinese person, on the other hand, those with which he can impress others,” said Hoejsgaard, summing up the different motives in the purchase of luxury goods.
With a history going back more than 100 years, a high level of brand recognition including premium brand awareness and the commitment to quality and exclusivity, Hoejsgaard believes that the Davidoff brand fulfils the criteria that are important to the Chinese when it comes to luxury goods: authenticity, quality and rarity.
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