Why Luxury Brands in China Need a New Way to Speak

By The Olivia
Independent Content Strategist for the China Market
This post is part of the “Marketing in China” series. Click here to view the series introduction and why it was created.

1. The old idea of “luxury” was built through language

It’s been more than thirty years since global luxury brands started building their presence in China.

When their growth reached maturity — around 2010 — a local version of “luxury language” began to take shape.
It looked refined, sounded elegant — and made no sense.

You’d see lines like:
“She’s not walking — she’s extending elegance.”
“Between light and shadow, time is redefined.”
“Every moment becomes a gaze.”

They all sounded expensive.
But none of them sounded human.

Those lines filled TVCs, billboards, and later social feeds.
Nobody remembered them — because nobody understood them.

I’m not here to mock that era. It had its logic. Back then, luxury needed distance to look rare.
But today, as the market slows and starts to shrink, it’s worth asking:
Do these brands still need to talk like this?

And if not — what should they sound like now?

2. When distance becomes a wall

In the past, distance worked.
Luxury had to stay out of reach — that was part of the fantasy.

But now, that distance is a wall.
Chinese consumers don’t need brands to explain what’s “refined.”
They care whether a brand sounds honest, selective, and sure of itself.

Real sophistication isn’t decoration — it’s judgment.
It’s the ability to see clearly, and to choose what matters.

And when your audience reads tone better than your brand team does, that old “elevated” language doesn’t sound classy anymore. It just sounds disconnected.

3. Being understood is the new sophistication

Many luxury brands in China still hold onto the old belief:
“If I look global enough, people will buy in.”
But the market moved on a long time ago.

On today’s social platforms, clarity spreads faster than prestige.
If people can’t understand you, they don’t think you’re exclusive —
they think you’re out of touch.

What gives a brand real presence is simple — being understood.

← Back to All Articles
← Learn more about my services

You May Also Like: