enowned pearl jewellery brand Hodel Switzerland first accessed the China market nearly six years ago. Founder Rene Hodel has devoted himself to pearls for more than three decades and created the brand under his family name. Hodel uses the shop-in-shop strategy for its branded products and makes heavy use of social network to penetrate the high-end pearl market in Mainland China. This strategy makes the brand accessible to increasingly savvy Chinese consumers for European luxury products.
Currently, the brand is being led by the second generation of the Hodel family. Andre Hodel, director of Hodel Switzerland, shared with Hong Kong Jewellery how he leads the market expansion for the brand.
In Mainland China, the shop-in-shop concept has been successfully rolled out by giants in the jewellery industry including Chow Sang Sang (who carries luxury fashion brand Gucci) and Chow Tai Fook (who carries Swiss watch brand Franck Muller). Shop-in-shop allows the brand to carry its own identity as well as being an efficient platform for cross promotion. The scalability means that the brand can test new markets quickly and cost-effectively.
“We have been steadily making progress in Mainland China by exhibiting in jewellery shows in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen. We are now investigating second-tier cities in China such as Tianjin, Shenyang, etc to find potential markets,” said Andre Hodel.
In recent years, increased jewellery consumption in Mainland China has fostered the growth of family-owned retailers dedicated to high-end jewellery. These enterprises usually run a small number of boutique chain stores or sell jewellery as part of their diversified business model. “These retailers are actually our targeted customers,” Hodel emphasised.
He continued: “Most of these entrepreneurs are interested in representing our brand. We introduce them to the whole Hodel package including pearl education, brand history, marketing strategy, sales training, advertising etc, which is systematically applied. We make sure that each of our brand carriers consistently applies Hodel’s premier brand image, which is important in building brand awareness to general consumers.”
“Chow Sang Sang is one of our brand carriers. We have an area in the shop under our own brand name. We help train their staff with a professional pearl education module specifically about our pearls,” he added.
A recent business phenomenon emerging in Mainland China is the rise of sophisticated social network connected by the consumers. Chinese social network sites such as Sina Weibo, Wechat and others have become a channel for luxury brands to have a conversation with their customers. These communication tools allow brands to tell their story whilst engaging consumers.
Andre Hodel said: “We have been exploring social network for almost two years. The brand is very active in some social platforms. Although we don’t make sales directly via social network, we have noticed our customers are proactively promoting us on some networks, resulting in increasing sales for our products (through our brand carriers). Generally we receive very positive feedback from our customers – we have over 5,500 followers on a large foreign social network.”
He continues: “We have slightly changed our marketing strategy, investing more in social network promotion and trying to adapt to the Chinese way of using it.”
“Actually we have had to change our mentality - when we see the public sharing our pictures at such a fast pace we were worried about copyright. Actually I think consumers today are sharing them for the sake of sharing something nice and beautiful with their friends, which for us becomes an effortless approach to promotion,” he concluded.
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