If you don’t have a real story in China, you can always make one up, and as long as you are bullish and consistent enough about it, people will accept that what you tell them is real. We have seen premium brands claim to be luxury and position themselves as such in China where the populous knows no different.

For Chinese brands, association with movie and music stars has been something they have leveraged for a while. The most recent ‘coat tail’ Chinese brands have held onto has been the Chinese President and first lady. Previous occupants of these positions did not have the charisma and style of Mr Xi and his wife, and China was not such an important global player in the past.

So now Chinese ‘luxury’ brands are using the visits of Mr Xi to overseas destinations as their queue to appear on the scene as though they had always been around and were part of China’s heritage. On such example is…

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