Discreet by design(2)

According to Zhou Ting, dean of Fortune Character Institute, the information that many brands have released to media about their future strategic plans of reducing big logo products was based on the advice given by the institute's report. Chinese people's purchasing power has made their aesthetics more valuable to the luxury brands.

"The Chinese consumers are supporting the luxury industry worldwide," said Zhou, adding that not only is the Chinese market the biggest in the world now, but also Chinese consumers account for 50 to 70 percent of consumption of luxury products in many foreign markets.

A similar finding by Bain&Company, an industry consulting firm, also concluded that Chinese customers still purchase 25 percent of the goods sold on the global luxury market in 2012.

Causes clarified

Zhou told the Global Times that two main causes contributed to the changes in preference. The first is that top brands like Gucci and LV have been expanding massively around China in the past two decades and are now recognized in third and fourth-tier cities as well as the big cities.

On one hand, counterfeit goods are everywhere, making products with big logos no longer a positive representation for the people who wear or carry them. For many customers, this reduces the value of the brand names.

For people who cannot afford luxury products, big logos suggest a gap between different classes, which further magnifies social problems and builds resentment.

The second cause is that Chinese consumers generally like to try new things and do not usually maintain brand loyalty. They will readily abandon products that everyone easily recognizes.

A change in the political environment also contributed to the decrease of big logos on products. As a large number of purchase orders for luxury products were used as gifts to officials in the past, new anti-corruption efforts emphasized by President Xi Jinping made people who wanted to buy big brands with recognizable logos switch to high-end products with less obvious symbols in order to avoid political trouble.