A taste of luxury

China's emerging luxury goods market is being eyed up by brands of all sorts eager to establish themselves in what many believe will soon be the largest single premium- goods market. Admittedly China is still a developing country, but with a population of around 1.3 billion, it only takes sales among a fraction of these new rich to provide a potential sales source of tens of millions. Montblanc, which is a division of luxury goods giant Richemont, is an obvious candidate for expansion into the mainland. The brand is best known for its luxury craftsmen designed pens but more recently has branched out into other areas such as watches, eyeware, fragrances and so on. In the final quarter of last year, the brand launched a pen to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Swedish-born screen icon Greta Garbo. Elegant, beautiful, stylish and mysterious, the actress seemed the perfect match for a range of pens that was meant to epitomise exclusivity. There was, however, one major difference. Off-screen Garbo was notoriously reclusive and camera-shy, while the Montblanc promotion was designed to attract maximum attention. Wooing the papparazi proved to be no problem, the event organisers lined up a star-studded guestlist of Chinese-language cinema and television stars to add an extra touch of glitz and glamour. The bias was unashamadely feminine as Montblanc had identified women buyers as the most important target segment. The Shanghai Exhibition Centre was chosen by Montblanc as the city still lacks convenient venues capable of holding four-figure numbers, according to Cleopatra Chan, marketing manager, Greater China, Montblanc Group. Venue suitability "There is not much choice in terms of venues which can accommodate more than 1,000 people and it is a very convenient location," she says. "Planning started five months ahead of the event. We sent out about 3,000 invitations within China and a further 1,500 for guests outside. We wanted to target stars, models, business people and trendy people. We also wanted to capitalise on their presence by creating broader publicity via the mass media." The promotional event was intended to fit with broader marketing strategies for Mont Blanc in mainland China, particularly in mining gender attitudes.. "We aimed to expand our female customer base, so we needed to launch a product specifically for women. Feedback from attendees was positive, says Chan. "People said it was the best party in Shanghai all year and the one with the most famous stars and socialites." Chan describes the efforts of JW Marriott's catering team as "spectacular" "The JW Marriott had a good location near the venue, a high level of service was guaranteed as we had worked together before and the hotel has a strong reputation for catering services," she says. Service options Mark van der Wielen, director of food & Beverage and Kevin Shi, food and beverage manager, JW Marriott Hotel Shanghai, oversaw the hotel's contribution. "We had 150 service staff and 40 kitchen staff on site. There were three internal meetings and all the service staff were specially briefed on site with all the detailed sequences and presentations," says Van der Wielen. "We started the preparations three months ahead of the event. We made a site inspection, confirmed the canapés menu and food presentation and started the training for all staff," says Shi. The menu was elaborate: there were ten courses of a Chinese set dinner, ten kinds of canapés plus seven kinds of desserts served during the cocktail reception. The guests got through 150 bottles of Champagnes plus the standard bar was open for five hours. The popularity of the event proved an unexpected challenge too. "The actual number of guests was double the guaranteed number, however, we did have enough prepared food and drinks to go round," says van der Wielen.