Canada Goose’s success in China reveals the working class spirit inside Chinese
In a decade, Canada Goose is a clothing brand focusing on providing the warmest jackets and parkas that their customers could wear under the most extreme weather conditions has bloomed in China. Its success in forgein markets is based on the quality of the product itself and the way that it utilizes advertisement and the store decorations; beside these obvious reasons, the most essential factor for its achievement is how it rouses the deep spirit inside every Chinese heart: the pride in working classes. Why do working classes matter so much for Chinese people?
Before October 1st, 1949, China’s government structure was strictly central political and regalism. Commons and most working classes, who had no relation with the king and didn’t have a spot in the government, were living under the worst condition. As a result of being slaved inhumanly for hundreds of years, ZeDong Mao, the first president of “new China,” led the working classes to overthrow the rule. According to Mao’s idea, there was nothing people should be more proud of other than borning in a working family and becoming a worker to contribute and build the country. Nowadays, People’s opinions are nothing more like that. Due to the fact that elements from other asian countries, especially the boy brand, spread so well in China, the aesthetics of the whole young generation has largely been influenced. Most girls prefer to date boys who have similar outlooks with their idols: clean look, slim body shape, and white skin color. Thus, in order to get the girls’ attention and be more competitive, boys revise their strategies; instead of working out and getting tanned, they start to “be like idols”, such as revising the way they dress, protecting their skin from sunlight, and dressing in fancy shirts. Whereas, the government of China believes this aesthetics of man is out of the right path, so it has spent great time and effort on trying to reclaim traditional manhood that a man should be tough and strong, in recent years.
Here above is an advertising picture from Canada Goose, which shows how Canada Goose could be so triumphant. The background, the snow mountain, of this advertisement takes place somewhere in extreme cold and severe weather, which forms a sense of broadness and wildness. In addition, the condition of the weather and the line on the right corner also implies that the company is exponentially confident with their product’s quality. Take a closer look, from the picture we could see how most of the jackets are designed — simple and singular color, stiff fabric, and cozy without weight style. The facial expression of the man that a deep frown on his face, he looks forward with a feeling of determination, tells us that he is gonna explore and conquer this deserted land. All of these details embodied the characteristics of masculinity in a traditional way that a man should be brave, ambitious, and unstoppable.
All the elements I mentioned above, easily appeal to Chinese people, especially the middle class. Why is that? The over advertising of masculinity perfectly fits the people’s impression of the working class in the 1950’s and the expectation of the government at the same time, and this noticeable and unique outlook almost exactly like older people’s working suits; however, I am not saying that these people who reach their 50’s are the main customers of this brand. In fact, it is their children who had been infuse the spirit of working class and seen how their parent were being respected as workers, but didn’t have a chance to experience these all by themselves, due to some historical problems that this over publicity of working class was critiqued as brainwashing and agasinted by people for years. The unknown desire was hidden in this “children’s” heart until globalization brought this product from the otherside of the world to China. In addition, the way Canada Goose advertising their products destroys the final line of defense for them; In the article “The keys to Canada Goose’s success,” Tricia Mckinnon, the author, clearly states that rather than spending tons of money on the celebrities to wear the jackets walking through the airport, the company wisely put the pictures of people who works in the coldest place on the Earth not only to show their confidence toward their products and prove the quality of their warmness, but also present their sincere tribute to the working classes. “We tell the stories of the people who actually use our products. … People who live and work in the coldest places on earth, like Antarctica and Northern Canada, our original market”(Reiss, 2020). Another angle to look at that point is the price of it. Canada Goose is not like Nike or Adidas concentrating greatly on the selling amount. By limiting the production to raising up the price, some versions of parkas could reach $1000 or even higher. This luxury price again triggers the vanity inside these “children”, making them have the feeling of being respected by people just as their parents were back to the cultural revolution, though the reasons why other people boost them have no similarity at all. As a result, doesn’t like their parents, who was born and working in the cultural revolution era, having a chance to be praised merely due to their working status, being a member of middle class, the easiest way for the “children” to “become” their parents and get “similar” respectfulness from others is to dress like them, which is why Canada Goose is the perfect option.
Some people may argue that the whole point of why people buy these jackets is extremely ridiculous, since it is so ironic that a working class’s dress is as expensive as 1000 bucks. However, without this price, the customers will never be able to enjoy the feeling of being respected and attention from others. Time is different, the status of the working class is no longer as high as it’s in the 1950’s; no one prefers to get a job like bricklayer or farmer. This scenario exposes the problem behind the scene: globalization merely transfers the superficial idea rather than the spirit, most of the time. What these Chinese customers really aspire to is the spirit of the working class, which are the elements of masculinity, being brave, gritty, and strong, but not just the outlook of it. The reason why people were always viewing the working class as symbols of power and merit is also from these characters they contained.
As I analyzed above, although quality, nationalism, and wise advertising strategies all contribute to its success in its global market, the decisive and crucial factor to its victory in China is still the pride in the working class, because as time passes, numerous local and foreign companies try to compete with it, and they are comfort, fashion, and pride in national as well as Canada Goose is, but none of them could replace or take the position of it. The success of a product globally, it’s never merely depending on the quality and outlook of it, but the cultural value it carries inside its product and how other countries view the significance of it. On the other side, the blooming of Canada Goose also reveals the contradictions of young Chinese people’s values. The young always tend to stay on the easier path rather than taking the right but hard one. For example, if they really appreciate the working class, should they adopt masculinity from the working class and be a real man, or buy an expensive foreign brand and dress like the working class to show their careness?
resources:
https://www.strengthflexibilitybalance.com/canada-goose-advertisement
https://www.indigo9digital.com/blog/the-keys-to-canada-gooses-success
https://www.zhihu.com/question/61297389
https://www.businessinsider.com/canada-goose-jackets-expensive-2019-2
https://hbr.org/2019/09/the-ceo-of-canada-goose-on-creating-a-homegrown-luxury-brand
