Tiffany & Co. to Boost Marketing Spend in China Next Year

(IDEX Online News) – Upscale jeweler Tiffany & Co. aims to make a bigger impact on consumers in China by boosting investment in the country next year, with a larger marketing spend than in any other market, said Chairman and Chief Executive Michael Kowalski.

The distinctive shade of Tiffany blue will appear on store facades and in-store signage will be bigger, Kowalski said, while declining to disclose how much the company planned to invest in the changes.

"We've learned that we need to be more overt about how we present the brand," Kowalski said in comments to The Wall Street Journal.

Tiffany is likely to see sales growth of more than 10 percent in China, Kowalski said, while adding that the market is volatile due to changing habits and trends. He did not disclose exact sales figures.

Although optimistic about the market in China, he said he wished there was a stronger tradition of buying wedding rings.

To court affluent Chinese consumers, Tiffany sometimes hosts VIP breakfasts, and is creating more private rooms in its stores to lure shoppers, Kowalski said.

Tiffany's third-quarter sales from the Asian-Pacific region, excluding Japan, surged 27 percent from a year earlier to $238 million.

Tiffany doesn't plan to expand the number of stores rapidly across China, Kowalski said. Of its 68 stores in the Asian-Pacific region, 24 are in China, up from seven in 2008. Tiffany will open three stores a year in the near future so executives can maintain store quality and gauge China's appetite for its gems, he said.

Retail sales of gold, silver and jewelry rose 14 percent in October from a year earlier to $3.6 billion, according to China's National Bureau of Statistics.