Made in China

Sometimes the words "Made in China" on price-lists hinder sales. "Corillon" company offers its recommendation for such cases.

World Factory

It is no secret that in recent decades China has turned into a world factory, which provides the world with shoes, wear and a variety of goods. Inexhaustible resources of cheap labor are pushing manufacturers to shift all great new businesses from the Old World to The Heavenly Empire. As equipment, engineering staff and a monitoring system remain to be European, in terms of quality these products are no different from those that are made in Germany, France or United States.

However, certain prejudices against Chinese consumer goods are still exist. Therefore, although different sectors of consumer market have been producing from 50% to 90% of goods in China since long ago, until recently, companies were trying not to advertise goods of Asian origin, and hide behind labels a la "Designed in Italy" or "Made for Gucci".

But a couple of years ago several EU countries adopted a law, by which each product's label should contain actual country of its manufacture. As a result, cunning inscriptions had to be changed on honest ones, and bags from Gucci, jeans from D & G and clothing XXX, sold in department stores and brand boutiques of these brands, gained words "Made in China".

Customers' reaction to such markings turned to be different. Most treated their appearance quietly, but some people among us treat products with an inscription "Made in China" with doubts. "Corillon" company - Russian distributor of MEXX watches also faced prejudice of consumers about quality of Chinese products. Watches of this fashionable brand are produced by Swiss-German concern Egana Goldpfeil licensed by MEXX Europe, which majority of production facilities is located in China.

As significant proportion of MEXX watches is designed for European market, starting with last year, manufacturer started pointing place of origin on products, as Russian law requires indicating the country of manufacture and the price list. To help sellers working with doubting buyers, Corillon Company released a manual for sellers, it is a small booklet with a story about the brand and sales technology. One of chapters is devoted to counter-evidences concerning Chinese origin of goods.

Here we provide some of Corillon's recommendations.

Three reasons for doubts Having faced prejudice towards Chinese products, first of all, we need to understand why a person is concerned. Negative attitude towards product or concerns may arise due to various reasons. Most often they are based on:

• Distrust of the quality
• Fear of fakes
• Concern for prestige of purchased good

Having realized why a buyer is concerned, we can use arguments contesting this objection. So, let's explain step by step.

Stereotype 1:

Doubt in quality

Indeed, there is a very common prejudice that all Chinese products are low-quality. In fact, Chinese products are different. Yet during "reorganization" times we knew terms "primitive China", which meant a cheap low-quality production of small cooperatives, and "China factory", ie high-quality goods produced on official, state-controlled Chinese factories.

If you use this analogy, MEXX watches belong to the second category of goods. Indeed, MEXX watches made in China can be called Chinese only conventionally. Only working hands are Chinese in their manufacture. Everything else - technology, equipment, quality control system, standards and certification - are European. Most of the engineering staff at the factory is same Europeans. And who cares about nationality of a person screwing a nut tight or cleaning the shop, whether it is Chinese, or European? The ones who design the product, and control the quality of output are main characters here.

German concern EganaGoldpfeil owns plants manufacturing components and assembling MEXX watches. Specialists of European company office strictly monitor the quality of their products, because they come not only in Russia and Asia, but also markets of the U.S., Europe and Japan, where demands for products are very high.

All watches represented in the shop have the certificate of conformity to standards of quality and security, adopted in Russia.

Stereotype 2:

Doubts about originality

Many buyers believe that all Chinese products are forgery. Indeed, most fakes in the world are produced by small semi Chinese firms. However, forgery has nothing to do with MEXX watches. Manufacturers of fakes receive profit deceiving a buyer: they illegally use other people's brands, and instead of expensive materials and technologies, they use cheaper and low-quality ones. Therefore, forgery, as a rule, does not have any documents. Decent shops prefer not to deal with imitations, and those are sold on the streets, markets, etc. MEXX watches are shipped to Russia by an official dealer - the company that has a contract with official manufacturer of the watches.

The fact that forgery has nothing to do with MEXX watches is evident, just take them in your hands. Forgery uses cheap materials: brass, leatherette, they are made with numerous flaws. MEXX watches are made from expensive materials with high quality level. By the way, fake label will never contain the phrase "Made in China" - most likely illegal company will specify some prestigious country, for example - Switzerland or France.

Many watch fashion brands have certain features: they are produced not by an owner of the brand, but other company. That's how things are done in MEXX, which license for manufacture belongs to Egana HARU MFR. CORP. LIMITED, a part of Egana Goldpfeil holding. Therefore, in response to customer questions about why MEXX company is not MEXX watches manufacturer, but some other company, you should tell that the company itself does not produce MEXX watches.

Practice when, while lack of own manufacturing capacities, a brand company enters into an agreement with another company to produce goods under its own brand is very popular all over the world. For example, one of Kaliningrad plants assembles BMW cars. Exactly same arrangements are applied between the owner and MEXX brand and Swiss Egana HARU MFR. CORP. LIMITED company. This company, like many other manufacturers of watches, such as Swatch Group, has its own factory in China, where it produces the goods. Quality control, technological developments, etc. are carried out by experts of the company headquarters in Germany.

Stereotype 3:

Prestige

Today, most consumer goods, including clothing and footwear of fashion brands, are manufactured in China. However, EU legislation requires that label of goods should provide a real country of manufacture. You will find same Made in China labels on almost all goods in the company's boutique. This is a sign of good's originality. However, if you see somewhere that the product is produced in other country, there is a high probability that you deal with forgery.

Asia and quality of watches Contrary to popular belief, scientific evidence shows that, concerning watches, Asian origin is not minus, but plus in terms of quality. The research of World Labor Organization (WLO) on international division of labor found that the leadership of Asian companies in the manufacture of watches and other such products has a physiological basis. It turns out that young woman - born in China, Malaysia and Philippines, are most adapted to monotonous work during long time without any loss. Europeans, by contrast, cannot be engaged in similar work for a long. They get tired quickly and quality of their work is greatly reduced. Manufacture of middle-class watches is based, firstly, on use of automation, which does not require human labor, and secondly, delicate monotonous work, which Chinese workers are most suited to.

 


Published: 05/08/2009