China is the second largest economy in the world, and every significant brand's future is impacted by its growth (or collapse!); but who's got the time?! A weekly potpourri of ten reads that will make you look like a keen China observer during any conversation about China.

As China's trade growth slows (see WSJ.com video report above), read on for Bain's mainland shopper intel, a "wine city" for China's nouveau wine connoisseurs and more: Continue reading...

Executives at such luxury brands as Burberry, Louis Vuitton, and Versace can breathe a sigh of relief. The annual luxury market study by leading consultant Bain & Company is bullish on high-end goods, predicting a strong 2011. According to Bain, sales of global luxury goods should break the 2007 record next year.

Not surprisingly, demand by Chinese consumers for luxury goods — some call it "label lust" — will drive the uptick, with growth of as much as 30 percent. Europe will see a 6 percent rise, while Japan will recover more slowly. The U.S. luxury goods market, which dropped 15 percent this year, may see a 12 percent increase in 2011.

Luxury goods marketers were positively giddy at the news. Santo Versace, chairman of the Italian fashion brand Versace and chair of Altagamma, an Italian luxury goods association, proclaimed, "In the first half of this year we talked about a light at the end of the tunnel. On the basis of the preliminary 2010 figures, we can confirm that positive trend."

The latest figures from high-end marketers seem to support the Bain forecast.  LVMH, owner of such brands as Burberry, Gucci, Krug, and Louis Vuitton, enjoyed a 14 percent increase in third quarter sales. Burberry, also an LVMH brand, reported that in the first six months of 2010, sales in its Chinese stores were up 25 percent.

Not all luxury goods will see improvement, however; Bain predicts that luxury yachts will likely experience a "double digit" decline in sales. Overall, Bain said, leather bags, jewelry, shoes and watches would be the biggest risers with an expected gain of around 8 percent next year.

As one CEO-turned-politician, Mayor Michael Bloomberg of NYC, cruises to a third term, the run for California governor by ex-eBay chief Meg Whitman is stumbling at the starting gate, while her successor at the online auction giant abandons Whitman's strategies as fast as possible. Is the CEO politician brand still viable?

Writing in Ad Age, Simon Dumenco notes that Whitman's announcement she's seeking the Republican nomination for governor was spoiled by London legal proceedings involving the fraudulent sale of millions of dollars of golf clubs and other counterfeit goods over eBay -- as well as a lawsuit by the founders of Skype, whose questionable 2005 purchase by eBay, like the golf fraud, took place during Whitman's reign. Writes Dumenco:

Meg Whitman still believes in a formerly powerful media myth: the omnipotence of the Celebrity CEO. Meg Whitman got rich -- she's a billionaire -- running eBay, and during the boom years, at least, she got endless gushing coverage from the then-hagiographical business press. Back then, of course, CEOs were pretty much automatically rock stars (particularly tech CEOs). They were gods, "wealth creators," kings and queens of both the economy and the culture -- choose your metaphor.Continue reading...