The key word that Swarovski misleads Chinese consumers is not crystal, but artificial. First of all, the word crystal is often a common name, such as crystal manicure, crystal lamp, and even a pair of plastic sandals I bought can be called crystal shoes, but these are not natural crystals! Everyone knows it! So there was nothing wrong with Swarovski calling itself crystal when it entered China! It’s not the translation’s fault at all! It’s not the fault of consumers’ misunderstanding! Consumers are not obligated to understand the gemological name of everything. I have diamonds on my mobile phone case and diamonds on my nails, but everyone knows that they are not diamonds. That is enough. As for what the stickers are, Is it plastic? Glass? Resin? unimportant! Just look good! Is it right? In the same way, sapphire watches, luminous crystal balls, crystal princess shoes, emerald cabbage, I will always call them industrial products!
So whether Swarovski is crystal or not is not the key point of the misunderstanding. The key point is "natural". The Chinese have a long-standing belief that what is natural is good and what is man-made is bad. This idea is actually nonsense, but it has a profound impact on China's decoration consumer market. Anything that is "natural" or "handmade" will increase its value. So the biggest problem with Swarovski is that they never advertise that what they sell is natural crystal, but the price is several times or even dozens of times higher than ordinary crystal handicrafts on the market! So in the eyes of consumers who just go into the store to take a look without in-depth understanding - such expensive things must be natural and real crystals - can such a big store still sell fakes - such an idea! This is the source of the misunderstanding! Because in the eyes of most Chinese people, natural = real = expensive, artificial = fake = cheap.