20500687_Entry 2

Louis Vuitton’s Life of Luxury

This article deals with LVMH’s culture and how to market the global growth of a prestige brand. Before I make any comment about this article, I researched what LVMH is. LVMH is a French holding company and one of the world’s largest luxury goods conglomerates according to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. I always wonder how these luxury brands survive with that extremely high price because I think there are not many demands considering consumers’ interests and buying abilities. However Louis Vuitton achieved total sales for 2006 increase nearly 10% from the previous year, to $20 billion. Isn’t it amazing?

Louis Vuitton brand in China, India, and Japan?

The Louis Vuitton brand opened in China in 1992. In the beginning, there were doubts whether this brand survives in China or not since Chinese first didn’t understand luxury. However, Yves Carcell, Chairman and chief executive officer of Louis Vuitton had strong confidence to penetrate the Chinese market. They kept trying to approach to developing the market and never compromising with any operational obstacles, and manage every aspect of the business. Eventually, Louis Vuitton became the most successful luxury brand in China. Besides China, Louis Vuitton is looking forward to settle their brand in India since Indian market has high potential to be developed and their plan of volume of business is proportionally larger than when they did in China. In Japan, on the other hand, the luxury customers are very demanding and they like to see the details. Japanese customers inspire Louis Vuitton to progress to continually improve.

Marketing Strategy

Louis Vuitton has strong belief that customers’ in-store experience is almost as important as the quality of product itself. This is a new trend in luxury retail. The brand’s prestige is maintained mostly by famous fashion designer such as Marc Jacobs and the contemporary artist Takashi Murakami. When Louis Vuitton releases the newest design, they limit the volume of products. This strategy makes the brand unique and more luxurious. It implies customers that only few luxurious people can buy the product. However, Louis Vuitton plans on maintaining its prestige by making traditional suitcases in the same way as in the 19th century. That way they can pursue creativity and respect for quality at the same time and keep their name value and brand’s prestige high.

Louis Vuitton’s strategy is well known. They have shown many successes as if the representative among many luxury brands. Louis Vuitton, not only their collaborated design by famous fashion designer, but also their customer value when they refer customers’ feedbacks and opinions proactively to fulfill their satisfaction, I think Louis Vuitton surely has strong power to keep their prestige of brand firm.