Geographic Segmentation Of Louis Vuitton

Levi’s decided to place their product in department stores as they had good relations with the retailers due to their volume sales of jeans. They did not have any real relationship with the specialty stores where the independent male shopped. Rather than placing their new products which would be considered as high-end in these specialty stores and where they would be among the lower price range, they chose to place their products in the department stores where their products showed a deviation from the regular Levi formula and were considered very pricy as compared to other high-end department store brands such as Haggar’s. This price raised some concerns among the retailers as they were unsure if Levi’s formal wear would move out of the stores at a required pace. Also, due to price-quality inference, if Levi’s was placed in a specialty store, the Q2 customer might prefer to buy a more expensive product.  Levi tried to sell these formal clothes in the same stores as their casual clothes for the same segment of customers. Customers saw these formal clothes at the same place priced higher than the casuals, and therefore found them to be expensive.

This expansion demonstrates how the luxury industry is now run by massive corporations whose focus is only on growth, visibility, brand awareness, advertising, and most importantly, PROFITS! With growth and expansion, has come a decrease in quality and rarity. The luxury garments produced are mostly not handmade but are even outsourced to large factories in places such as China and Turkey. Also, to meet quarterly turnover projections, “designers churn(ed) out increasingly trendy collections of clothes, handbags, and shoes.” (Thomas, Pg. 246) With hundreds of new stores around the globe the surplus of designer labeled merchandise is immense hence, the proliferation of outlet malls.

Louis Vuitton “was established in France in 1854 by Louis Vuitton and became known as one of the oldest French luxury fashion houses” in the industry (Pearce & Robinson, 2013, p. 14-2). The firm’s products range from high quality “leather goods, handbags, trunks, shoes, watches, jewelry, and accessories”; manufactured by highly skilled and expensive laborers in France (Forbes.com, 2016). In addition, Louis Vuitton market their products “in 50 countries with more than 460 shops and generates more than €7-billion ($9.5-billion U.S.) in annual sales” (Wendlandt, 2013).

Meanwhile, some consumers were also attracted by the counterfeit products, which have the same design and considerable quality. The situation of LV in Japan seems to be fierce, however, with effective solutions, LV can also seize the opportunity to sustain profitability in Japanese market rather than just survive. As it is stated in the case that Japanese consumers had been holding the desire for inexpensive luxury products from Louis Vuitton. Therefore, to solve this problem and attract more customers, LV should strive to make “inexpensive” products by increasing the value of products, lowering the costs and prices, and finally creating high value for the consumers. As the scandal of counterfeit sold on the websites in 2008 led to a decline in the sales of Louis Vuitton products, it can be viewed as a valued opportunity for Louis Vuitton to establish its own business online since it can both add selling channels and empower the company to fight with counterfeiting.

Some studies results show that the customers are willing to pay even more for Rose’s new brand than it was suggested to them. So the company has the possibility to increase the price by 6-7% at their new products in order to cover the expenses with advertising.

Price is an important factor in Burberry as price affects the value that costumers perceive they get from buying a product (Jobber & Ellis-Chadwick, 2012). Burberry uses competitive pricing similar to its competitors which produces a psychological effect on Burberry customers (Jacobson, n.d). If Burberry for example lowered its price dramatically then customers may believe the quality has decreased and may presume it’s not worthy to be named a luxury brand. However by being expensive it suggest better quality and desire to sustain its customers as well as making there products seem exclusive.

International market segmentation is the dividing of market into segments, this allow marketers to effectively determine whether business can thrive in a particular area. Segmentation is based on four factor namely geographical, psychographic, demographic and lastly behavioral segmentation. Geographical segmentation refers to grouping markets geographically such as nations, states or cities. Psychographic segmentation is the dividing of buyers into groups based on lifestyle or social class/status. Demographic segmentation uses factors like age, gender, occupation and etc to separate markets into groups. Last but not least, behavioral segmentation, this kind of segmentation divides buyer into groups by their knowledge about particular

Value Added Pricing – Lululemon uses this pricing strategy when creating their apparel. Rather than cutting costs and making a lower quality product, they add extra features such as adjustable straps and women’s pockets to differentiate themselves from their competitors as well as help their target market justify spending more money on their products.

Geographic – According to Kotler and Keller (2012), geographical segmentation involves dividing the market into smaller geographical units like regions, states, nations or neighborhoods. For PepsiCo, its market is not highly geographically segmented as people from any geographical unit can purchase its products. The company markets and sells its products both domestically and internationally through its six recognized segments or regions including: Frito-Lay North America, Quaker Foods North America, North America Beverages, Latin America, Europe and Sib-Saharan Africa, and Asia, Middle East and North Africa regions. While the company targets both urban and rural areas, it makes more sales in big cities that are densely populated.

After buying a product, the consumer compares it with expectations and is either satisfied or dissatisfied. This is the Post-purchase evaluation which involves evaluation of purchased products and comparison with alternative options that the market might have. Cognitive dissonances are shown by the fact many people point at the sexy image of the brand, too much involved in Pink's products due to the core brand fame. Victoria Secret then has to persuade the « potential buyer » that their products satisfy all their clients’ needs in the aim of managing post-purchase stage.

Louis Vuitton was a French box-producer and packer who established the extravagance brand of the same name in excess of 150 years back. From humble beginnings in the French field, Vuitton 's aptitude, development and determination rapidly saw his mark trunks desired by the world 's tip top. Presently, with Marc Jacobs in charge as innovative chief since 1997, the house has extended its putting forth to incorporate packs, apparel, shoes, frill and adornments, making it a standout amongst the most profitable extravagance marks on the planet.

In Japan, the costs of LVMH handbags cost approximately 40% more than in France. This started a growing market to distribute bags from France to Japan for resale at a cheaper price. Arnault believes that the producers of LVMH’s goods need to be unrestrained by financial matters in order to produce extremely high quality products. To keep the brand management of highly priced and high quality goods, LVMH needs to expand to the younger new money of the Asian market. The high quality is also a result of the mentality that “Made in France” is perceived as high western quality. LVMH does not want to lower the labor costs because there would be a similar direction of the quality.

LVMH’s brand portfolio is a catalogue of the finest things money can buy. Arnault said, “A Star brand is timeless, modern, fast growing and highly profitable.”[iii] LVMH has positioned its brands strongly in the luxury segment offering more than 50 different brands under their five core competencies. LVMH has been successful through all of their various brands in their portfolio giving them each their independence and creativity. “LVMH is well known for leaving much operational and marketing freedom to the various brands it owns.”[iv] “LVMH has done an excellent job of brand positioning, says Ben Cavender, senior analyst at China Market Research Group. It has succeeded in securing the particularly enviable position of gaining a following among the top percentage of China’s wealthy. As the financial crisis stretches on, LVMH customers in China still have money to spend.[v] “LVMH’s brand imaging, which relies heavily on pushing its European heritage, is so successful that it has benefited other brands by proxy, says Paul French, one of the founders of Access Asia, a group dedicated to tracking regional consumer and marketing trends. “Everyone hangs on the coattails of Louis Vuitton’s brand imaging in China.”[vi]

On the other hand, the large market potential has drawn a host of luxury-goods companies to enter the China market, which makes the competition fiercer and fiercer. And it is troublesome for LV that there are plenty of fake goods imitating LV’s style prevailing in China, which are actually not likely to reduce LV’s high-end consumers, but would exert negative influences on consumers’ impression and awareness of LV.

The feature of luxury is base on the fact that it is a brand, which is a basic discrepancy of luxury and craftsmanship. According to Keller (2003, p.60), “brand equity is the differential effect that brand knowledge has on consumer response to the marketing of the brand”. It is related to the added value of goods provided by the make as well (Farquhar, 1989). Therefore, companies having strong brands could sustain their differentiation (Aaker, 1996) and reach better “financial leverage” (Ind, 1997) than those do not have (Nyadzayo et al., 2011). Thus organizations, which produce luxury objects, need to create and maintain their brand equity.