Louis Vuitton

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).

Another challenge for Louis Vuitton is the market and brand dilution as it has already entered and successfully fit in the Japanese market. The products have already maintained the “acceptable” group, and the company has become to feel difficult to increase the revenue. The figure provided in the case showed that nearly half of the Japanese have Louis Vuitton-monogrammed items by the time of 2007. This seemed to make LV prevalent but not luxury any more. To maintain its brand image, it is

The author who inspired the topic of this thesis is Dana Thomas. As a fashion writer, Dana Thomas, has analyzed the changes in luxury fashion business. Thomas has been writing about fashion for the past twenty-five years in various journals such as Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, New Yorker, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Financial Times, and more. Dana Thomas’ two books, Deluxe and Gods and Kings, are the inspiration for this thesis. Deluxe: How Luxury Lost Its Lustre goes into great detail the secrets of the leading luxury industry brands, namely Prada, Gucci and Burberry, to showcase the “New Luxury” of today and how “luxury lost its luster” by featuring the manufacturing and logistical processes. Thomas exposes that many luxury brands use the same Asian factories that mass-market retailers employ, which raises questions concerning quality and craftsmanship for luxury brands.

Most luxury brands have been family-owned or -controlled and, consequently, were single-brand firms for the most part. However, mergers and acquisitions have been growing in the industry, with LVMH leading the way. Our strategic recommendation is to follow LVMH’s lead and acquire a multitude of diverse companies to build the Gucci portfolio.

LVMH, known as Moët Hennessy • Louis Vuitton, is a French conglomerate and the largest producer of luxury goods in the world. LVMH was formed in 1987 with the merger of Moet et Chandon a champagne manufacturer, Hennessy a cognac manufacturer, and Louis Vuitton a fashion house.

It is hard to imagine that after the financial crisis swept across Europe, many great transitional enterprises had to face collapse and bankrupt while the luxury goods industry become more prosperous. Recently, the French luxury goods group LVMH announced their recent business condition. The volume of the first week in October had incredibly increased by 12% the previous week. The Hermes Corporation also said that in order to meet the increasing number of market demand, it would open 15 branch stores in the latter half of the year. These aroused some fierce debates, the public held a skeptical opinion towards the questions: How can the luxury companies maintain their positions? Why didn’t they strike down by financial crisis?

The Plaintiff, Louis Vuitton Malletier ,is a French fashion house founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The famous label is well known for its LV monogram, which is featured on most of its products. Louis Vuitton is considered as one of the world’s most valuable and prestigious brands. The LV monogram was created in 1896 by Louis’ son Georges Vuitton who invented the symbol and the letters represent his father’s initials. The logo is a Japanese-inspired flower motif which initially was created as a way to prevent counterfeiting. This

Executive Summary: Luxottica Group Luxottica Group is a major player in the modern business world and a prime candidate for a marketing case study. Dominating the luxury eyewear market, Luxottica employs several notable marketing strategies in its highly profitable business model. To understand the reasons for the success of this company, several factors relating to marketing must be examined in detail. This case study will examine several of Luxottica Group’s sustainable competitive advantages, including market dominance, vertical integration, and luxury/brand recognition.

Louis Vuitton is considered under the luxury goods industry. The luxury goods industry is a high profitable industry with low outside threat. There are only few large players in the industry and they server to the wealthiest people in the world. The luxury companies have high power to control the price so they have ability to grow sustainably.

The overall sales of luxury goods in the year 2009 is expected to be more than US$150 billion and Asia contributes 10% to it. The concept of luxury is now not confined to only to Europe and US, the Asian subcontinent contributes majorly to it, with India and China as the newly emerging markets. Professor James Twitchell (2002) comments on the democratization of luxury and the changing consumer psychology These new customers for luxury are younger than clients of the old luxe used to be, they are far more numerous, they make their money far sooner, and they are far more flexible in financing and fickle in choice. They do not

Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy, a luxury goods provider is looking to expand their brand dominance in Asia. In order to expand successfully LVMH must evaluate challenges that may arise and get in the way of their successful expansion. In the Asian market, LVMH must deal with political and cultural uncertainties, the threat of counterfeit products, and the increased cost of products in Asia compared to France.

Luxury brands are becoming more a more popular everyday. More people are spending more just os they can have the name brand look. Except, not many people really know what they are paying for. They don’t know where their two thousand dollar purse came from or who was the manager in charge of the person who designed the thousand dollar bottle of Champagne they just popped open on new years. Most people really don’t know who or what it takes to give them the finer things in life. The answer to these questions though is one company that has been striving in the light as the luxury company is LVMH. Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA was founded in 1987 and now owns over 60 brands like Dom Perignon champagne and Bulgari jewelry. That is all people seem to know though, the luxury brands and not the organization behind it.

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]

Luxury product sales boost in the emerging marketing like China, which has extraordinary growth and strong potential consumers for the development of luxury goods in the China market. With gradually lower and lower increase of revenue in the European countries, Louis Vuitton (abridged as LV in the following sections) commits itself to set up more stores in China. However, LV is faced with the problems of declining profits in China, which urges it to adjust its entry strategy into the China market. In this case, this report will focus on distinguishing the factors that influence LV’s development in China and