Lvmh: Expanding Brand Dominace in Asia

As globalisation brings in new and various products, counterfeit goods also spread quickly. This has a negative influence on local retailers and trademark owners by taking away part of their local market share, taking advantage of the designs of a brand’s

Totally contrary to enthusiastic claims that fake handbags and other counterfeit goods are indistinguishable from the originals, in fact these knock-off products typically leave a lot to be desired. The real items are usually individually handmade from the best materials using only the most perfect stitching, while fakes are mass produced. In addition, the counterfeit industry is tied to the globalization of organized crime, so the money people spend on forgeries while being pleased at their savings ends up in the pocket of a thief at best, and the mob, terrorists, or drug cartels at worst. In short, even if cultural relativism is taken into consideration, it is difficult to say that counterfeiting actions are in any way going to improve the

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.

The reason of the creating competitive pressure to firms is that which from the enhancing the quality but decreasing the price synchronously. The key of success is that the firms and organizations which treat “Global Sourcing” as a weapon fighting with its competitors.

The first recommendation for this firm is to adopt a global policy and try and explore new markets so that market growth and market share can be expanded. In case of a firm entering an international market, it requires to analyze the nature of the market and suitably form its marketing strategies in alignment with its business strategy and decide whether it is more beneficial to adopt a global approach or use a strategy that is customized to suit the needs of the local customers.

Counterfeiting is quite the popular industry. That is, it seems as though almost everyone has a counterfeit good these days, or at least a friend or family member does. These unique booths are constantly crowded with people just dying to get the best deal on a knockoff item so they can show it off to their friends as the real thing. However, these people don’t realize the actions they evoke when they support these industries. Most counterfeit industries rely on child labor and human trafficking to

An increasing economic interdependence of national economies across the world experiences a rapid cross-border movement of goods, service, technology and capital. Luxury goods industry, serve as one of the most competitive industry, emerging and developing rapidly all the time. To a great extent, globalization promotes the development of luxury goods industry significantly in spite of the big shock hit by several times of economic crisis.

Ten years ago, it was easy to walk into a store and find fake or knockoff products. Today, it’s much harder to find people and businesses that are selling counterfeit products.

This is an international marketing strategy that largely focuses on the commercial efforts and advertising on the benefits of concentrating on local markets rather than using global or universal approach. This, therefore, means that the company will employ work towards understanding culture of different local markets in various countries and try to enter into the studied market using the demographics in that area. The greatest effort required in this strategy is using advertising as well presentation to try and appease local sensibilities in various countries rather than applying a mass market strategy. So that this strategy can be successful it is crucial to carry out extensive research in different countries that the company hopes to invest (Leontiades, 2010). By learning how the company can be able to create a good connection with the consumers in various countries using multi-domestic strategy can assist to build a lot of tactics which can be integrated into markets that have many similarities. Learning how to closely associate with customers will also assist customize marketing and advertising efforts to match with the present local culture. Although multi-domestic strategy may be somehow expensive to employ its end result are more profitable to the company. When the company’s products are able to

This behavior brings competitive advantages to the European luxury brands. Moreover, customers in different countries have different purchase behaviors. For instance, some countries’ customers are willing to move away from common recognized brand, because they want to purchase more exclusive products. Furthermore, because of the increasing speed of globalization, people are more likely willing to travel between different countries. These travelers will buy luxury good during their trips. In fact, Chinese tourists contributed over one third of sales in Europe. The luxury goods industry should notice to adjust the actual demand between local people and tourists in Europe

Moreover, even though producing in Vietnam would suppose a strong saving in cost in the labor-intensive processes, the risk of mold duplications and counterfeits is high. The imitation of the company’s products would eliminate the differentiation that allows them to charge a much higher price than the local manufacturers (15$ compared to 3$). Also, the company lacks of experience establishing a wholly owned subsidiary in a new country.

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]

In terms of social culture, for one thing, the China consumers are attracted by middle- and high-end products and somehow more attracted by French luxury goods, and they believe that the higher the price, the better the quality (Yuval, Vinay and Cathy, 2011, para7) (Exhibit 1). For another thing, the traditional virtue of thrift is rooted in the mindset of the Chinese, with which some of the rich in China indicate that they would not spend a large sum of money to get a product.

Considering current market condition, customers’ increasing aspiration for social approval by sorts of luxury brands has generated an environment of counterfeiting. In recent years, the value of counterfeiting products, which are traded, is expected to grow to $450 to $650 billion by year 2015. Based on statistic data, fashion is taking the greatest proportion of counterfeiting product in Italy in year 2008 (shown in Table I). Besides, since luxury brands like Prada are also producing and selling watches and perfumes etc., the counterfeit product of luxury brands is much more than the value of counterfeit of fashion. It is obvious that counterfeiting products have been growing into a significant threat to luxury products. The category of Prada can be also found in Table 1 below, ranging from Fashion, IT product, to even Toy.