Louis Vuitton in Japan

CASE STUDY REPORT

“LOUIS VUITTON IN JAPAN”

1.        Executive summary        8

2.        Statement of the Report Objectives        9

3.        Introduction        9

4.        Case Study Analysis        11

i.        Japanese Consumer Behavior: Social Class        11

The Upper Class        12

The Middle Class        12

The Lower Class        12

ii.        Louis Vuitton’s entry into Japanese Market        12

Segmentation        12

Target Market        13

Positioning        14

iii.        Marketing Strategy        15

Product        15

Price        15

Promotion        16

Place        17

5.        Problems Solving        18

i.        Problem 1:        18

Counterfeiting Problem:        18

Counterfeiting Solution        18

ii.        Problem 2:        19

Remain Competitive Problem:        19

Remain Competitive Solution: Limited editions        19

iii.        Problem 3:        20

Massively Distribution problem:        20

Massively Distribution Solution:        20

iv.        Problem 4:        21

Attract Consumer Problem:        21

Attract Consumer Solution:        21

6.        Louis Vuitton SWOT analysis        22

STRENGTHS        22

WEAKNESSES        22

OPPORTUNITIES        23

THREATS        23

7.        Conclusion        23

8.        References        24

1. Introduction

Louis Vuitton (LV), as we all know, is one of the most successful organizations in the whole World. Even though with the ups and downs scenarios, the organization from France is still there doing what it does the best to everyone with its product lines such as luggage, fashion and leather goods, perfumes and cosmetics, and many others. There are a lot of stories one could tell people about the journey of LV to be one of the top at the moment. The stories go to the likes of the Louis Vuitton Malletier, the family business, the changes of the Chief Executive Officer, the mergers, the new appointment of important people in the organization, the idea of penetrating the Japanese market, and many more. Every story took LV to the next level and gave positive impacts to LV itself.

The founder of the company is Louis Vuitton Malletier. Today, all of us know him as Louis Vuitton. He was born in 1821 in Anchay, Jura, France. When he turned sixteen years old, he decided to do something grand in order to change his own life and also the whole of his family (also future generation of Vuitton’s family). To do that, he started his journey by becoming a trunk master in Paris even before he founded his own company. The time he worked for Monsieur Maréchal was the time the horse-drawn carriages, boats and trains were the most-used transportation, and baggage was handled in a bad way. Since travellers were looking for craftsmen to create something that could pack and protect their individual objects, Louis Vuitton had become one of them and also a valued craftsman at the Parisian atelier of Monsieur Maréchal. Since then, in 1854, Louis Vuitton founded his own company which he named after his own name; Louis Vuittion: Malletier à Paris (Louis Vuitton: Luggage maker in Paris). Around thirty years later, Louis Vuitton managed to open his very first branch in overseas. That was in London, England.

Those years had been great to Louis Vuitton and his company. In 1892, the ownership of LV has to change following the death of Louis Vuitton and that went to his own son; George Vuitton. Even though with the death of its actual owner, LV was better since George Vuitton in charged because he was so ambitious to introduce and build a global brand and setting up a multinational corporation. He decided to travel all around the United States in order to promote the brand. The company began to do this by opening its stores in New York, Bombay, Washington, London, Alexandria and Buenos Aires.

In 1936, LV, once again, has to change its owner to Louis Vuitton’s great-grandson, Gaston-Louis Vuitton following the death of his son, George Vuitton. Gaston’s era was another fresh started for the company because this was actually the modern age of LV. Gaston expended the product line of LV by applying the craftwork and design of its leather to small goods such as purses and wallets. Besides that, Gaston started to use new marketing strategy for LV brand as he used Hollywood celebrity actresses, Audrey Hepburn to carry one of LV’s bags in 1963 in the film Charade. This was the first time for the company to use famous individual as its marketing strategy.

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