Louis Vuitton Expansion Strategy

Louis Vuitton Expansion Strategy Operating in 59 countries, Louis Vuitton is the largest global luxury brand in the world. It is a member of the Louis Vuitton Moà «t Hennessy Group and the main business unit of the conglomerate s fashion and leather goods segment. Louis Vuitton has been very successful in selling its famous handbags, shoes, suitcases and other luxury goods and generated revenues of about $ 4 billion in 2004. Louis Vuitton opened the first store in India in 2003 and one year later the second one in Mumbai, both located in luxury hotels. 2. Problem Statement One main goal for Louis Vuitton is to acquire a customer base of one million Indians by 2010. In order to achieve that it is not only important to serve high-net-worth consumers, but it is also crucial to target the so called cocooners. It is therefore a necessary objective to make the new elite aware of the brand and increase their perception of Louis Vuittons exclusivity. Furthermore, super rich are only willing to pay premium prices for those luxury products which clearly distinguish them from lower tiers of the population. In order to reach these the company can choose among three distinct strategies. 3. Alternatives 3.1. Louis Vuitton in Bollywood In this alternative, Louis Vuitton would have Indian movie actors endorsing its products and a product placement in Bollywood movies. The target segment would not only be the Indian super rich society who is already familiar with the brand, but as well the so called cocooners. Since the Bollywood movies are very popular in India, this strategy would result in general brand awareness in the society. For the celebrity endorsement LV could chose Aishwarya Rai and Shahrukh Khan to be the face of Louis Vuitton India. The campaign would comprise posters, billboards and TV commercials with both actors advertising LV products (Exhibit 1). Since Bollywood actors are perceived as role models and have a great influence in Indian society, it is expected that brand awareness will increase while reinforcing the image of Louis Vuitton as a luxury and lifestyle brand. In addition, Louis Vuitton will have its products placed in Indian movies, which depict wealthy and influential characters. This would include as well the characters shopping at the LV store in the new Emporio luxury mall in order to advertise the store itself. Another positive effect would be increasing LVs market share in the long run. Advertising through Bollywood could help develop the taste of luxury and lifestyle in the so called cocooner segment. 3.2. LV Exclusive Another alternative Louis Vuitton could approach would be to offer a special club card with mould-breaking exclusivity. This special club card would be divided into 3 different levels, the LV Exclusive Silver Card (Exhibit 2), LV Exclusive Gold Card (Exhibit 3) and LV Exclusive Platinum Card (Exhibit 4), based on the amount of money the customer spent. The LV Exclusive Club Card provides the customer with exclusive, high-end services and luxury rewards. After the first purchase of a Louis Vuitton item in one of its Indian stores, customers will receive a basic customer card in order to keep track of the sum of money they spent. The targeted segment for this strategy would be the super rich, who seek exclusivity and are already familiar with the brand. This strategy would certainly increase the brand loyalty of the high-class society because of the unique offers provided by the LV Exclusive Club Card. Additionally, Louis Vuitton will be able to track customer buying patterns and obtain key information about buying behavior through this special club card, which allows them to tailor their products to their customers needs. 3.3. Successful Indian Women Another alternative for the company could be that it focuses on a certain segment in particular the women, who represent a vital part of LV s customers. They are becoming more emancipated and as a powerful group have to be taken into consideration. Indian women need a role model to inspire them, so if Louis Vuitton shows them a successful woman wearing one of its products, the outcome would be inspired women, desiring to possess a LV item. Using such an approach they will target not only a segment consisting of individuals divided by their net income, but strong women that need to give utterance to their achievements. In order to increase the brand awareness among this certain segment, the company should invest in advertising its products. The best place would be an elite specified magazine, dealing with business and social issues, for example India Today, Entrepreneurs, The Business Enterprise and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾ Reading Hour . The emphasis should be laid on the one side on a picture of a well-known woman like Indira Nooyi (Exhibit 5), CFO and president of PepsiCo, depicting a typical role model. She will represent the thousands of women in the Indian society who have silently overcome the limitations and stood out for better terms. Billboards and ads in online issues of established feminine magazines would support the idea of women power and that in a world ruled by men, women still can be successful and exclusive. As a result, this strategy will help Louis Vuitton to increase brand awareness among all the Indian women and extend its customer database. 4. Issues 4.1. To what extent will Louis Vuittons marketing activities affect customer awareness in India? Louis Vuitton s targeted Indian customer segment requires a different strategy then the ones used by the company throughout the world. The three proposed alternatives provide different approaches as to how Louis Vuitton can service its new generation of customers. Louis Vuitton in Bollywood targets both high-net-worth individuals and the rising cocooners because of the popularity of the Bollywood industry in India. This strategy, however, implies high advertising resources in order to be able to reach the desired segment through product placement and celebrity endorsement. The LV Exclusive club card targets mainly the high net-worth individuals by offering high-end services which increase the shopping-experiences of the customers. While the number of high-net-worth individuals increases by 19.3% a year, according to the World Wealth Report, it is questionable if this customer segment only will be sufficient for Louis Vuitton to reach the target of a one-million customer base by 2010. The third alternative is about targeting successful women. Concentrating on this segment would target both women from the high-net-worth individuals and the cocooners segment. The main disadvantage is to define how many Indian women are ready to break the cultura l boundaries of the paternalistic family structures that still rule in this country. What is the impact of of Louis Vuittons marketing activities on their brand image in India? According to the purchasing behavior of India s high class, consumers are expecting a brand that stands for exclusivity and provides the owner of a Louis Vuitton product with a powerful status symbol. Working closely with the Bollywood industry through product placement and celebrity endorsement will have a high magnitude on increasing customer awareness. While Bollywood celebrities are seen as part of the high class, Louis Vuitton may need to maintain a close look in what movies they will place their products in order to minimize the risk of a brand association with a common product. The LV Exclusive club card system could increase loyalty among already existing customers, offering the brand image a crà ¨me de la crà ¨me status thus underlining the exclusivity of Louis Vuitton items. Last but not least, by tailoring their advertising on women only will associate the brand with a women s product, so Louis Vuitton products for men (i.e. dress shoes, suits, shirts) may suffer. Since India is a collectivist country, women usually buy clothes for the entire family, so the effect of the brand image being associated with a women s brand will be minimal. 4.3. Will LV face a social-status conflict (conflict of interest) by targeting two different customer segments (i.e. HNW individuals and cocooners)? Through the means of LV Exclusive Cards Louis Vuitton is trying to gain loyalty among super rich Indian customers. However, LV must consider the growing product awareness of the cocooners who are not the target group of the Exclusive Cards but will be of fast growing importance as customers. As positive as new customers are in general this also bears the risk of a conflict between the super rich and the cocooners who are much greater in numbers. HNW consumers may start to perceive LV as a rather common brand and switch to different luxury products as cocooners step up the social hierarchy. Furthermore, the second alternative Louis Vuitton in Bollywood could also result in a conflict between those two segments. If the products popularity increases this may have a negative impact on the buying behavior of the HNW consumers. This would go along with the above-mentioned decrease in exclusivity. Finally, women may be an interesting target group as stated in third alternative but conflict s may also occur between the HNW women who may be coming from rich families and the self-made emancipated cocooner woman. These very different types of women will require different endorsing role models which may are perceived negatively by each other group. How long will Louis Vuitton maintain a competitive advantage considering the proposed alternatives? Louis Vuittons advance on the Indian market will not remain unseen by the competition. Other luxury goods producers could benchmark Louis Vuittons approaches. Companies such as Gucci, Prada and Giorgio Armani could easily copy LVs Bollywood strategy as well as the alternative for attracting Indian women. It might be more challenging though to imitate LVs Exclusive Cards approach successfully because Indian high-net-worth costumers will already be loyal to Louis Vuitton in the ideal case and will not be looking for substitutes or additional luxury products in the same segment. 5. Conclusion All in all, while it may require more advertising resources than for example targeting emancipated women via print media, Louis Vuitton in Bollywood proves to reach the highest number of consumers, underlines the brand s exclusivity, and the company will be able to increase its market share in the long run. First, with the Bollywood industry booming in India, Louis Vuitton can reach a wide array of consumers and thus increase the overall customer awareness of Indians. Second, by using celebrity endorsement and selective product placement in movies, the company will be able to clearly communicate a brand image that advocates its exclusivity thus offering its potential customers a means to showcase their success. Last but not least, Louis Vuitton can educate the nouveau riche towards choosing their brand, which will considerably increase their market share in the long run. It is therefore highly recommended that Louis Vuitton in Bollywood is the most appropriate and effective promotion campaign to reach and nurture the emerging new generation of customers in India.

HENRY FORD :: essays research papers

hENRY FORD ---------- He produced an affordable car, paid high wages and helped create a middle class. Not bad for an autocrat.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Henry Ford1863-1947Henry Ford's parents left Ireland during the potato famine and settled in the Detroit area in the 1840s. Ford was born in what is now Dearborn, Michigan. His formal education was limited, but even as a youngster, he was handy with machinery. He worked for the Detroit Edison company, advancing from machine-shop apprentice to chief engineer. In 1893, Ford built a gasoline engine, and within a few years, an automobile, still a novelty item of the rich or do-it-yourself engineers. In 1899 Ford left Edison to help run the Detroit Automobile Company. Cars were still built essentially one at a time. Ford hoped to incorporate ideas from other industries -- standardized parts as Eli Whitney had used with gun manufacturing, or assembly line methods George Eastman tried in photo processing -- to make the process more efficient. This idea struck others in his field as nutty, so before long, Ford quite Detroit Automobile Company and began to build his own ra cing cars. They were good enough to attract backers and even partners, and in 1903, he set up the Ford Motor Company.He still met resistance to his ideas for mass production of a car the average worker could afford. But he stuck to his goal and finally in 1908, began production of the Model T. Ford gradually adapted the production line until in 1913, his plant incorporated the first moving assembly line. Demand for the affordable car soared even as production went up: before Ford stopped making the model T in 1927, 15 million had been sold, and Ford had become the leading auto manufacturer in the country. In addition to the moving assembly line, Ford revolutionized the auto industry by increasing the pay and decreasing the hours of his employees, ensuring he could get enough and the best workers. During the Model T era, Ford bought out his shareholders so he had complete financial control of the now vast corporation. He continued to innovate, but competitors (growing more powerful t hough fewer in number) began to cut into Ford's market share.Ford became interested in politics and as a successful and powerful business leader, was sometimes a participant in political affairs. In 1915, he funded a trip to Europe, where World War I was raging. He and about 170 others went -- without government support or approval -- to seek peace.

Commerce as the optional subject

When I was in the 9th grade, I took up commerce as the optional subject for the sheer reason of exploring it anticipating a career in a non-science field. My High School results card declared my excellence of commerce over science and I took that as a clue to take up commerce in Junior college & to later pursue it in my undergraduate degree. I secured a First Class with a specialization in Financial & Management Accounting. During my days as commerce undergraduate, I came across various options for a choice of career and perceived Management to be a challenging, versatile, innovative & evolving preference of many. Though it attracts a multitude, only a handful are able to make a mark and I want to be amongst those few. Having finished undergraduate studies, unlike many of my batch-mates, I did not opt for a job that would train me in either back office support or bare minimum accounting practices; only to end up doing a clerical job for the sole purpose for earning money. I decided to continue my studies to shape up my career and choose Healthcare Management. I joined the Symbiosis International University to initiate my professional studies. The Healthcare Industry is one, which affects peoples’ lives & contributes towards the building of any nation in a holistic manner. Also, globally one can categorize the Healthcare Industry as one with a high a potential for growth, development and innovation for a better living in times to come. The Business Week Magazine cites that â€Å"since 2001, the health-care industry has added 1.7 million jobs†, which is quite a high number when compared to other industries. Moneycontrol.com, a leading finance & investment oriented website says that â€Å"A latest study by global management consultants McKinsey predicts that India's healthcare industry will reach a staggering USD 190 billion mark in less than two decades†. Job opportunities in the Indian Healthcare Industry are like diamond mines in an unclaimed terrain. Early claimants get the maximum benefits. In this industry, I have discovered various opportunities that can be take me places. To blend my knowledge of finance with healthcare I studied Health Insurance at Bajaj Allianz, India’s leading insurance providers. Further, I worked with a healthcare consultancy & a cardiac care set-up as a part of Project handling teams. Presently, I’m associated with a Super speciality Ophthalmology Institute as Manager (Administration & HR). But, I have come to a conclusion that to succeed in this super specialized industry, I need additional education to build a better career. This is the reason why I look ahead at new horizons for enriching experiences to polish my know-how on Finance. I believe I have the dedication, resilience and resolve required to do justice to my aspirations. I am confident that these traits would help me to contribute to the challenging and intellectually stimulating environment of (NAME) University.

The Biblical Story Behind The Temptation Of Eve - 1209 Words

The Adam; Eve painting represents the biblical story behind the temptation of Eve. The biblical story of Adam and Eve can be found in the first book of Genesis in the bible. In this story Adam and Eve live in the Garden of Eden and God tells them that they can have any fruit from any tree, except one. Adam and Eve were told to stay away from the tree of knowledge and that if they were to eat the apples from this tree they will know what was good and bad, but ultimately it was their choice. Then one day Satan came to the Garden of Eden and told Eve to eat the apple because it would help her become wiser in knowing the difference between good and evil. Eve fell into Satan’s temptation, disregarding God’s wishes, and went ahead and ate the apple and then allowed for her husband to also eat the apple. The eating of the apple opened their eyes and soon they had to leave the Garden of Eden because they disrespected God. They left the garden and lived extremely difficult lives afterwards. The painting by Giulian di Piero di Simone Bugiardini describes part of this story. In the painting, Giulian di Piero di Simone Bugiardini paints Adam and Eve in an oil canvas. The image is in the Garden of Eden and the artist shows Eve handing the forbidden apple to Adam while the serpent watches. The serpent represents Satan, and since he has the head of Eve, he is showing how not only does evil become incorporated in man, but man becomes incorporated in evil. The image looks static becauseShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Masolino And Masaccio s Depictions Of Adam And Eve911 Words   |  4 PagesMasolino and Masaccio’s depictions of Adam and Eve as part of a ritual complex that communicated expectations of feminine-gendered behavior. Beginning with an analysis of both images, the text continues by briefly contextualizing the images within the Brancacci chapel. Masolino’s Adam and Eve: The Fall materially approximates â€Å"mankind’s earliest and most far-reaching act of selfishness† to the female body. In this segment of the entrance archway, Eve has presumably bitten - or is about to bite intoRead MoreThe Poem Epic Of Gilgamesh 891 Words   |  4 Pagesknowing that if she showeredEnkidu with her loins, it would humanize him and effectively ostracize him from the beasts with which he was accustomed to roaming. Similarly, in a popular biblical story, Eve seduced Adam into eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of life after God had warned him not to. Thereafter, Adam, Eve and their progeny were forever banned from the Garden of Eden. After Enkidu’s intimate relationship with Shamhat, the beasts he had previously roamed with, exiled him.Enkidu returnedRead MoreBiblical Allusions in The Magicians Nephew952 Words   |  4 Pagesvery interesting story-wise. 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Web. 6 Apr. 2012. http://ehis.ebscohost.com.ezp.slu.edu/eds/detail?vid=6hid=101sid=b1182eba-cea0-4340-8ef1-ed25678fc244%40sessionmgr112bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmU%3d#db=a9hAN=24052529.    Read MoreOld Versus Young : The Temptation Of Adam And Eve Receive The Forbidden Fruit By Pietro Facchetti1402 Words   |  6 Pagesof Genesis opens with a story of creation; God creates the world and humankind. He fashions a man (Adam) out of dust, and a woman (Eve) from Adam’s rib. God places Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, encouraging them to live and prosper, but not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge. Ultimately, Adam and Eve were tempted into eating the fruit, and were punished by God for doing so. 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