Answer:
Louis Vuitton (LV) had the prolific year 2014 because it continued to grow, despite changes in its market environment. The company has been responsive in its strategies and has maintained a long-term future (LVMH 4). Nevertheless, the company continues to face competitive challenges in the luxury product market. It faces the challenge of sustaining its performance amid the growing difficulties in penetrating new markets and the improvement in the activities by rivals to target its dominant market segment. The company follows a differentiation strategy.
The overall strategies are taken by LV also lead to changes in the parent company, as LV is the main revenue contributor to the LVMH group. The company has to sell to three main customer segments without jeopardizing its reputation in any of them. The segments are absolute, aspirational, and accessible. The absolute segment is very critical of customer care, product quality, and overall brand reputation. It also has the widest variation in preferences in the main global markets of LV. Besides, it has a substantial demand that has forced LV to reconsider many of its decisions that could have affected its performance in this segment. The aspirational segment has mixed characteristics while the accessible segment is less critical to brands and, therefore, most prone to sway to the competition. All the customer segments are collectively influenced by a great brand and product innovation strategy that LV has been exploring in the past few years (LVMH 34-56). The European monetary problems are easing, which should present a good environment for growth in the market (LVMH 5).
Social
The company has relied on leaders brought in by its parent company LVMH. It has also relaxed its use of in-house production resources in the past to focus on outsourcing (LVMH 54-55). However, the decision was reversed to save the company’s brand. Another problem is that the personal luxury business is growing in different directions in separate markets that LV serves. Its biggest market continues to be China, Europe, Japan, and the United States. Its Chinese market characteristics are different from those of Europe and Japan. However, the company has to meet the challenges of these markets without seeming to abandon any of its quality standards for customer service and product development. For example, it cannot discount products or follow noncompany-owned distribution models even when such strategies would significantly lead to a rise in revenues in the respective markets. These issues include a balance of the values and heritage of Louis Vuitton. The company has a 150-year reputation that it has to uphold while responding to the modern challenges of the business (Mahbubani 4).
Technological
The company has a limited product range, and the main products are more than a century old. The leather bag collection and the trunks with a five number combination lock have been in production since the late nineteenth century. They can rely on this technological reputation to defend their market share and appeal to the absolute and aspirational customer segments that are fixated on getting true luxury regarding uniqueness, heritage, quality, and visibility. The product line allows LV to claim that it is offering the most beautiful specimens of French manufacturing (Mahbubani 2). The exclusivity of the designs and their ruggedness are reputations that help the LV brand to sell to existing and new luxury customers. Customers get information and look up things or exchange views online, which is the way they shop. The behavior shapes the direction that LV is taking when differentiating its experience online. The company is building a following in social media channels to improve interaction with its brand. The digital platforms also use new forms of advertising to different niches like soccer fans (LVMH 11).
