Executive Summary

No longer are brands treated as concepts that are created solely by the marketers.
Alternatively, brands are the systems that are evolving to interact with their
backgrounds. By the brand creators, brands have been shaped up by the looks,
views and practices of the end-users, various influencing factors and distributors.
With the increase in the international trade, more brands have been introduced to the
innovative

cultural

perspectives.

These

innovative

situations

have

to

be

systematically taken and analysed into various accounts at the time of global brand
management. In this assignment the brand selected as case study is Louis Vuitton
which is the prominent luxurious sector in France and in Japan, issues related to
marketing environment and culture integration in those countries will be analysed.
Previously Japan has been the better profitable place for Louis Vuitton, but the
economic crisis globally has bought various challenges. By facing the weaker
economy and change in the preferences of the consumers, Louis Vuitton has come
up with various strategies to win in the Japanese market. Previous days like
depending on higher price and logo is no more and people shall been showing more
interest on the money value and craftsmanship.

Introduction
Louis Vuitton from France has started its expansion operation since the year 1885.
The company has opened its primary store in London. During the year 1904 the
organisation has participated in the global trade fair in the United States and
marketed well hence to promote its brand and to get recognition by Americans. By
the year 1987 this brand has made its presence and established in Japan by way of
getting better share in the Asian Market and then expanded its operation all over the
globe with more than 1500 stores and has started the e-commercial site as the
multinational corporation (Waseda Business and economic studies, 2012). The
organisation has its factories in Spain, Italy, Switzerland, France and United States
and majority of the products made with leather are made in Italy and France. On the
other hand the watches from this brand are made in Switzerland. The company
outcomes will differ from that of various competitors as the organisation outsources
are to increase the prestige and quality of the product (Globalebrands, 2014). This

company is one of the first organisations for producing the luxurious product and has
seen the probable economic growth in the markets that are emerging like India and
China. With the huge economic growth of the international market the organisation
took an advantage by seeing the people need in showing their social status. In fact
present the organisation Louis Vuitton is the top luxury brand preferred in all the
markets globally (Waseda Business and economic studies, 2012).

Marketing Environment of Luxury Brands

Around the world Louis Vuitton has been maintaining the same product quality, a
bag sold anywhere around the world will have the same quality and this is one of the
unique feature the company having. The organisation will take into consideration
various backgrounds of culture and see how the people have understood the luxury
concept. In the country Japan the organisation has been promoting its products
through the association and innovation in the design and art by way of associating
with the product (Waseda Business and economic studies, 2012). The products of
Louis Vuitton has the identical price around the globe and the organisation has been
adopted in putting in various practices in the Japanese market as the strategy in
order to have the extreme share in the market. Majority of the Japanese people has
owned the product of Louis Vuitton (Globalebrands, 2014).
Historically Louis Vuitton is well known for the wealthy and powerful, they have
targeted both the women and men. In the marketing environment of two countries
France and japan, various factors have been playing an important role and the
organisation has been trying hard in executing well (Reuters, 2013). With the
differences in the lifestyle they have been differences in the market like in France,
style is more important and people buy the variety and styled products and whereas
in Japan people love to go for prestige and for the products with various arts and
architecture and different from others (Waseda Business and economic studies,
2012). Even though in Japan market the organisation faced few problems like higher
prices and difference in consumer preferences and style, slowly it became consistent
and has pursued an approach which is constant in the market that is developing and
the better thing that the company did is it has not compromised and even in difficult
times it tried to understand the market and has overcome the operational obstacles
in Japan. It has been good in the aspect of controlling each and every business

aspect (Reuters, 2013). This approach which is unique has helped the Louis Vuitton
for its present position as the most luxurious successful brand in Japan. France as it
has introduced and its home country, it has very effective and good sales, but with
the various recent competitors and other brands coming up to the country after
globalisation, it also has been facing the problem of heavy competition in the market.
But its marketing strategies have helped in overcoming all the situations
(Globalebrands, 2014).
In japan, with various stores its growth and phenomenal potential has been unique
and extraordinary. In fact the business volume in Japan has been become slowly
larger at times than that of France, even though the luxury products market has
become marginal. With the continuing of the brand expansion in these markets,
Louis Vuitton also has slowly adopted innovative ways for stimulating the audiences
that are existing now (Waseda Business and economic studies, 2012). In japan the
organisation has introduced the stores with New-Generation which has been
revolutionizing the ceremony that has been surrounding the sale of the luxurious
product. The company has made the architecture as an essential part of the brand
identification. This innovative era has started with the in-store experience which is
significant to the consumer as the brand itself (Reuters, 2013).
Louis Vuitton has the policy of Zero tolerance on the products of counterfeit. During
the year 2012, Louis Vuitton has won the United States trade rule that it would help
in keeping knockoff handbags of Louis Vuitton to enter into United States. Where in
the order which takes into effect of nearly 60 days, directing the customs and
protection from the boarder hence to turn back the products that are made in the
same way or copies of the trademarks of Louis Vuitton (Aiello, G. et al. 2010).
Because in various countries the company brand identity has lost due to the copies
of the brand. The company has also been affected by the recession during the year
2008 and 2009 globally where most percentage of their stock has not been sold, but
the company is strong and has not changed its values or message just to fit into that
time. It has not lowered the prices and has not reduced its quality (Aiello, G. et al.
2010). A stronger brand would reduce the risk in business which stands for
something than that of the affordability. This organisation has been very careful with
the sensitive issues and been agile with the global expansion. This organisation has
been expanding its business aggressively into the various lucrative markets with the

same standards. Asian market is the profitable business for this organisation
(Globalebrands, 2014).

Luxury brands challenges

In the global market environment branded by the interchange among the
enhancement in the mobility, global communication and the distribution of media has
been going well, but the distinct political, economic and legal environments. The
global business for luxury brands has been facing various challenges that need a
perspective globally (Ball, D.A. et al, 2003). More than the western economies, the
markets that are emerging like Asian economies that has been exhibiting the huge
rate of growth in the luxury domains. The market for the luxurious goods sometimes
has been treated as the single market where the luxury lifestyle of west can be
replicated in a better approach and the differences in culture need an economy
approach for specific marketing and in the case of the strategy for digital marketing
to promote the global brands. In the scale among the ubiquity and exclusivity, the
better approach for the luxurious brands are cited frequently as the luxury
democratisation which led most of the luxurious brands in following the strategy of
the vertical brand extension and been offered the priced products for entry level like
the fragrances and accessories, and this is manufactured in the low-cost based
economies (Waseda Business and economic studies, 2012). When the question
arises in this context, that the core luxurious brand which is easy to copy is related to
the emblems of brand to the difficult system of the psychological and functional
attributes of product with values that are deeper, there is the challenging aspect in
protecting the core brand strength and to prevent the erosion of brand particularly in
facing the pervasiveness of the lower cost counterfeits that has been undermining
the values of the candid luxurious brands. Taking it as a whole, the main challenge
for the organisations of luxurious brands has to find out the exact balance among the
preserving the exclusivity of the brand and has to see the satisfaction of the
increasing appetite for the luxurious goods with no dilution of the brand with more
exposure (Aiello, G. et al. 2010).

Countries specific differences on the Luxury perception value

Even the luxury value with four dimensions has been stable among the various
countries, the individual values of culture has been influencing the perception of
consumer for the luxuries in various economies. In the aspect of the specific
differences between the countries, it has to be observed. For instance, Luxury for the
countries like France and Italy is the important traditional cultural aspect, where
these countries consumers defined the luxurious goods as important things in their
lives (Globalebrands, 2014). They always feel proud for the history of luxury for long
term and always would like to express the heritage of the culture of unique
craftsmanship with the various brands they buy like the Louis Vuitton, Prada which is
the fine leather from Italy or the Dress from Dior which represents the French haute
design couture. For the France and Italy consumers, Luxury has become unique and
special and has been strongly related with the origin of the country image, in terms of
the design and manufacturing (Ball, D.A. et al, 2003). In this framework, the present
trend of the delocalisation of production from the home economies to the lower cost
economy has been posing a threat to the luxury brands perceived value as it has
been weakening the significant link to the origin country. Whilst the Italian and
French consumers has been evaluating the luxury base on the aspects of identity
and cultural orientation; where as consumers from German will associate the luxury
primarily with the various functional characteristics, the performance of the product
and the quality with price association is very important. Alongside with the framework
of the German engineering and the economys expert in the industry of automotive,
luxury has been mostly expressed by the way of brand of the car-a BMW, Porsche or
Mercedes. In the previous communist economies like Poland, Russia, the luxurious
market id drive by the privileged class desire to show off their status and hence to
prove that they are rich and different from the masses (Ball, D.A. et al, 2003). In
these economies the consumers always prefer the social benefits of the luxurious
brands as the source or signal for the communication and to portray the impression
what they are and their position in the society, especially in the Asian economies like
Japan, the concept of the reputation, group orientation are the main drivers for
consumption of luxury. The marketing of successful luxury is not to the limited for the
assured consumers of stereo type, but it takes the various shades of perceiving the

value and in ensuing the purchasing motives into account (Wiedmann, K.-P.,
Hennigs, N., & Klarmann, C, 2012).

Strategies of local adaptation or global standardisation preferred

There are various benefits of the Glocal marketing (Kotler, 2009), in the glocal
marketing the customers will feel the relevant brand is for them and has been
tailored as per their needs and more satisfaction form consumers. There will be a
balance maintained with harmony among the various marketing levels activity which
is operative, tactical and strategic. With this the brands can be able to gain more
global market share (Aiello, G. et al. 2010).
In the previous years, as the sales has been jumped, the corporations of the global
brand has been started in aping more and more attention and started in paying the
attention and listening to the local partners in business about the product adaptation
attributes and the message with advertisement has been sent as per the local tastes.
In the glocal marketing the organisation has the task in balancing the various
demands from that of the home country with the local branches and by taking the
benefit of the local expertise, information and knowledge. So various transnational
organisations have begun in delegating the authority over the development of the
product and the marketing section to the local management and in other various
cases, they have started to promote and develop the local execution to take over the
firms that are local.
The main perspective which is unidimesional is that the global strategy of market
standardisation in order to deal with the economies of scale and the acceptance
locally with the various mixed elements of marketing (Solberg and Durrieu, 2006). It
has been argued that the technology fast movement in the transportation and
communication has been influenced the development of the product in the global
market which could be competitive by way of adopting the strategy that is
standardised hence to less the price and at the similar time offering the best quality
possible (Kotler, Ph. et al., 2009)
Thus the standardisation is practical and effective as the most homogenization od
the various markets. On the other side, it is pointed that various political and
economic barriers are carrying various restrictions on trade and totally the

differences in the economies including the differences in the culture. When this
concept is brought up for the strategy adaptation to that of the requirements of the
local market, the standardization includes the various applications of the similar
elements of the marketing mix across the various number of the global markets,
whereas the adaptation has been characterized by the execution of the marketing
mix that is exceptional for every country separately in a different way as per the
needs and requirements of the consumers. Hence the total dimension adaptationstandardisation includes together.
Reflecting on the existence of the particular variations among the economies and
thoughts, the standardisation will result in various benefits, but the main significant
task is to track the responsiveness from the local and the simultaneous
standardisation and hence to identify and distinguish the approaches to the global
marketing which vary across the products and through different activities of
marketing. When coming to the full standardisation and partial standardisation and
adaptation together with the various dimensions like the products, business
functions, elements of marketing mix and various economies. The adaptation and
standardisation has brought various benefits in the approach of multidimensional
strategy of marketing (Kotler, Ph. et al., 2009)
The importance and balance among the Arctic views and its influence on various
products higher performance in the global markets. It is contended that the
assimilation of the inputs which are combined with the home and subsidiary country
into the adaptation-standardisation of products will balance critically and determines
the performance of the product adaptation-standardisation balancing which
determines the performance of the product in the local market. Thus the contact
among the global and local and sharing the inputs jointly helps in creating a
significant platform of the innovative knowledge (Kapferer, J.-N. 2012). The platform
will enable the sharing of knowledge and will open the discussion on different
development of products viewpoint, which will lead to the reduction in the
improvements of the design of the product. The organisations marketing their
services and products abroad are faced by various decisions whether to adapt or
standardize the offerings of their products. This decision will concern the companies
from commencing to market the products and services in the international countries
and also those who are internationally operating and is seeing in the expansion into
the future markets (Kotler, Ph. et al., 2009). The products standardisation crossways

the cultures have been progressively become a significant issue that the
management of the international companies that today are facing. In the 21st century
international marketing has been receiving the important attention to research, as the
benefits of the cost and direction of the strategies of standardisation have been
simplified the approach of global marketing and also being the attractive choice to
most of the organisations (Wiedmann, K.-P., Hennigs, N., & Klarmann, C, 2012). On
the other side, strategies of the product adaptation have also been considered as the
most important influential feature for the MNCs. From the past researched it is
concluded that the standardisation has been enhancing the outcomes of the
performance and various theories suggest that this might not be true in all the cases.
In the present globalised world, the standardisation choices and adaptation choices
of the global products are no longer be seen as the choice of inflexibility. As an
alternative the two options combinations have been regarded as the factors that are
dependent at the time on a particular market. Though with the advent of the identical
markets globally, the multinational companies might or might not intermix both the
strategies of adaptation and standardisation of the strategies of the product (Kotler,
Ph. et al., 2009), Coming to the case of Louis Vuitton it follows the concept of
standardisation of the product with the same quality and price globally. But if it goes
with the localisation strategy the benefits might be advantageous to the company in
few countries, but its strategy of same standardisation has still been winning the
market globally (Kapferer, J.-N. 2012).

Conclusion
Hence the Luxury brand is ubiquitous, but it is rare and has been bound with the
cultural heritage and traditions, but as well-known as the capability to set the various
trends and innovation. The marketing environment of the Louis Vuitton Company has
been going well as following the same and unique standards all over the globe and
the strategy of providing the luxurious prestige bags has win their market in Japan
and France. With various variations at the time of the recession and with various
competitors in the global market, it has been winning in the market with its
standardisation strategy and its marketing standards.

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