International Marketing management Assignment Sample

International Marketing management

1. Introduction - International Marketing management

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In this report, we have chosen the global brand of Louis Vuitton for evaluation. First, the customer perceived values of its customers have been discussed. Then their value proposition has been assessed and Gucci, its rival has been selected for comparison and contrast of the value propositions.

 Louis Vuitton uses value-based pricing in its marketing mix for its products. Since customers perceive the company's products as high-value products, the customers are willing to pay the amount. Louis Vuitton pays special attention to the quality of the material, the designs, and the make of the products. They deal with handbags, leather goods, clothes, shoes, accessories, trunks and other types of bags etc. Their brand value is highly popular and globally acknowledged. Their brand value is worth $32.3 billion (Ngo et al, 2020).

Gucci, the competitor is also a brand that manufactures clothes, bags, shoes, and accessories. They have equal global recognition and a wide market. Their brand value is worth $18.2 billion (Micco, 2021). This brand is recognized for its stylish yet edgy commodities and the market for this brand is less expensive than Louis Vuitton. However, they also focus on exclusivity, brand value, and market proposition.

The comparison and contrast will give us important insights into the operations and the working environment of the companies. The marketing facilities advertisements and other branding programs will also be scrutinized and assessed.

2. Customer Perceived Value for Customers of Louis Vuitton

Whether the customers are the final consumer of the prepared and marketed commodities a retailing trade network or entrepreneur who buys segments of the entire commodity, they seek the satisfaction of a requirement through that certain commodity. They use various parameters for deciding the amount of money they are willing to invest for the satisfaction of that requirement. The preferable way is to pay as low as possible. In the case of Louis Vuitton, the price demanded by the company is quite high. So they use other methods to create an enhanced customer perceived value.

Potential Markets and Customers for Louis Vuitton

The potential customers and customers of the brand are preferably wealthy women between the ages of 18 years and 54 years. They must have a wealthy background, disposable income, a thorough knowledge of international fashions, and global trends, a high-maintenance lifestyle, and the necessary mindset for spending on branded products. They also need to have a wealthy social circle or professional environment where the products they use will be recognized and they would receive acclamation for investment in luxury brands and commodities with little utility (Wiradharma, 2021).

The potential markets involve the urban areas of developed and developing countries with residents from high-income groups, metropolitan cities, business hubs, and areas with clusters of fashion and entertainment industries and professionals.

Customer values in need of fulfillment

Needs

These are the necessary conditions to be fulfilled. Sometimes the customer is not aware of their existence. However, the marketing team has to identify and tap them to capture and retain the attention of the customer and make them believe in the value proposition of the company. Hence the customers purchase a product only after they believe that all these have been accomplished. For the Louis Vuitton clientele, these include:

• The potential customers and consumers for Louis Vuitton products are from a wealthy background and high disposable income. So they need a feeling of exclusivity to assert their social location (Van Regemorter and Schuiling, 2020).
• They have enough disposable income, so they need to be socially and publicly acknowledged and admired if and when they invest in luxury products.
• They need to have social support from peers and acquaintances for investing in luxury commodities with brand value and emotional justification for such spending
• They need to be provided with a feeling of unique experience while purchasing and using the products
• The men who might be the potential customers could need personal luxury and other types of extravagance for their daily lifestyles occasions and social events.

Wants

These are thought of as desirables and they are not always at the forefront of priority. Rather the customer, when given a large number of options to choose from, selects a product and service based on these preferences. For purchasers of Louis Vuitton, the wants are:

• The potential customers and consumers want to be renowned as a user of luxury and thus socially and professionally important.
• They want an open acknowledgment for their engagement with global trends, high fashion, and top-tiered luxury brands.
• They want to be associated with internationally famous personalities and communicate their elite status (Yang et al, 2021)
• The men could have wanted for emotional good feelings and a great ego boost from the luxury items.

Fears

These are the factors that stimulate their emotional response to a commodity. The fears involve their perception of limitations, inferiorities, and drawbacks. In the case of the women who might purchase Louis Vuitton products, the fears are mentioned here (Hemantha, 2020).

• Their fears mostly involve a lack of recognition from peers and social acquaintances
• They fear losing career opportunities or social prestige when they are unable to uphold fashion and trend
• They fear losing peer support for such high investment in ordinary goods.
• For men, the fears include the fear of losing peer support for their lifestyle, profession, and other aspects of daily life.
• The men who might be the potential customers for the company have the fear of losing their regular status.

The wants, needs, and fears of the customers communicate to the marketing analysts and strategy planners from the company about their possible sources of advertising campaigns, methods of lead generation, and so on. Since the customer's perceived values mostly deal with the emotional triggers stimulated by the display of luxury and the response to it, the company has to tap into their emotional response them (Lopusneac, 2020).

To account for the customer values and their rate of satisfaction a figure is given below.

2016-2021

Commentary:

• The brand value faced a considerable decrease in 2017 and 2021.
• The marketing and value proposition was improved after2017 and the result was better customer feedback
• The brand value added to the market value and helped in the growth of price rise and increased revenue generation (Hemantha, 2020).

3. Value Proposition of Louis Vuitton and Comparative Critical Evaluation of Existing Value Proposition of Louis Vuitton with Gucci

Branding and Marketing Value Proposition of Louis Vuitton to Influence Customer Value

Exclusivity

Although Louis Vuitton is a highly profitable international brand, they do not render retailing experiences that are specifically designed for satisfying a customer—unless the customer is a renowned personality or has a wealthy appearance, they are usually ignored by the staff involved in sales and servicing. This ambiguous response and lack of recognition are useful for triggering our Psychological Immune System for rationalization of the sufferings in exchange for a return of equal or greater valuation—exclusivity—highly significant for Louis Vuitton’s potential aims of leads and prospective customers and for creating, establishing and asserting their brand values (Song et al., 2021). Therefore, Louis Vuitton focuses on the delivery of an efficient and internationally acclaimed experience from in-house purchase, in exchange for a bit of financial suffering.

Experience

Louis Vuitton does not offer any direct assurance of the quality of the product, versatility, utility or durability. Instead, they focus on experience and exclusive treatment. They imply that when a customer is availing their service they are availing the exclusive service of a globally renowned brand. The purchase itself and the use of the product are marketed as a novel experience, which can only be purchased when a customer is willing to spend more than the market cost. The brand value of the company here comes into play and it enhances the customer's perceived value by adding to the market price of the commodity (Elia, 2021).

International reputation

When marketers discuss the issue of raising the perceived benefit, they address it by raising the "value-added." Identification and increase of the value-added attributes of a commodity form one of the significant strategies in marketing of Louis Vuitton, since they focus on brand value to differentiate the experience and product from other offers (Smith, 2021).

Thus we can see that even though customer responses vary because of the experience, the value proposition of Louis Vuitton focuses on exclusive experience and international recognition of wealth and status because brand value provides the main source of satisfying customer perceived value. The figure below sums up the findings and results.

commentary:

• The ideal customers for Louis Vuitton handbags are women, between the ages of 18 and 54.
• The wants and needs of the customers are satisfied by the value proposition while the fears are triggered by it and thus the purchase happens to get rid of the fear.
• The features, benefits, and other aspects of the product are important in targeting the customer and draining their attention away from the rival companies and substitute products.

Comparison and Contrast between value propositions of Gucci and Louis Vuitton

Contrast

While Louis Vuitton and Gucci both are rival brands with global market bases, high price ranges, and different luxury commodities, the value propositions of the two companies differ in the following way:

• While Louis Vuitton focuses on formal and sophisticated styles, Gucci does so on edgier and more unique styles (Hemantha, 2020)
• The clientele for Louis Vuitton should have a professional engagement in a traditional environment and they should invest in formal and business casual attire but Gucci markets creative artistic luxury with an edgy and unusual twist, so their clientele should be able to take fashion risks and would not fear fashion faux pass.
• The customers of the former should be engaged in both online and offline forms of socialization since their products focus on real-life experiences, while the latter captures digital engagement (Lavoux, 2021)
• While the former brand attracts clients based on exclusivity the latter focuses on inclusivity at a high price, projecting that anyone with a creative mind and enough money can purchase their commodities (Hemantha, 2020).
• Timeless elegance, understated fashion, smart personality, etc are marketed by the first brand. The latter brand markets on bold style, unique fashion sense, experiments, new adaptations, trendy casual attitude, etc( Song et al, 2021).
• The former has a client base from high age groups and corporate professions, the latter has a customer base of wealthy young individuals, new artists and fashion designers and their clients, people from creative professions, etc (Zhong, 2020).

Similarities

• Both brands have a high price range and exclusive brand value
• Both brands focus on luxury and the unique experience of the customer
• Both brands have production and distribution units across the world, especially in developed countries(Zhong, 2021)
• Both brands focus on enhancing their brand value and focusing on highly renowned international personalities for marketing, public image, advertisement, and so on.
• The materials and finished products are premium grades and durable and both offer good customer service and support for retaining customer loyalty
• Both are capital-intensive enterprises and function on a high-profit margin (Hemantha, 2020)

The value propositions of both brands have more similarities than differences. However, the marketing strategy and potential customer base have a slightly different structure. The customers with a high-income range and proclivities for high fashion are limited in the world. So both of them have to focus on these few people and capture their attention. That is why instead of focusing on commodity value they focus on the brand value and the experience provided by them (Zhong, 2021).

Conclusion

Thus we can see that the utilization of brand value can be used to enhance profit margin and attract high-income range customers. The evaluation, comparison, and contrast of the propositions concerning the brand values of the two companies give us an elaborate idea of the marketing strategy. The customer perceived value and the value proposition for branding Louis Vuitton have also been taken into account before providing a detailed assessment of the functioning of the company. The recommendations for the company shall include the following

• The utilization of more creative ways for branding and marketing
• More stress on better customer service and consumer relation
• Good propositioning of marketing value

The comparison has shown the specific aspects for improvement in the value and branding of the company and the improvement of the quality of the product and the services rendered to the customers and clients based on the consumption pattern, internal trends, and global patterns of fashion.

References

1. Elia, A., 2021. Dapper Dan: The Original Streetwear Designer and Influencer. Black Designers in American Fashion, p.167.
2. Fondevila-Gascón, J.F., Bernal, P.M., SanMiguel, P., Sádaba, T. and Pérez-Bou, S., 2021. Millennials and Fashion: Branding and Positioning through Digital Interactions. In Fashion Communication(pp. 117-128). Springer, Cham.
3. Hemantha, Y., 2020. Retaining the Cachet of Luxury Fashion Brands on Social Media Through Storytelling and Narratives. IUP Journal of Brand Management, 17(3), pp.23-37.
4. Levaux, M., 2021. Diversity in fashion shows from the luxury sector: towards an evolution of practices?.
5. Lopusneac, D., 2020. Value co-creation and Industry 4.0: A comparative cross-case study of luxury vs. fast-fashion brands.
6. Micco, M.D., 2021. Can the strategy of the Italian fashion luxury brand Gucci sustain the brand´s middle-term future among its target?(Doctoral dissertation).
7. Ngo, L.V., Northey, G., Tran, Q. and Septianto, F., 2020. The Devil might wear Prada, but Narcissus wears counterfeit Gucci! How social adjustive functions influence counterfeit luxury purchases. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 52, p.101671.
8. Ordenov, P., Abu-Sbiekh, L. and Boiarshinov, A., 2020. How to add value to products: the experience economy perspective: A research on how companies could add value to their products using the experience economy.
9. Schuiling, I. and Van Regemorter, L., 2021. Do luxury brands offer an optimized online consumer experience on their e-commerce platforms? A comparative study of Louis Vuitton, Hermès and Gucci(No. UCL-Université Catholique de Louvain).
10. Smith, G., 2021. 6 Customer Value-Driven Pricing Orientation Biases and Skills. In Getting Price Right(pp. 160-200). Columbia University Press.
11. Song, B.Y., Kim, Y.K. and Lee, K.H., 2021. A Study on the Design and Style of Men's Wear Brands through the Replacement of Creative Directors-Focusing on the Louis Vuitton. Fashion & Textile Research Journal, 23(4), pp.423-438.
12. Van Regemorter, L. and Schuiling, I., 2020 Are the key digital tools used by fashion luxury brands well-optimized today? A comparative analysis between Louis Vuitton, Hermès, and Gucci.
13. Wiradharma, J., 2021. The effect of brand image and motivation on Louis Vuitton purchase intention with the country-of-origin image as an intervening variable(Doctoral dissertation, Universitas Pelita Harapan).
14. Yang, H., Vazquez, D. and Blazquez, M., 2021. Creative Art-based Initiatives Enabling Value Co-creation in the Luxury Fashion Industry. In Creativity and Marketing: The Fuel for Success. Emerald Publishing Limited.
15. Zhong, M., 2020. The relationship between brand image and purchase intention in luxury brands: a case study of Louis Vuitton(Doctoral dissertation).