Market Louis Vuitton on Social Network - Essay Example

?Running Head: MARKET LOUIS VUITTON ON SOCIAL NETWORK Market Louis Vuitton on Social Network [The of the will appear here] [The of the institution will appear here] [The name of the Professor] [Course] Executive Summary As Facebook continues to grow in popularity and number of users, businesses- both big and small, have realized the importance of marketing on Facebook. One such example is of the premium fashion brand, Louis Vuitton. LV has a strong presence on Facebook with a fan following of 7.2 million but even with such a high fan following, LV fails to develop a connection with its consumers as it does not interact with them on a regular basis. The main purpose of Facebook advertising is to develop a connection with the users and also to sell products in the case of numerous small businesses that have sprung up in the recent years on Facebook. In order to develop a strong presence, small businesses need to upload on a regular basis and interact with their consumers. To generate or maintain interest, they can make use of low-cost Facebook advertising or offers on their own page. Table of Contents Introduction 3 Overview of the Company 3 History of Louis Vuitton 4 Online Presence 5 Analysis of Facbook Page 5 Advertising on Facebook 8 Developing a Connection 8 Consumer Trust 9 Media Fragmentation 9 Recommendation for Small Businesses 10 Starting a Small Business on Facebook 11 Marketing a Small Business on Facebook 11 Introduction Louis Vuitton is a premium fashion brand that operates from Paris around the whole world. The name, Louis Vuitton has become synonymous with fashion and is known globally as a symbol of style and fashion. The store sells luxury products ranging from leather goods to even books. Louis Vuitton sells its products through its own boutiques, through leased stores and recently through its online website. In terms of maintaining an online profile, Louis Vuitton has its own website, along with a presence of major social networking websites including Facebook, Twitter. LinkedIn and FourSquare. In this paper, we attempt to analyze the marketing conducted by Louis Vuitton on its Facebook page and through this we would be providing recommendations for small business to improve their marketing through Facebook. Overview of the Company Established in 1854, the brand Louis Vuitton was opened by designer Louis Vuitton who entered the art circle by making travel accessories but soon began exploring the industry of fashion, which lead him to make his mark as a premium fashion brand. However, LV is still known for its premium handbags and luggage collection. Louis Vuitton has over 300 outlets in over 500 countries exceeding the brand value of both Prada and Gucci. Louis Vuitton is considered among the best 100 brands of the world, with a higher ranking than other global brands including Pizza Hut, MTV, Apple, Adidas and Chanel (Haig, 2011). Such is the value of Louis Vuitton that its trademark is automatically registered along with its trademark patterns. Certain patterns and style of handbags are classic LV style such as the beige and brown checker design known as the Daimer, which is one of the premier designs by Louis Vuitton. Louis Vuitton operates as a major brand with more than sixty sub-brands opened under it, including Taug Heuer, Givenchy, Emilio Pucci Parfums, and Marc Jacobs etc. Each brand is considered as the premium brand in its category and is associated with luxury and quality (LMVH, 2012). The brand has been said to develop its presence as a top luxury brand through the strategy of celebrity endorsement. The first celebrity endorsement of Louis Vuitton occurred through Empress Euigine, Napoleon’s wife who loved the brand and its quality. The Empress became a symbol for Louis Vuitton that was later carried on by other leading celebrities including Audrey Hepburn and Jennifer Lopez. Right now, the brand ambassador for Loius Vuitton is Angelina Jolie who continues to be photographed with Louis Vuitton handbags. History of Louis Vuitton Louis Vuitton began as a luggage designer in 1854 in Paris. Realizing the need for a change in the design of the HJ Cave’s rounded top trunks; Louis Vuitton came up with flat-bottom trunks that allowed to better storage and durability. From the beginning, Louis Vuitton developed itself as a symbol of quality and its products were associated with the rich and the elite. In order to prevent others from copying the designs, the designer continuously upgraded his designs and patterns to maintain interest in the brand (Condora, 2008). With time, Louis Vuitton diversified into other travel accessories including handbags, clutches and other small luggage pieces. While Louis Vuitton continued to grow strong with time, it grew even stronger with the addition of a young American designer, Marc Jacobs in 1997. Jacobs introduced feminism in the designs of Louis Vuitton and brought forward a more elegant and chic style of Louis Vuitton to the public. Since then, Louis Vuitton expanded into other fashion areas such as fashion accessories and shoes (Louis Vuitton Facebook, 2012) Jacobs is known for continuously updating the fashion statement of Louis Vuitton so that the brand remains fresh in the minds of the consumer. Online Presence Louis Vuitton, realizing the importance of digital marketing and selling, has set up their online presence primarily through their own website. When one accesses the website, it allows the viewer to navigate to their own country. Along with their website, Louis Vuitton maintains an online presence in leading social media networks including Facebook and Twitter. In both these social networks, Louis Vuitton has a strong brand following and they constantly update their profiles to maintain and generate interest among their users. Analysis of Current Facebook page LV maintains a Facebook page that can be accessed on the link http://www.facebook.com/LouisVuitton. Alternatively, LV also provides a link to their Facebook website through their main website. While on their Facebook page, users can find links to other social networking pages of LV including Twitter, Four Square, and LinkedIn etc. LV has incorporated their logo as their profile picture. This serves to develop a strong brand identity of the brand. In order to make the page interesting, LV has uploaded a cover photo from a fashion show. The following picture shows the LV page: Louis Vuitton has developed a strong online presence through its Facebook account. This can be analyzed from the fact that the likes of LV account to 7.2 million, for their Australian Facebook page only. This as compared to the average fan following of 4,596 (Sysomos, 2009) means that the brand has a high fan following. The high following of Louis Vuitton shows that the brand is quite popular within the social network. Another reason behind this could be the international acclaim of Louis Vuitton that ensures that people becomes fans of the brand on Facebook just to create an impression on their own profile page. However, the like page of LV, which should ideally be the most appealing page, does not capture the interest. This is because it does not relate to LV products and neither does it relate to fashion in general. Like page for such a big brand should have been more impressive, considering that LV developed this page on their own and it is linked to their corporate website. The following picture shows the like page of LV: One aspect worth noting about the LV Faceook page is that they upload their page ona daily basis. The upload usually relates to fashions shows, new product launches, LV awards and LV offers. Even if the advertisers do not have anything to relate to their fans, they still upload posts regarding the topic of fashion. For instance, they uploaded a new piece regarding fashion journalist Louise Roe Official and her favorite spots in LA. However, the developers of the page do not respond to user’s comments on their posts and photos. In one instance, one user requested the price of a certain product from their Women’s Fall/Winter 2012-13 Collection but LV failed to respond to this request. In all the posts that were analyzed for this paper, LV did not respond to any of the users. In this way, LV fails to develop a connection with their users. Developing customer relationship is the main reason for most big brands to sign up for a Facebook page. By not interacting with the consumers, LV remains a big brand that is just too big to communicate with its loyal consumers. When a Facebook page is developed, brands have a platform where they can interact with their consumers. However, in the case of LV, we find that customer relationship is not focused. There is no distinction between top fans who communicate on a daily basis and fans who just added LV just for the sake of it. This is a serious issue as LV has developed an online presence just for the purpose of developing a connection. LV does not sell its products to users through its Facebook page. This is apparent from the fact that no information has been provided to the users for contacting the advertisers for buying LV products. Analyzing the Facebook page by LV, the conclusion that can be developed is that LV has been able to get a high fan following based more on their brand power rather than any serious attempts by the advertisers of Facebook. This is because LV fails to develop a connection with its consumers. Consumers may discuss any issues on the LV page without LV responding to them or bringing them back to the topic if the discussion deviated from LV. Even though LV posts regularly on its page, it fails to grasp the purpose of advertising on Facebook. Advertising on Facebook In the last few years, social media networks have been exploited for their marketing ability. As social media networks, including Facebook, are growing in popularity among all types of generation, advertising on these social media network is becoming more attractive for advertisers. Advertisers are lured by the global reach of such advertising that has the ability to develop strong connection with the consumers. In addition to that, advertising on social media networks is relatively cheap and allows for different mediums to be employed at the same time. Developing a Connection One of the main reasons for advertising brands on Facebook is to develop a connection with the viewer. Often brands do not sell their products through social media networks and the only purpose of their presence on such sites is to develop a connection. Brands develop connection with their customers through Facebook by interacting with them through discussion posts, comments, posting photos etc. The idea is to generate interest and awareness among the customers towards the brand. Once the customers take notice of the brand, a connection is developed that the brand can build on later to develop customer trust. The connection is developed through commenting on one single post of the user or by replying to a user’s post. For example, when a consumer discusses shopping for clothes, fashion retailers can take notice and post a link to their latest collection. However, advertisers need to maintain control over their interaction with the users so as to prevent the user from being irritated with the brand and thus the advertiser in this case works against his own brand by being too eager. Consumer Trust Even though advertising on Facebook has becoming the norm for all kinds of brands- big and small, it all comes down to the fact that whether advertising on Facebook is indeed effective. Consumer trust is the biggest issue in this case. An Experian research revealed that even though Facebook received the highest number of visits in Australia which is 6.2 billion, only ‘18 percent of the consumers rated social media as one of the top three channels they most trusted to source information about a brand or company’ (Experian, 2012). Thus, even though a large number of brands have developed a presence on social networks, they still face issues of consumer trust. However, Straubharr, Larose and Daveport, 2012 argue that consumer trust in social media networks is improving and advertisers can use this to their advantage. Consumer trusts brand that their friends trust. Word-of-mouth is thus the most effective form of advertising and this could work well in the case of social networking. As one friend likes a brand, other would be bound to follow or at least develop interest in the brand. Media Fragmentation Advertising on Facebook and other social networks also raises the issue of media fragmentation. Media fragmentation is a relatively new term that has developed as a result of development and spread of media to such an extent, that the message directed to the consumers is lost somewhere. Advertisers are unable to control the reach and budget of their message as they find it difficult to convey their message to the consumer through the myriad media options. By advertising through Facebook, advertisers still face the same issue. The best way for advertisers to remain in the minds of the consumers is by actively participating in the social network through regular updates, posts and comments. Another possible method is to improve on the fan following of the page. When one friend likes a page, it prompts another to like the same page or visit it for further information. A high number of fans increase the likelihood of the brand to remain in the forefront of the consumers. Facebook also is able to control media fragmentation to a certain extent. When advertising on Facebook, advertisers are able to control the demographics of the people who would be viewing their Facebook ad. In this manner, ads are usually limited to the target audience which increases the chances of the ad being clicked on. Small Business Recommendations Small Business have thrived the most on Facebook. It has become the norm for small business to advertise and sell through social networking channels, specifically Facebook. This is primarily because Facebook allows small businesses to set up their presence without any cost and even advertising on Facebook is relatively cheap as compared to other advertising mediums. Also Facebook has an extended reach as people from all walks of life and from all generation usually maintain a Facebook id. However, the easy access to Facebook for small business also creates certain issues. The foremost issue is the amount of competition available on Facebook. Almost everyone is advertising on Facebook-from small brands to large brands. Thus, in order to develop an effective marketing strategy, small businesses can succeed through certain recommendations. Starting Small Business on Facebook Starting a small business on Facebook is relatively easy. It is without the hassles of getting a real place to attract consumers and to arrange for maintenance costs of the traditional brick and mortar shop. However, effective business requires proper planning, and especially on Facebook where there is already high traffic of small business. The business has to come up with a name and maintain a portfolio of their work. For example, if the business is selling T-Shirts, the business needs a good amount of photos that they categorize into different albums such as Ladies, Gents, Funny, Formal etc. The next step would be to sign up on Facebook. This is free of cost and is relatively easy for someone who already has a page on Facebook. If the small business has money to spend on advertising, they can benefit from the low cost advertising of Facebook. The like page is also one of the most important pages for advertising on Facebook. When giving a link to the Facebook page, advertisers should navigate the users to the like page. In this way, the like page will form the first impression of the brand and thus it should be catchy and appealing. A well-designed like page prompts users to like the page which would allow friends of that particular user to like the page or at least to take interest in the page (Eldon, 2008). Marketing a Small Business on Facebook Facebook allow marketers to promote their products and services using interactive media. Marketers can upload pictures and videos that the viewers can go through before making their selection. This is specifically beneficial for the service industry such as photographers and videographers who can upload their portfolio directly on the SNSs (Yankee, 2009). Another option available for marketing to the Facebook users is Facebook ads. Facebook ads are paid promotion for the business where businesses can advertise their products to the right target market. Facebook advertisements are displayed on the user’s page in the right hand corner. ‘Advertisers can ask Facebook to show ads to an audience based on demographic factors such as location, age, gender, education, work history and the interests people have chosen to share on Facebook’ (Facebook 2012). In this way, advertisers are able to focus on their specific target market and the visibility of the ad is increased. Facebook also allows advertisers to control their budget when they plan on advertising their ads on Facebook. They can do this by using either of the two options: Cost per Click (CPC) or Cost per thousand impressions (CPM). Under Cost per Click, advertisers pay their amount on the basis of the number of users who click on the advertisement. Under Cost per Mile, the advertisers pay their amount on the basis of number of user who views the ads (Facebook 2012). Since advertisers are competing with other numerous small and big businesses, they need a catchy phrase and a photo. While putting up an ad on Facebook, small businesses need to put up their best photo (Zarella and Zarella, 2011). One recommendation for small businesses is to develop an active presence of Facebook. This means that they constantly need to update their profile through photos and posts. Even if the business is seasonal, small businesses need to continuously update their pages. This will ensure that the users are reminded of the presence of the page on a daily basis as they are automatically informed about the updates on their own page. However, businesses should not sound over eager to the point that the consumer gets irritated with too many updates which leads them to finally unsubscribe from the page (Blick, 2011). The best idea for marketing on Facebook is to interact with the consumers on a regular basis so as to maintain their interest. This can be done through regular posts and regular uploading of photos. References Blick, D. (2011) The Ultimate Small Business Marketing Book, UK: Filament Publishing Ltd Condra, J. (2008) The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing Through World History: 1801 to the present, New York: Greenwood Publishing Group Eldon, E. 2008. 2008 Growth puts Facebook in better position to make money, Venture Beat, Retrieved from http://venturebeat.com/2008/12/18/2008-growth-puts-facebook-in-better-position-to-make-money/ Experian (2012) Facebook tops 6.2 billion visits in Australia yet consumers still wary of brand engagement via social media channels, Retrieved from http://press.experian.com/Australia/Press-Release/facebook-tops-6-billion-visits-in- australia-yet-consumers-still-wary-of-brand-engagement.aspx?&p=1 Facebook (2012) Newsroom Marketers, Retrieved from http://newsroom.fb.com/content/default.aspx?NewsAreaId=139 Haig, M. (2011) Brand Success: How the World's Top 100 Brands Thrive and Survive, New York: Kogan Page Publishers Louis Vuitton Facebook (2012) About, Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/LouisVuitton/info LVMH (2012) LVMH Companies and Brands, Retrieved from http://www.lvmh.com/the- group/lvmh-companies-and-brands Staubhaar, J., Larose, R. and Davenport, L. (2012) Media Now 2012 Update, Ohio: Cengage Learning Sysomos, (2009) Inside Facebook Pages, Retrieved from http://www.sysomos.com/insidefacebook/ Yankee, S. 2009. Marketing with Social Networking Sites, Event DV, Retrieved from http://www.eventdv.net/Articles/Column/Strictly-Business/Strictly-Business-Marketing-With-Social-Networking-Sites-52924.htm Zarrella, D. and Zarrella, A. (2011) The Facebook Marketing Book, California: O’ Reilly Media Inc Read More