Abstract
Asian market is a very good opportunity since the Chinese market today is the third one in terms of luxury (12% of sales), behind Japan (41% of sales) and the USA (17%). What is more, Indians doubled their buying power between 1999 and 2003.
Another point that needs to be explained in the SWOT is the difficulty to pronounce the name « Louis Vuitton ». The brand image is above all a strategy issue. Some brands make the choice to highlight on purpose their French characteristics. Louis Vuitton is one of these companies who wish to take advantage of their French origin and who thus, try to emphasize their nationality through a phonetic senseless translation. Therefore, "lù yì wēi dēng" will rarely appear in the press thus favoring its French appellation Louis Vuitton.
Buying a French product, the Chinese consumer buys a part of his dream. French brands benefit from a valuable image towards the Chinese consumers. However, they need to go further in order to avoid undesirable French stereotypes. Louis Vuitton benefits from a very sophisticated image, very top-of-the-range image. Its communication strategy targets a very small segment of the Chinese society, which fuels the desire to acquire such a product among a larger Chinese population seeking a certain social economic status.
