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The Bag, The Brand, The Legend

Posted: November 13, 2014, 11:58 a.m.
by Brittany Downey.

Founded in 1854, Louis Vuitton has become one of the most successful luxury brands to enter the fashion industry. With its products still hand-crafted in its French factories, CEO Bernard Arnault admitted marketing isn’t a part of the strategy at LVHM. The products simply speak for themselves. Led by its iconic monogram and camel brown handbags, Louis Vuitton’s worth is estimated at $30 billion.

Like the products, the brand’s online presence lures customers in and sparks the desire to own. A prime example lies in the new campaign launched by Louis V, “Celebrating Monogram.”

The brand brought together six luxury designers, who designed their own collections and then used online videos and behind-the-scenes info on all things “Monogram” to introduce those collections to the world. The campaign has an enormous online presence, ranging from a website to a Twitter feed, and captures audiences around the world to marvel at the collections of the renowned designers.

Outside the box
Vuitton’s first step was going to the industry’s top dogs to help build the collections. Names like Karl Lagerfeld, Christian Louboutin and Rei Kawakubo were the celebrities who brought attention to the brand’s new development. Each designer created their own products — complete with the Louis Vuitton monogram.

In the end, the collections held unique pieces of work from world-class artists who established their reputations with other companies. The combination of the designers’ esteem in the fashion industry, along with Vuitton’s world-renowned icon, is part of why the campaign has been so successful.

“It was carte blanche for the artists,” CEO Michael Burke explained in Vogue. “So, it was interesting to see how they would enter into a tango with something that was there before them and will be there long after we’re gone — how do you dance with eternity?”

Brittany's Blog - Louis Vuitton

Knock, knock
While fashion industry followers had the inside scoop on the campaign, it quickly spread to the outside world when the Celebrating Monogram dinner went live. Fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier took pictures at a pop-up photo studio, and the images were instantly uploaded to the brand’s Instagram account complete with the hashtag #LVLive (cue the squealing fashion gurus).

The dinner event quickly and efficiently entered the bedrooms, cars and personal spaces of its audiences and reached them like never before. Taking advantage of the audience’s tendency to look at social media served Louis Vuitton well. Even though several posts were up within minutes of each other, there wasn’t an annoyance factor of so many posts at one time. Vuitton has perfected the art of online engagement and only proved it further with this implementation.

What we can learn
Louis Vuitton has once again mastered not only creating the element of desire, but also communicating that desire in a tasteful way. With a website full of supermodels, an Instagram populated with images of elegant, fashion industry events, and a “too-good-for-that” approach to marketing, Louis Vuitton continues to set itself apart from the rest of luxury brands. Its combination of social media and high fashion make it easy for those not in the industry to swoon over the latest trends without leaving their couch.

“My first purchase when I started to be an actress was a Louis Vuitton scarf,” Melissa George said in Vogue. “I was only sixteen years old, and I wanted to buy something that really carried meaning — something that said, ‘I’m making it.’ To me that was Louis Vuitton.”

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