Picking the Perfect Brand: Tips and Tricks

1) Choose a brand of your own liking. The only requirement is that the brand has a strong social presence in at least 4 digital channels (such as Facebook, SnapChat, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, communities etc.). At least half of the seminars’ activities throughout the semester 2 will relate to the brand’s existing digital activities – so you want to make sure you have something to work on!

Brand: Louis Vuitton (A brand under LVMH)

a. Which are the channels where the brand is present?

-> Facebook; Instagram; Twitter; YouTube

YouTube

Instagram

FB

b. What is the reach of the brand on these channels in terms of followers, people who “liked” the page etc.?

-> Facebook: 20m, advertising; survey for asking customers’ preferences and attitudes

Instagram:21m

Twitter: 7.18m

Youtube: 181,942 followers, have promotion PR such as what charities they did

c. What is the purpose of each channel – product promotion, discussions around relevant topics (if so, which ones?), customer service, product/value co-creation, crowdsourcing…? (Jin and Tommy)

-Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/louisvuitton

product promotion: posting new products photos and information

customer service: answer customer questions via Facebook direct message

-Twitter

https://twitter.com/louisvuitton_UK

https://twitter.com/LVServices

product promotion: posting new products photos and information

@LVServices: an account dedicated to providing customer services (in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese)

-Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/louisvuitton/

brand promotion (Instagram advertising/discovery feature)

product promotion: posting new products photos and information

but does not use Instagram stories feature

-Youtube

https://www.youtube.com/user/LOUISVUITTON/

product promotion: posting new products videos and information

brand promotion (advertising/discovery feature): e.g. posting videos about cooperating with UNICEF to promote brand’s corporate social responsibility

d. What is the level of media richness of the brand on the channels that you have identified in point a)? How interactive is the brand? What modalities (image, text, video, 360 degree photos, augmented / enhanced photos, Instastories, Snaps, VR videos etc.) does it use? Think of the discussions that we had in the class last Friday. (Vera and Jeslie)

-> Facebook: High media richness,

  highly interactive, four times a week in average;

  Modalities: posts, images, video, chatbots, augmented photo, text, celebrity videos with LV, client services-----

Instagram: High media richness

  Highly interactive - daily regular posts of videos and images

  Modalities: Images of products themselves and celebrities; texts; small videos of new products launching and promoting; Instastories

Twitter: Medium level of media richness and interactiveness, low frequency

  Modalities:photo, short videos

Youtube: Medium media richness;

  Modalities: live streamed events;

  Various videos - have promotion PR such as what charities they did; ads of new                 products; recommendations from celebrities

e. What is the level of brand’s self-presentation on the channels that you have identified in the point a)? How much information is there available about the brand? What is the image that the brand is conveying on these channels? (Jo, Catherine and James)

-> High level of self-presentation

Self-presentation in communication background to social media is the desire to control the impressions other people form of them through social interactions, mainly how they want to be perceived and how they present themselves to give an impression to others. Companies such as Louis Vuitton are motivated to use self-presentation to influence others to gain rewards, financially and non-financially. They use it to create an image that is aligned with their brand identity. Louis Vuitton’s Facebook page is updated multiple times per month, mainly when there is a special event in one of their shops globally. They also post pictures of short videos when they have new products out that they want to introduce to their Facebook followers, presenting themselves to give off an impression that followers would perceive as fashionable and classy.

An example of this would be a post on January 19th, 2018, where they introduced their new “Titanium Sherpa Trunk” from the Louis Vuitton Men’s Fall-Winter 2018 Fashion Show by Kim Jones, which had 223k likes/reactions and over 5.9k shares. Meanwhile, on their Twitter page, they share posts of their activities and products more often to their 7 million Twitter followers compared to Facebook. This could be due to the younger demographic being more active on Twitter than Facebook. Their posts on twitter are more detailed and specific for products, or Seasonal Fashion and runway looks with Celebrity endorsements with the likes of Football Superstar and Fashion Icon, David Beckham, modeling in their latest fashion show.

This shows a high level of self-presentation because Louis Vuitton not only wants themselves to be perceived as Classy and fashionable among stereotypical fashion lovers but also to the audience involved in the world of sports. This would increase their following as a whole, which would allow them to gain more financial and non-financial rewards. On their Instagram profile, it has a high level of self-presentation. This can be seen from their Instagram post of Actress Margot Robbie wearing a Louis Vuitton gown. Their motive to post these kinds of pictures would be to promote a brand image that associates with class-personified, which is aligned with their identity.

-> High level of transparency

Business transparency depends on how much information the brand makes available to the public. The availability of information about the brand on channels is essential as it not only allows customers to understand and comprehend the brand more but also helps to set apart from the competition.

Louis Vuitton utilized one of their channels, Facebook, to provide customers with the history and background of the brand. They have provided the business information such as mission statement and the company overview with their company website under the contact information section if anyone is interested in knowing more. Most importantly, the milestones of the brand throughout the years were also clearly recorded with pictures and short description in it.

-> Luxury,

The use of luxury brands in social media is a marketing strategy used by Louis Vuitton to appeal to many customers, especially the millennial generation. Many international brands have generated polarization from the other smaller companies through the exhibition of luxury through the digital platforms. Most of the new customers in the fashion market are the millennials, who are impressed with luxurious designs. For this reason, any company that focuses on attracting the new customers through displaying luxurious products tend to gain a larger market share over its competitors. Louis Vuitton has managed to venture into demonstrating luxurious brands through the social media platforms; especially Instagram. With the current twenty million followers on Instagram, Louis Vuitton displays high definition images of celebrities to derive a luxurious appeal to its viewers. The content displayed has  enabled the company to reach to the millennials, who are the new customer target and compose of about 33 percent of the total followers on Instagram

High-end

In comparison with the Luxury strategy, Louis Vuitton uses a marketing strategy that portrays its products as high end to its social media viewers. If one view some of the images that Louis Vuitton posts on social media platforms, it is clear that the products displayed are of high value. The impression derived from this concept is a marketing strategy aimed at attracting the high-end customers who value quality over price. For this reason, Louise Vuitton uses the social media platforms to impress and attract its classy customers.

 Exclusivity

Louis Vuitton enjoys the advantage of exclusivity with its customers. This is because the products displayed on social media indicate uniqueness and exclusivity that only the company manufactures. Louis Vuitton manages to display exclusivity through displaying products that have not been posted on any other media platforms thus deriving the impression that the products are unique. The act of displaying exclusivity is a marketing strategy that aims at attracting attention from the social media viewers, enhance sales, and minimize competition.

 Prestige price

The incorporation of prestige price in products is a marketing strategy that gives the assumption to the customer that the product is of high quality. For this reason, the able and affluent customers tend to acquire pieces of the products to provide validation to their social status. Louis Vuitton uses the social media platform to display images of exclusive products that or a high price and command a notion of high social status.

Quality

In most cases, the aspect of quality resonates with the price. This is because the customers have a perception that a product of high price is of high quality. For this reason, Louis Vuitton uses this physiological pricing strategy to denote a quality of its products through social media. This is achieved by displaying images of unique and high quality products on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.