This paper has a look at the label "Longchamp" (Why is the brand successful, KANO Model Analysis, 4P Analysis, managing of the "Le Pliage" product line, value proposition, BCG Matrix Analysis, Analysis according to Ansoff).
1. Why has Le pliage been so successful? To what do you attribute its popularity and longevity?
What is the role of the Longchamp brand and its success?
Longchamp’s iconic product, Le Pliage is a range of foldable, leather-trimmed nylon bags. Since it was launched at 1993,Le Pliage has gained great popularity globally. Between 1993 and 2015, over 30 million Le Pliage nylon bags had been sold across the world.The huge success is described as “eternal”. To analyze the reason behind,reasons below are listed. Le Pliage’s success can be viewed as a perfect practice of marketing mix. Part of 4P model can be used to analyze this case.
Product
The key word to summarize Le Pliage’s successful product positioning is “Quality”. Designed as a functional bag, Le Pliage adopted one of the most practical and unusual materials, nylon which is durable, sturdy, light as well as cheap.The other remarkable point is its classic design. It can be used as a travel bag,working bag,school bag and also fashionable bag. The basic design enables itself to be easily accepted by all levels of customers from school girls to old ladies which means it has a super-scale potential market. Besides, its continuous innovation contributes to its longevity. In collaboration with artists Longchamp made its bestseller in different colors, pattern and fabrics to attract attention and make the customer continuously renew their relationship with the product. And Longchamp brand has attributed to its success by its branding basis. All the existential values the company addressed enriched its popularity.
Price
Le Pliage’s price strategy, that average price is €90, made this series of bags affordable to most of the consumers. In traditional view, luxury products’ target consumer should be white-collar and upper class. Le Pliage realized the revolution. However, defined as “Entry Luxury”,it then target towards a much bigger market with a low-barrier for consuming ability.
Promotion
In 2006, Le Pliage launched its first advertising campaign with Kate Moss. Even in this campaign,model didn’t carry Le Pliage, halo effect of Longchamp brand has stimulated its sales.
Another strategy for Le Pliage is that special seasonal colors and limited edition prints were introduced twice a year. And its constant re imaging provided consumers ways to continuously renew their relationship with the product. That can also explain its longevity and popularity together with “Product”part.
Place
Longchamp brand as the most strong support plays the crucial role in Le Pliage’s successful distribution. Longchamp’s flagship stores were located on the world’s most fashionable shopping boulevard that brought brand,also the products visibility. The brand stores where Le Pliage are shown could be found in 100 countries through 1500 points of sale.Complete distribution channels including fully owned or franchised flagship stores,online sales and wholesale distribution through department stores accumulated consumers’ psychologic identification for Le Pliage.
Longchamp is considered as a luxurious brand, but still affordable. The success of Longchamp can be explained by the positioning of the brand. The uniqueness of its mid-way position between accessible luxury and traditional luxury is crucial to the customers. This means it is not as expensive as the top luxury brands; so affordable for a broader group of customers but still has the image of a “true luxury brand”. Additionally Longchamp has not the drawbacks of accessible luxury brands whose success often only lasts for a limited period of time and its products’ quality is often perceived inferior. That’s why there is a big range of customers buying Longchamp’s handbags. When other women see some wealthy, chic woman wearing this handbag – who bought it in a luxurious store, they would like to be chic as well so they will buy it too. That’s the main connection between Le Pliage and the brand Longchamp. It is the luxurious brand that anyone can have.
KANO Model Analysis
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2. How should Longchamp best manage its Le Pliage product line?
Le Pliage model can now be named as an icon and brand success of Longchamp. The product portfolio developed by the brand includes the original version (Le Pliage nylon) which is the cheapest one; Le Pliage Cuir, fairly more expensive and a special launch made for the 20th anniversary of the brand: Le Pliage Heritage, the most expensive one of the company. In order to achieve a longer success and a product longevity that would make Le Pliage a successful item within the next 30 years, a proposed strategic plan for the line continuously is shown below:
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3. Should the value proposition focus on artisanship and history or being fashion forward?
There are two different options Longchamp could take regarding their value proposition. One possibility is that the value proposition focuses on artisanship and history. This means staying faithful to the company’s image which has been existing since 1948. Like Cassegrain describes it: “We don’t change strategy very often - we like the idea of building slowly and we are always moving in the same direction.” All of Longchamps handbags are produced in workshops all over the world.A reason to keep on producing in this way is, that the way the products are made is giving authenticity to them and this can be considered as a competitive advantage. Many fashion brands sell handbags but the fact that very few actually make the handbags makes Longchamp stand out from them. But the drawback which comes with this method are the longer lead times which occur because of this sophisticated production process in the diversified product range of Longchamp. To have a bigger margin Longchamp could try being more fashion forward and relinquish the artisan workshop. But here are two reasons which clearly shows why this strategy would not be a good choice. First of all, Longchamp always had a policy of charging a fair price for its products. The price should reflect the costs of making the product instead of just setting the price high to create a sense of luxury. If Longchamp would not anymore manufacture its products handcrafted a lot of the products value would be lost and remaining the same price level would may be experienced like a betrayal by the customers and it is an important value of Longchamp that they never overprice. Furthermore changing the value proposition to focus more on fashion forward, would maybe lead to Longchamp being categorized as an accessible luxury producer. But that is not at all what Longchamp is aiming for. If the prices would remain the same nobody would buy their products anymore as the direct competitors (accessible luxury) are half as much and lowering the prices is not an option. The buyers of this kind product is not the target group Longchamp is focusing on and through this they would lose a big part of its wealthier customers. Taking all of the aspects in account it would be the best solution for Longchamp to focus on the artisanship and history with its value proposition to keep its customers who rely on the quality of Longchamp’s products.
4. How should they manage their product portfolio and distribution to best achieve its goals?
What is the right mix of products and distribution channels?
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- Citar trabajo
- Anónimo,, 2016, Sector Specific Marketing. Case Study Analysis of "Longchamp", Múnich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/366918
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