Meet
Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy
What do internationally recognised brand names like
Louis Vuitton, Dom Pérignon and TAG Heuer have
in common? They are all the luxury items that are wanted
by most of us… and they are all produced by one
of the world’s largest luxury conglomerate - Louis
Vuitton Moët Hennessy or also known as LVMH. It is a
French holding company that is very well recognised
in the world of luxury items and is the parent company
of around 60 sub-brands. LVMH currently employs 77,000
people all around the world (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LVMH).
Louis Vuitton’s rich history in the branding
industry began as a supplier of luggage to the wealthy
and powerful, famous for combining quality fabric creation
with innovative designs for customers travelling via
different modes of travel. The name is actually of a
carpenter’s son, who mastered the skill of woodworking
and designing trunks within a very short time frame
and became an expert. Louis Vuitton established his
brand among wealthy homes as he was often employed to
pack the clothes of these women before he started going
regularly to the Tuileries Palace as the exclusive packer
to the Empress Eugénie and her ladies-in-waiting.
In 1854, Vuitton opened his own business and his invention
of flat-topped trunks which gained him the reputation
as a master luggage-maker. Eventually Louis Vuitton
expanded its presence to stores and distributors in
France and subsequently, Louis Vuitton stores were opened
all over the world between 1977 and 1987, with Asia
becoming the company's principal export market.
Champagne maker Claude Moët started off in the
Champagne region east of Paris – yes, the drink
is named after the region! Later, instead of dealing
with middle men selling his champagne in markets, Moët
began to sell the champagne himself. Clearly he was
the best suited person to position his brand, as Moët
et Cie (Moët and Company) was formed, it quickly
established accounts with landed gentry, nobles as well
as the royals. Meanwhile business grew to other countries
like Germany, Spain, Eastern Europe and America. Creating
the most expensive and successful premium brand, Dom
Pérignon in the 1920s raised their stakes in
the market. The company merged with James Hennessy and
Company, France’s second largest cognac producer,
in 1971 and formed the new company Moët-Hennessy
(http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/LVMH-Moeuml;t-Hennessy-Louis-Vuitton-SA-Company-History.html).
The merging of these successful brands took place in
June 1987 and Louis Vuitton Möet-Hennessy was born.
LVMH owes its grand success partly to the practice of
brand diversification where brands like Christian Dior,
Donna Karan, Fendi, Kenzo, Tag Heuer, Givenchy, Marc
Jacobs, Thomas Pink and many more are part of the LVMH
sub-brands. LVMH is one of the giant conglomerate in
the world as learnt from a research conducted in December,
2007 which shows that worldwide there are 2,048 stores
owned by LVMH (http://www.linkedin.com/companies/lvmh).
Today, LVMH is one of the world’s most successful
luxury brands conglomerate with their prestigious heritage
of high quality, well received and respected line of
products. Their sub-brands have been in the industry
for many years and LVMH has several factors contributing
to the brand’s strengths. Louis Vuitton and TAG
Heuer for instance have a strong base of customer loyalty.
Louis Vuitton has contributed to 60% of LVMH’s
earnings and TAG Heuer’s customer list includes
Tiger Woods and Steven McQueen endorsing the watch (http://www.economicexpert.com/a/TAG:
Heuer.htm).
