Biweekly Journal 9/13

Objectives:
● Continuing research on luxury brands and their stock’s trends during and after the 2009
recession
● Further looking at LVMH and their recovery methods after the recession especially when
riding one brand like Louis Vuitton
● Find out why LVMH is the leading multinational luxury goods conglomerate because
there are bigger singular luxury brands than Louis Vuitton
● Look at the social conventions associated with Veblen goods, where price and demand
act in direct correlation
● Analyze more modern documents regarding LVMH and their stock price trends
especially how they remain on such a steady upward trend with multiple unproven
smaller luxury brands
● Attempt to discover unconventional areas for customers used by luxury brands

This week I was able to further narrow down the premises of my research from general

finance to finance in the upper class to the luxury hotel industry to luxury hotel management and

then to the goods which are traded in the hotel industry and finally to personal luxury goods

such as products by Louis Vuitton. I was able to discover that luxury goods do not necessarily

mean that you are dealing with the upper class of a society as nearly sixty percent of the veblen

goods market is run by the conventional middle class definition in America. Another discovery

this week was that the luxury goods industry thrives surprisingly well in mid and east asia such

as Shanghai, China and Tokyo, Japan. My research is currently moving to be more accurately

directed towards the trends and actions and recovery methods when a luxury business takes a

hit such as the 2009 recession compared to a generic goods manufacturer or distributor such as

Costco. The research doesn’t feel overwhelming at this point and I am learning a lot about a

subject that excites me and am eager for my first site visit and hopefully to meet a person who

can help me in my research and furthering my understanding of my topic.

 Biweekly Journal 9/27

Objectives:
● Explore sites which pertain to my topic and talk to employees when trying to learn more
● Analyzing, firsthand, marketing techniques for luxury brands at lone locations or in a mall
setting
● Observe the individual ways that different product lines are presented to the public and
how each one is differently aesthetically pleasing
● Complete more than the required four annotations and begin to find an advisor for
further research in the field of Veblen goods
● Understand the more complex principles of Veblen goods and possibly look at their
connection with the human psyche

This week I found a concrete idea to pursue, the understanding of the marketing aspect

of Veblen goods as their techniques contradict the social norms concerning purchases of

expensive goods. After having a successful site visit to the Columbia mall where many of my

menial questions (not found online) were answered, I searched deeper into the other marketing

techniques of luxury goods which I didn’t see at the mall. During this research, I came across a

professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who wrote an interesting article exploring how

humans react when seeing the price of notoriously expensive goods which explore the intriguing

subject of the human psyche. I feel a little overwhelmed by not knowing the exact due dates of

our research assignments as long term projects in other classes are slowly popping up near

interim report cards. Otherwise, I think the pace of the class is fine but talking to a student who

previously researched such a topic (to do with economics or finance) would be helpful as most

all of my classmates are attempting to specialize in something directed towards the medical field

or other types of sciences and away from humanities.

 Biweekly Journal 10/11

Objectives:
● Look further for more in-depth and interesting associations and organizations that will
provide me with more effective information to improve ad further my research
● Plan a following site visit to further my research affiliated with luxury and veblen goods
such as the previously decided association
● Research for multiple possible advisors and draft emails to contact them with and
continue process until one is secured
● Develop a narrower research topic pertaining to ‘what will improve society’ and discover
how my research on luxury goods can impact society
● Compile enough new and helpful sources to fill the 14 source quota to form my compiled
annotations due next week

The past two weeks have consisted of intensive online research of the business

techniques used by LVMH, the world’s leading luxury goods conglomerate in revenue, sales,

and overall different corporations under one management. This research lead me to further

investigate Bernard Arnault, the chairman and CEO of LVMH. His methodology, very old

fashioned, is considered to be very controversial. His respect for brand recognition really sets

him apart from many other CEO’s of luxury brands as he can manage many brands together.

However, through this research, I have found it difficult to complete my objectives, mainly the

ones having to do with an advisor and business organizations. Because business of luxury

goods is not large in the suburbs, it is hard to find local advisors or associations having to do

with said topic. This can be managed by contacting economists working in the area regarding

the properties and stock behaviors of veblen goods and the brands that manage them. My

workload is not too much at the moment but it would be better to have a more cohesive

calendar.
 Biweekly Journal 10/25

Objectives:
● Comprehending the more psychological aspects of the consumer market of high
level/high priced goods and why people are willing to spend time, energy and money on
something only appropriated by social convention
● Find out what associations would best fit the mold of psychological marketing along with
pushing to talk to someone in an appropriate field so that they can provide first hand
insight
● FInd unconventional research which relates psychological research to how the monetary
benefits of such psychological issues are reached
● Analyze attained data to draw conclusions of what first hand in-field money managers or
professors could provide the most up to date and appropriate information pertaining to
psychological marketing
● Look into City Center DC to see the contrast between its high end shops and the lesser
nature of the surrounding residential areas
● Search for advisors by sending out emails this week

These past two weeks have been spent managing my time appropriately to complete my
compiled annotations on time. My research has taken a turn from just looking at the market and
stock patterns of luxury goods markets such as LVMH and its subsidiaries and instead look
towards what makes them successful. What sets the successful Veblen brands from the less
successful ones is the difference in marketing techniques and effective marketing targets the
human psyche, especially for expensive luxury goods with attainable, more affordable
counterparts. Possibly undesirable initially, luxury goods have to be marketed as being essential
which targets human perception and works with comparing how the marketers of successful
companies interact on a more personal level with their audience than the less successful ones.
As there was an extremely limited amount of excess money which people would spend on
extraneous products during the 2009 recession and its recovery, every sale mattered and to sell
more, you needed more people to buy so my research has begun on what techniques work best
with what demographics when it comes to the management of money.
 Biweekly Journal 11/8

Objectives:
● Look into possible advisors of and associations that could possibly provide me with extra
information pertaining to the intricacies not offered online regarding my research of
psychological marketing
● Plan a second site visit to further my research affiliated with psychological marketing
factors at the UMBC library to look at their extensive plethora of business related
information
● Look further to attain multiple possible advisors and draft and now send emails in order
to contact them and repeat this process until one in the field of marketing specifically
● Develop a project proposal by the end of the next week with a useful thesis which I can
build off of
● Compile new annotations from citations of more credible and scholarly documents which
have rather analyzable data

Over the past two weeks I have done work consisting of online research of the

psychological marketing world by analyzing data collected by professors and researchers with

backgrounds in business and psychology or sometimes both who look at marketing trends and

how they relate to consumer behaviors. This research lead me to further investigate these

specific techniques. The authors explore outside influencers on consumer decision making such

as familial norms or societal norms. These factors of the society can be described as peer

pressure, religious precedents, marketer policies, government mandates, and employer

influences. The human need to conform to the norms dictated by the society influence how the

marketer maintains a relation with the consumer by sympathizing with these norms. This can be

looked at in more detail by contacting economists working in the area regarding the properties

and stock behaviors of targeted goods in my case veblen goods and the brands that manage

them. My workload is not too much at the moment but it would be better to have a more

cohesive calendar.
 Biweekly Journal 11/29

Objectives:
● Look into a possible advisor for the psychological aspect of my research of psychological
marketing
● Plan a second interview to further my research affiliated with psychological marketing
factors
● Look further to attain multiple possible advisors and draft and now send emails in order
to contact them and repeat this process until one in the field of marketing specifically
● Develop a working thesis which would be working for a research paper
● Compile new annotations from citations of more credible and scholarly documents which
have rather analyzable data

Over the past two weeks I have done work consisting of online research of the

psychological marketing world by analyzing data collected by professors and researchers with

backgrounds in business and psychology or sometimes both who look at marketing trends and

how they relate to consumer behaviors further. This research lead me to further investigate

these specific techniques. These studies will be good for the sources that I will need to use in

order to create a complete research paper. The human need to conform to the norms dictated

by the society influence how the marketer maintains a relation with the consumer by

sympathizing with these norms. This can be looked at in more detail by contacting economists

working in the area regarding the properties and stock behaviors of targeted goods in my case

veblen goods and the brands that manage them. In order to create the bullet outline, I need to

understand the studies that I have been looking into while analyzing what the authors have

derived from their data collection. My workload is not too much at the moment but it would be

better to have a more cohesive calendar.

 Biweekly Journal 12/13

Objectives:
● Look further into a possible advisor for the psychological aspect of my research of
psychological marketing
● Plan a second interview to further my research affiliated with psychological marketing
factors
● Look further to attain another advisor and draft and now send emails in order to contact
them and repeat this process until one in the field of marketing specifically
● Develop a another thesis which would be working for a research paper
● Compile new annotations from citations of more credible and scholarly documents which
have rather analyzable data

Over the past two weeks I have done work consisting of online research of the

psychological marketing world by analyzing data collected by professors and researchers with

backgrounds in business and psychology or sometimes both who look at marketing trends and

how they relate to consumer behaviors further. This research lead me to further investigate

these specific techniques and implement them into my working thesis. These studies will be

good for the sources that I will need to use in order to create a complete research paper. The

human need to conform to the norms dictated by the society influence how the marketer

maintains a relation with the consumer by sympathizing with these norms. This can be looked at

in more detail by contacting economists working in the area regarding the properties and stock

behaviors of targeted goods in my case veblen goods and the brands that manage them. In

order to create the bullet outline, I need to understand the studies that I have been looking into

while analyzing what the authors have derived from their data collection. My workload is not too

much at the moment but it would be better to have a more cohesive calendar.
 Biweekly Journal 1/3

Objectives:
● Look further for more in-depth and interesting associations and organizations that will
provide me with more effective information to improve ad further my research and
improve my writing and content in the upcoming research paper
● Consult my advisor regarding my newly improved sentence outline and as for critique on
the content as well as the structure of my paper
● Create a core group of sources which I have compiled over the last few months which
can be directly linked to my controls
● Compile enough new and helpful sources to form my paper with the control-specific
sources preferably three or four sources for each

Over the last few weeks and prior to winter break, I created multiple outlines regarding

what I envisioned my research paper to be eventually. The first one being a phrase outline

stemming from my research proposal done in November. This had the essence of the eventual

paper but did not include any cohesive ideas, relying solely on the controls and their supporting

sources along with a rudimentary introduction and conclusion. The following outline was the

chart outline which allowed me to add my thinking between each of the controls and their

supporting sources which allowed me to get closer to an actual paper. This was most beneficial

as this allowed me to see where the holes in my arguments and the controls of my paper. The

final, sentence outline will allow me to get very close to my final paper which will allow me to

analyze all of the space between my arguments. As I am getting closer to writing my final paper

and both my advisor’s would be too busy to read my entire paper, I will request them to look at

my sentence outline which I intend to finish well before the deadline, next Monday.
 Biweekly Journal 1/17

Objectives:
● Look further for more in-depth and interesting associations and organizations that will
provide me with more effective information to improve ad further my research and
improve my writing and content in the upcoming research paper
● Consult my advisor regarding my newly improved sentence outline and as for critique on
the content as well as the structure of my paper
● Edit my compiled annotations to further improve them in order for a successful and
effective compiled annotation final product for next week’s midterm
● Create a core group of sources which I have compiled over the last few months which
can be directly linked to my controls
● Compile enough new and helpful sources to form my paper with the control-specific
sources preferably three or four sources for each

Over the last few weeks and prior to winter break, I created multiple outlines regarding

what I envisioned my research paper to be eventually. The first one being a phrase outline

stemming from my research proposal done in November. This had the essence of the eventual

paper but did not include any cohesive ideas, relying solely on the controls and their supporting

sources along with a rudimentary introduction and conclusion. The following outline was the

chart outline which allowed me to add my thinking between each of the controls and their

supporting sources which allowed me to get closer to an actual paper. This was most beneficial

as this allowed me to see where the holes in my arguments and the controls of my paper. The

final, sentence outline allows me to get very close to my final paper, making it easier to analyze

all of the space between my arguments. As I am getting closer to writing my final paper I

requested both my advisors to edit my ideas and structure and I have gotten a response with an

edited outline from Mr. Vipin Sahijwani, former marketer and current CEO of Lynx Advisory

Group in Washington D.C. which I took into deep consideration when making the final edits to

my refined sentence outline due, Wednesday, January, 17.

 Biweekly Journal 2/8

Objectives:
● Continuing research on luxury brands and their stock’s trends during and after the 2009
recession
● Further looking at LVMH and their recovery methods after the recession especially when
riding one brand like Louis Vuitton
● Find out why LVMH is the leading multinational luxury goods conglomerate because
there are bigger singular luxury brands than Louis Vuitton
● Look at the social conventions associated with Veblen goods, where price and demand
act in direct correlation
● Analyze more modern documents regarding LVMH and their stock price trends
especially how they remain on such a steady upward trend with multiple unproven
smaller luxury brands
● Attempt to discover unconventional areas to conduct questionnaires

This week I was able to further narrow down the premises of what my research will

pertain to. I was able to discover that luxury goods do not necessarily mean that you are dealing

with the upper class of a society as nearly sixty percent of the veblen goods market is run by the

conventional middle class definition in America. Another discovery this week was that the luxury

goods industry thrives surprisingly well in mid and east asia such as Shanghai, China and

Tokyo, Japan. My research is currently moving to be more accurately directed towards the

trends and actions and recovery methods when a luxury business takes a hit such as the 2009

recession compared to a generic goods manufacturer or distributor such as Costco. The

questionnaire doesn’t feel overwhelming at this point and I am learning a lot about a subject that

excites me and am eager for my questionnaire and hopefully to meet another person who can

help me in my research and furthering my understanding of my topic so that I can eventually

elevate my final research paper.

 Biweekly Journal 2/21

Objectives:
● Continuing research on luxury brands and their stock’s trends during and after the 2009
recession to create questionnaire for data collection
● Further my valentines day cards and write the cards on the art paper
● Analyze more modern documents regarding LVMH and their stock price trends
especially how they remain on such a steady upward trend with multiple unproven
smaller luxury brands
● Attempt to discover unconventional areas to conduct questionnaires
● Create a core group of sources which I have compiled over the last few months which
can be directly linked to my controls
● Compile enough new and helpful sources to form my paper with the control-specific
sources preferably three or four sources for each

This week I was able to further narrow down the premises of what my research will

pertain to for the questionnaire and find questions that may pertain to my topic. I was able to

discover that luxury goods do not necessarily mean that you are dealing with the upper class of

a society as nearly sixty percent of the veblen goods market is run by the conventional middle

class definition in America. My research is currently moving to be more accurately directed

towards the trends and actions and recovery methods when a luxury business takes a hit such

as the 2009 recession compared to a generic goods manufacturer or distributor such as Costco.

The questionnaire doesn’t feel overwhelming at this point and I am learning a lot about a subject

that excites me and am eager for my questionnaire and hopefully to meet another person who

can help me in my research and furthering my understanding of my topic so that I can

eventually elevate my final research paper and will help me to turn my research and questions

into a feasible and cohesive questionnaire. I especially enjoyed that we had the opportunity to

blow off steam through making our Valentine’s Day cards for the teachers which gave me an

opportunity to thank my teachers for all they’ve done for me.

Biweekly Journal 3/6

Objectives:
● Look further for more in-depth and interesting associations and organizations that will
provide me with more effective information to improve and further my research along
with questionnaire questions
● Plan a following conference with Ms. Sasser to further my research affiliated with luxury
and veblen goods such as the previously decided association
● Develop a narrower research topic pertaining to ‘what will improve society’ and discover
how my research on luxury goods can impact society
● Finish my final draft for the final research paper on my topic with the proper bibliography
and turn it in

The past two weeks have consisted of intensive online research to acquire previously

vetted questionnaires to find questions that I may put into my final survey which will go out to

multiple age groups.. This research lead me to further investigate Bernard Arnault, the chairman

and CEO of LVMH. His methodology, very old fashioned, is considered to be very controversial.

His respect for brand recognition really sets him apart from many other CEO’s of luxury brands

as he can manage many brands together. However, through this research, I have found it

difficult to complete my objectives, mainly the ones having to do with an advisor and business

organizations. This can be managed by contacting economists working in the area regarding the

properties and stock behaviors of veblen goods and the brands that manage them. The

questionnaire doesn’t feel overwhelming at this point and I am learning a lot about a subject that

excites me and am eager for my questionnaire and hopefully to meet another person who can

help me in my research and furthering my understanding of my topic so that I can eventually

elevate my final research paper. My workload is not too much at the moment but it would be

better to have a more cohesive calendar.

 Biweekly Journal 3/21

Objectives:
● Look further for more in-depth and interesting associations and organizations that will
provide me with more effective information to improve and further my research along
with questionnaire questions
● Plan a following conference with Ms. Sasser to further my research affiliated with luxury
and veblen goods such as the previously decided association
● Develop a narrower research topic pertaining to ‘what will improve society’ and discover
how my research on luxury goods can impact society
● Finish my final draft for the final research paper on my topic with the proper bibliography
and turn it in

The past two weeks have consisted of intensive online research to acquire previously

vetted questionnaires to find questions that I may put into my final survey which will go out to

multiple age groups.. This research lead me to further investigate Bernard Arnault, the chairman

and CEO of LVMH. His methodology, very old fashioned, is considered to be very controversial.

His respect for brand recognition really sets him apart from many other CEO’s of luxury brands

as he can manage many brands together. However, through this research, I have found it

difficult to complete my objectives, mainly the ones having to do with an advisor and business

organizations. This can be managed by contacting economists working in the area regarding the

properties and stock behaviors of veblen goods and the brands that manage them. The

questionnaire doesn’t feel overwhelming at this point and I am learning a lot about a subject that

excites me and am eager for my questionnaire and hopefully to meet another person who can

help me in my research and furthering my understanding of my topic so that I can eventually

elevate my final research paper. My workload is not too much at the moment but it would be

better to have a more cohesive calendar.

 Biweekly Journal 4/6

Objectives:
● Look further for more in-depth and interesting associations and organizations that will
provide me with more effective information to improve and further my research along
with questionnaire questions
● Plan a following conference with Ms. Sasser to further my research affiliated with luxury
and veblen goods such as the previously decided association
● Develop a narrower research topic pertaining to ‘what will improve society’ and discover
how my research on luxury goods can impact society
● Finish my final draft for the final research paper on my topic with the proper bibliography
and turn it in

The past two weeks have consisted of intensive online research to attain visuals for my

visual display board and to have proper annotations and captions for those images. This

research lead me to further investigate Bernard Arnault, the chairman and CEO of LVMH. His

methodology, very old fashioned, is considered to be very controversial. His respect for brand

recognition really sets him apart from many other CEO’s of luxury brands as he can manage

many brands together. However, through this research, I have found it difficult to complete my

objectives, mainly the ones having to do with an advisor and business organizations. This can

be managed by contacting economists working in the area regarding the properties and stock

behaviors of veblen goods and the brands that manage them. The questionnaire doesn’t feel

overwhelming at this point and I am learning a lot about a subject that excites me and am eager

for my questionnaire and hopefully to meet another person who can help me in my research and

furthering my understanding of my topic so that I can eventually elevate my final research

paper. My workload is not too much at the moment but it would be better to have a more

cohesive calendar. The burden of any amounting of work was lifted from spring break also.
 Biweekly Journal 4/11

Objectives:
● Use my research paper and the research proposal I created during the data collection
process to compile information and create a presentation which would be
comprehensible to those with and without background knowledge on the subject of
marketing of luxury and non-luxury brands
● Describe the process which I used to complete the data collection so I can break it down
for someone who is not familiar with my project
● Complete my website according to the given pages that are needed on the website for
the final draft

Over the last few weeks, including spring break, I have worked on the development,

compilation of visuals and information, and a polished product for my visual display board. The

process of developing a finished visual display board stemmed from me beginning my work by

looking at my research paper and outline to find what information would be appropriate on the

visual display board. Along with this information from my already created content from my

paper, I compiled visuals and annotated them so that I would know when to use them in the

future. By doing this, my visual display board had enough visuals to help convey my point.

When completing my board, I consulted my classmates and previous boards to make it most

appealing and attractive to understand my topic. Through this consultation of the other boards

and my classmates, I was able to realize that highlighting the main points along with larger texts

and accentuating the potions of my board with my data collection would eventually create a

more appealing board. This was an extensive set of work to complete as I was unable to work

on my visual display board during spring break.

 Biweekly Journal 4/25

Objectives:
● Use my research paper and the research proposal I created during the data collection
process to compile information and create a presentation which would be
comprehensible to those with and without background knowledge on the subject of
marketing of luxury and non-luxury brands
● Describe the process which I used to complete the data collection so I can break it down
for someone who is not familiar with my project
● Complete the data analysis following the projects of people who have done similar
research to myself and the example provided by my advisor

Over the last few weeks, including spring break, I have worked on the development,

compilation of visuals and information, and a polished product for my visual display board. The

process of developing a finished visual display board stemmed from me beginning my work by

looking at my research paper and outline to find what information would be appropriate on the

visual display board. Along with this information from my already created content from my

paper, I compiled visuals and annotated them so that I would know when to use them in the

future. By doing this, my visual display board had enough visuals to help convey my point.

When completing my board, I consulted my classmates and previous boards to make it most

appealing and attractive to understand my topic. Through this consultation of the other boards

and my classmates, I was able to realize that highlighting the main points along with larger texts

and accentuating the potions of my board with my data collection would eventually create a

more appealing board. I have begun my data analysis which is expected to be finished in the

upcoming days as I have missed some school and have been out of town for the previous few

weekends.
 Biweekly Journal 5/23

Objectives:
● Look further for more in-depth and interesting associations and organizations that will
provide me with more effective information to improve and further my research along
with more credible research done through business journals
● Develop a narrower research topic pertaining to ‘what will improve society’ and discover
how my research on luxury goods can impact society and implement that into a
PowerPoint Presentation
● Plan a following conference with Ms. Sasser to further my research affiliated with luxury
and veblen goods such as the previously decided association
● Finish my final draft for the final research paper on my topic with the proper bibliography
and added data collection and research from other business journals such as Johns
Hopkins

Over the last few weeks, including spring break, I have worked on the development,

compilation of my final draft with my data collection and the data from the business journals

such as the one from Johns Hopkins business journal, and a polished product for my final

presentation. The process of developing a finished PowerPoint presentation stemmed from me

beginning my work by looking at my research paper and outline to find what information would

be appropriate on such a presentation. Along with this information from my already created

content from my paper, I compiled visuals and annotated them so that I would know when to

use them in the future. By doing this, my PowerPoint presentation will have enough visuals to

help convey my point. When completing my presentation, I consulted my classmates and

previous presentations to make it the most appealing and attractive to understand my topic.

Through this consultation of the other presentations and my classmates, I was able to realize

that highlighting the main points along with larger texts and accentuating the potions of my

presentations with my data collection would eventually create a more appealing board.