Louis Vuitton

Louis Vuitton biograhpy

Born:Jura,France,1821
Died: 1892

In 1835 Louis Vuitton decided to leave his birthplace in Jura to move to Paris. He
travelled the 400 kilometres distance on foot, picking up odd jobs on his way to pay for
his journey. When in Paris, Vuitton started working for established families as an
apprentice Layetier (a trunk maker). With a well known reputation building, Vuitton
was hired by Napoleon III of France as his wife, Eugenie de Montijo’s, Layetier. With
his communications between French aristocracy and royalty, Vuitton began to
understand what made good luggage. With his advanced knowledge he began to design
his own luggage, creating the foundation for his future company.
1854 saw Vuitton create his Louis Vuitton label on the Rue Neuve des Capucines in
Paris. With luggage previously comprising of rounded tops, to promote water running
off, Vuitton designed a new style of trunk. In 1858 Vuitton created a grey Trianon
canvas flat trunk that allowed the ability to stack the luggage. The new design was a
great success, becoming prestigious and admired. The popularity became so great
other competitors copied the Louis Vuitton style and design.
In 1867 the company entered into the universal exhibition in Paris. Worried about
plagiarism of his style, Vuitton changed the Trianon design from grey to beige and
brown stripes. Eighteen years later Louis Vuitton opened up its first shop in Oxford
Street, London. With the constant imitation of his designs, Vuitton decided to create
the Damier Canvas pattern in 1888. The pattern bared a logo reading ‘marque L.
Vuitton deposee’ translating to L. Vuitton registered trademark. Four years later in 1892
Louis Vuitton died leaving the company to his son, George. With an excellent reputation,
the brands logo is now one of the most recognized in the world with the Vuitton luggage
adding credibility to its owners.
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 Automation of activities brought consistency of quality to Louis Vuitton

products and has enabled the company to scale up and scale down based on
the demand conditions in the market.
 High level of customer satisfaction – the company with its dedicated
customer relationship management department has able to achieve a high
level of customer satisfaction among present customers and good brand
equity among the potential customers.
 Good Returns on Capital Expenditure – Louis Vuitton is relatively successful
at execution of new projects and generated good returns on capital
expenditure by building new revenue streams.
 Successful track record of integrating complimentary firms through mergers
& acquisition. It has successfully integrated number of technology
companies in the past few years to streamline its operations and to build a
reliable supply chain.
 Strong Brand Portfolio – Over the years Louis Vuitton has invested in
building a strong brand portfolio. The SWOT analysis of Louis Vuitton just
underlines this fact. This brand portfolio can be extremely useful if the
organization wants to expand into new product categories.