<p>Title: French luxury companies: Challenge to do E-Commerce withoutaffecting their brand image</p><p>Authors: Clément LEMAIRE and Paul LASSALLE</p><p>Supervisor: Jean-Charles Languilaire</p><p>Level: Bachelor Thesis in Business Administration, Marketing</p><p>Key words: Marketing, E-commerce, E-merchandising, E-CRM, Louis Vuitton, Luxury market, French market, Website, Brand and Reputation</p><p>Purpose: How French luxury companies, in a context of changing demand, use the e-commerce without affecting the image of their brand?</p><p>Method: In the method we explain that we decide to use a descriptive method of research. We collect secondary data from our University Library and primary data from our observation of Louis Vuitton website. We also explain why we choose this company and what the limits of our study are.</p><p>Theoretical framework: In a first part, we have written all the definitions and information about definitions that we have used in the empirical part. It means E-Commerce, E-Merchandising, Marketing mix and ECRM. Then, we have given some information about website elements as the first page, the graphic website, buying process, electronic payment and website security. Finally, we have defined all the information about the brand and its different powers on the market: We start by a “brand awareness” explication, then we have defined “how is build a brand” to finish by the topic “band and reputation”.</p><p>Conclusions: We present the answer of our purpose. French Luxury companies use marketing tools in order to protect the image of their brand when they do e-commerce. We also bring some suggestions to Louis Vuitton and give some critics concerning our study. Finally we open our reflexion to related studies that could be interesting to do.</p>

This thesis takes a closer look at the phenomena of taste in relation to kitsch, art and luxury, analyzing a visual campaign, by the luxury brand Louis Vuitton. The visual campaign is made by Louis Vuitton to promote a collaboration with the postmodern artist Cindy Sherman. In her art Cindy Sherman is stepping away from modern aesthetics turning towards nostalgia and, anti- elitism. In a provocative act she brings in traits of kitsch and other pop cultural references to her art and exposes it to a conflicted art world. Using the well accommodated theoretical framework by sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, I seek to understand the underlying class related aspects of taste occurring in the collaboration between the two. In doing so I investigate the very use of Pierre Bourdieu’s theories it self, and I look to answer how these can help with revelation in a contemporary context. Later the use of Roland Barthes theories on modern myths, will be brought into play, when I shell decode the overall mythical story on taste, that Louis Vuitton, wishes to communicate through the campaign. It shell be concluded that Pierre Bourdieu’s theories, was very helpfull with pointing out the campaigns connection to cultural capital and different classified expressions of taste, that connects it to a growing middelclass, who wants an access to the world of luxury. In the very end I debate the question of taste looking forward, taking into consideration Bourdieu’s critics, to whom the classification of taste is a relic from the past.

Made available in DSpace on 2010-04-20T20:14:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 61070100629.pdf: 39793 bytes, checksum: fe00be3f55de5409c675f0284098e467 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-12-21T00:00:00Z / O luxo pressupõe uma hierarquia social e a moda serve como ferramenta para aplicação desta distinção. A maneira como a pessoa se veste reflete a sua personalidade, posição econômica e social. A posse de bens de luxo serve para diferenciá-la daqueles que não podem consumi-los e a marca, como referência para o usuário. A transformação das marcas de moda de luxo de pequenos negócios familiares para empresas com presença mundial, aumentou o nível de competitividade entre elas, levando-as a ampliação dos seus mercados. O Brasil, junto a outros países emergentes, figura como mercado chave neste crescimento. O mercado de luxo vem despertando a atenção do meio acadêmico. A presente dissertação tem o objetivo de estudar a identidade e a imagem da Louis Vuitton, marca líder deste mercado no mundo, e assim contribuir para o avanço deste estudo. O estudo valeu-se de pesquisa exploratória qualitativa e utilizou uma amostra de profissionais e consumidores de marcas de moda de luxo, com três fontes de evidência: consulta a publicações relacionadas ao tema, entrevistas em profundidade e observação sistemática. Os resultados apontam para características que definem o comportamento do consumidor de luxo em relação às marcas de moda de luxo internacionais e os fatores que os levam a preferi-las ou rejeitá-las. Também evidencia diferenças entre a identidade e a imagem da Louis Vuitton no Brasil, mercado relativamente jovem em relação ao consumo de luxo. / Luxury stands for social hierarchy and fashion can be used as the too1 to reach this social distinction. The way a person is dressed reflects its personality and social and economical position. Owning luxury goods differentiates the ones who can afford it of those who cannot and the brand works as a reference for the user. The luxury fashion brands changed from small familiar companies to enterprises with global presence, which increased the competition level between them. and forced them to expand their markets. Brazil. along with other emerging countries, has become a key market for this expansion. The luxury market is getting more attention among marketing researchers. This research has the goal of studying the identity and image of Louis Vuitton, the luxury market leading brand, contributing for studies of this subject. The research was based on a qualitative approach, using three sources of information: desk research, in-depth interviews with professionals and consumers of luxury fashion brands, and observation. The results point to facts that lead consumers to choose a brand or reject it. The research unveiled a difference between Louis Vuitton's identity and image. due to Brazilian's market young stage on luxury consumption.