Luxury Brands: Riches in Japan Cannot Offset Losses From Japanese Secretaries

This is probably not the best economy for European luxury brands such as Versace, Louis Vuitton, Armani, Bulgari, and Gucci. A recent report discussed the impact of Japanese consumers on these major European fashion houses. After the U.S., Japan is the next biggest market for luxury goods. Fashion houses are targeting this market to increase sales. Louis Vuitton is taking steps to form an extra special relationship with their wealthy Japanese customers. However, this strategy will not solve the loss of thousands of Japanese secretaries who used to pay off the most recent handbags in credit card installments. The European fashion houses are going to have to develop a new strategy to keep their middle class customers in Japan during these rough economic times.

Sales revenues of European fashion houses have become more dependent on how much they’re selling in countries like Japan rather than Europe itself. The earlier blog post titled: Top Global Brands in a Global Economy discussed how emerging economies of developing countries like China or Brazil are surpassing developed nations like the U.S. Luxury brands are therefore increasing their focus on these economies to escalate their sales.

What can such luxury brands do to increase sales in all parts of the world in these rough economic times?... All I know is that the approach is going to have to be something fresh and unique. Check out the Multinational Marketing online course module for some potential ideas. However, one thing is for sure, strategies used by brands in the past will probably not succeed in times like these.