Lanvin – Brand Strategy Essay Example

third point we will discuss how the brand struggled to evolve successfully, after her death. The last two points deal with the positive turning point in 2001 (2. 4) and the situation of the company today (2. 5).

Jeanne turned out to be a real talent and was called first of the atelier. In 1885, she started working for Madame Valenti of Barcelona who taught her all the necessary skills to create couture-quality garments. In 1889, she came back from Spain with 340 francs and opened her own millinery shop in a modest apartment. From the start she had an avant-garde vision that led to daring millineries creations for that time period. An excellent example is the millinery creation in the form of a nesting chicken she made in 1938. 1 Her hats became immediately a great success for the bourgeois women in Paris.

In 1896 she marries Emilio di Pietro with whom she would have one child, Marguerite Marie-Blanche, born in 1897. This unique child became her muse and her source of inspiration. She designed magnificent embroidered dresses for her. The dresses became much desired objects for her clients that wanted to buy them for their children who represented a social calling card for the mother. The placement of

orders for children’s clothing was a new aspect of design business since before children’s clothing was constituted of an impractical and smaller version of adult clothing.

In 1908 she created for the first time a whole collection of childrenswear.

1. This was a true revolution for that time since market segmentation did not really exist and children did not have their place in French society as they have today. The most important children’s clothing that Jeanne created was for the British princesses, Elizabeth and Margaret who each received a doll dressed in duplicate.
2. Her clients remained unsatisfied and asked for feminine stylish outfits for their selves. As a consequence, in 1909, Jeanne designed her first collection of dresses with beading and embroidery details, which became her trademark later on.In the same year of her 1st collection, she met all requirements to join the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture.
3. Her designs became easily identifiable through her ethnographic inspiration, use of original colors, beading and embroidery and sophisticated combinations of texture and textile. She developed the “robe de style” 6 which is a flattering silhouette that she would offer continuously from

This model of dress is based upon the full-skirted wide-hipped pannier of the 18th century. decade to decade with variations of color, length and width and with different proportions. Here again the reader can notice how contemporary some of her designs are for the twenties. 8 In 1920, a “Decoration department” is added to her label in collaboration with Armand Albert Rateau9. The twenties is the period of expansion: 800 persons work hardly in order to create at each collection around 300 models. She had three buildings in

Paris and opens seven shops in the world (six of them in Europe, one in Buenos Aires). Rateau collaborated with Lanvin for the design and decor of these boutiques. In 1922 she added “Lanvin Perfumes” to her brand portfolio.

Paul Iribe designed the famous perfume bottle called “le boule noire” for the Arpege Perfume but it was Rateau that sketched the emblem of Lanvin10 that is found on the bottle, representing Jeanne’s unconditional love for her daughter. The Arpege perfume remains today a mythical perfume. In 1926, “Lavin Fur” and “Lanvin Men” has been created. On the 6th of July, 1946, Madame Jeanne Lanvin died in peace at the age of 97. She was interred into her family tomb in Vesinet.

Lanvin’s Trademarks

Lanvin develops throughout the decades a maternal image which is reinforced by illustrated advertisements each season. 1 Her clothing is characterized by rare and fine materials such as Kasha12 and Vicuna, used for the tailor made fur jackets. Jeanne Lavin becomes ambassadress of elegant clothing known for her beaded and embroidered dresses. In 1920, she marries for the second time, with Xavier Melet, journalist of “Temps”, with whom she travels a lot. During these world trips she collects books, textiles and assorted artifacts. She is one of the few designers of her time who got successfully inspired from symbols, motifs and colors of cathedrals, museums and art galleries.

During one of her trips, she becomes inspired by a work of Fra Angelico13 that is constituted by a blue touch. Back in Paris, she creates the color “Blue of Lanvin” which she will use extensively in her designs as well as in the decoration of robe de

style from 1918. French designer and architect (1882-1983) that was one of the most important designers of Art deco. The use of Japanese elements is another consistent influence on the designs of Jeanne Lanvin. Additionally, she used familial symbols in many of her designs. Examples are the bow standing for eternal tie and the Japanese mon, a symbol of kinship.

Finally, religion, in particular Catholicism, was a source of inspiration as well, especially the shapes and motifs from ecclesiastic garments. As a result, many of her designs were named after mythological gods and goddesses. Madame Lanvin was seeking continuously to innovate by creating designs with a new and fresh image from one season to another, from one generation of clients to the other. She managed to offer an assortment of styles serving women of all ages with their unique needs. The House of Lanvin kept in favor of so many international clients through Jeanne’s creative spirit and artistic sensibility.

She succeeded to maintain her own style while adjusting her view with the vicissitudes of fashion. 2. 3. From the death of Jeanne Lanvin to the death of Haute Couture After the death of Madame Lanvin, she ceded the House to her daughter Marie-Blanche who shared the management with her cousin Yves. Marie-Blanche was childless when she died in 1958 and thus the ownership of the House of Lanvin went to her cousin Yves. During that period, designer Antonio Dell Castillo tried to adapt the image of the house. His Spanish background influenced him through the use of pastel colors and more sophisticated designs.

Jules-Francois Crahay arrived in 1963 and followed Castillo up. He gave the brand its youthful

quality back that remains today. Several other major designers have worked for Lanvin such as Alberto Morillas, Dominique Morlotti, , Ocimar Versolato and most recently, Cristina Ortiz. After several years of struggling, Britain’s Midland Bank bought in 1989 a stake in the family-owned company. The bank brought in Leon Bressler to restore Lanvin’s weakened image. Nevertheless Midland Bank backed out in 1990 and sold Lanvin to Orcofi, the French holding company led by the Vuitton family. Following this, L’Oreal acquired 50% from Boudoir of Jeanne Lanvin in Paris painted in Lanvin blue, Figure 13: Alber Elbaz still using today Lanvin blue in his collections. Orcofi in 1994, 66% in 1995 and 100% in 1996. L’Oreal’s umbrella portfolio brought in an array of CEOs who directed the company. In 1993, The House of Lanvin stops with its Haute Couture to focus on ready-to-wear and luxury goods for women and men.

Finally appropriate homage to Jeanne Lanvin The positive turnaround came in 2001 when Lanvin was taken private again by the investor group Harmonie S. A. , led by Mrs. Shaw-Lan Wang, a Taiwanese media magnate. She appointed Alber Elbaz16 in October 2001 as artistic director for the whole range of activities. Elbaz creates sophisticated silhouettes in the form of suits, dresses and coats that are flattering for various body types. Elbaz visits Lanvin’s archives once before starting to design a new collection, more to feel the spirit of Jeanne rather than to find inspiration. He gets inspiration for every collection through different stories. “Today we live in a society that does not ask us what is beautiful but what is new”. (Alber Elbaz)17 Every season he tries

to innovate, to tell different story while maintaining Lanvin’s DNA: romanticism. Starting with a brand heritage can give you inspiration but can also block and restrain you as a designer. Elbaz has successfully rejuvenated the brand with respect to its long heritage.

Lanvin Today

After Shaw-Lan Wang invested heavily in the company, she was not injecting anymore cash to grow the business. This left Lanvin’s hyper industry buzz and brand potential underexploited. 18 Today it can continue its global expansion thanks to a cash injection of the Bartel family in its mother company Arpege SAS for a minority investment representing 12. percent of the equity. The investment was made with a long-term vision and not by investors seeking for immediate return on investment. Thanks to this private investor Lanvin remains, as one of the exceptions today in the fashion industry, independent from the major luxury goods groups. The company is in continuous growth since 2006 and the turnover has increased 83% between 2003 and 2008. 16 Born in Morocco (1961) and worked as a designer for Geoffrey Beene and Yves Saint-Laurent.

He won numerous accolades for his contributions to fashion design including the CFDA's 2005 International Designer award and, in 2007, he was awarded the highly prestigious Legion of Honour in Paris.

Branding Strategy

In the following part Lanvin’s brand strategy will be thoroughly discussed. Firstly, (in 3. . ) we will discuss the brand identity of Lanvin in order to clarify what makes the brand unique. Secondly, we will detail in 3. 2. its image and question if it is consistent with the identity. In a last point we will discuss the territory of Lanvin. 3. 1. Brand identity

Elbaz’ rejection of following the latest fashion trends makes of Lanvin a unique brand. The brand smoothly evolves with its signature: feminine, romantic, elegant and sophisticated ready to wear, rather than changing direction completely ever season in order to impress. “The house has influenced how millions of women dress.

It was Elbaz who introduced the frayed hems, exposed zips, and voluminous skirts that every mid-market retailer latched onto last season. If you have purchased anything from H, Zara or the Gap recently, you probably have something Lanvin inspired hanging in your closet without even realizing it. ” (Suzy Menkes)19 19 Suzy Menkes, fashion editor of the International Herald Tribune. 3. 1. 1. Brand as a product, an organization, a person and a symbol In the following point we will discuss Lanvin’s brand identity system based upon Aaker’s model. 3. 1. 1. 1. Brand as a product Lanvin has had a very large product scope from the very beginning.

At the time of Jeanne Lanvin it was very unusual to segment and to diversify the brand to such an extent. Today under the creative direction of Alber Elbaz this has not changed. The brand consists of womenswear and menswear, a collection of leather goods, jewelry, perfumes (of which the license is owned by Inter Parfums) and accessories. The brand attributes could be described as luxurious, creative, modern, elegant, sophisticated and comfortable. Elbaz continuously seeks, through his play with volume and texture, for solutions in order to make his modern designs very comfortable and wearable.

The quality of Lanvin’s designs has undoubtedly been excellent from the start. Jeanne used exquisite materials and techniques such as fur, silk, llama, embroidery and

beading. Today, Alber Elbaz still uses most of these materials such as silk of the highest quality, fur and embroidery. Didier Grumbach20 confirms this craftsmanship and excellent quality: “I do not understand why Lanvin is not part of the Haute Couture calendar because its ready-to-wear is so sophisticated, detailed and delicate as are Haute Couture collections. The use of Lanvin’s designs is to make every woman very unique and confident no matter which range of needs and desires they have. “Today, women do not want to buy a jacket that is made in 200 versions and of which there exist thousands of pieces, but they desire a unique dress, a unique look. And this is what I do. ”(Alber Elbaz) Lanvin users are independent, urban women and men that travel around the globe which inspires them. Lanvin women are very desirable but never vulgar. Every woman wearing a Lanvin dress will be completely different from another woman wearing that same dress.

The age range of Lanvin’s users is very broad, partly thanks to its long heritage and partly thanks to Elbaz’ effort to modernize the brand. According to the interviewed sales assistants the consumers range from young, wealthy and trendy consumers of around twenty years old to loyal consumers in their 70s that have been buying Lanvin for a very long time. 20 President of the Federation Francaise de la Couture, du Pret a Porter des Couturiers et des Createurs de Mode. The origins of the brand, as already thoroughly discussed in the history, are 100% French.

Brand as an Organization

One of the most important organizational attributes is their drive to be different. Lanvin is a small

independent group and therefore does not have the backing of a big group. “We have the necessity to be different. Lanvin is not an enormous house, in order to exist without provocation, we have to be different continuously. ” (Alber Elbaz) This individuality is illustrated by Lanvin’s particular choice for its displays. Its window displays are often anti realistic, testing the laws of gravity by pending models upside down and executing hybridization between models and moving images on screens.

Elbaz makes it even more complicated by inviting regularly artists such as Jianguo Sui for example22, who has put his red dinosaurs between the models. Instead of translating the codes of Lanvin in its displays, Elbaz opts to break the codes and grab the attention of the people that pass by. “The luxury brand is creative, goes further than the code and transforms it in its own way. Luxury advertisement does not have a specific message but follows anti laws of marketing. That’s how we can explain this hyperrealism of its advertisement. ” (Kapferer) Another example of the unique choices the brand has made is through its collaborations.

In 2008, Lanvin collaborates with the Danish brand Acne, well-known for its innovative jeans pieces and in 2010, Lanvin collaborates with fast fashion chain H (thoroughly discussed in the fourth point). No one would associate any of these brands with Lanvin and yet both collaborations received astonishing reviews from the critics. A last example is the refusal to pay celebrities in order to wear their clothes. Elbaz always told the PR department to let celebrities come to them instead of turning it into a business. When celebrities come to the

shop in Paris they pay for the clothes like everyone else does.

This refusal is rather exceptional in the fashion world. Although Lanvin remained rather French for a long time, it has started recently its wide expansion in the rest of the world. Today Lanvin has 23 own boutiques, 35 shops run by franchising and 450 selling points. More than half of all sales are realized in Japan where an agreement has been signed with the Kanebo group. The morphology of women and men and the cultural tradition necessitates the firm to adapt its products by outsourcing the fabrication.

For the rest of the world Lanvin maintains the control over its production. 3. 1. 1. 3. Brand as a person The Lanvin person is an independent but romantic woman or man that wants to be classy but modern at the same time. “The Lanvin individual is an innovative, very exciting and always contemporary person” (Nathalie Massenet)23.

Brand as a Symbol

The most important recognition sign is the Art-Deco logo of Lanvin: a woman with its child, representing Jeanne and her child Marguerite. Additionally, a Lanvin design can be recognized through different trademarks.

We distinguish Lanvin’s men clothing through the famous large bows, the jackets worn as cardigans and the printed T-shirts. Women designs can be recognized by its volume, silk, typical colors (white, blue de Lanvin, yellow, red) and exposed zips. Typical pieces are asymmetric dresses, T-shirts worn as evening pieces and dresses covered with jewelry. Lanvin has a long heritage which remains still very important today. For the first time since the death of Madame Lanvin, a designer has successfully extracted the essence of her empire, her archives and

her office. I visit Jeanne Lanvin archives briefly before each collection–– but more to catch the spirit of the house’s founder than to find actual inspiration. That is the essence of heritage luxury: a quiver of emotion from the past in a thoroughly modern world” (Alber Elbaz).

Brand Identity Prism

In the following point we will shortly analyze the brand identity prism of Kapferer. The reason not to discuss it thoroughly is because it would strongly overlap with the previous analysis based upon Aaker’s model. 23 Nathalie Massenet is founder and chairman of designer shopping website Net-a-Porter. om and is one of fashion's great pioneers. The company has scored year-on-year profits annually since its inception in June 2000 and was bought in 2010 by the Swiss luxury goods group Richemont. Feminine Sophisticated Luxurious Romantic Independent Self confident Social distinctiveness Quintessentially Selective French Individualism Classy vs. modern Traditional men I am fashionable, and women with I am elegant real class and I am unique taste

Brand Image

The brand image is constituted of the associations, tangible and intangible, that are linked to the brand.

The brand image is analyzed by a survey conducted near the H&M shop in Lyon on the day of the launch of the collection Lanvin for H&M. Consequently, most of the interviewed people knew the brand very well but were not necessarily Lanvin customers.

The largest part of interviewed people associated Lanvin with feminine, timeless and sophisticated designs.

Since it was an open question and not a question where interviewees could be influenced by given adjectives, we can say that Lanvin’s image is very consistent. Consumers perceive the brand in the right way. Alber Elbaz wants to make feel

women and men very proud of their selves by dressing them in a sophisticated but timeless way. However, since the most important mentioned adjective was feminine, the consumer’s image might neglect somehow the strong identity of the men line. Alber Elbaz has hired the Dutch designer Lucas Ossendrijver in 2006 to make him build he same universe for men as he did for women. From the launch of Ossendrijver’s first collection, Lanvin has received remarkable critics from the fashion world for its men line. Yet, the image remains today rather female due to the strong conviction of Alber Elbaz to make women beautiful. As a result, an extra effort should be made to transfer the value of the men line, which has as much significance as the women line, to the public.

Territory

Today, Lanvin brings womenswear, menswear, accessories, jewelry, perfumes and a complete leather wear collection to the market in 28 countries.

In contrast to Houses such as Armani and Burberry, Lanvin maintains its luxury lines without adding any upper premium lines in order to make additional profits. An exception to this is the casual menswear line “Lanvin en Bleu”, launched for the Japanese market. In contrast to normal men line, Lanvin en Bleu targets a younger, more trend-conscious customer, more likely to wear jeans and sneakers than a double-breasted suit. The line is developed in order to adapt to the Japanese culture. So far, Alber Elbaz has always refused to make a second, lower priced line.

There are four logical extensions the brand could make today without diluting the brand. In the history of Lanvin, Jeanne also launched a Lingerie department, a Decoration department, childrenswear and her

House was part of the Syndicat de la Couture. These four potential extensions still fit in what Lanvin stands for today.

Lanvin Loves H&M

In the following point we will thoroughly discuss the brand alliance of Lanvin with H&M. This means that a brand will join forces with another brand for a limited period of time to make something unique.

The discussion results of a survey conducted on the day of the launch. What was the logic of Lanvin to collaborate with a fast fashion company as H&M? Does this collaboration influences positively or negatively the brand image? Can it lead to a dilution of the brand image? Alber Elbaz’ logic to agree on collaborating with H&M can be easily explained. The designer comments in an interview “We’ve reached a turning point. Nobody wears logos any more. People aren’t hesitating to mix Lanvin with Topshop. Everything is becoming more democratic.

On the one hand, mass customers are highly attracted by the luxury goods which allow them to purchase dreams. On the other hand, high-end consumers start mixing their luxury goods with fashionable inexpensive items. Such collaboration formalizes this new trend. Elbaz proves with this collection that Lanvin is an iconic fashion brand that has endured through time and can easily adapt to current market needs. Although Elbaz stated in the beginning of the year in an interview of Vogue that he never thought of such collaboration, H&M started to make the buzz around the beginning of September.

On November 23rd a womenswear, a menswear and a small shoe collection were launched in around 200 shops all over the world. The womenswear was constituted of 48 pieces including little black dresses,

flower dresses, jewelry, sequin-embellished T-shirts and trench coats. The menswear was developed with Lanvin’s Lucas Ossendrijver. The Lanvin trademarks were strongly present in the collaboration with H&M. Examples in menswear were the typical Lanvin bows, nice suits and his famous T-shirts. Elbaz’ signature was also strongly present in the women collection.

He included the typical ruche dresses, asymmetric dresses and printed T-shirts in the collection26. Is this collaboration harming or boosting Lanvin’s image? Alber Elbaz states that he wanted to do something about the fact that more and more women could not afford luxury goods. He wanted to communicate through this collaboration that his dream is to make women fly. He 24 25 Mr. Nice Guy, Numero, August 2004. The Future Of Fashion, Part Six: Alber Elbaz, Style. com on May 17th, 2010 by Dirk Standen.

Comparison

Lanvin and Lanvin and H&M as intrigued by the idea that H&M would go into luxury rather than Lanvin going to the masses. He wanted to test if they could translate the Lanvin dream into a wider audience. Elbaz declares that it has been a very interesting exercise for both companies, positioned at two extremes, but sharing the same willingness to make people beautiful. Lanvin executed the collaboration successfully maintaining elements of exclusivity, quality and high fashion without diluting the brand. From the interviews that have been conducted, the most people thought the collaboration reinforced Lanvin’s image.

Firstly, H&M has made a huge buzz around the collaboration which increased the brand awareness towards Lanvin. This increased brand awareness could attract new customers that have the means to buy the brand but did not know it before (especially customers outside of France). Secondly,

the young customers with low to middle incomes, which buy products of the collaboration today, may become Lanvin’s customers of tomorrow. A third argument why Lanvin’s image is reinforced through the collaboration is because it shifts Lanvin’s classical, traditional image towards a younger, more modern image.

A few respondents said that collaborating with H&M harms the brand. Since the target groups of both companies are completely different, customer might associate the Lanvin brand with cheaper, low-end products. 5. Fashion and aging society Aging has never received a real place in the fashion world before. Advertisement has always promoted an image of women of eternal youth. When a scarce designer makes an exception of the rule by admitting a beautiful old woman on his catwalk, it is often more to celebrate different kinds of beauty rather than to present a mature woman as real fashion icon.

Can the fashion economy survive without opening up to 60+ people? Due to the aging society of today this segment is growing continuously and represents a lot of wealth. It seems that today, the fashion world makes slowly place for this fascinating aging segment. Anna Dello Russo27 and Iris Apfel28 are only a few examples of aging style icons. Some 27 Anna Dello Russo (1962) is currently the Editor At Large and creative consultant for Vogue Japan. She spent 18 years as a Fashion Editor at Vogue Italia and became Editor of L'Uomo Vogue from 2000-2006. 28 Iris Apfel (1921), received recently the Global Style Icon Award. esigners are responding to this rising demand. Tom Ford claims to design for women from 25 to 75 years old Jeanne Lanvin designed throughout her

life for every kind of women: from the first purchase for a little girl, to a dress for a “debutante” (female beginner), a bride or a mother to the last purchase of a black dress and a hat for a widow. Lanvin clientele spanned the generations within a single family. Alber Elbaz understood well that rejuvenating the brand did not mean losing the loyal older customers. Therefore Elbaz claims that his dresses appeal to women of all ages.

This philosophy is reinforced through the logo of mother and daughter that has remained the same as from the start. The fashion campaign for H illustrates his respect for women of all ages by making three generations of women wear the same dress. Interviews with sales assistants in both the women and men store confirmed that their clientele ranges from young people of around 20 years old to older loyal clients that are around 80 years old today. The challenge remains to stay the fashion critics’ favorite first of class designer while satisfying the older clientele… . Conclusion Today, many new luxury brands are struggling to create and sell a consistent story telling. “Luxury is about history. A luxury brand is a lifestyle concept, and to be sustainable it has to have a history, including a history of quality merchandise and of real luxury customers. ” (J. Wan). Lanvin has the needed history and authenticity in order to be considered as a credible luxury brand in the eyes of the buyers. Additionally, markets are changing rapidly which forces brands to expand their historical products and geographical boundaries.

At the end of the day, brands also need growth, relevance and

renewal in order to satisfy their stakeholders. It is a challenge for every luxury brand to maintain the exclusivity while being focused on growth. In order to grow, firms can develop variations of existing products or move into completely products or services. Alber Elbaz did not opt for these extensions but rather decided to focus on the Asian market and to license a large part of its shops. Furthermore, Lanvin chose for brand alliances with H and Acne.

By picking out their brands carefully both brands benefited each time. Overall, Lanvin’s brand strategy has been quite successful. Elbaz perfectly interpreted the brand’s heritage and turned it into a modern high fashion brand today. It has successfully implemented its growth strategy by focusing on the Asian market since half of their sales are made in Japan. However, there are still some improvements to be done. Licensing more than half of the shops might dilute its brand image. Lanvin should try to diminish its licensed shops during the next years.

The conducted fieldwork also proves Lanvin’s brand image might be too feminine although its male line receives outstanding reviews from the critics. It could improve this by increasing the advertising of the male line and by making creative director Lucas Ossendrijver more known for the public. Small improvements can make the brand grow in order to compete with the Chanels and the Louis Vuittons of the fashion world.