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1.0 Introduction引言
1.1 The basic situation in Hong Kong香港的基本情况
香港是一个唯物主义社会，也是一个消费社会。香港的大多数人不是为了生活而工作，而是渴望生活的便利。购买名牌产品是社会的标志之一。名牌产品始终是一个人的认同，也是质量的保证。既然如此，名牌产品一定要价格高，产量少。他们也决不会降价。世界上只有很少的人能拥有奢侈品，而业主也能引起其他人的注意。本次调查的目的是通过对名牌产品的受众分析，收集信息，确定消费用途。
第二次世界大战后，香港经济和社会迅速发展，东西方文化在这一地区相交，成为亚洲四小龙之一。在纽约和伦敦之后，香港是世界第三大金融中心。它是国际和亚太地区的主要航运枢纽和最具竞争力的城市之一。香港以其良好的秩序、自由的经济和健全的法律制度而闻名于世，被誉为“东方之珠”，也是世界上最富有、经济最发达的地区之一，生活水平最高。
Hong Kong is a materialistic society and also a consumer society. Most of the people in Hong Kong were not working for living only, but also desire for amenities of life. One of the symbols of society is purchasing famous brand products. Famous brand products are always an identification of a person and also a guarantee of quality. Since it is so, the famous brand products must be in a high price and with a rare production. They will never cut down the price as well. Only few people in the world are able to own the luxuries and the owners can draw the others’ attention. The objective of this investigation is to gather information and determine consumption use with audience analysis regarding the famous brand products.
Hong Kong's economy and society developed rapidly after World War II, Eastern and Western cultures intersected in this area, making it one of Asian four small dragons. After New York and London, Hong Kong is the third largest financial center in the world. It is one of the major shipping hubs and the most competitive city in international and Asia-Pacific areas. Hong Kong is famous for its good and order, free economy and sound legal system, it is known as the "Pearl of the Orient", it is also one of the world's richest, most economically developed regions with highest living standards.
1.2 Introduction about Louis Vuitton (LV)路易威登（LV）简介
路易威登（LouisVuitton），简称LV，是1854年成立的法国时尚品牌。路易威登（Louis Vuitton）的经典商标——花押字出现在大多数产品上。他们设计了许多不同的产品，如衣服、鞋子、珠宝、手表、配件和书籍。路易威登是世界领先的国际时尚品牌之一。根据在线信息，连续六年（2006-2012年），LV被誉为世界上最有价值的奢侈品品牌。2012年的估值为259亿美元。2013年，该品牌的估值为284亿美元，收入为94亿美元。该公司在全球50个国家设有460多家门店（路易威登，2016年）。
Louis Vuitton, can be shortened to LV, is a French fashion brand founded in 1854. The classic label of Louis Vuitton – Monogram showed on most of their products. They designed many different products like clothes, shoes, jewelries, watches, accessories, and books. Louis Vuitton is one of the leading international fashion brands in the world. According to online information, for six consecutive years (2006–2012), LV was known as the world's most valuable luxury brand. Its 2012 valuation was US$25.9 billion. The 2013 valuation of the brand was US$28.4 billion with revenue of US$9.4 billion. The company operates in 50 countries with more than 460 stores worldwide” (Louis Vuitton, 2016).
Louis Vuitton has designed and launched a suitcase when he was alive, called "Gris Trianon". The suitcase is very light and it appears with gray canvas decoration. After the launch of this suitcase, the wife of Napoleon III, Empress Eugenie also love it very much. After the death of Louis Vuitton, his son, George Vuitton built a world-renowned brand. In 1860, in order to get fit with the increasingly strong market demand, Louis moved his factory from Paris to Asnieres. In 1867, Louis Vuitton has won the bronze medal on the World's Fair, which makes his popular name “Louis Vuitton” brand more famous. Nevertheless, its influence even beyond France and started to become an international brand. In 1885, Louis Vuitton in London opened its first overseas branch. Because of its reputation, many fake products appeared. In 1888, George Vuitton introduced a new design of Vuitton luggage. He designed the surface of the box into a checkerboard style and the colors are brown and maroon. In addition, there was also printed “Louis Vuitton brand verification” on the suitcase label for people to distinguish (Louis Vuitton, 2016).
In 1893, George in the Chicago World's Fair showed the Louis Vuitton products. Henceforth, the brand officially appeared in the markets of United States. Since then, George has been committed to improving the international reputation of the brand. In 1894, he published the book “Journey”. In 1896, Louis Vuitton has officially launched a branding function canvas design, known as the “monogram canvas” because this new canvas have a large number of applications and symbolic meaning of symbols as Louis Vuitton always marked as “LV”. Subsequently, George went to the United States again, traveled to New York, Philadelphia and Chicago and other large cities, aimed at the popularization of the Louis Vuitton brand (Louis Vuitton, 2016).
In 1946, after World War II, in order to resist the recession situation, Louis Vuitton began designing luggage beyond his old line, he also invest and develop in other areas. 1978, Louis Vuitton opened its first stores in Asia – Japan. The concepts of this old brand are, “Louis Vuitton. Behind the legendary name is the journey of a visionary man who profoundly changed the art of luggage making, and in doing so, changed the notion of Travel itself (Louis Vuitton, 2016).”
The magazines in Hong Kong always post the new products of Louis Vuitton as the fashion trend. This action is virtually become an indirect promotion (Louis Vuitton, 2016).
1.3 Research aims and objectives
Hong Kong has always been one of the most important markets of LV, but since 2014, the sales in Hong Kong declines, for LV and those personnel engaged in marketing of luxury goods, to discuss how LV adjusts its marketing strategy is a issue of value. The aim of this research is to study how LV develops an appropriate marketing strategy based on the characteristics of consumers in Hong Kong in future. Based on this, it forms the following research objectives:
Objective 1: to explore the characteristics of consuming behavior of consumers relating to LV products in Hong Kong currently;
Objective 2: to compare similarities and differences between current and past consuming behavior of consumers relating to LV products in Hong Kong
Objective 3: to make recommendations on how LV develops appropriate marketing strategies in Hong Kong in future.
2.0 Body
2.1 Literature review
2.1.1 Consumerism
“Consumerism is a way of life combining high levels of material affluence with an emphasis on symbolic and emotional meanings associated with shopping and possessions. The United States continues to lead the way, but the phenomenon increasingly is of global scope. Consumerism can be interpreted positively as a means of stimulating the economy while facilitating people’s liberties to shape their identities and subcultures. The one unambiguous result of modern capitalism, of the industrial revolution, and of marketing ... is: In the way we live now, you are not what you make. You are what you consume’’ (Twitchell, 2002, p. 1).
2.1.2 Consumer culture
Consumer culture can be defined as a “social arrangement in which the relations between the lived cultural experience of everyday life and social resources, between meaningful ways of life and the symbolic and material resources on which they depend, is mediated through markets” (Sheth and Maholtra, 2015).
Oriental society is a collective society in which people are closely linked, people are very concerned about the evaluation from the society and other people. This determines that oriental consumers buy luxury goods for consumption and having some kind of luxury goods to show off their wealth, identity, status and so on (Mooij, 2011).
2.1.3 Lifestyle
Lifestyle refers to people’s values and aesthetics towards food, clothing, housing, transportation, labor work, recreation, social interaction and other material and spiritual life. After World War II, economy in Hong Kong developed a lot, people's income and living standards have been greatly improved. Meanwhile in Hong Kong, the people are deeply influenced by Western culture, and they have universally accepted systemic higher education, thus many people in Hong Kong pursue a more stylish, international and maverick way of life, which is an important reason for the popularity of luxury goods in Hong Kong (Kang and Park, 2016).
2.1.4 Social emulation
Social emulation theory was originally born in the field of sociological research. Inamori (2009) points out the invisible "successful ethics" in traditional Japanese society dominates people’s assessment on each other and defines the status of hierarchy, such as graduation origins , reputation of service business, powers of job title. This ethics calibrates their social positions and therefore bring a huge and permanent pressure on the lower-level persons, latecomers. Social emulation is the policy taken by most people, lower-level persons will accept their fate and work hard like a camel to catch up with the higher-level persons, hoping that they have the ability to mimic the way of life of higher-level persons, in order to get their own higher positions in the society (Inamori, 2009). Social emulation theory is also transplanted to the field of research on commercial consumption. McKendrick (1982) believes that the key factor for the birth of consumerism society is social emulation. In order to emulate the rich, middle class of a society will have an unprecedented fanaticism of consuming, while others do best to emulate the middle class. Emulation is the practice of consumers’ trying to exhibit above-average ability to pay to win the prestigious in the eyes of others.#p#分页标题#e#
2.1.5 Conspicuous consumption
Conspicuous consumption refers to that consumers are through consumption of goods which are not practical and necessary for survival to show off their money, financial and social status to others to get glory, prestige and reputation brought by the status (Jinkins, 2016). Jinkins (2016) points out that an article contains two kinds of utilities, one is the actual use utility, the other is conspicuous consumption utility, which is determined by price, the higher the price is, the higher utility there will be, and there is higher utility of conspicuous consumption. Ryabov (2016) notes that, in addition to price, the number of consumers is also one of the factors affecting whether a product is worth of showing off, the more people buy a product, the lower utility of conspicuous consumption of the product there is. The current social connotation of conspicuous consumption is totally different from that in the past, first of all, what people show off are not only wealth and status, but also personal spirit, personality, culture, lifestyle, fashion and so on. Again, conspicuous consumption is not only confined to the affluent, average consumers also have conspicuous consumption behavior (Ryabov, 2016).
2.2 Audience analysis
In this study, it makes use of an ethnographic research method, through interviews to collect information. The author randomly selected 10 consumers in LV shops in Zhonghuan CBD in Hong Kong as research objects.
2.2.1 Results of interview
2.2.1.1 Why do you buy LV products?
Only a respondent said that he purchased LV products because he loved fashion and luxury culture, 3 respondents expressed that LV products have reliable quality, very stylish design, which were the main reasons for their purchase of LV products. 4 consumers believed that they bought LV products because there were a lot of people (around them) who purchased LV products, LV products have a very good reputation; 2 individuals explained that they purchased LV products for presenting other people.
2.2.1.2 Which channel do you take to understand LV products?
6 respondents said that they were mainly through the network to understand LV products; there were 2 respondents who thought that they were primarily through magazines to understanding LV products; 2 respondents believed that they mainly understood LV products through television.
2.2.1.3 How many LV products have you purchased?
2 respondents said that they have purchased 3; 4 respondents said that they have 5; 4 respondents expressed that they have bought more than 5.
2.2.1.4 What benefits did the purchased LV products bring you?
2 respondents felt that LV products complied with their personal preferences and aesthetic. 3 respondents said that possessing LV products was a symbol of success for them. 5 respondents mentioned that they purchased and used LV products because this made them different.
2.2.1.5 What percentage of your monthly income does the cost for a LV product account for?
5 respondents said that it was about 30%, 3 respondents mentioned about 35%, 2 respondents thought that it was about 50%.
2.2.2 Discussion
Consumerism is a way of life combining high levels of material affluence with an emphasis on symbolic and emotional meanings associated with shopping and possessions (Twitchell 2002). With the development of economy, people in Hong Kong have been affected by consumerism, which can be seen from the level of consumption rate of residents in Hong Kong. Consumption rate refers to the ratio that the total amount of personal consumption of residents and social consumption of a country or a region accounting for in GDP during a given period of time. Consumption rate in Hong Kong in 2013 was 66.1%, ranking second in the world, to a certain extent, it confirmed the prevalent consumerism in Hong Kong. Generally speaking, if the ratio of costs for luxury is lower than 30% of monthly income, it belongs to rational consumption. The survey results in this study showed that all respondents said that they spent more than 30% of their monthly income on LV products, and the results also proved that 60% of the consumers purchased LV products not for their preferring LV products and the culture, but for the symbolic value and brand value of the brand. These survey results indicated that these consumers are willing to spend a fortune to buy LV products, which is not for actual use value of the products, but for symbolic and emotional meanings, revealing that consumers in Hong Kong buy LV products because of being affected by consumerism (Miller, 1998).
McKendrick (1982) commented that the key factor for the birth of consumerism is social emulation, in order to emulate the rich, the middle class of a society consumes unprecedentedly, while others do their best to emulate the middle class. The survey results in this study showed that 80% of the respondents agreed that the costs for a LV product accounted for 30% of their monthly income, according to a price of HK$ 10,000 for a LV product, the respondents’ monthly income was HK$ 33,000 (which was higher than the average monthly income of HK$ 23,500 in Hong Kong), indicating that these consumers belonged to the middle class in Hong Kong. The findings of this study indicated that all the respondents have purchased three or more LV products. These findings illustrate two common problems, firstly, in Hong Kong, the main force who buys LV products is the middle class, they buy LV products relatively frequently, and they are willing to pay much money for it. It is well-known that LV product were originally designed for the target consumers of the rich class in Western markets, and the middle class in Hong Kong who buys a large amount of LV products is a manifestation of psychology of social emulation, they try to emulate the rich’s consumption behavior to make their own different. Secondly, the psychology of social emulation leads the majority of people of the middle class in Hong Kong to buy luxury goods, which is one of the important reasons for rampant consumerism in Hong Kong.
The current connotation of conspicuous consumption is more different than in the past, first of all, what people show off are not only wealth and status, but also personal spirit, personality, culture, lifestyle, fashion and so on. Then, conspicuous consumption is not confined to the affluent class, ordinary consumers also have conspicuous consumption behavior (Ryabov, 2016). Results of this survey revealed that there were five respondents who said that they purchased and used LV products because this made them different. This shows that Hong Kong consumers buy LV products, which is not only because it represents success, wealth and status, but also because LV products represent personality, lifestyle, fashion, so that it makes them different. In this paper, the survey also showed that in Hong Kong, the main force who buys LV products is the middle class, they buy LV products frequently and spend much more money on it, indicating that conspicuous consumption is now not only limited to the wealthy class, ordinary consumers also have conspicuous consumption behavior. These results indicate some characteristics of LV consumption in Hong Kong, and therefore developing marketing plans for LV should take targeted strategies.
Data show that Hong Kong is one of the world's largest consumption markets of luxury goods. The findings of this essay showed that all the respondents have purchased three or more LV products, which to some extent indicated that the purchase and use of luxury goods has become people’s way of life in Hong Kong. It is unlike in many other markets that in Hong Kong, a luxury usually represents a middle-class way of life, rather than the lifestyle of a high society (Bain company, 2013). Middle-class consumers often seek more fashionable, international and maverick lifestyle, Hong Kong's most influential fashion magazines and department stores have spared no effort touted luxury brands, and it is these magazines and department stores influence most middle class people’s understanding of fashion in Hong Kong, they also influence the people’s perception and acceptance of luxury (Storey, 2011). For the marketing of LV in future, how to carry out marketing aiming at the way of life of the middle class is a valuable subject.
In the past, consumers in Hong Kong knew luxury brands primarily through department stores and fashion magazines. Considering from the results of the survey in this essay, half of the consumers understood LV products through the network. It shows that with the advent of the Internet age, as well as the youthization of luxury consumers, more and more consumers come to understand LV products through the network. The survey results revealed that the marketing of LV in future should take the network as an important channel.
Consumption culture can be defined as a “social arrangement in which the relations meaningful ways of life and the symbolic and material resources on which they depend (Sheth and Maholtra, 2016). Considering from the survey results in this study, only 2 respondents believed that LV products complied with their personal preferences and aesthetic. This part of consumers buy LV products because they think that the products have reliable quality, exquisite design, and materials used are sophisticated, they buy the products because the products can meet their actual needs. While 3 respondents thought that possession of LV products was a symbol of success. 5 respondents believed that they purchased and used LV products because this made them look different. For this part of consumers, LV products can meet their needs of a symbolic meaning, for example, the use of LV products can show their affluence, making them look more noble or have a distinct personality. Therefore, from the point of view of consumption culture, most consumers in Hong Kong believed that purchase of LV products could meet their needs in a symbolic sense. Therefore, in the future marketing process, how LV maintains the symbolic value of the brand in a higher standard is a question that is worth of considering.#p#分页标题#e#
2.3 Recommendation
Considering from the survey results, due to the impact of consumerism, consumers of LV products in Hong Kong have a unique consumer culture, LV consumption in Hong Kong has been integrated into consumers' lifestyles. Compared with in the past, the main population of LV consumers in Hong Kong product is the middle class, rather than the upper-class of the society, it is this reason that makes the marketing of LV products in future be adjusted accordingly.
2.3.1 First, from the pricing point of view, in the past, in order to maintain the brand image of luxury, prices of luxury goods are always very high, and they rarely cut down prices for sales promotion. When the middle class becomes the main population of consumption of luxury goods, LV’s product pricing strategy should be adjusted accordingly. When LV introduces a new product, the price of the new product should be maintained at a high level, while for old products, LV can provide preferential prices to attract consumers to buy.
2.3.2 Secondly, from the point of view of marketing channels, sales channels of LV in Hong Kong in the past in sales promotion and propaganda were well-known magazines and shopping malls. While the majority of today's middle-class in Hong Kong are young people, many of them understand LV products from the Internet and mobile phones. In the future, LV can make more use of the network, social media on the Web, APP and other channels to promote and sales promotion of LV products, these channels not only help to increase sales, but also help to improve customer loyalty (Kim, 2008).
2.3.3 Although the consumer groups of LV exhibit the characteristics of civilian population, LV can be sought after by consumers because of its high-end brand image, therefore it is necessary for LV to take further measures to maintain its high-end brand image. For example, LV can cooperate more closely with the Hong Kong government to combat counterfeit LV products, and it can introduce limited edition products and invite popular stars with good social images as a spokesperson.
2.3.4 Now, it is very competitive in the luxury goods market in Hong Kong, consumers’ loyalty for a brand is relatively lower. Simply implementing markdowns and sales promotion are unable to improve long-term customer loyalty effectively, but likely make enterprises be involved in vicious price competition. Allowing consumers to understand their own brand culture and history will help LV to improve brand loyalty effectively (Miller, 1998). In this study, the survey results showed that most consumers are in fact not very clear about the history, culture, heritage of LV. Thus, in the future LV can make use of some public relations activities, such as new products release, exhibitions, receptions and or sponsored activities to strengthen brand communication. At the same time, in the promotion, culture included in the brand should be the main content of corporate propaganda, in order to narrow the gap with customers who love the culture, charm of luxury lies in its unique cultural connotation and temperament, as well as the unique cultural charm.
2.3.5 It should enrich its product lines. It can be seen from the survey in this study that, more and more consumers hope to highlight their own unique personality through purchase and use of LV products, therefore, LV manufactures should further enrich their product lines, producing highly different, personalized products to meet aesthetic needs and use of consumers’ of different segment markets.
3.0 Conclusion
3.1 Main points
This study is through ethnographic research methods to learn the characteristics of consuming behavior of Hong Kong consumers in purchasing LV products, based on these characteristics to bring forward recommendations on how LV adjusts its marketing strategy in future.
With the development of economy in Hong Kong and the impact of psychology of social emulation, the people have also been affected by consumerism, which makes the consumption level of residents in Hong Kong rank second in the world. Findings of this study also showed the consumers were willing to spend a fortune to buy LV products, which was not for the practical value of LV products, but for the symbolic and emotional meanings of the products, which confirmed the high consumption level of residents in Hong Kong. From the perspective of conspicuous consumption, the findings of this study prove that Hong Kong consumers purchase LV products not just because it represents success, wealth and status, but also because LV products represent personality, lifestyle, fashion, which makes they different. Data states that Hong Kong is one of areas in the world in which consumers purchase the most luxury goods. This to some extent indicates that the purchase and use of luxury goods has become a way of life people in Hong Kong. It is unlike in many other markets that in Hong Kong, a luxury usually represents a middle-class way of life, rather than the high society lifestyle. From the perspective of consumption culture, most Hong Kong consumers believe that LV products can meet their needs of a symbolic sense, therefore, in the future marketing process, how LV maintain the high standard of the symbolic value of the brand will be a question that it worth of considering. Compared with in the past, the main population of LV consumers in Hong Kong product is the middle class, rather than the upper-class of the society, it is this reason that makes the marketing of LV products in future be adjusted accordingly. Firstly, the product pricing strategy should be adjusted accordingly. When LV introduces a new product, the price of the new product should be maintained at a high level, while for old products, LV can provide preferential prices to attract consumers to buy. Secondly, in the future, LV can make more use of the network, social media on the Web, APP and other channels to promote and sales promotion of LV products, these channels not only help to increase sales, but also help to improve customer loyalty. Thirdly, LV can be sought after by consumers because of its high-end brand image, therefore it is necessary for LV to take further measures to maintain its high-end brand image. Fourthly, it should strengthen propaganda for the brand culture and connotation, which helps to improve customer loyalty to avoid falling into price competition. Finally, LV should further enrich its product lines to produce highly different and personalized products to meet aesthetic needs and usage of consumers of different market segments.
3.2 Further research
Judging from the survey results, the consumer groups of LV exhibit the characteristics of civilian population, it is necessary for LV to adjust its marketing strategy aiming at the consumers of middle class, for example, it can lower prices to improve sales, which will inevitably undermine the high-end brand image of LV, because luxury which are originally possessed only by minorities will be owned by the public, and the high-end brand image of LV is also the important reason for consumers’ love for LV products. Damage of brand image is not conducive to improve the future market competitiveness of LV. Therefore, how to maintain the best balance between maintaining brand image and increasing sales will be one of the important topics of future research.
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