Mainland Chinese tourists lining up at a LV store in Hong Kong. http://www.luxuo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/hong-kong-louis-vuitton-queue.jpg

According to the latest article from Reuters, stocks such as Coach, Tiffany, LVMH, Hermes, and Ralph Lauren have all fallen due to the worries that China’s is economy and growing middle class is slowing down. Moreover, there have been research that suggests that China’s GDP growth is starting to slow down too. However, China still is a big market for luxury  brands. For example, the article mentioned that the luxury market grew around 23 percent last year. From my personal observation, I believe that the market for luxury goods in China will continue to grow despite the decline in growth of China’s GDP.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/29/luxury-stocks-idUSS1E78S1AA20110929

Bernard Arnault, the CEO and chairman of LVMH Group, is known for his success in expanding LVMH into a global empire that sells luxury goods. http://www.businessoffashion.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/bernard-arnault-Source-Fashion-Pile.jpeg

LVMH group is the largest and most profitable luxury goods group in the world that consists of luxury brands in fashion, jewelry, and wine. Through successful marketing and branding strategies, LVMH have expanded into a massive global empire of luxury goods. The reasons why the goods from luxury brands are expensive are mainly because of reputation, good branding, high quality, and good service. LVMH is also known for taking their brands into new developing markets such as India, China, and Vietnam.  The marketing strategy of LVMH is about being innovative and creative, as well as being able to acknowledge the changing tastes of different consumers in various regions of the world.  A recent marketing strategy of LVMH is their development of a digital fashion magazine. This is a brilliant strategy because luxury brands mainly rely on the marketing through fashion magazines to create more brand awareness.

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/1122/fashion-bernard-arnault-lvmh-luxury-dior-master-of-brand.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/louis-vuitton-chanel-marketing-2011-8