Ch. 16 – Advertising and Public Relations and Sales Promotion

If you follow woman’s fashions, and at this point men’s as well, there is no way you have not heard the name Christian Louboutin. Christian Louboutin is most famous for his red bottom shoes, ranging from $1,000 – $22,000 there’s no questioning he’s had some influential marketing in this era. He has not only established longevity, he’s established identity not only for himself but for the wearer too.

Chritian Louboutin offers his customers unbeatable quality, extremely high price, but a very controlled distribution. Supply reined just behind demand. As stated by the designer himself “the designs both sexualise and empower the wearer. The brand empathises with its customers' intimate desires, making them an object of desire while staying firmly in control.”

And in deed, firm control, is was Louboutin has on his brand image. However, you will never see a Christian Louboutin billboard, the brand does not entertain direct response advertising, nor is he interested in interactive marketing. So you might ask yourself how does he does he do it? The answer is design. In fact, Louboutin won his trademark for the red sole heels in 2008. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office states “Louboutin has the exclusive right to make red soled shoes for "women’s high fashion designer footwear. “ Just three years after, this patent for one of a kind, Italian-made, hand crafted footwear actually lead to a $1 million lawsuit with his competing designer Yves Saint Laurent.

Basically, as many will put it, Louboutin is the king of brand strategy. When we think of creative marketing, we can easily think fancy, sexy, flashy and many times  bigger is better. Yet, Christian Louboutin interpreted creative marketing as, “less is more.” A single red-sole pair of shoes that sells for five figures has become an image so highly associated with fashion status that no other competitor can copy his concept, since it’s trademarke. Red sole shoes will forever be associated with Christian Louboutin’s brand identity. It’s the next most brilliant fashion invention since the classic Louis Vuitton pattern of 1854. The difference lies in the simple and strategic marketing campaign behind the brand.

Louboutin has aimed to provide his customers with an unbeatable experience - basically for every collection that he produced for “his” stores, he seeks out artisans with particular skills, he insists that it is important to have his shoes made by skilled craftspeople instead of modern, mass-production, factory machines.

It’s in his unique designs and signature red-soled, high-heeled shoes that make the Christian Louboutin brand such a success, particularly with celebrities. For example, as Claire magazine states “in a notably indulgent paternal gesture, Tom Cruise, was reported to have spent $3000 on a custom-made pair of Louboutins for his daughter Siri - just one-and-a-half years old at the time.” The impact of fashion, brands, and celebrity culture on society is a very well researched field, and the rise of this empire is just another fact to the subject.

Since its foundation in 1992, the Christian Louboutin brand has remained independently owned. The company continues to grow and diversify: this year it opened the first Christian Louboutin Men boutique store, on Rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau in Paris. Influential marketing indeed!!

Ch. 7 - Business Marketing

Senor Christian Louboutin has lead his brand through another exponential growth spurt in the past 6 months when the designer launched the hashtag revolution #LouboutinWorld for his brand, ecouraging consumers to hashtag the brand to their Louboutins inviting them to "their world". Needless to say, the stickiness of the hashtag has been huge, they are gathering over 100,000 picture feeds from consumers on a daily basis. "It's huge" said Christian Louboutin during an interview, he's allocated the social media idea it's own "department"where media from there is then hand selcted by the designer and a marketed on their website. 

Neiman Marcus Display

They blame it all on the social media growth, but it's no coincidence that they're partnership with Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman has strengthened this past year as well, making the brand more accessible to the general public, despite their increase in sales on their regular line. During an interview with New York Times, Louboutin stated the following about their price spike "Euro's strength against the dollar and growing competition for materials from Asian factories, all of which make it more expensive to produce shoes in Europe. Some luxury companies are even buying their own tanneries to cut out the middleman, but there's really no way to get around it: shoes are just crazy expensive". Louboutin says his own production costs have actually doubled over the past five years which may be why a pair of black boots now cost up to $2,645. 

Some brands, of course, would rather eat the rising material and production costs to keep their prices level (Manolo Blahnik has done this for the past three seasons, for example). But when customers seem willing to spend whatever it takes, it's hard to imagine why any shoemaker would refrain from jacking up their prices, especially the "King of the Red Sole".

Ch. 11 - Developing and Managing Products

While the designer stated in most of his interviews about his new product lines, by definition he is not creating a new products line. The designer designs and produces shoes which are modified every so often, to be exact, every season. Designer Christian Louboutin has been a go to designer for the past decade and his plethora of designs is what keeps customers coming back.  

He knows exactly what his consumers want and he definitely knows how to give it to them, opening 3 new boutiques just last year his image and sales continue to rise. Basing all his designs on burlesque type fetishes the footware designer knows exactly what to bring out each season, from cork heels to ostrich feathers, to marine themes and outer spaced themed, there's a design for everyone's taste. He knows how to develop his products to expand and optimize his fan base. The famous designer continues to create more fascinating designs that will surely bring his consumers coming back for more!!! 

Ch. 8 - Segmenting and Targeting Markets

85mm Heel - For the middle target

The Louboutin brand is mainly catering to middle and higher class woman from the ages of 17 - 55. Although the brand entails products for men and children their primary focus is woman. And no wonder it is given that woman hold almost 2/3 of consumer wealth in the United States.  Louboutin has stated in many interviews that he caters to "Fashionistas" (fashion forward woman), but according to my marketing professor there is no such thing, and I'd like to agree. A 16 year old can be a fashionista and most probably cannot afford a $900 pair of Louboutin shoe.

45mm Heel = For their older market

They recently positioned themselves within the Men's Footwear industry and while they currently stock over 150 men shoes, they stock over 900 woman shoe designs. Clearly making woman their target market. You'd ask yourself how can the end bracket of their target market be woman of 55 years old when their shoes are so high and fancy. But lets not forget that woman over 50 control net worth of $19 Trillion and own more than 3/4 of the nations financial wealth, it'd be silly not

to cater to such a powerful market. This is were the brand developed their mid heel and flat shoe line. The mid heel line has shoes with both a 45mm heel and an 85mm heel compared to their original 125mm heel. If you ever shop for such a heel you will notice that the designs are more subtle and classic. With colors focusing on nudes, blacks, and other staple hues, this is because this shoes is catered to this powerful market, and older market set in time.  

Emma Thompson Age : 56 -yrs

Ch. 15 - Marketing Communications

Instagram user - Emilymen 
#louboutinworld

#LouboutinWorld - if you don't know the power of the infamous hash-tags then take 3 minutes to stroll through the #LouboutinWorld. You'll notice posting times for the first 5 scrolls include posts from just 1 hour ago, which goes to show you just how engaged Christian Louboutin fans are on social media. Alexia Mourout, group COO and GM of Christian Louboutin stated that "Hundreds of thousands of images are shared to social media each day by our followers, we wanted to give them a home in our world." After Louboutin launched the hashtag in January, he teamed  up with visual marketing platform Olapic to source and curate user-generated images of Louboutin shoes which are then displayed on the Christian Louboutin website. Christian Louboutin personally approves the photos before they go live to meet the brands image standards. Its no wonder the designer uses social media as their main form of marketing communication vs ads, commercials, and sales.

Seni727 posts - Carpe diem OOTD -
Not sure what days shes seizing
with those high heels and
cobble road, but hey knock
 yourself out Seni77

The huge impact and growth of the Louboutin world has led other brands to realize that its not just about putting out messages and posting content, but also reacting to and curating other peoples content and spotlighting what other people are doing, this is were the #hashtags come into play. Emerging brands are also putting into effect their social media efforts, if you don't, its easy to stay behind.

User -Vikatheone states her most inspirational 
quote - "Tell her she is BEAUTIFUL not
 HOT, she is not a temperature. 
We know that Louboutin consumers are
wealthy, but their intellectual status is 
undetermined at the moment. 

According to Alexia Mourout the business impact is noticeable. She said that in some countries, mainly in the Middle East, consumers are visiting boutiques with their phones in their hands asking for specific styles posted on the #LouboutinWorld hash-tag feed. Fashion bloggers with a lot of followers with post their OOTD (out-fit-of-the-day) and #louboutinworld. Not only are they promoting the brand but they are giving woman examples of outfits they can pair their Louboutins with, so the not-so fashion foward woman now has an idea of what she can wear. Making it easier to say "I want that one" when she enters a Louboutin store, and giving power to the Monkey See - Monkey do effect.

Ch. 10 - Product Concepts

Louboutin Canvas
and Woman

Shoes are normally considered consumer goods. But when a shoe is worth up to $25,000, can only be bought in specific boutiques or specific retailers (only older seasons), can it still be categorized as a consumer good or does it become a specialty product? 

Specialty products are products with specific benefits that are highly desirable to certain customers. And what is a Louboutin shoe if not the high class standard its portrays when worn? In the end its just another shoe, its no more comfortable than Aerosole brands.

Louboutin Quote on Comfort

Consumers do not buy a Louboutin shoes for the comfort it brings, on the contrary, reviews on the brand state that you cannot walk more than 6 blocks on any Louboutin 120mm heel, it's just the social status and burlesque-ness it stands for. Woman shop Louboutin shoes to feel sexy, to feel empowered, to be trendy, survey says. Louboutin himself has stated "I would hate for someone to look at my shoes and say "Oh my God! That looks so comfortable!" Which ironically is now sold as canvas art.  

Louboutin Canvas on Success

As stated in an article by Infinitee, a marketing blog "When you see a woman wearing one of these classic red-sole shoes walking down the streets of Manhattan or any office, a statement of power is conveyed. This woman is instantly associated as being classy and fashion savvy. It’s undeniable that the product itself sells the shoes" and by product she means the red sole. Its the branding/power behind the "red bottom sole". In the end the "red bottom" sole is the brand, no wonder Louboutin trademarked his brand back in 2008, at this point in time positioning the trademark as a global brand.  

Louboutin Canvas on Standards

So Louboutin shoe consumer good or specialty product? I go with Specialty product. 

Ch. 17 - Personal Selling and Sales Management

Louboutin stores lean on relationship selling to keep their customers happy and coming back. The brand Christian Louboutin speaks for itself, because of their high-quality products & elite-clientele you'd think, and call it somewhat stereotypical, that they would be snobby & treat only the customers of the higher class with the utmost best care.

Thankfully to us normal people this is not the case. Given the ramp in demand from woman of all classes from ages 17-55 the Louboutin brand has come to understand the classic saying "don't judge a book by its cover". Online reviews show that Louboutin stores are very welcoming and actually accommodated anyone in less than 5 mins. Some call that high-quality service! 

Because every design and every stores foot size is different, their relationship selling is on point. The sales associate establishes a relationship with the customer and continue that relationship to keep that customer coming back even after the purchase. Most good Sales Associated will contact their cutomers to let them know when a new collection has arrived. I tried the Louboutin experience this past weekend for the sake of the blog, and who am I kidding, for the sake of myself as well. I want to say it was magical. Could it be because I love shoes, maybe? But the experience made me feel like a princess, even after not walking out with a pair, and so I bought in to what the brand ultimately sells "a feeling."

I entered the Madison store and the store was just as I had read up it would be. It was no surprise, but the smell was indescribable, even after I left it was still locked in for a couple of blocks. It was no surprise there was a lot of red, everywhere! I was immediately greeted by a boutique employee, Leslie, and asked if I needed help. After advising her on the style I was interested in she measured my foot and brought out a size smaller, the actual size, and a size bigger. I would have needed to purchase the size smaller due to my thin feet. After at least a 10 minute conversation on how i liked the shoes, the fit, the comfort, and my guilt setting in knowing I wasn't going to buy the shoe, I told her I needed a little bit more time before committing to a $1,200 purchase. She understood, and gave me her business card. Had I purchased a shoe they would have gotten all my information, including my email address, and as some reviewers have expressed they would have contacted me directly for future purchases.