LOUIS VUITTON POP-UP SHOP AT HARRODS

Louis Vuittons, Crafty collection furnishes Harrods with magnified vivid hue prints and Louis Vuitton’s’ giant Vivienne mascot doll to promote its Fall/ Winter 2020 collection (Vuitton, 2020). The purpose is to attract consumers to the pop-up shop, available for a limited time only, creating a buzz and generating increased desire (Posner, 2016). The design of the three women’s time capsule collections available, convey the message that Louis Vuitton (LV) can stick to its luxury roots but also be innovative, incorporating new hues and adding graffiti art and neo expressionism influences to their designs (Vuitton, 2020). The distinct LV monogram pattern allows LV products to stand out, which is a key element of LV’s brand identity, reflected in the pop-up stores design.

Louis Vuitton often utilises celebrity endorsement to promote its products, via traditional communication methods; magazines or on social media platforms like Instagram. Burberry and Gucci, LV’s competitors adopt a similar marketing approach. Therefore, Louis Vuitton’s pop-up shop allows it to differentiate. The consumer psychology model of brands, proposed by Schmidt, 2012, states that there are three psychological constructs which indicate different ways consumers engage with a brand.

Louis Vuitton Crafty Pop-up Store in Harrods, London (Source: Louis Vuitton, 2020)

The Louis Vuitton pop-up shop creates an experience for consumers which begins with the initial level of interaction, focusing on object-centred engagement, where consumers develop multi- sensory cognitive perceptions about the brand, taking into account sensory perceptions such as colours of the pop-up shop and products which then allows them to connect with the Louis Vuitton (Schmidt, 2012). This connection triggers the consumer feel something, could be happiness due to the stores vibrant red colour, this then translates the object- centred engagement into self-centred engagement (Schmidt, 2012) Louis Vuitton has affected on the consumer, leading them to desire going into the store, upon entering they now experience a multi-sensory perception and social engagement. The consumer interacts with Louis Vuitton by browsing the store and maybe purchasing a product from the Crafty Collection. This generates brand attachment between the consumer and Louis Vuitton and is the highest level of engagement (Schmidt, 2012).

Louis Vuitton’s pop-up store is placed in Harrods, a world- renowned luxury department store, buildings and their contents can be expressed as signifiers in a semiotic perspective and can therefore create symbolic meaning, value and feeling (Caliano, 2020). Harrods is the signifier, and it symbolises luxury, high-quality products. This sends the signified message to consumers that Louis Vuitton’s pop-up store has valuable and quality objects.

Louis Vuitton Crafty Pop-up Store interior in Harrods, London (Source: Louis Vuitton, 2020)

The pop-up shop and its buzz of not being in Harrods for long prompts temptation in consumers (Freire, 2014). Customers who shop in Harrods desire a life of luxury, Louis Vuitton uses direct advertising to showcase its product offerings and target these customers, focusing on the implicit and identity value of authenticity within luxury. The Louis Vuitton Crafty collection and the pop-up store focuses on LV’s creativity and tradition, they’ve adapted the LV classic monogram to make it more artistic without compromising the handcrafted tradition and excellent manufacturing of Louis Vuitton’s products (Freire, 2014).

I feel that Louis Vuitton have been innovative, and this has allowed them to meet the brands objectives because a new buzz for Louis Vuitton has been created, despite the brand being around for it being a brand that’s been around since 1854 (Vuitton, 2020).

Reference List:

Calinao, D.J. 2020. Catwalks and cloisters: a semiotic analysis of fashion shows in built heritage. Social Semiotics. 1, pp.1-17.

Freire, N.A. 2014. When luxury advertising adds the identitary values of luxury: A semiotic analysis. Journal of Business Research. 67(12), pp.2666-2675.

Louis Vuitton. 2020. A legendary history. [Online]. [Accessed on 18th October 2020]. Availabe from: https://uk.louisvuitton.com/eng-gb/magazine/articles/a-legendary-history#the-workshop

Louis Vuitton, 2020. LV Craft pop-up store at Harrods. [Online]. [Accessed on 14th October 2020]. Available from: https://uk.louisvuitton.com/eng-gb/magazine/articles/harrods-lv-crafty-popup

Posner, H, 2015. Marketing Fashion. 2nd ed. London: Laurence King Publishing LTD.

Schmitt, B., 2012. The consumer psychology of brands. Journal of consumer Psychology. 22(1), pp.7-17.