Longchamp: Could the Company Stay Competitive Amid Luxury Consolidation?

This material is exclusively prepared for Ringle Customers Material for your English session Longchamp: Could the company stay competitive amid luxury consolidation? [source: https://firstclasse.com.my/25-facts-about-the-longchamp-le-pliage-bag-that-makes-it-so-iconic-today/] 0 본 자료는 저작권 법에 의해 보호되는 저작물로, Ringle 사에 저작권이 존재합니다. 해당 자료에 대한 무단 복제/배포를 금하며, 해당 자료로 수익을 얻거나 이에 상응하는 혜택을 누릴 시 Ringle 과 사전 협의가 없는 경우 고소/고발 조치 될 수 있습니다. This material is exclusively prepared for Ringle Customers [Summary in English] I. Longchamp From its origins as a tobacco accessory store launched in 1948, Longchamp has grown into a global luxury brand on the strength of its fine leather craftsmanship and high quality. • In 1948, Jean Cassegrain was running Au Sultan, a tobacco store in Paris. U.S. soldiers stationed there after WWII especially loved Au Sultan’s luxurious tobacco pipes, which were made with high-quality leather and attention to detail. As Cassegrain’s customers began to grow in number, he established a brand which he named Longchamp after a famous horse-racing track in Paris. • Cassegrain sensed that as travel became more and more accessible to the general public, so would the demand for luxury goods. He diversified the range of leather products he offered and began to sell them on luxury cruise ships. When the age of air travel arrived and Orly airport opened in Paris, he opened a Longchamp store in the terminal and began selling leather travel goods. • Longchamp became so popular that by the 1960s, its products were being sold in over 100 countries around the world. After Jean Cassegrain passed away in a car accident in 1972, his sons and grandchildren took on the management of the company. The founder’s granddaughter, Delafontaine, joined Longchamp after graduating from the Paris School of Fashion, bringing elements of femininity and fashion to the brand. Cassegrain’s grandson Jean became involved in the management of the business, and his son, Philippe, became the chair of product design. • Longchamp launched its first women’s handbag in the 1970s. Made with the best calfskin leather, the bags grew very popular in Japan. Following the success, the brand began to add various new products that expressed the elegance of French women. Longchamp grew increasingly popular in Asia and opened flagship stores in Japan and Hong Kong. Longchamp continued to grow steadily by expanding its product line and focusing on long-term growth by keeping company management within the family and free from external influences. • Longchamp, which had been operating various types of stores in over 100 countries, opened large flagship stores to promote its brand name in iconic shopping areas such as the Champs- Élysées in Paris and London’s Regent Street. Having previously focused on just a small range of women’s handbags, however, the company encountered the challenges of maximizing its brand identity and of using these new stores to present coherent trends based on its individual product lines. Ultimately, Longchamp moved to show how handbags complement women’s 1 본 자료는 저작권 법에 의해 보호되는 저작물로, Ringle 사에 저작권이 존재합니다. 해당 자료에 대한 무단 복제/배포를 금하며, 해당 자료로 수익을 얻거나 이에 상응하는 혜택을 누릴 시 Ringle 과 사전 협의가 없는 경우 고소/고발 조치 될 수 있습니다. This material is exclusively prepared for Ringle Customers fashion in general and evolved into a comprehensive fashion house featuring clothing lines and other products. • Longchamp, a 100% family-owned company, focused on long-term growth and resisting external influences, and as a result grew by more than double digits over twenty years. Without having to report to investors or other external parties each quarter, Longchamp avoided having to take short-term, cost-cutting measures to satisfy Wall Street, even during the financial crisis. • Thanks to its organizational structure, Longchamp has been able to maintain a coherent strategy and consistent growth, and this stability in turn made it possible for the company to pursue more creative product designs. In the rapid fluctuations of the fashion industry, Longchamp’s growth was slow and steady and took place over a long period of time. From the 2000s on, Longchamp began to recruit outside experts from companies such as Hermes and Louis Vuitton to revitalize the brand with fresh ideas. II. Le Pliage First launched in 1993, the Le Pliage has sold more than 30 million units and has become a flagship Longchamp bag. • Longchamp’s first [1]bona-fide success was the launch of the Le Pliage bag. Philippe Cassegrain, who ran the company after his father, first launched a foldable handbag made from nylon in 1993. After four to five years of steadily growing sales, Le Pliage exploded when it became a huge hit among young women, and the bag remains a flagship item for Longchamp since its launch, 25 years and counting. • Initially, launching a nylon bag proved to be a challenge for the leather goods-focused luxury brand. The Le Pliage, whose design was based on Japanese origami, was about the size of a book when folded but opens up to yield ample and practical storage capacity. These structural features and its light, strong nylon construction excited customers. In addition, the bag’s affordable price tag—around €100, depending on size—made it even more appealing. • The simple and sensible yet chic and durable design was viewed as an exemplar of French sensibility, style, and elegance. Le Pliage, which was launched in six different designs and twelve colors, has sold more than 30 million units and become the [2]hallmark of the Longchamp brand. • Longchamp continues to update the Le Pliage line by releasing seasonal colors and collaborating with renowned artists to launch limited edition exclusives. In the mid-2000s, Longchamp recruited supermodel Kate Moss and [3]tastemaker Alexa Chung as brand ambassadors, extending their reach around the world and shifting Longchamp’s brand image towards a more feminine and refined one. 2 본 자료는 저작권 법에 의해 보호되는 저작물로, Ringle 사에 저작권이 존재합니다. 해당 자료에 대한 무단 복제/배포를 금하며, 해당 자료로 수익을 얻거나 이에 상응하는 혜택을 누릴 시 Ringle 과 사전 협의가 없는 경우 고소/고발 조치 될 수 있습니다. This material is exclusively prepared for Ringle Customers • Although Kate Moss never directly advertised or carried the bag, following her instatement as a brand ambassador, customers bought up Le Pliage bags in every color, and general sales of all Longchamp products increased. The success of the Le Pliage bag is unique in the luxury fashion industry. It was unusual for a single bag to inspire such devotion from customers across age and income levels in a market where uniqueness and exclusivity are typically [4]de rigueur. • Longchamp said that the success of Le Pliage lies in its capacity to communicate grace, luxury, style, simplicity, and practicality all at once, bringing different values to different customers. For the wealthy customer, Le Pliage was a practical bag still luxurious enough to carry outside without feeling self-conscious. And recognized as a beautiful French luxury brand by middle class customers, the bag was loved by customers representing a wide range of income and age groups. • In launching Le Pliage, Longchamp took great care to protect their preexisting brand value. Not only did they take out separate advertisements for Le Pliage, but Longchamp stores displayed the bag in deep, separate spaces of the store apart from the existing leather line. Because of its low price point, the Le Pliage bags drew many customers into Longchamp stores, and placing them in the innermost areas of retail stores ensured that customers after the Le Pliage would also browse all of Longchamp’s other leather products. However, Longchamp faces threats from its heavily Le Pliage-focused portfolio, the ambiguous brand positioning of Le Pliage, and the rise of American “accessible luxury” brands. • Though handbags were once functional products made by leather craftsmen, they have increasingly become a central focus for many fashion brands. This development presents both an opportunity and a crisis for Longchamp, who developed their brand exclusively around leather handbags. It’s a good thing when one’s field of expertise expands, but it can prove a threat when brands strong in other areas of fashion set their sights on the same territory. • The growth of men’s fashion also presents both opportunity and crisis for the Longchamp brand, which historically concentrated on women’s fashion and sold only the basics for men. In addition, as many brands began to expand into huge fashion houses, adding perfume, cosmetics, and sunglasses lines, Longchamp followed suit and brought on even stiffer competition. • Longchamp’s biggest concern, however, is the Le Pliage bag. The bag, a longtime cash cow for Longchamp and an entry point for customers, ironically jeopardizes the positioning of the brand. Though Le Pliage became an iconic Longchamp staple, reaping huge profits, it has also led to customers’ dismissing the brand’s original leather goods as being too expensive for the brand. To bridge this gap, Longchamp launched Le Pliage Cuir, a leather version of Le Pliage, intended as a mid-price option between Longchamp’s flagship leather line and the original nylon Le Pliage bags. 3 본 자료는 저작권 법에 의해 보호되는 저작물로, Ringle 사에 저작권이 존재합니다. 해당 자료에 대한 무단 복제/배포를 금하며, 해당 자료로 수익을 얻거나 이에 상응하는 혜택을 누릴 시 Ringle 과 사전 협의가 없는 경우 고소/고발 조치 될 수 있습니다. This material is exclusively prepared for Ringle Customers • Although Longchamp shares a common heritage and system of production with family-owned leather goods designer houses such as Tod’s and Ferragamo, the success of Le Pliage has led to Longchamp’s ranking somewhere between such high-end luxury brands and more “accessible luxury” brands such as Tory Burch and Michael Kors.

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