Every luxury company fears the “Danniella Westbrook effect”. The phenomenon named after the former EastEnders actress recalls the deleterious impact she had on the Burberry clothes brand after she and her toddler daughter were photographed clad head-to-toe in beige check. The snobbish world of fashion judged the photo a travesty and Burberry’s sales in the UK were hit.
Louis Vuitton is facing a similar issue in China. While the brand’s owner, the French luxury retailer LVMH, has not fallen foul of any Burberry-style moment, it is nevertheless experiencing brand fade as consumers in higher-tier cities increasingly shun its products, according to data from China Confidential, an FT research service. LV’s problem in one sense is much like Burberry’s: it has become too ubiquitous for its own good.
Just 18.8 per cent of survey respondents in China’s first-tier cities — Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen — said LV was the luxury brand they most aspired to own, compared with 38.3 per cent among consumers surveyed in third-tier cities, China Confidential’s data show (see chart). Indeed, although LV remains the most popular luxury brand in China, Prada is eclipsing it in first tier cities, the data show.
