Publicity stunt or not, people will continue to flock to LV regardless. I remembered paying more attention to LV when they started focusing on their timepieces. 7-8 years back perhaps even longer, while brands like Gucci, Ralph Lauren (Ralph Lauren only in recent years started catering their own line of automatic watches; more recently, Hermes decided to follow suit as well) were busy catering designer quartz watches, LV already had their watchmaking factories in place catering for high end automatic timepieces. Namely LV277 with Zenith movements, made-to-order $700K tourbillion, etc, almost sneaking themselves in the world of Haute Hologerie without making them look like they are in for a slice of a cake.
In the world of watch-making, many existing brands rely on history (Patek, Vacheron Constantine, Audemars Piguet - the big three to name a few) to market themselves with many of their '1st' achievements. Who would have known LV would cater a gold/platinum-encased tourbillion - a feat that shows LV is serious enough as well as capable enough to be able to deliver to high-end clientèle. (Chanel J12 Tourbillion then follow suit). Think about it:- made-to-order LV watches, now, that is another level altogether (Kari Voutilainen's fans would frown upon this). Russians are all over it. Purists would argue forcefully against LV being part of haute hologerie and with good reasons. But nowadays, who cares. A platinum cased tourbillion Louis Vuitton timepiece on a wrist would even make a WIS part his/her lips in awe.
In case you haven't heard, LV, now, are also marketing made-to-measure/order shoes. Obviously, the world is more educated now. The younger generation are getting richer quicker than they can spend it, and they know what they want. So LV caters to them and clearly, moving with today's times. They are expensive, they are luxury goods. The costs to make them are 1/4 or 1/5 or less with exorbitant profit margins. People still buy them regardless.
The Gucci artisans tour, including Hermes, etc acts as a form of education and marketing. Majority of people would think buying LV, Gucci, Hermes are merely buying for their brand names, which they are. Supplementing with knowledge of their origin triggers emotions, perhaps a new-found appreciation of handicraft, making an impression that the bag or wallet they have purchased are more than just a brand name - and in fact, the products have been put together by an artisan. Of course not all of the products are, but it certainly feels good to know the amount of work channelled into a product, and one would feel 'justified' in making the purchase. People who can't afford at the time would be emotionally challenged to save up and make the purchase one day. These marketing strategies are not one-hit-wonder, they are specifically done with long term vision in mind. Establishing impression on future buyers.
Luxury is about selling an imaginary lifestyle. Everyone wants a piece of it. Temporarily fulfilling short-term hunger before the vicious cycle begins again. It never ends.
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Originally Posted by
rach2jlc 
All true but my point was only to caution again the assumption that in general LV is concerned with producing a superlative shoe for their customers in line with the price they paid. They're not, and they want to make a DECENT shoe that you'll pay for that satisfies the design requirements of Marc Jacobs' creative team. Further, my point was only that recently many of the major brands are pushing this "heritage and attention to quality" meme as a publicity stunt, of which this video seems a part.
Gucci even did a "chat with our artisan bag makers" event, where they had a few leather artisans from Italy briefly working in stores around the world. Do you think the average Gucci bag is made by hand by an Italian artisan? No, but some elderly grandpa sitting at his little leather stand makes a better story for potential purchasers of a $1900 handbag than a Chinese laborer punching away at a machine in a huge factory.
LV's shoes are better than other designers, but they're also more expensive. Same with bags. A "standard" anything from LV will be 20-30% more than Prada, Gucci, or others.
