Louis Vuitton Malletier, commonly referred to as Louis Vuitton (/ˈluːiː vwiːˈtɒn/; French: [lwi vɥiˈtɔ̃]), or shortened to LV, is a French fashion house founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label’s LV monogram appears on most of its products, ranging from luxury trunks and leather goods to ready-to-wear, shoes, watches, jewelry, accessories, sunglasses, and books. Louis Vuitton is one of the world’s leading international fashion houses; it sells its products through standalone boutiques, lease departments in high-end department stores, and through the e-commerce section of its website. For six consecutive years (2006–2012), Louis Vuitton has been named the world’s most valuable luxury brand. 2012 valuation was 25.9 billion USD. Year 2013 valuation of the brand was 28.4 billion USD with a sales of 9.4 billion USD. It is now in 50 countries with more than 460 stores worldwide
The Louis Vuitton brand and the famous LV monogram are among the world’s most valuable brands. According to a Millward Brown 2010 study, Louis Vuitton is the world’s 29th most valuable brand, right after Gillette and before Wells Fargo. The brand itself is estimated to be worth over USD $19 billion. For the sixth consecutive year, Louis Vuitton still at number one of ten most powerful brand published by the Millward Brown Optimor’s 2011 BrandZ study with value of $24.3 billion. It was more than double value from the second rank.
A Louis Vuitton “Sarah Wallet”
Louis Vuitton is one of the most counterfeited brands in the fashion world due to its image as a status symbol. Ironically, the signature Monogram Canvas was created to prevent counterfeiting. In 2004, Louis Vuitton fakes accounted for 18% of counterfeit accessories seized in the European Union.
The company takes counterfeiting seriously, and employs a team of lawyers and special investigation agencies, actively pursuing offenders through the courts worldwide, and allocating about half of its budget of communications to counteract counterfeiting of its goods. LVMH (Vuitton’s parent company) further confirmed this by stating: “Some 60 people at various levels of responsibility working full-time on anti-counterfeiting in collaboration with a wide network of outside investigators and a team of lawyers.” In a further effort, the company closely controls the distribution of its products. Until the 1980s, Vuitton products were widely sold in department stores (e.g., Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue). Today, Vuitton products are primarily available at authentic Louis Vuitton boutiques, with a small number of exceptions. These boutiques are commonly found in upscale shopping districts or inside luxury department stores. The boutiques within department stores operate independently from the department and have their own LV managers and employees. LV has recently launched an online store, through its main website, as an authorized channel to market its products.