Abstract

This case is about the growth of Louis Philippe, a premium men’s apparel brand in India. Louis Philippe was introduced in India in the year 1989 and soon grew to be a leading brand for premium men’s wear. Right from the time the brand was introduced in India, it focused on quality and on providing good value for the money it charged from its customers. Madura Fashion and Lifestyle (FL), which owned the Louis Philippe brand started to focus more on it after it acquired the global rights for the brand in the year 2000. In 2001 and 2003, Louis Philippe introduced two super premium range of branded apparel for men called ‘Perrma Press’ and ‘Gods and Kings’. These new super premium ranges of branded apparel were priced 100 percent higher than the other existing premium brands in the market. The Louis Philippe brand was also extended to cater to the needs of different customer segments. Louis Philippe entered the luxury market for men’s formals with the introduction of the ‘Luxure’ sub brand. Luxure was very successful and contributed to nearly 15 percent of the total revenues in the stores in which it was introduced. Louis Philippe introduced another sub brand called ‘LP’ for semi-formal clothing for young customers. It also introduced premium footwear for men in the year 2010. The introduction of new sub brands paid off and the sales of Louis Philippe reached Rs. 6.5 billion for the fiscal year ending March. 2011. But Louis Philippe was also facing some challenges in the form of new players entering the market and an increase in excise duties which increased the price of branded apparel. The question to be asked is whether Louis Philippe will be able to sustain its growth momentum in future and what the implications are for marketing. This case is meant for MBA/MS students as a part of the Brand Management/Strategic Marketing Management curriculum.

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Understand the issues and challenges faced by companies in differentiating their products and services (form, features, customization, design, reliability, quality, durability, etc.) from that of competitors.
• Understand the different issues involved in positioning a brand in the minds of the consumers.
• Explore the ways in which a brand can be extended: Line extension (extending a brand in the same product line at different price and quality levels) and Brand Extension (extending a brand in unrelated product lines).
• Analyze the strategies that need to be adopted by market leaders to counter new competition in the market.
• Discuss and debate whether Louis Philippe will be able to counter competition from new foreign brands which are entering the Indian markets.

Keywords

Differentiation, Positioning, Brand extensions, Line extensions, Market leader strategy, Retail, Brand equity, Distribution agreement, luxury apparel, Competition, hyper-competitive, International retail brands, Super brand, Branding, Market research, Louis Philippe, Zara