Marketing Strategy

For

by: Humzah Butt

Table of Contents

Historical Background…………………………………….... 3

Mission/Vision Statement………………………………… 4

Brand Evaluation/Audit....................................... 5

Positioning Strategy............................................. 7

Target Market....................................................... 9

Marketing Strategy.............................................. 10

Brand Positioning................................................. 12

Cost for Marketing Initiatives.............................. 13

Conclusion............................................................ 14

References............................................................ 15
Marketing Strategy: Celine 3

Historical Background

Celine is a luxury French fashion house that started in France in 1945, when founder Céline

Vipiana and her husband opened the doors to their first boutique. The couple started their

business by offering their customers made-to-measure children’s shoes. After experiencing their

success in children shoes, Celine had become a luxury fashion house in the fashion industry. 15

years after their inception, Vipiana decided to add a women’s clothing line with the garments

having heavy doses of sportswear instilled into them. In 1963, Celine introduced its first

women’s shoe line and shortly after presented their leather goods collection which still holds

prestige till this very day. Today, the creative direction for Celine in under fashion designer Hedi

Slimane. Celine is among all luxury fashion houses and its unique positioning showcases the

most high-quality products such as their Leathers, Ready-To-Wear, Accessories and Shoes.
Marketing Strategy: Celine 4

Mission/Vision Statement

While Celine doesn’t display a Mission or Vision statement on their website, their parent

company LVMH does provide a mission statement according to different houses under their

umbrella with Celine being one of them. The statement is:

“Our business model is anchored in a long-term vision that builds on the heritage of our houses

and stimulates creativity and excellence. This model drives the success of our group and ensures

its promising future” (LVMH).

Brand Evaluation/Audit
Marketing Strategy: Celine 5

When evaluating a brand such as Celine, Internal and external strengths and weaknesses should

be considered at first if the company needs to do any strategy. Moreover, the opportunities

Celine will face and what threats it will meet in recently and future will be discussed in the

following section.

Brand Strengths

Celine is considered a powerful brand when it comes to their brand equity. One of Celine’s main

strengths is their awareness of the brand and always staying loyal to their customer base when

designing and creating their products. Another strength is that the brand is heavily associated

with its Parisian background. Due to that background, they became part of the main fashion

conglomerate, LVMH which strengthens their place in the fashion world among its LVMH peers

(Louis Vuitton, Gucci). Celine’s high status when it comes to their leather goods and accessories

would also be considered as a strong suit when it comes to them as a brand.

Brand Weakness

Celine is known to have a strong brand equity and also a brand density. It is known that they use

their advantages to their strategy; to be identified by the public while still remaining exclusive.

While they see it as an advantage and a strength, I believe it to be a strong weakness of theirs.

Due to them being known to the mass audience, the fact that they try to emulate an exclusive

image such as their competitors (Hermès, Chanel) can be hurting them from an increase of sales.

Another significant weakness of them for the brand is their failure to communicate their mission

or their vision statement due to them not having either present on their site. And when it comes

to moving their strategy to more of an e-commerce/digital strategy, they’re fairly new to the
Marketing Strategy: Celine 6

game compared to their competition which can be considered as a weakness for them to be slow

to being tech-savvy unless they add a team of highly experienced individuals in that field to help

them speed up the process.

Brand Opportunities

Celine has a lot of room for improvement which would be considered good for them because it

gives them reasons and opportunities to grow more than where they already stand. An

opportunity that Celine can capitalize on is to embrace collaborations with other brands and

create new brand extensions to attract more consumers to their brand. E-commerce is a great

opportunity for Celine to look into because it has become the present and the future which is

where most of their sales will begin to start coming from.

Brand Threats

The biggest threats to Celine are coming from other luxury brands, like Louis Vuitton; Channel,

Gucci; and Hermès, which have the same products in fashion industry. Another threat comes

from the counterfeiting of their leather goods which can lose the value of the original items being

sold.

Positioning Strategy
Marketing Strategy: Celine 7

Competitive Analysis

Within Celine’s target market, they expect to compete with the following companies:

Louis Vuitton

Products we compete with: Leather Goods, Accessories and Apparel (Their handbags have a

more prestige level as well as a decent following behind the brand)

Louis Vuitton is known for its leather goods which makes them a strong competitor for Celine

who are also a heavy favorite when it comes to leather goods. From a sales perspective, Louis

Vuitton has an estimated sale of $33.6 Billion dollars (Forbes.com), which automatically sets

them as a competitor for any fashion house including Celine.

Gucci

Products we compete with: Leather goods, accessories and apparel (Their handbags, apparel

and handbags have a far more prestige level as of late as well as a decent following behind the

brand)

Chanel

Products we compete with: Leather goods, accessories and apparel

Some researches show the price is not the most important factor customers would consider, they

are more focus on the value of the products. Like Celine, many rich people are honest fans of its
Marketing Strategy: Celine 8

products through the price is very high. This is a big difference between normal products and

luxury goods. They buy Celine for distinguishing others. According to the psychology of

customers, Celine promoted a strategy from 2003, which is called limited edition. Celine

produces some goods with specific design, and most important point is the company will control

the numbers of the goods. It made a big success until now, every time when Celine creates a new

limited-good, the product will be sold much quickly than other products within that line.

Beside great quality goods, Celine pays a lot of attentions on its services for customers, Dior also

pointed out that all luxury brands not only focus on selling goods but also making a great

relationship with their customers after sale. All of these strategies made Dior compare with its

biggest competitors like Gucci, Burberry, and Hermes. Christian Dior got more benefits in sales

within its talent manager groups.

Target Market
Marketing Strategy: Celine 9

In 2020, Celine will be targeting the following industries where they’ll sell their products and

reach out to customers.

O Age; 25+

Market

O High Taste

O High Education

O High income relatively

O Gender: Male, Female, Kids

O Social Status: High

O Shopping Budget: once in 3 months

O Boundaries: All over the world

Buyer Persona

Rebecca is 29 years old. She works as a Financial Analyst for Merrill Lynch for a living and

spends his/her free time discovering new restaurants and art galleries as well as taking trips to

different countries. Ultimately, Rebecca wants a Celine handbag that appeals to both her co-

workers who are older in age as well as trendy enough for her daily friends.
Marketing Strategy: Celine 10

Marketing Strategy

Product:

Celine is a luxurious fashion brand and was launched to satisfy styling sense of high-class

people. It has maintained its position as the creator of Haute-Couture, which is a world-

recognized division. Celine designs and markets leather goods, ready-to-wear, footwear, fashion

accessories and fragrances. Celine’s Belt and Classic Bag are some of its popular leather goods

made for women and Celine’s Teddy Jacket caters to men’s taste when it comes to apparel. The

company produces high quality leather goods as well as new silhouettes to their Ready-To-wear

thanks to the creative direction of designer Hedi Slimane.

Price:

Celine markets its products for high-class and high-income group with help of its quality

assurance and exclusive creations. It targets customers who are elegant with a social

distinctiveness. As its products are of premium quality it has adopted a premium pricing policy

for its products. Celine has developed a relationship based on trust with its customers and it is

these high-end customers that have helped the company to survive and flourish on premium

prices. Celine is all about exclusivity and its clients recognize this fact and hence do not hesitate

to purchase Celine products at premium prices because at the end of a day it is a status symbol to

be seen with a product produced by them.

Promotion:

Celine is all about trust and relationship. Brand rewards the loyalty of its regular customers by

sending latest news about its products through email or mail. It also offers invitations for pre-sale

to selected few who are exclusive and regular buyers. Celine has a website where related

information is easily available and interested customers can purchase products through its online

outlets. Travis Scott, Blake Lively and Luka Sabbat are some of the celebrities who have been

seen in public wearing this brand.

As promotion is a big aspect of marketing Celine has published its ads at proficient magazines

like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar that caters to premium clients.

Brand Positioning

The goal for Celine is to position them in the luxury fashion market as a pioneer in

sustainable/wearable technology. In order to introduce the wearable tech products with the

ability to customize, they’d have to start by hosting events where their consumer base can come

and try out the customizable feature when it comes to their Belt and Classic bags by using AR

technology. After the introductory phase, Celine should use the wearable tech aspect into their

seasonal fashion shows (Paris, London, New York) for the mainstream audience to see and

possibly be attracted enough to purchase. And for the last phase, Celine should slowly add the

customizable feature to other brand extensions as well as add different colorways to appease all

tastes. The color and silhouettes would not be interfering with what is trendy and aesthetically

pleasing to the main fashion circles nowadays.

Spring 2020- Introduce “Douane by Celine” by hosting a Member’s Only Event party at the

Paris Flagship store where loyal customers who have been shopping with Celine for a while can

check out a try out the new bag as well as post it on their social media pages with the hashtag

“#DouaneNights”.

Summer 2020- Hosting a virtual fashion show that showcases their new upcoming Douane

Collection of Ready-To-Wear mixed with the leather goods which will exclusively show on their

Instagram Live for the mass audience to view and possibly want to purchase.

Fall 2020- Douane Collection available to purchase in 3-5 colorways with more styles and colors

coming in 2021.
Marketing Strategy: Celine 13

Cost for Marketing Initiatives

Editorial Ad Campaign: $100,000

Celebrity Endorsements: $0 (Gifting to loyal high-profile celeb clients only if they post

themselves on their social media wearing the product while using the hashtag)

Fashion Show: $300,000

Advertising (Digital): $400,000

In-Store Party/Event: $65,000

Overall Cost: $865,000

Conclusion

The value of wearable technology in the fashion industry is expected to reach about USD$5

billion by the year 2022. Given this projection, Celine should aim to position itself as a pioneer

in the luxury wearable technology to have themselves above their LVMH peers. In order to

achieve this goal, Celine needs to introduce their innovative product through the appropriate

channels carefully so the launch can be successful. For Celine, diving into the future is a positive

investment in themselves based on where the targeted market is heading.

References:

CELINE's China image blowup: intention or accident? (2018, November 22). Retrieved from
https://anacode.de/celines-image-blowup/

Dijokas, D. (2019, March 15). Is Hedi Slimane employing a strategy for Celine? Retrieved from
https://www.shiftlondon.org/features/is-hedi-slimane-employing-a-strategy-for-celine/

Editore, Mame. “CÉLINE.” Mame Fashion Dictionary, 17 Jan. 2018, fashion.mam-e.it/celine/.

Fury, A. (2019, January 18). Celine's next step. Retrieved from

“What Will Generation Alpha's Trends Be?” SmartBrief, 31 Oct. 2016,

www.smartbrief.com/original/2016/10/what-will-generation-alpha%E2%80%99s-trends-be.