Louis Vuitton wins over Chinese consumers by resonating with their cultural background

Louis Vuitton’s use of a popular Chinese social network, SINA, demonstrates how a premium brand can encourage positive engagement from Chinese consumers online. Louis Vuitton’s strategy of posting about charitable campaigns and fashion news generates a highly favourable response compared to posts about Louis Vuitton's products. Louis Vuitton has also succeeded in increasing love for their brand among Chinese users. Louis Vuitton’s official brand page on SINA, a popular Chinese social network similar to Twitter, has attracted a strong fan base with over 70,000 followers, more than other premium brands like Chanel or Gucci. Alongside posts about their products and cultural events, Louis Vuitton have recently posted pictures of their charity sponsored panda, named “Louis”, who acts as an emblem for the brand's supportive actions towards panda protection in China. WaveMetrix analysis shows that the post about Louis the panda generates the most positive response among all topics Louis Vuitton posts about. This suggests that a successful way to engage consumers in emerging markets is to post about topics that will resonate with their cultural background. In addition, Chinese consumers are not only more positive in response to the charity post, but also express more love for the Louis Vuitton brand than they do for product-related posts.