Yves Saint Laurent

Marketing Plan for YLS

Marketing Plan for YLS

Competitor Analysis

YSL, being a fashion luxury brand, has potentially infinite competitors. Its competitors can be divided into two categories: brands from competitor conglomerate such as LVMH and other fashion houses particularly in the French market.

LVMH is a French multinational luxury goods conglomerate that is one of the major competitors of PPR, the company that owns YSL. LVMH's main strength is that it is home to several established brands including Louis Vuitton, Donna Karan, Celine etc. LVMH is also much larger than PPR with revenues of €20.3 million in 2010 as compared to PPR's revenue of only €11 million. Thus LV is a strong competitor to YSL because of its greater corporate resources. With the brand enjoying high recall in the fashion market, it is also vulnerable with its weaknesses being exclusivity; as it is only available in LV exclusive stores thereby jeopardizing accessibility in disparate markets. This weakness has prompted forgeries and triggered the sales of copy which significantly affects LV sales. They need to bring in changes at strategic level so as to counter the weaknesses. It is these weaknesses which when kept in mind and countered by YSL complimented its strength and provided it with significant opportunities to leverage in the future as well.

In the world of French fashion, YSL also faces stiff competition from Italian heavyweights such as Versace, Valentino and Prada all of which are competing for the same luxury customers to which YSL caters. Versace is regarded for the diversity in the offering; ranging from apparels to perfumes to watches and even cell phones. This diversity is further complimented by celebrity endorsements, around which advertising campaigns of Versace usually revolves. Exorbitant pricing makes the target market quite narrow who usually undergo brand switching as well just because of the pricing factor. This again prompts widespread selling of Versace copies. The common weakness we found is that people usually buy replicas and counterfeits which are quite hard to discern rather than paying hefty amount for a normal piece of shirt.

Despite facing such competition, YSL does have its own competitive advantage. Firstly, it is backed by a financially strong and stable PPR Group. The group will make sure that one lean year does not lead to the brand's collapse. However, 2010 was not such a year with YSL showing more than 13% growth. Secondly, YSL has a past ...