Luxury Brands
A brand is considered luxury if the majority, or all, of its products are luxury goods. This is not always the case and sometimes the name of the brand is associated with high price or exclusivity, though the goods themselves may not actually be considered 'luxury'. A good example of this is seen with 'hummer' vehicles. Luxury goods are very sensitive to the ups and downs of the economy owing to their very high price and therefore profit margins. They are generally very tightly controlled for this reason. A while back the Gucci brand tried to widen their licence for goods and very nearly crippled themselves. They now sell primarily from own named stores. The label Burberry has reduced its image as a luxury brand due to over-licensing, and is now not really seen a label for the elite, simply put, it has become too accessible to the masses.
The largest producer of luxury goods in the world is the Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey group (LVMH) who make profits of around $2 billion per year. This is followed by the PPR group who own Gucci.
A 'designer label' most commonly refers to a clothing label, often named after a clothing designer, which is considered prestigious. These include labels such as Gucci, Prada, Marc Jacobs, Chanel and Stella McCartney. Some of these designers also have other brand names under their control such as United Colours of Bennetton, LL Bean and Coach and so they may also be considered a 'designer label'. However they tend to appeal to the upper middle class, mass-affluent shopper, whereas labels like Cartier may target the seriously wealthy shopper.
There is a link between social class and designer labels/ luxury brands, however, this is really only subjective as the type of customer that may be targeted by such a brand may very well not consider the purchase of one. It is really a very personal choice.
Louis Vuitton
Louis Vuitton is a French luxury brand selling leather goods also and is based in Paris, France with headquarters on the famous Champs-Elysses. It was founded by Louis Vuitton in the early part of the 1820's who began designing luggage. The Louis Vuitton items all feature the distinctive LV initials. The brand only markets its products in its own name stores all over the world and so in this way is able to control the pricing, accessibility and marketing of its goods. It also has one designated online store selling products, along with those of other brands in its control (such as Christian Dior). The brand is very well respected in fashion circles and has become a status symbol worldwide. The famous monogrammed initials on the luggage was designed by Louis's son Georges and was intended to prevent counterfeiting of the goods.
Louis Vuitton is popular with celebrities and this is something that it tries to cultivate. It uses celebrities to advertise its goods as well as advertisements in magazines and billboards in major cities. Nowadays the brand is highly counterfeited and, in fact, less than 1% of the bags bearing its monogrammed initials are genuine. The brand maintains that it employs over 60 people who work full time on combating this problem, plus a team of lawyers. They have also taken steps to prevent this by narrowing down the accessibility of the products, such as making them available only in own named stores, and there are only a handful of exceptions to this.
In a further step to prevent this problem Louis Vuitton successfully sued Britney Spears in 2007 for the use of what appears to be the LV logo and cherry blossom design in one of her music videos. Britney herself was not found to be guilty but Somg BMG and MTV Online have been prevented from showing the video, as well as a fine of $80,00 each. Louis Vuitton took the view that the video portrayed an attack on the LV brand.