A Look At Luxury Brand Hermès’ Marketing Strategy Over The Years

The mention of a Hermès Birkin tote is enough to send women and fashionistas into a tizzy. While a bag from the brand may cost you anywhere from $11,000 to $3,80,000, it is one luxury item that any woman would want to own. Legend has it, that the tote was conceptalized, when fashion icon and actress Jane Birkin found it difficult to adjust her bag in the overhead compartment of a flight. What was born, became a style and status symbol of fashion, with women even today aspiring to lay their hands on one!

But what made Hermès, an ultimate name in luxury fashion? Let’s see a few reasons why the brand is what it is today.

1. Word-Of-Mouth Marketing

As easy as it sounds, this strategy of Hermès paid them big time. Accessories like scarves, fragrances, and especially bags are a rage amongst women the world over, be the celebrities, actresses, or fashionistas. Their product characteristics have a high recognition and aspiration value.

The brand has achieved this due to the relationships it maintains with its clients, most of whom have been purchasers for generations. They have also projected their products to have genuine inheritance value, because of which the brand doesn’t even need to advertise for bags.

2. Scarcity Marketing

Do you know how many bags Hermès makes in a year? We don’t either. That’s because they don’t make it official. And this helps them in marketing their product. Scarcity marketing allows them to make their offerings desirable and create demand while maintaining that the supply is thought to be as limited.

It also takes a lot of time, and people often experience waiting times of up to 6 years. There are standard models, though, but even those can be availed if you have prior shopping experience of the brand. Also, one may not get what one exactly wants, owing to the rarity of their models.

3. Influencer Marketing

Along with the Birkin story mentioned before, another one of its iconic creations is the 'Kelly', which was first used by Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco. As legend has it, she used an oversized bag by the brand to hide her pregnancy bump, after which the bag was named in her honor.

However, just as amusing are the stories of these two brand influencers, so is the reason of the brand’s choice of influencers. The brand chose influencers who have a Hermès story attached to them, making it real.

Over the years, Victoria Beckham, Jamie Chua and Kim Kardashian, have all endorsed Hermès. In fact Samantha Jones famously said, “I know it’s not my style. But once I have a Birkin on my arm, I’ll know I’ve made it.”

4. Relationship Marketing

The thought process of the brand is that every customer who wants or owns a Hermès should understand its heritage. For this reason, once you enter a Hermès store, it is not you who will buy; Hermès decides whether you deserve to buy or not.

Customers often need to assert their sales history, and though one might feel that the brand does not value its customers, it is quite the opposite. They have the most enviable client relationships department, which manages lasting relationships with their customers.

There are other factors through which the brand has established a name for itself. For example, its iconic logo which is that of a horse-drawn carriage, Along with that, the brand practices vertical integration for its products, ranging from bags to fragrances. This helps them pay attention to detail, thereby improving product quality. As mentioned by former CEO Jean-Louis Dumas, “We don’t have a policy of image, we have a policy of product.”

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