Loewe goes back to its Roots

Some weeks ago, I was walking through Serrano Street, Madrid’s most luxurious shopping area. During my walk Loewe’s spring collection piqued my interest.  The Madrilenian purveyor of luxury leather goods did an outstanding job through its global campaign, displaying its Spanish heritage and more than 168 years in business. Within this article I’ll delve into a study of Loewe’s strategy, its campaign’s implementation and I’ll write about the importance of heritage branding and how it affects consumers’ purchase decision processes. 

Loewe is different from the rest because of its long lasting tradition and expertise producing the best leatherwear articles. The prestige brand stands for a type of elegance without ostentation. Its core values are being proud of our traditions and to be free and do what we please. Moreover, its consumers also stand up for these values. This psychographic segmentation allows the brand to deeply connect with its target market. The brand objective in the upcoming years is to keep up increasing sales, raise awareness among consumers and to open new stores in different countries around the globe. Mostly, in the Asian market. 

The brand did a superb job translating its business strategy into market implementation at the point of sale and within its communication campaign. The former is an immersing experience into the Spanish and Madrilenians’ lifestyle. The store’s shop windows expose images reinforcing the artisanal work behind each product. Some pieces are inspired on traditional Spanish footwear, accessories and clothing such as “alpargatas”, fans and “shawls”. On the other hand, Loewe aims to target generation Y (i.e. 70’s and 80’s), it focused most of its communication efforts in a digital campaign using tools such as social media platforms, its webpage, and live stream events. The advertising face and brand ambassador of the campaign is Penélope Cruz. Loewe’s marketers said that she fits perfectly with the brand because, nowadays, she is the most famous woman and personality in Spain.

 Loewe Spanish heritage campaign makes sense because of the socio-cultural context and the unwavering commitment of the brand to achieve its purpose.  Currently, we live in a world of uncertainty, where consumers more than ever distrust firms and give more importance to aspects such as consistency, quality, craftsmanship, authenticity and familiarity. Embracing these elements allows brands to build a competitive advantage, ameliorate the depth of consumers’ awareness and their perceived value of the brand. This allows firms to set a higher price point for its products/services.

In light of the above, Loewe’s long-lasting history exhibits stability, as well as consistency of its mission, vision and values. The correct bounding of the elements mentioned before permits brand custodians to elaborate a convincing story. This helps the brand to emotionally connect with consumers, enhance trust, build customer loyalty and reputation - in a nutshell it helps building stronger brand equity.  

I’ll like to state the fact that I’m a great believer in brand heritage, which is the connection of a brand to its past (i.e. people, places, and purpose at the beginning). I consider heritage branding as a long-term business objective compass point. Brands’ legacy not only helps identifying firms’ strengths, also it pinpoints previous successes and mistakes and educates us for future decisions. Moreover, through cues and tales marketers can enhance customers and employees admiration and pride for the brand. As discussed, Loewe is a perfect example of this. The Spring Collection shows employees’ understanding of the soul & spirit of the brand and how to interconnect the present with its past.  

To wrap up, I’d like to say that every brand should work in its own storytelling, based in a consistent and unique mission, values and purpose. If a brand does this correctly, it will experience the benefits of heritage branding!