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We’ve used the AI powers of Thematic to see whether we can find any juicy insights in customer feedback, and here’s what we found.
We’ve analyzed 16335 publicly available online reviews for 4 brands which often come to mind when thinking “luxury, global fashion brands”: Louis Vuitton (LV), Gucci, Prada, and Burberry.
They sit within a price range where you might think twice before purchasing them for all of your everyday needs (Louis Vuitton dish-wash cloths, anyone?), however with a bit of saving (or a few shameless credit card swipes later!), you might invest in some staples such as shoes, bags and scarves.
Sample findings:
- Louis Vuitton trumps the others on perceived quality, shopping experience, and customer service, although comparatively rather expensive
- Gucci’s shopping experience (especially online) and customer service is weak compared to that of other the brands
- Prada’s product quality negatively impacts their scores, and they need to improve their shoe selection
- Burberry’s brand perception is the most impactful of the four brands
(Note that we have only included in this article the trends that stood out the most in the customer feedback and were of statistical significance. The scale of reviews is 1-5, where 5 is an excellent review and 1 is poor).
Product quality – which luxury brand beat others on product and material?
First things first, when we think about luxury brands we often associate with high quality (to justify the high prices, naturally).
And indeed, Thematic Analysis shows that product quality is a popular theme across all brands in the customer feedback.
LV reviews contain slightly more “quality” talk (38%), whereas all other brands sit around 31-32%, with Gucci ever so slightly taking second place.
Source: Thematic
To drill down further, what if we look at the “quality of material”?
Source: Thematic
Yup, LV has the most comments containing this theme: 5% of all reviews mention the quality of material, whereas, for example, Burberry reviews barely mention it at all.
But what happens if we compare positive vs. negative reviews?
Here, we are looking at 1 and 2-star reviews (blue bars) in comparison with the 4 and 5-star reviews (orange bars) across all brands, the trend remains.
LV stands out for people who mention product quality in their 4 and 5-star ratings.
Source: Thematic
Quality is important even for low-priced brands, but, we’d say it’s more a matter of perceived quality.
Price – is it even worth mentioning when it comes to luxury purchases?
What about price? Is this even a theme that’s mentioned a lot in customer feedback among people who buy luxury products?
Not surprisingly, for the 1 and 2-star reviews, most people have mentioned that the price is expensive, but more so for Prada and Gucci than any of the other brands (below). We conclude that their customers feel that they get less value for money.
Some examples of customer feedback taken from Thematic:
About Gucci: “I think that this brand is severely overpriced. Their customer service is horrible and you can find better quality for less money”.
About Prada: “Overpriced for [the] quality. Had a few items that became worn very quickly. I personally would never rebuy”.
Source: Thematic
One of Thematic’s features that our customers love the most is the Impact Tool. With this feature, you can easily calculate not just what is mentioned the most, but also what each theme’s impact is on overall satisfaction and loyalty. You can easily understand what drives those scores.
We can also compare two brands to see differences in themes impact.
Here, we can see that when comparing Burberry and LV, LV’s score is brought down by expensive prices, much more so than Burberry.
So, looking at ways to make LV’s prices more accessible would mean more happy reviews.
However, LV’s product quality impact is slightly higher than Burberry’s. And, a number of people admit that the brands are “expensive but worth it”.
Source: Thematic
If we view Gucci and Prada as direct competitors, then we can see the huge difference in the impact of product quality for Gucci, which is tipping the positive scale.
Whereas Prada’s product quality seems poor in comparison, according to the reviews (below).
Source: Thematic
Customer service – who wins, who loses?
Right, let’s get to the juicy stuff.
When comparing the theme “customer service” across positive and negative reviews, we can see two things:
- Happy customers don’t mention customer service, but unhappy customers do. Up to 8% have issues due to poor customer service.
- Gucci is in the lead for the “worst” customer service, with Prada a close second. LV is last (or should we say, best, amongst these four).
Source: Thematic
With the heavy focus on customer experience today, which brand provides the worst and which one the best shopping experience?
Hrm, not to point any fingers (Gucci, I’m looking at you), but judging by the 1 and 2-star reviews, people seem to be the unhappiest with Gucci when it comes to the shopping experience.
Source: Thematic
To find out why, we’ve drilled down further.
Hmm, can it have anything to do with the online shopping experience? Maybe. Gucci comes up top here, too, for the 1 and 2-star reviews, with a clear margin.
Source: Thematic
What about their return policy? Ouch. Maybe not so good either:
Source: Thematic
Shoe selection – Prada not so popular
If we look at the 4 and 5-star reviews overall, we can see that Gucci is in the lead, showing that people are overall happiest with their shoe selection, across all 4 brands.
Source: Thematic
People who are happy with Prada seem to be okay with their shoe selection, but this changes when we look at the 1 and 2-star reviews. Here, Prada really stands out.
People who are seemingly the unhappiest with Prada have mentioned shoe selection most out of all of these 4 brands. Interestingly, out of the 1 and 2-star reviews for Burberry, none mention shoe selection!
Source: Thematic
What gives?
When comparing the positive and negative reviews side-by-side, we can see that, yes, people are in fact happiest with Gucci’s shoes, but we can also see how many people in comparison have down-rated Prada’s shoes. Perhaps something Prada can look at to change?
Source: Thematic
And hey, whilst we’re at it, maybe wallets can be improved upon also for Prada?
Source: Thematic
When we compare the reviews for purses and wallets only, we can see that people who aren’t happy with Prada, mention purses and wallets more than any of the other brands.
For Louis Vuitton (LV), interestingly, when we compare the rating ratio, people who give positive reviews are happy with their purses and wallets.
To sum it up
In summary, it seems LV is a winner when it comes to quality, shopping experience, and customer service – but on the flip side is deemed to be comparatively rather expensive, even for a luxury brand.
Gucci has a lot to improve upon when it comes to the shopping experience in particular. And, Prada could do with improving its shoe selection.
If you want to run an analysis of your own brand in comparison with your competitors or have a dataset you’re itching to understand, get in touch with us now.
This article was first published here.
