Picture the person who runs Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Moët Champagne. Now picture her signing off on a deal for a fitness race that involves sled pushes and burpees.
That actually happened. The private equity firm behind LVMH, worth about $300 billion, just moved to buy a stake in HyROX, a fitness race with sled pushes and strength stations, in a deal valued at up to a billion dollars. More than 1.3 million people are competing in it this year alone.
Handbags and burpees. It sounds like a joke. It isn’t.
“I posted new arrivals, ran a promo, sent an email with a discount code. It worked for a few days. Then it was like my store never existed.”
If that’s you, here’s the uncomfortable part: your marketing isn’t broken. You’re stuck at what I call rung zero, and LVMH just showed the entire world what the next three rungs look like.
The Real Reason a Handbag Company Bought a Fitness Race
This was never a fitness story. It’s a marketing story, and it’s telling on every store owner who’s still buying ads instead of buying belonging.
Here’s the difference: an ad gets you a customer who shops with you when it’s convenient. Belonging gets you a customer who passes three other stores to get to yours.
LVMH figured out you can’t buy that with a coupon. So they stopped trying.
Rung One: Borrow
LVMH became a ten-year global partner of Formula 1. Their brands sit on the race course, on the trophy, in the champagne the winners spray on each other. One deal. Over a billion viewers borrowed, including a whole generation who’s never set foot in a Louis Vuitton store.
Then they did it again, bigger, as a premium partner of the Paris Olympics.
They didn’t build the race. They didn’t build the Games. They just stood next to something people already loved.
For you: Call the organizer of your town’s 5K, farmer’s market, or school fundraiser. Ask to sponsor a banner, a tote bag, the welcome table.
Take this action: Call one local organizer this week. Sponsor something small. That’s rung one.
Rung Two: Build
Louis Vuitton opened cafes and full exhibitions inside their own stores. Nobody flies to Paris for a wallet. People plan a whole day around an experience, and the wallet just comes home with them.
For you: A trunk show or styling first-look evening, before anyone else in town sees the new season. She can buy the brand online any day of the week. She cannot get that night online. Nobody can ship it to her.
Take this action: Pick one evening this quarter and build a first-look experience for your top customers.
Rung Three: Own
Sponsoring HyROX wasn’t enough. LVMH bought a piece of the company. That’s the difference between renting a customer’s attention for a season and owning her loyalty for a decade.
For you: Team up with two or three local businesses and launch a seasonal experience every single year. Same weekend, same partners, same name, until people start asking, “hey, when’s that thing again?” That question is when you know you own it.
Take this action: Pick one recurring annual event you could build with local partners, and pick the month you’ll launch it.
Why This Works
A sale gets someone to buy once. It doesn’t build an identity. An experience does.
Write this down: every dollar you put toward an experience instead of an ad is buying belonging instead of renting attention.
I didn’t have a billion-dollar budget when I figured this out. I had four walls and a photographer I trusted. We built a simple in-store photo day timed for Mother’s Day, then did it again every Christmas with a new theme. He brought his people, I brought mine, and it became the thing grandparents waited for all year. That’s rung one and rung two, built for the cost of a few props and one good partnership.
Your Millie Moment
This week, before you spend another ad dollar:
- Identify your single best customer, the one who buys without a sale
- Ask what she’s already showing up for
- Find the smallest way to put your name next to it: sponsor a raffle, donate a gift bag, set up a small display
- Don’t build or host anything yet. Just show up where she already is
Fall doesn’t fix a shaky marketing foundation. It amplifies whatever’s already there. The store already part of her customers’ world heads into the holidays a completely different store than the one still hoping a discount code will do the work.
Resources & Links
- Got dead stock taking up space and eating your cash flow? Join the Sale That Works Workshop, where Cathy will walk you through the exact strategy to liquidate unwanted inventory without slashing prices storewide or hurting your margins.
- Ready to free up cash and finally build wealth from your store? Apply for your free Gameplan Call, where we’ll identify your growth opportunities and map out the most profitable next steps to elevate your visibility, attract the right customers, and scale with confidence.
- Want a behind-the-scenes look at how our top clients grow profit without burning out? Our free training, Beyond Busy: 3 Shifts to Reclaim Your Time and Boost Store Income, walks you through the exact method we use in our Profit Club, focusing on your role as CEO, CIO, and CFO to grow a business that’s both profitable and sustainable.
- Follow us on social media for more updates! Facebook / Instagram
💚 Remember: Knowing which rung you’re ready for is easy to talk about. It’s harder to figure out when it’s your store, your budget, and your customer on the line. That’s exactly what we map out together.
