Burberry Analysis
Burberry is an international luxury brand with differentiating brand values that resonate across a multi-generational and dual-gender audience. Burberry’s wide range of luxury products represents accessibility, style, aspiration and functionality. The two main categories of products that Burberry sells are fashion and continuity. Fashion products are designed to be responsive to fashion trends and are introduced on a collection-by-collection basis.
Continuity products have life cycles that are expected to last for a number of years. Burberry also has three primary collections: womenswear, menswear, and accessories.Burberry is positioned in the market with one overwhelming theme -“Functional luxury”. Burberry products are targeted at a broad range of customers. The menswear for instance may appeal to a hip 25-year-old man, a conservative 65-year-old man or to someone in between. The noteworthy competitors of Burberry are labels such as Polo Ralph Lauren and Armani in apparel, and Coach and Gucci in accessories. Coach’s primary products are handbag accessories. Coach has positioned itself as being more affordable and more accessible to the general population. Polo’s marketing positioning is centered more towards lifestyle and clothing.Polo was a number two player in the top luxury brands and captured the most market share for apparel.
However, Polo was lower priced than Burberry. The Polo brand has great brand equity and is very well established in the minds of consumers. Armani, another competitor or Burberry, placed 8th in the top 10 global luxury goods. Even though Armani only focuses on apparel, the brand still maintains a strong luxury position in the market. Gucci also placed in the top 10 global luxury goods.
Gucci’s marketing position is more as a fashion label. They captured 12% of the accessory market share and were the highest priced brand for accessories.Burberry has stayed away from cutting edge fashion and also from being just a classic label. Overall, Burberry is well positioned for the long term. Burberry has succeeded in penetrating both the accessory and apparel market while remaining a luxury good.
The many different lines of product within the Burberry brand allows for more high-end goods that would be feasible for purchase by the general population. Burberry’s positioning of functional luxury is extremely competitive and should sustain well over the long-term. Even since her arrival at Burberry as CEO in 1997, Rose Marie Bravo incorporated a slew of changes which, for the most part, itigated Burberry’s risk profile. Bravo’s goal was to “transform Burberry from a tired outerwear manufacturer into a luxury lifestyle brand that was aspirational, stylish, and innovative. ” Highlights of the major changes Bravo made are 1.
A-list Retail Team. Bravo put together a stellar retail team who knew what it took to succeed in retail. 2. Burberry, logo ; packaging. Bravo made few important cosmetic changes such as change the name from Burberry’s to Burberry, Introducing a new logo and packaging that helped to keep the brand fresh. 3.
Brand repositioning – for Youth & CoreBurberry brand was repositioned to attract & gain new young affluent customers while retaining core customers. This helped Burberry to stay true to their core brand values. 4. Refresh product line & Introduced Prorsum – new hand tailored product line The product line was reorganized and reduced to less then a quarter of what it was. Most products were categorized as either continuity items or as current fashion. This made their operations very efficient as unlike high fashion, continuity items don’t need to be promoted as much, can be run off in large batches and will have a steady distribution.
The Prorsum line allowed Burberry to enter and compete with the higher end fashion markets, further propelling the image of Burberry as a luxury item. 5. New licensing Older licensing agreements that had been in place that churned out sub par products were eliminated, Bravo did this to eliminate the risk of looking cheap, and diminishing the brand’s reputation. The consistency help Burberry eliminate the risk of losing brand credibility. 6. Pricing Pricing, in the fashion industry, is very tricky.
Burberry and Bravo decided to raise the prices of Burberry’s products in line with the positioning of Burberry’s products. The major target customers of Burberry were not particularly cost conscious but cared greatly about quality, functionality and luxury. 7. Ad Campaign Bravo launched a consistent advertising campaign that helped to realize Burberry’s new strategy. The new ads symbolized their push toward the trendy, while staying true to their classic heritage.
The radical changes that Bravo made transformed Burberry into a “luxury lifestyle brand that was aspirational, stylish, and innovative. “Key Take Aways: * Brand Management – Hard work ; Attention to detail :Managing a brand takes a lot of commitment and discipline. It is not something trivial and requires adapting to constant change. * Ensure Brand Consistency : Any brand needs to make sure that it’s products , shopping environments , customer base , positioning etc all send a consistent , uniform message to it’s customers. * Control the brand ; the experience: To manage a brand well, you have to control your brand actively and be much disciplined about what your brand should do and even more important what it should not do.
