Burberry was founded in 1856,
when 21-year-old Thomas Burberry opened a draper’s shop in Basingstoke,
England. Shortly thereafter he invented gabardine, a waterproof and breathable
fabric that quickly became the fabric of choice for anyone venturing out into
extreme conditions.
Burberry’s trench coat was
chosen to be the official coat of the British Army in World War I, and a 1930s
marketing campaign declared, “For safety on land, in the air or afloat, there
is nothing to equal the Burberry coat.” The Burberry check pattern—a camel,
black, red, and white plaid design—was introduced in the 1920s as a lining to
its signature trench coat, and became a registered trademark. Over the ensuing
years, celebrities, well-known adventurers, and politicians were often seen in
the Burberry “check.” - Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca, Peter Sellers in The Pink Panther, and Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Famous aviators, balloonists, and expeditionists
seeking to conquer the South Pole and Everest also donned them. Burberry’s
original designs and uncompromising quality even made the brand popular with
British royalty; King Edward VIII, a regular Burberry wearer, was known to say:
“Give me my Burberry!” As a result, the brand increasingly became a symbol of
both luxury and durability.
Strategic Marketing Decisions that were taken to revive the brand:
After being sold to the Great
Universal Stores Plc. (GUS), Burberry began losing its brand value gradually
over time. Though business was profitable, earning quality was low.
The GUS had strong distribution networks and began to sell products
to homes directly. When the Japanese came to know about the Burberry icon, they
gave license to the brand to come to Japan and as a result the brand presence
grew gradually worldwide.
Due to
control over product licensing, different products were sold over different countries
at different prices and quality. What went wrong was that the distributers
began to sell the Burberry products to local unauthorized distributers and
other unofficial channels, which was a major drawback and let to the
deterioration of the brand image, as the brand was now more accessible to local
people and thus the target market changed and brand lost much of its exclusivity.
However Rose
Marie Bravo became the chief executive of Burberry and lifted the brand step by
step to what it is today. She made certain strategic decisions to revive the brand
Burberry. Bravo and her team knew that the next five years were going to be
crucial. Bravo’s goals were to maintain the currency and cachet of the brand
across its broad customer base, while entering new product categories and
expanding distribution. The two main strategic decisions taken by Bravo were expanding
the customer base of the brand, trading down and increasing product
distribution.
She
wanted to make Burberry a luxury lifestyle brand that was aspirational,
stylish, and innovative. She changed the brand name to Burberry from Burberry’s
and introduced a contemporary logo and a packaging.
Tactic Marketing Decisions that were taken to
revive the brand:
The tactical decisions taken to revive the brands were as follows: -
1.Repositioning
the brand
Burberry
wanted to target the younger people as its costumers while at the same time
retaining its core customers.
They
started looking for gaps in the market and tried to capitalize on these gaps
while remaining true to their core values.
Thus
they decided upon building Burberry into an accessible luxury brand i.e. by
combining functionality to it, it could become a brand that is aspirational as
well as functional. For example, the Burberry trench coat could keep you warm
and dry.
2.Updating the product line
Bravo
reduced the Stock Keeping Units from 100, 000 to 24,000 to eliminate outdated
products, resign Burberrys traditional products and design a new category of products.
Basically, Burberry decided to enter new product categories.
Burberry
therefore launched more and more collection on the basis of the existing trends
on its three product categories- men’s wear, women’s wear and accessories. With
its non-licensed products, Burberry, now, had control over its pricing,
sourcing, quality distribution etc.
It
curbed some of the old distributers and added new ones and got into contracts
and gradually by the fall of 2002 it had 3,162 wholesale doors
worldwide, including 434 department stores and 2,728 specialty stores. Also
prices were raised to reflect the brands repositioning.
3.Expanding the Brand
Portfolio
Burberry London was the company’s core label.
In some countries, the company also offered a lower-priced label designed to
appeal to a younger, more fashion-conscious customer. For example, the Thomas
Burberry line was available only in Spain and Portugal, and the Burberry Blue
and Black labels, for young women and men, respectively, were available only in
Japan.
At the high end, Bravo and her team had
recently decided to expand the brand portfolio with a label called Prorsum as a
way to reinforce Burberry’s new positioning in the luxury market. Products
within the Prorsum collection were hand-tailored from innovative fabrics, and
featured the kind of quality and detail associated with haute couture. Bravo
explained the Prorsum introduction this way:
“We needed to tell people that something new
was happening at Burberry. The idea was to introduce a high-profile, high-end
brand, and do it in a first-class way, by putting it in the best stores in the
world.”
The Prorsum introduction was their way of
communicating the idea that Burberry was a brand with the stature to appear on
runways alongside the fashion greats. It provided them with the opportunity to
showcase their new image to the top industry journalists and get editorial
press for their collections.
4. Advertising and Promotion
The final and one of the most important step
that Burberry took in order to revive itself as a brand was Promotion and
Advertising by hiring famed team that consisted of a famous photographer,
creative director and an advertising agent, who produced various ad campaigns
for the brand and helped to build stories that conveyed the brand values to the
masses.
The role of Burberry Prorsum in the overall
reputation of the brand:
The
label Prorsum was introduced under Burberry to give the brand a new positioning
in the market and to create an excitement amongst the consumers that something
new was happening at Burberry. The Prorsum label introduced a luxury collection
with handmade fabrics, designs and superior quality in terms of the haute couture
collection. The idea was to introduce a high-profile,
high-end brand, and do it in a first-class way, by putting it in the best
stores in the world.”
The introduction of prorsum label helped recognize the brand Burberry
in a new way amongst the people as a high-end brand capable of appearing on the
runways alongside the fashion greats.
Trading Down and Its Benefits to the Burberry:
A Brand now and then tries to add low priced
articles for the better marketing of already existing high priced products so that
the products of the brand become easily accessible to the masses. This is a
crucial step for any brand and this is known as trading down. It could also
include increasing and updating product categories. In trading down new market is looked for where
the old product has not reached and this leads to success as trading down helps
to expand the brand portfolio and the customer base for the brand.
