Of Burberry and the things that lifted it to what it is today..

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.