Burberry The Business of Fashion

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The Business of Fashion Contents

Executive Summary - 4 Chosen Brand -6 Brand Identity- 8 Brand Consumer - 12,13 Brand Positioning - 14 Communications Mix - 18 - 23 Bibliography - 24- 25

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Executive Summary

This report will analyse and evaluate the fashion brand Burberry, internationally recognised for its distinctive British heritage, it discusses the beginning of the brand to its present modern position as a global luxury company. The report examines the various platforms used by the brand to communicate with its consumers, and this shows proactive innovative technological advances in consumer engagement.

“you want it to be as memorable as the trench. Just own it.�

Angela Adrendts

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PH O TO R e f e r e n c e

Bur ber r y.com.

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Chosen Brand

Writers Own B ur b e r r y He a d quar ter s fla gs hip sto re

This report examines the brand Burberry, the methodology used to collate information is primary research from a trip to London which includes a mix of observation and short interviews, as well as secondary research from books, articles and blogs.

Burberry is an internationally renowned luxury brand that distributes worldwide, known for its British heritage and distinctive British appeal, the brand attracts consumers globally.

The brand was created in 1856

by Thomas Burberry in Basingstoke, England who began trading men’s outerwear. In 1879 the brand gained recognition when Burberry created a waterproof yet breathable material that was resistant to tearing called gabardine a fabric that was resistant to tearing, which was weatherproof and breathable. (Fashion Review, Anon, 2012). The material was patented in 1888.

The Burberry Equestrian Knight

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logo was developed and registered as a trademark in 1904.

Between 1914- 1918 the brands signature garment ‘The Trench Coat’ was created. Burberry was approached by the British army and commissioned to create a coat for officers, something durable and hardwearing with a buckle strap. In 1920 The Burberry check was trademarked; the design featured as the lining of the trench coat. (Burberry, 2012) By 1967 the trademark design was applied to umbrellas, luggage and scarves. This shows a clear indication of the brand expanding their products in order to achieve more recognition. In 1997, a new management team was tasked with revitalising the brand, creating new collections, product ranges and a distinctive new advertising campaign.

Throughout the years, Burberry have expanded their product range quite extensively. In 1999, Mario Testinos first advertising campaign for Burberry, starring Kate Moss, marked the beginning

of a long-standing relationship with the brand and its focus on celebrity endorsements as a promotional strategy. (G Moore 2012) The early noughties saw a major shift in the creative structure of the brand. New staff were appointed in 2001. Christopher Bailey was employed as the brand’s Creative Director and Angela Ahrendts filled the role of Executive Director in 2006. In 2008 Burberry Foundation was launched.

Burberry headquarters and the flagship store are both situated in London. The company is estimated to have 9,000 employees, and stores in 473 locations. Burberry sells lifestyle products for different markets, from menswear, womenswear, childrenswear, beauty and accessories. Andrea Ahrendts, Chief Executive Officer states, “Burberry sells its products to the end consumer through both the retail (including digital commerce) and wholesale channels”. (Annual Review 2010)

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Brand Identity

“Brand Identity refers to the name, term, design, symbol that identifies one seller’s goods or services as distinct from those of other sellers. This reflects the brand image as it creates a customer’s perception of a product or brand.”

(Sue Dillion 2012) Burberry is known for its quality, sophistication and has a globally respected reputation. The logo originates from the Latin word “Prorsum”, meaning forwards (Parker, 2013). Additionally, the equestrian logo stimulates elegance and strength in consumer’s mind, a link to how the company wish to be portrayed by consumers.

The Burberry check design is also a strong link to the company’s identity. Over the years many have associated the check with the brand however not always from a positive outlook. Burberry went from a respected enviable fashion brand to be labelled ‘chav infested’ and the ‘trend of the football hooligan’.

Neate (2013) claimed The reason behind this was the fact global licensing was out of control, Adrendts rescued the brand by reclaiming the 23 licenses Burberry had sold to allow other firms to use the check on their products and rebrand their identity and steer it away from the common stereotype it had developed.

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Collections of the trench coat

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Inside store layout

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Womenswear Spring/ Summer Prorsumfashion show 2014

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“Trend of the “football Hooligan”

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Outside of the london flagship store.

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Brand Consumer

The brand consumer is typical of the target market. “Defining

the target market is essential to running a successful business…”

(Dillion 2010) This is so a company can access what products and what marketing and advertising strategies are needed in order to satisfy consumers needs. The consumers who used to shop at Burberry were previously older, sophisticated women, however, during market research collected in London, it was evident that the typical Burberry consumer is changing and not as stereotypical as it once was.

Younger consumers are more popular due to the transformed product ranges and the well developed communication channels, particularly in the area of social media .

In comparison to YouGov Profiler (2010), the typical consumer for Burberry is between the ages of 18- 24, and is characteristically female. The occupation of the consumer is likely to be in the profession of real estate and property, accountancy and interior design, and has a disposable income of £1000+ per month.

Defining the target market is essential to running a successful business…” (Dillion 2010) The Business of Fashion

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Brand Positioning A brands positioning refers to why its target consumer buys from this particular brand instead of an alternative as stated by Chandler and Munday (2011).

“In order to maximise their effectiveness, marketers need to focus on their target markets as they position their brands” (P Rath et al 2012)

Brand positioning is a part of effective marketing; the way a brand is positioned reflects how a consumer views the product as a whole. For Burberry it has become known to consumers as “Functional Luxury”. Whilst it was apparent that Burberry lost their position in the past, it is very clear now how they repositioned themselves as a luxury brand and moving away from creating products for the masses.

According to (Dahlen et al 2010), Relative positioning should give the target market reasons to differentiate from the competition. The points of difference help to position the brand as superior in that category. Burberry are different due to their ‘british appeal and impact of their company focused around social media.

What Burberry have achieved with their brand positioning is described well by (Moore and Fernie, 2004). “The expansion of the product portfolio to include a wider customer base and the adoption of a multi-brand positioning, reflect many of the developments that have occurred within other premium international fashion retail companies. These include brands such as Gucci, Ralph Lauren and Prada “

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Advertising “Advertising is any form of outward-facing communication that is seen to come from a company, it is usually paid for and originates with the company. For Instance, Television, Cinema, Internet, Magazines or outdoor and transport.” (L greenwood Fashion Marketing 2012) Burberry dedicate to print and TV advertising in order to connect with customers, in addition to digital, with strong creative ideas that competitors simply cannot beat. For example, in their London flagship store they play their campaigns for an integrated store experience, this creates a real Burberry feel for customers, and lets them see products featured therefore impacting the experience they get in store.

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Last year Burberry launched a campaign as a film called “from London with Love shot by Mari ‘Britishness, heritage, music and weather’, highlighting the brand’s best gifting items including

denton 2014 WGSN). The film was played in the flagship store, on television adverts, in cinema

consumers the brand reputation of Burberry. Advertising this way had an impact on the shoppin 18

by 14% to just over £600m in the three months to the end of December. That was better than Ci Magazine Name

Communication Mix

Communications M ix o Testino, in which the story takes viewers on a ‘magical gifting journey’ celebrating Burberry’s the iconic heritage trench coat, cashmere scarves, and beauty looks created for the film” (S Al-

as, and on billboards across the world. It promoted their products further and was able to show

ng habits as the advertising campaign lead to ‘sales of Burberry coats, bags and fashion increase

ity retail analysts had expected.” (Sean Farrell 2015)

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ublic Relations

“Public Relations, in its purest form is about establishing and managing relationships with all its audiences that an organisation comes in to contact with. PR is often defined as a press or media activity. In fashion, PR is primarily focused on gaining press and media coverage for designer collections but can also include working with buyers to encourage them to view and buy collections, networking with industry contacts, managing catwalk shows and establishing relationships. (G. Moore Fashion Promotion 2010) Burberry use PR extensively when promoting their brand, the main PR events that took place in 2015 were the catwalk shows, which brought London to both Shanghai and Los Angeles, they combined both fashion and music together to portray the heritage of ‘Britishness’. This increased sales brand recognition. (Burberry. 2010) In response to the damaged reputation Burberry experienced in being linked to a ‘Chav Culture’, the company has worked hard to alter consumer perception by establishing links with well respected celebrities. These endorsements help the brand to reach a more sophisticated audience.

Emma Watson was featured in Burberry’s 2010 spring/ summer campaign alongside her brother Alex Watson. In a Vogue interview by Lauren Milligan, Bailey revealed how he wanted to create “a very eclectic but cool crowd of people”, and “The energy of Images reflects the different attitudes and and expressions of the

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ersonal Selling

Burberry guy and girl. This shows how the brand wants to promote themselves to a wide range of people, and really show how Burberry can work for a range of people. (Vogue, January 2010).

The Burberry foundation is a charity which was established in 2008, in order to assist young people to follow their dreams through creativity. The charity focuses on helping young people from communities in which employees come from. The foundation works to increase confidence, build strong connections in terms of relationships with families and friends and help young people grab opportunities in terms of education, work and in life. Burberry created this in order to show consumers that they would like to help and position themselves to be part of a community. 1% of all profits Burberry make goes back in to the charity and when trench coats are sold, £10 goes to the charity and is known as “check with a change”. The company have marketed their products so that when a consumer shops with them they feel like they are doing something good for the society and for those less fortunate than themselves, so an emotional element is attracted when consumers buy.

Personal Selling (Marketing Fashion, Rath et al 2012) “A one to one often face to face interaction between a marketer’s representative and an individual or small group of customers with the goal of generating a sale. “ Personal selling is a lot to do with promotion in order to boost sales, sell more units and then capture more revenue. Burberry does not believe in personal selling due to the fact it is a luxury brand with a strong brand image. Personal selling makes the brand less exclusive, which is why they only focus on face to face selling from when the customer decides to visit the store.

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romotion

Sales Promotion refers to any form of communication other than advertising that draws attention to products and value added services such as a discount offer.

(Dillon 2012) As Burberry is an exclusive luxury brand, loyalty schemes and discounts are aspects of promotion they do not utilise. However, when you purchase from a Burberry store, the packaging and the service you receive, reflects the price of the product and allows the consumer to feel apart of the Burberry experience. The packaging is of a high quality, and the products are all gift wrapped for a beautiful presentation.

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ocial Media

“Web-Based and mobile technologies used to turn communication into interactive dialogue. It includes blogs and websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube” (S. Dillon, 2011, Fundamentals of Fashion Management) Burberry was the first luxury fashion brand to invest committedly in social media they spend. Burberry’s Facebook page now has over 7 million fans and its Twitter account verified over 400,000 followers, way ahead of Louis Vuitton, Gucci and other fashion brands.

Burberry use Facebook and Instagram to promote their products, their promotional campaigns, historical reminders, and any new features they have to link with their brand. For example, on the 22nd of October 2015, Mario Testino shot the first 24 fashion campaign. No other fashion brand has done this previously showing how much Burberry is at the top of its game with social media and ahead of its functional and luxury competitors such as Gucci and Ralph Lauren.

The creative blog the ‘Art of the Trench’ is the first user social media marketing tool.

The blog allows the audience to upload an image wearing the classic trench. This allows their target market to see wearers of the trench all over the world and is beneficial for the company as its loyal consumers and further promoting their brand. “Within the first six months after the November 2009 launch, there were seven million views, and the site is still going strong today”. (Hanson 2014).

In the Burberry Acoustic campaign its all about interlinking music and fashion by advertising their clothing by it being worn by new and upcoming bands. (Swire, 2012) comments “this is a great way to promote the brand to a key target audience and encourage consumer discussion”.

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