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Contents
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Profile Brand Identity Consumers Brand Positioning Campaign Ad Advertising Celebrity Endorsement Sponsorships
Executive Summary
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Introduction
Profile Burberry - the internationally
recognised fashion house of today - was founded by Thomas Burberry in 1856. Thomas formed the brand at the young age of 21, opening his first store in Basingstoke, England - though still today, Burberry is one of the only leading fashion houses out there with a British heritage. In 1870, the company became more established and was employing over 100 people, and now in present time, the brand has developed significantly and according to Burberry.com (2016), now “employs over a
total of 11,000 people.”
The company provides mainly menswear, womenswear, and children’s apparel. With the addition of accessories and cosmetics,
Thomas Burberry passed away on 4th April 1926, and since then many designers have stood in his place, with many being unable to keep house check’ -, was introduced in up with the high standards set by the 1920s, however only became the sophisticated brand. Although popular in 1967 accidentally. “The in 1997, Rose Marie Bravo CED in manager of Burberry’s Paris store took over as chief creative designer. was arranging a group of the brand’s With her experience, she was able signature trench coats in the front to ascend the brand back into its window. The display was a bit on the prior, high end degree of fashion. plain side (khaki is just khaki), so Following this, in 2009, Christoshe decided to add some panache by pher Bailey took over the position. turning up the coat’s hem” “Cus- Bailey had previously been senior designer of women’s wear at Gucci tomers responded imme1996 and has since sustained diately.” Klara (2015) The fabric since his position to present. Today Burbused within Burberrys trench coats erry is well known for its trench was created in 1880. coats and iconic print which is seen on the majority of its products, with the most recognizable being on their scarves. along with also specializing in outerwear and scarves. Burberrys signature plaid - also known as ‘The
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“Employs over a total of 11,000 people” Burberry.com (2016)
Brand Identity Burberry’s brand identity is
presented through the product range, product style, packaging, store appearance, and the general personality of the company. The company brands itself as consistently selling quality and elegance with a modern edginess. This is highlighted throughout the brand, which enables them to establish with their consumers the perception of high quality they want to portray. These strategies have enabled Burberry as a brand to push through into the higher degree of the fashion market, enabling them to become globally recognised today.
Burberry’s main identification is through their symbolic red, black and camel plaid pattern. The distinctive pattern is used throughout their whole clothing range, as well as also featuring on their cosmetic line packaging, and famously known accessories. After the fall of Burberry as a fashion house in the 90’s due to football hooliganism, the company insisted on only having small elements of the plaid pattern on show. For example, in their outerwear, as the pattern now only features in the lining of the garment. However, this is not the case for their scarves as they remained the same, and featured the
pattern all across the fabric. Burberry’s trademark logo also enables them to be recognised across the world. It features a knight on horseback, carrying a flag with their signature heading: ‘Burberry, established in 1856’ labelled underneath. These icons allow the logo to be recognizable, and easily identified globally. Alongside this, Burberry’s swing tag includes a basic title in the same font as the logo displaying ‘London, England’ as a subheading – emphasising its British heritage to the consumer.
9 ‘Burberry, established in 1856’
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Consumers
“Consumers are often grouped
by characteristics including gender, age, geographic location, income, even apparel size in order to provide the right product for a targeted customer group.” Rath; Bay; Petrizzi; Gill (2014) Burberry originally only catered for men working in the army, but today now targets both men and women with their products. Their target audience ranges between fashion conscious 20-40 year olds. Because of Burberry’s timeless
and classical style, their consumers are most likely to have their own personal classic approach towards fashion, which they can reflect on easily by adding any Burberry product into their wardrobe. In present, Burberry avoid appealing to the football hooliganism audience that brought the company a harsh reputation in the 90’s, and more focus on an audience who have well established careers and a high disposable income, which reflects on the company’s high pricing system. Because of this, it reduces
the amount of fake goods exchanged on the market, as their primary consumers are able to afford the high prices Burberry set anyway. Additionally, Burberry have also started to incorporate children into their target audience, with the launch of their children’s range in the 1990s. This would suggest that the consumers would be the children parents.
“Fashion begins and ends with the consumer; the primary task is to satisfy the consumer and their needs.”
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Dillon (2012)
Burberry have stores located all across the world, meaning they have consumers from various countries. For it’s Asian followers the result of Brexit saw the pound fall against yen, meaning it was cheaper for them to buy high end goods. Therefore, Burberry is focusing on the Asian market because according to Shields (2011) “the Asia
Pacific region will generate half of the luxury label’s business within three to five years as it celebrated the opening of its flagship store in Beijing.”
rand Bositioning P 15
Brand positioning focuses on the
having high end fashion for golfers and other sports people. Similarly, Burberry creates functional trench coats and scarf worn to keep warm and to also be fashionable. Whereas other fashion houses sell garments solely for fashion, and not for a functional purpose. The individuality of Burberry positions it as in a unique platform.
position a brand is placed by the consumers in a given market. With Burberry being a leading fashion house, it was inevitable they were going to compete with the likes of; Gucci, Prada and Chanel on a pricing level in the business. However, Burberry also contends for similar consumers with functional high end brands as well such as; Ralph Lau- Specializing in high-quality outren and Calvin Klein. Ralph Lauren erwear trench coats and printed and Calvin Klein sells themselves on
scares, Burberry automatically lowers its competitors as other high end fashion houses specialize in other stand out garments. For example, Chanel is recognised for its tweed jacket, and therefore a consumer interested in purchasing a tweed jacket wouldn’t necessarilyy first shop in Burberry.
“The challenge to a strong fashion image is to break the stereotype - with-
out losing the essence of the brand.”
(Mankes 2007)
Sharing the fashion market with these brands positions Burberry in the centre of the function and fashion market, as Burberry achieves both of these requirements. The company offers a lot more to it’s consumers, as not only is it fashionable, but it also has purpose too.
On a pricing level, Burberry sits in amongst the other luxury fashion houses including Gucci, Chanel and Versace.
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ommunications ix
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17 Effective brand strategy provides a central, unifying idea around which all behaviour, actions and communications are aligned.” (Wheeler 2012)
Burberry use a variety of different advertising techniques in order to attract the correct audience. They communicate to their consumers through; sales promotions, advertising, personal selling, pubic relations and direct marketing. The company relies on differwent strategies more than others, with a prime example of this being: Social Media.
Burberry currently use Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and many other platforms to interact with their consumers. They also use these platforms to keep consumers up to date on the brands progress and advertise. Also according to Smith (2016)
“Social media users have risen by 176 million in the last year.” Additionally, Burberry promotes the company by having PR events,
including this Septembers Makers house experience - a partnership with The new craftsman Soho, London. The event was created as a celebration of changes happening to Burberry, by making their 2016 runway colleavailable to consumers after the initial fashion show. According to (Steven 2016) “The Collection was heavily inspired by Virginia Woolf’s novel Orlando.”. It was Open to the public, so visitors were able to engage and get a first hand insight into the new collection.
Advertising
Magazine advertisement is also
a strong advertisement strategy used to attract Burberry’s consumers. Burberry advertisements are commonly featured in highly respected fashion magazines including; Vogue, Elle and Bazar. The photography used regularly includes models such as Cara Delevingne wearing a range of Burberry garments and accessories. Little text is printed within these advertisements, with the trademark logo speaking enough to the correct audience. To attract additional individuals, advertisements are presented on billboards around the world. Frequently used locations are in airports and underground, with the addition on stand alone billboards above Hollywood’s busy roads.
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“Marketing is not the art of finding clever ways to dispose of what you make. Marketing is the art of creating genuine customer value.� Posner 2015)
Cndorsement elebrity E Relying heavily on Celebrity
collaborations and partnerships, Burberry use faces including; Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell as model, drawing attention the brand. Whilst celebrities such as; Emma Watson, James Bay, and more recently- in Novem-
ber 2015- Romeo Beckham’s have featured in ad campaigns. Featuring such a young and inexperienced model such as Beckham gave the brand a sense of vulnerability; it was a risk. Furthermore, the 14-year-old went against everything the company’s target market is based on, and therefore could have potentially
prevented the audience to shop. Despite this, the positive response was emphasized with a “£1848
million” (Burberry 2016) reve-
nue increase from the previous year.
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Sponsorships In 2012, Burberry sponsored the Evening Standard Theatre Awards. More
recently, - September 2016 - Burberry supported British music by becoming the first brand to fund the Apple Music App. The app will allow Burberry to feature on the platform, and to celebrate the launch, they will feature their own page on the app. Emerging with an internationally recognized brand such as Apple, enables both Burberry and Apple Music to attract attention.
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Bibliography Burberry.com (2016) Our People. Burberry Group plc – Burberry Group plc [Available at: http://www.burberryplc.com/corporate_responsibility/our-people] (Assessed: 7/11/16) Klara, Robert. (2015) The Burberry Check Scarf. Adweek 56, 7; ProQuest Central pg. 33 Rath, Patrcia; Bay, Stefani; Petrizzi, Richard; Gill, Penny. (2014) The why of the buy consumer behavior and fashion marketing. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing. Amy Shields. (2011) Asia Pacific to generate half of Burberry’s sale. News Drapers [Available at: https://www.drapersonline.com/news/asia-pacific-to-generate-half-of-burberryssales/5024589.article] (Assessed: 13/11/16) Susan Dillon. (2012) The Fundamentals of Fashion Management. Switzerland: AVA publishing. Suzy Menkes. (2007) Armani and Burberry: A question of identity. [Available at: http://search.proquest.com.lcproxy.shu.ac.uk/docview/318853372/9119177D204C4B3APQ/1?accountid=13827] (Assessed 13/11/16) Alina Wheeler. (2012) Designing Brand Identity, Fourth edition. John Wiley & Sons Inc. Publishing. Kit Smith. (2016) 96 Amazing Social Media Statistics and Facts for 2016. [Available at: https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/96-amazing-social-media-statistics-and-factsfor-2016/] (Assessed: 13/11/16) Rachael Steven. (2016) Makers House: a fashion and craft pop-up from Burberry and The New Craftsmen.[ Available at: https://www.creativereview.co.uk/makers-house-a-fashionand-craft-pop-up-from-burberry-and-the-new-craftsmen/ ] (Assessed 13/11/16) Harriet Posner. (2015) Marketing fashion: Strategy, branding and promotion: second edition. London: Laurence King publishing.