MARKETING MIX

Current Markteing Mix

PRODUCT

Burberry was born of innovation as the founder invented Gabardine, which is the waterproof material that makes the iconic trench coats (Trotter, 2018). The product segments of the brand includes ready-to-wear for women, men and children, beauty, and accessories. Beauty and accessories allow more customers to enter the brand and also have a longer product life cycle than seasonal garments.

The trench coat is the core product for the brand as it represents Burberry’s history and heritage. Even though trench coats are the brand’s signature items and are favoured by many customers, the younger generation, which is the brand’s new target customer, are expecting more trendy and fashionable products to wear. Therefore, the brand had offered a variety of new designs by adding some unique or seasonal elements on the trench coat (Burberry plc, 2018).

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According to Burberry’s official website (2018), in order to deliver sustainable long-term brand value, the brand has been aiming to re-energise its products and create better customer experience since November 2017. To achieve the target, the brand will continuously offer newness and innovation on its traditional designs to attract the attention of fashion-forward influencers and new customers (Burberry plc, 2018).

PLACE

Burberry is headquartered in London, England. The brand sells its products worldwide mainly through products through retail (online and offline) and wholesale channels. Most of Burberry’s boutiques are located in first-tier cities or at other upscale shopping districts where the visibility is higher, such as London, New York, Paris, Tokyo and Beijing. By locating in some of the most popular avenues where footprints are high, the company could potentially attract more consumers. Also, the stores are located nears to other luxury brands because the consumers usually go for various brands rather than focusing on one particular.

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Physical stores are essential because it is positively related to the purchasing experience of the consumers. The flagship store on Regent Street is Burberry’s largest store in London, which takes up two floors. The first thing that would catch the attention of pedestrians is usually the brand’s logo and its window displays. The window displays of Burberry is often quite simple but also showcases the whole collection. The stores of Burberry are usually filled with camel or cream colour. The floors are covered in a carpet with a thick pile. They represent the brand’s personality and aims to make the consumers feel conformable and be valued. Besides, the store offers personalised and attentive services to the customers, which include monogramming, tailoring in-store-collation and beauty appointments.

Burberry has an excellent online store which allows the consumers to find and purchase all the products from its website. If a product is not available online, the consumers could check the location of the retail stores where they could buy it. The brand had also licensed some products to third-party e-commerce websites, such as Selfridges and Farfetch.

PRICE

For example, Burberry’s symbolic value represents the status of the customers and ionic designs. In other words, there is a direct correlation between pricing and the customers’ perception of the company’s image.

Therefore, Burberry had adapted a premium pricing policy by developing a robust symbolic value through the exceptional quality and exclusive design of its products. The goal of adopting this strategy is to create the awareness that the products have a higher value than their competitors’, so the brand could charge higher prices (Bhasin, 2017). The brand has built a trust and loyalty based relationship with its customers, which enabled the brand to develop on premium prices successfully. When people think about luxuries, the word ‘expensive’ would usually appear to their minds immediately. The price is the ‘exchange value’ of a product, but for luxury, it is the ‘symbolic value’ (Kapferer and Bastien, 2015). This means a luxury brand could command higher prices if it has a stronger symbolic value. It signifies the spiritual value of a product, which goes beyond the material aspects (Ekström, 2011).

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PROMOTION

Packaging is a crucial part of sales promotion as it adds value to a product, which made it appeals to the customers. Burberry’s packaging is made of a brown paper bag with its gold logo (some bags have the new back logo on top of the new one). The packaging reflects the Burberry’s heritage and position as a luxury brand.

Burberry is focusing primarily on consumer experiences and engagement. The brand has invested in-store technology offering an audiovisual experience for the customers by displaying innovative contents through various platforms. For example, the store on Regent Street has a vast and tall screen with hidden speakers, which could show the commercial campaigns of Burberry and make them eye-catching for the customers. Furthermore, the brand also used pop-ups and public events to make the consumers feel engaged with the brand. For example, the brand had set up a giant bear sculpture with its ‘TB’ monogram near Marble Arch to reignite the brand and create more social media coverage.

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Besides, Burberry has published advertisements through specific channels such as fashion magazines, social media and fashion shows to cater to its premium clients.