The Influence of Burberry Positioning and Repositioning on Business Performance

Burberry aims to position their brand more upscale than its competitors such as Burberry, LVMH's Céline, Givenchy, Coach, Michael Kors, Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Primark. Burberry aims to position the market with the aim to increase the sales of the company by offering full price sales in the bags category which led to increase in sales by 16% which leads to higher market share and profitability.Brandpositioninghelpsincreating market differentiation which helps in attracting large customer base from all over

Marketing Communications

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
1. Relevance and importance of positioning and repositioning for marketers............................3
2. Assessment of how positioning of the brand will influence operations of business...............4
3. Analysis of two methods which Burberry may use to achieve repositioning.........................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
This study will highlight relevant importance of positioning and repositioning for
marketers and how they influence the performance of business in Burberry. It further
demonstrates positioning of the Burberry luxury brand and its competitors like Gucci and
Primark. It also highlights two significant important methods which company should use to
achieve repositioning.
MAIN BODY
1. Relevance and importance of positioning and repositioning for marketers.
Burberry is a British luxury brand founded in the year 1856 by Thomas Burberry.
Burberry is a luxury fashion company which mainly deals in clothing, accessories, perfumes and
cosmetics.
Positioning is of key relevance and importance to the marketers which helps in effective
growth and operations of the business. Positioning helps in identification of niche markets where
more customers can be targeted and helps in effective performance of the Burberry (Maarit
Jalkala and Keränen, 2014). Marketers aim at position their market in an effective way which
helps met build strong market share and customer base than its competitors. Burberry aims to
position their brand more upscale than its competitors such as Mulberry, LVMH's Céline,
Givenchy, Coach, Michael Kors, Prada, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Primark. The major revenue
earned by Burberry is from accessories which represent total gross revenue of round 37%. As per
the report, it has been analysed that, Burberry has increased the sales by 10% as the leather bags
are performing extremely well for the company.
Burberry aims to position the market with the aim to increase the sales of the company
by offering full price sales in the bags category which led to increase in sales by 16% which
leads to higher market share and profitability. Brand positioning helps in creating market
differentiation which helps in attracting large customer base from all over the world. Burberry
mainly focus on designing more edgier look and designing more leather bags with the option of
personalizing their products which will help in customer satisfaction and retention of old
customers and building new customer base. They aim at positioning their products on various
online marketplace which makes it convenient for buyers to buy products effectively which leads
to higher operational productivity and performance.

Burberry aims to reposition their brand in the market by extending the price and building strong
communication network which will lead to increase in sales by building connection with retailers
and wholesalers. They also aim to reposition their market by designing attractive accessories and
luxury leather goods which benefits Burberry in attracting high end customers which will leas to
higher sales and higher profit margins (Singh, P. Kalafatis and Ledden, 2014). This helps
company in increased sales by 54% and benefited company from reworked handbag styles.
Repositioning helps company in monitoring the position of product, brand and services over a
specific period of time in an effective manner to attract larger customer base. Hence, Burberry
aimed to reposition the market to attract young customers and leads to higher profit margins and
revenue.
2. Assessment of how positioning of the brand will influence operations of business.
Burberry aims to position their market for sustainable growth and expansion of the
company (BURBERRY TO ESTABLISH POSITION FIRMLY IN LUXURY AND DELIVER
SUSTAINABLE LONG-TERM VALUE, 2017). Designing and creation of attractive luxury
leather goods to cater attention of large number of customers.

According to the positioning map, Burberry is currently positioned in the market where they are
designing and creating edgy upscale brands with medium style and personalisation. There are
large number of rivalry competitors like Givenchy, Coach, Michael Kors, Gucci, Louis Vuitton
and Primark according to the current market potion of Burberry which leads to shift in customer
base and lower market share which eventually leads to lower sales and revenue which affects the
profitability and growth of the company (Burberry Brand Perception Analysis, 2019).
Burberry need to reposition their market by producing elegant and classic products which
gives customers an option to personalize their products and offer services online by
implementing and adapting to various social media platforms and personal website and
connection with amazon which helps in one to one communication with the customers and leads
to higher customer base and market share. This repositioning helps Burberry gain competitive
advantage over its competitors and leads to long term sustainability of firm. Burberry focus on
leveraging digital reach which helps in reaching larger customer base across the globe to increase
sales and revenue to effectively reposition the market. Burberry is famous for its check pattern
Illustration 1: positioning map
Source: Burberry Brand Perception Analysis, 2019

accessories, clothes, bags which attract high profile customers. They aim at repositioning their
brand by designing classic and elegant products by personalizing goods in an attractive manner
to gain attention of big shots and young people for their quality and uniqueness.
3. Analysis of two methods which Burberry may use to achieve repositioning.
Focus on digitalization: Burberry must adapt to various social media platforms like
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube for making people aware about their new product
launch. They focus on attracting more customers by building personal website so that one to one
interaction can be done with customers effectively and efficiently (Why Is Burberry's Digital
Strategy So Good, 2014). They should also choose effective advertisement and promotional
activities to communicate with large customer base and delivering necessary specifications and
details about the products.
Attractive discount and schemes: Burberry offers discounting offers on their specific
product range to attract large customer base including younger segment which leads to high sales
and revenue. They should aim at offering effective schemes and discount by promoting the same
with big shot celebrities to increase brand image and reputation of the company. This helps
Burberry in effective repositioning by attaining competitive advantage over its rivalry
competitors in the market (Arcese and et.al., 2014).
CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been analysed that, positioning helps Burberry in increased
market share by designing edgy products which leads to higher market share and customer base.
Burberry aim to reposition their market by attaining competitive advantage. It also concludes that
Burberry should use attractive methods and focus on attractive discount schemes and mainly
focus ion digitalized activity for effective repositioning.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Arcese and et.al., 2014. Near field communication: Technology and market
trends. Technologies. 2(3). pp.143-163.
Maarit Jalkala, A. and Keränen, J., 2014. Brand positioning strategies for industrial firms
providing customer solutions. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing.29(3). pp.253-
264.
Singh, J., P. Kalafatis, S. and Ledden, L., 2014. Consumer perceptions of cobrands: The role of
brand positioning strategies. Marketing Intelligence & Planning.32(2). pp.145-159.
Online
BURBERRY TO ESTABLISH POSITION FIRMLY IN LUXURY AND DELIVER SUSTAINABLE
LONG-TERM VALUE. 2017. [ONLINE]. Available
through:<https://www.burberryplc.com/en/news-and-media/press-releases/financial/
2017/burberry-to-establish-position-firmly-in-luxury-and-deliver-sust.html>
Burberry Brand Perception Analysis. 2019. [ONLINE]. Available through:<
https://sites.google.com/site/jacobmontagportfolio/burberry-brand-perception-analysis>
Why Is Burberry's Digital Strategy So Good. 2014. [ONLINE]. Available
through:<https://parall.ax/blog/view/3047/why-is-burberry-s-digital-strategy-so-good>