Analysis of Burberry's Brand Positioning and Repositioning Strategies

This report delves into the brand positioning and repositioning strategies employed by Burberry, a prominent luxury fashion house. It begins by highlighting the significance of market and brand positioning for marketers, emphasizing their role in shaping consumer perception and creating a niche market. The report explores the means of constructing a positioning map, a crucial tool for understanding brand perception and influencing customer behavior. Furthermore, it identifies and analyzes two key repositioning methods that Burberry might utilize: competitive depositioning and psychological repositioning. The report concludes by summarizing the importance of positioning and repositioning in driving business growth, supported by relevant academic references.

Principles of marketing and
communications in a digital
world

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1 The relevance and importance of positioning and repositioning for marketer and implication
of the performance of the business..............................................................................................1
2 Means of positioning map........................................................................................................2
3 Two methods of repositioning that might be chosen by Burberry...........................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Positioning is a process of creating an image of a company's products and services or in
another words to create a niche market for itself. Burberry is a British luxury fashion house
public limited company whose headquarter is in London, England. It sells and distributes ready
to wear outwear, perfumes, accessories and cosmetics (Newman, Peck and Wilhide, 2017). This
study will cover and shows the importance of brand positioning and repositioning. It also shows
the methods in which the company's brand achieve repositioning.
1 The relevance and importance of positioning and repositioning for marketer and implication of
the performance of the business
Market positioning and brand positioning plays an important role in marketing. Market
positioning can be referred as the ability of influencing consumer's perception. Product
positioning is also a vital element in a marketing plan. It is also a method and process which
marketer uses in order to determine that how to they communicate their product's characteristics
and attributes with their target and potential customers. Marketer of Burberry focuses on finding
the best way of introducing their products to their customers which can fulfil their all the needs
and demands (Armstrong and et.al., 2015).
Sometimes company feels and notice that its products image and value is outdated and
need to be improved to being in a competition. In that situation, the company starts repositioning
its products in their target customer's perception. For repositioning the company requires
continuous sustainable promotional campaign.
There are some importance of positioning and repositioning such as:
Create image: Brand and product positioning is very important for marketer of Burberry
because it helps them in creating a positive and good image of the company in the mind of the
customers. It also differentiate their products from another similar products in the market.
Meet expectations of buyers: The another main importance of positioning and
repositioning is it fulfil and satisfy all the needs of the customers. Marketer focuses on
identifying customer's needs and then it finds out the best way of introducing their product's
features with them.
Attract different types of customers: The main aim of marketer of doing product
positioning is to attract more and different types of customers towards their products and
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services. Some of the customers wants durability, some wants unique features of products and
another wants low price. Burberry keep all the factors in its mind and promote different types of
competitive advantages (Blankson, 2016).
Ways of implications for the performance of a business
When the company implement this strategy and use this process then they feel various
changes and impact on their business performance. Burberry's brand has one of the richest and
famous histories that anyone can hope for. There are some ways of implications that the marketer
of the company uses:
Product positioning starts with the identification of the specific and targeted niche market
segments. After demographic and geographic segmentations, the marketer needs to identify the
needs of the customers. Product positioning make them able to meet specific needs of their
particular market segment.
After that it requires to focus on their competition. They need to convey their message
and tell the customers that why they should buy and prefer their products and also tell them the
speciality and uniqueness of their products (Lee, Hwang and Tran, 2017).
The next step is to communicate the differentiated offering to their identified niche
market segment. This process and step can be possible when it chooses the best communication
channel that can connect with their target audience in very effective manner.
2 Means of positioning map
Burberry uses the positioning map in order to identify their brand perception. It also helps
them in developing their positioning strategy and also influence the customer's perception. It
makes their own positioning map in order to illustrate their customer's perception of their
products on the basis of quality, price and other benefits (Stensson, Strömberg and Alfredsson,
2015).
With the help of positioning map it can also change its brand positioning. It can also see
its competitor like Gucci and Primary brand position. For creating positioning map it requires to
define the needs of their customers in order to develop a market scope. It also shows the price
and benefits in its map (Gruyer, Belaroussi and Revilloud, 2016.).
The purpose of using this positioning map is to identify the company' s new brand
position. They also compare their product's value with another competitor's products . It can also
identify the reaction of their customers about their brand, services and other market offering.
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3 Two methods of repositioning that might be chosen by Burberry
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Illustration 1: Positioning map
Sources: (Positioning map of Burberry, 2018.)

Sometimes the company feel to reposition their product in the market when they fee their
brand's image is outdated. There are mainly 2 methods that Burberry can use for repositioning its
brand:
Competitive depositioning: Competitive depositioning is the best method as in this
method the marketer tries to change the beliefs of customers about the attributes of their
competitors in order to match the customer's processes and their needs. In this method the
marketer of the company also try to focus on differentiation of their products or in another words
it makes their products differ from their competitors products (Ahmed and Abdelkader, 2019).
Psychological repositioning: In this method, the marketer focuses on to alter the beliefs
of prospective buyers about the characteristics and attributes of products and services.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been concluded that positioning and repositioning played an
important role in the growth of the company. Methods of repositioning helped the company in
introducing their products to their potential target customers in order to being in a competition
and increasing sales.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Ahmed, H.M.S. and Abdelkader, A.A., 2019. The Mediating Role of Repositioning on The
relationship Between Electronic Integrating Communication Marketing (E-IMC) and
Loyalty: The Case of Commercial Banks in Egypt. International Journal of Online
Marketing (IJOM). 9(1). pp.1-23.
Armstrong, G. and et.al., 2015. Marketing: an introduction.
Blankson, C., 2016. Positioning a brand. The Routledge companion to contemporary brand
management, pp.164-185.
Gruyer, D., Belaroussi, R. and Revilloud, M., 2016. Accurate lateral positioning from map data
and road marking detection. Expert Systems with Applications. 43. pp.1-8.
Lee, J., Hwang, H. and Tran, A., 2017. Repositioning Via Abstraction. ACR North American
Advances.
Newman, T., Peck, J. and Wilhide, B., 2017. Social media in sport marketing. Routledge.
Stensson, D., Strömberg, A. and Alfredsson, J., 2015. The Effects of Repositioning as a process
of Rebranding in terms of Brand Equity, Corporate Identity, and Brand Image: A case
study on Lidl.
ONLINE:
Positioning map of Burberry. 2018. [Online]. Available
through :<https://sites.google.com/site/jacobmontagportfolio/burberry-brand-perception-
analysis>.
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