Burberry Brand Repositioning Case Study: A Marketing Analysis

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INDIVIDUAL CASE STUDY
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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Task1...........................................................................................................................................................4
Task 2..........................................................................................................................................................7
Task 3........................................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................13
References.................................................................................................................................................14
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Introduction
Marketing is the process of selling product or service in exchange with money. Marketing is not
just selling product or service but it includes promotion, branding, positioning and repositioning
of brand in the market, advertisement, public relations, customer satisfaction etc. (Pike et al.,
2018).
Burberry is very popular brand in the UK market. It creates women’s and men’s clothes and
accessories, shoes, bags; children’s clothes, households, fragrance and beauty products.
Burberry founded in 1856 by Thomas Burberry in London, England. It is very special brand
because of its quality and luxury profile in the market. Headquarter of Burberry in London.
Burberry has boutiques and stores in 48 different countries across the world (Heinberg et al.,
2019).
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Task1
Brand positioning can be defined as the process of establishing the position of brand in
customer’s mind and in current market conditions. Marketers used different strategies and
concepts for positioning of brand in market with the goal of special and uncommon
identification in customers’ mind. An effective brand positioning enables a brand uncommon in
market (Pike et al., 2018).
Brand repositioning takes place when company wants to change in the position of brand in
current market scenario. Brand repositioning is necessary when sales of the product decreases
because of some reasons which damage brand image in the market. Brand repositioning
includes changes in product’s target market, price, strategies, and customers. Brand positioning
helps to increase sales of the product (Ren et al., 2018).
Brand positioning strategies
There are various strategies for positioning of brand in the market. Brand can be positioned
through its price, quality, application, type of product, type of users, type of competitors, and
cultural symbols. Brand positioning is necessary for making different identification of brand in
the market (Pike et al., 2018).
Figure 1: Brand positioning factors
Source: Ren et al., 2018
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Brand repositioning strategies
Brand repositioning can be done through changes in the image of brand in the market, changes
in the price, change in target market, change overall product, change in profitability of brand
etc. Brand repositioning is necessaries when a brand faces competitions with other brand in the
market or its image destroy by any other reason (Ren et al., 2018).
Burberry wants to reposition its brand because it faces problems by other competitors in UK
market. Burberry identified decrement in its revenue and its market position (Heinberg et al.,
2019).
Figure 2: Brand repositioning
Relevance and Importance of brand positioning
Brand positioning is important for differentiation of brand by other brands available in the
market. It helps the management of the company to clear its pricing strategy (Jun and Park,
2017). It helps brand to compete with other existing brand in the market. Different brands in
the market which serve same product line, brand positioning helps brand to make its unique
identification in the market. Brand positioning is only in the minds of customers, which helps
people to buy the particular brand’s product without any negotiation (Heinberg et al., 2019).
Brand positioning of Burberry helps it to promote different category of products such as the
handbags and small leather goods performed well then Burberry launched bridle and buckle
bags. It also increases its sales but after some time because of the arrival of other competitors
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Burberry faces competition and decrement in revenue and identifies the need of repositioning
the brand (Jun and Park, 2017).
Relevance and Importance of brand repositioning
Brand repositioning is the current need of Burberry because of the arrival of other competitors
of Burberry such as Gucci and Primark. Brand repositioning is important because some reasons
such as unable to beat competition, decrement in sales, for increasing the value of the
company, attracting new customers, increasing the value of company in market, changing the
market segment and target customers and for fulfilling needs and demands of customers (Ren
et al., 2018).
Implications on the performance of business and improvements: After the successful
reposition of brand Burberry, it increases the revenue of the company by 4 percent. The
company identifies mature growth in the digital market selling and positive response to its
newly launched accessories and cloths. Burberry launched its news management model and
finds exceptional response of customers. Burberry also experiences positive changes in
customer’s perception towards their brand and wholesale response to new products. Burberry
repositions its brand by extending its price architecture and scaling back sales to lower-end
retailers and wholesaler. Burberry creates new luxury leather bags and other accessories and
attracts new end users. It helps to increase the sales of Burberry in the UK market ( Heinberg et
al., 2019).
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Task 2
Positioning of the brand Burberry will change as result of this process
A decade ago, Burberry struggled in the competition because of other competitors in the
market. In 2006 CEO Adriana Ahrendts decided to reposition its brand and make strategies to
attract new young customers. And the company done it by focusing on outer wear, digital
marketing and by targeting young customers. The CEO of the company wants to make Burberry
the first fully digital company, modern brand identity and design excellent customer service
(Insch and Bowden, 2016).
Strategy used by Burberry to reposition its brand
The brand strongly used social media to reach out its target customers. Company used social
media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and twitter to reach its target customers (young
generation). Burberry also started Burberry.com to engage with customers. Company started
campaign named Art of trench to increase the popularity of brand and achieve its goal (Insch
and Bowden, 2016).
Figure 3: Art of trench
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Art of trench was the first major campaign of Burberry which launched in 2009. To enhance the
popularity of campaign Burberry takes help with Scott Schuman. Under this campaign Burberry
started to attach with its existing customers and start making relationship with new customers.
Burberry created a website wherein the existing customers of Burberry post their snapshots
with their Burberry cloths (Insch and Bowden, 2016). Customers feel special and it also enhance
the value of brand. In the same year Burberry Facebook page had more than a million
followers. Burberry identifies fifty percent growth in sales. Burberry Acoustic launched in 2010.
Positioning map of Burberry
The position map shows current position of Burberry in the market with two catagories price
and fashion. Burberry with the score of (0.65, 0.55) in High-low position in map. It is a fashion
industry perceptual mapping of Burberry (McMullan, 2018).
Figure 6: Burberry positioning map
Positioning map of Gucci and Primark
In the positioning map of Gucci and Primark there are two catagoreis which are price and
quality. In this map brand positioning based on the quality and price of the brand. Gucci takes
place in high-high segment and Primark takes place in low-low segment of map (McMullan,
2018).
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Figure 7: Gucci and Primark positioning map
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Task 3
Brands like Burberry can use different methods to achieve repositioning in the market. Different
types of methods are value oriented repositioning, segment oriented repositioning, celebrity
oriented repositioning, and symbolism oriented repositioning, up-market technology
repositioning, niche-oriented repositioning, and change of image-oriented repositioning of
brand (Guo et al., 2018).
Figure 8: Types of repositioning methods
By Burberry brand repositioning, it moves itself in extremely luxury sector and make itself high
market brand in the UK market. Burberry repositions its brand because it wants to serve new
customers rather than continuing to serve existing customers. Repositioning brand helps to
increase the customer base of Burberry. Methods for repositioning of brands like Burberry are
niche-oriented repositioning and up-market technology repositioning (Guo et al., 2018).
Niche-oriented repositioning
Niche brands are those brands which are meaningful for some people but not applicable for
some other people. Customers are not much aware about niche brand; by creating brand
awareness niche brand can come under the category of popular brands. Niche-oriented
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repositioning method is useful for Burberry to increase its customer base by spreading the
awareness about brand in the market. For niche-oriented repositioning company has to
promote its brand in target market after careful study of competitors. Burberry should work on
its product type, its price, target market, and promotion of the Brand. It helps Burberry to
increase its customer base and add new customers (Guo et al., 2018).
Up market technology repositioning
This method of repositioning can be used for repositioning of brands like Burberry. It helps
brands to increase its customer base and increase the value of the brand in the market. With
the help of this method Burberry increases its customer base by adding luxury products in the
list. Company should again decide its target segments of customers and its promotion
techniques. Attractive promotion techniques help the brand to spread in luxury market sectors.
This kind of method useful when a normal market brand attempts to make itself a luxury
market brand and serving new luxury customers rather than its existing customers (MacDonald
et al., 2018).
These two methods of repositioning help the brands such as Burberry to increase its sales and
serve more customers and compete with competitors in the current market scenario
(MacDonald et al., 2018).
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Conclusion
It can be concluded from the case study of Burberry that, it is not easy to maintain the position
of brand in the market. Time to time meaningful steps should be taken to improve and
maintain the image of brand. Necessary steps should be taken to compete with other
competitors in the market. Brand positioning helps to establish the position in customer’s mind.
Brand repositioning helps company to know the current market situation and loopholes of the
brand (MacDonald et al., 2018). It helps to take necessary steps to improve the condition of
brand. Brand positioning strategies and methods help company to stand in the competition. It
can be concluded by the example of Burberry that sometimes adopting the strategy of other
brand can be dangerous and it can stop the progress of brands like Burberry (MacDonald et al.,
2018).
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