Burberry Branding Strategy: A Comprehensive Report

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Burberry - Branding Strategy

Table of Contents
PART – 1: PRESENTATION.........................................................................................................2
PART – 2: REPORT.....................................................................................................................5
References..............................................................................................................................13
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PART – 1: PRESENTATION
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PART – 2: REPORT
Introduction
The subject of the report is the branding strategy of Burberry. Thomas Burberry founded
Burberry in 1856 and established its underlying concepts of design, craftsmanship and
innovation with a set of founding principles that include functionality, quality, and
contemporary classic style with purity embedded in the outerwear. Currently, Burberry is a
renowned Luxury Fashion Company based in the UK with operations in over 50 countries
and an operating profit of over £435 million (Burberry, 2019). It’s ranked 94 in the Best
Global Brands ranking 2018 by Interbrand (Interbrand, 2018). The report will start with the
stakeholder analysis of Burberry along with the consideration of its triple bottom line. The
report will go on to consider the competitive environment for the Burberry while analysing
its brand equity through the CBBE model. The brand Equity of Burberry will be further
explored by considering the SCA or sustainable competitive advantage, sustainability and
CSR; and the relationship between value and equity. The report will conclude with an
analysis of ways through which Burberry as a brand is creating value and suggesting
recommendations for the betterment of its Brand.
Stakeholder Analysis
A stakeholder can be defined as an individual or an organisation that’s can influence and can
be influenced by the activities of a company. The stakeholders contribute intentionally or
otherwise in the activities of the company that lead to wealth creation and its capacity to
create wealth. The stakeholders of Burberry are its employees, Shareholders/Investors;
Creditors including banks, Sustainability partners, Wholesalers, Licensees, Supply chain
Partners, Government, Media, Community, and Government. Stakeholder analysis allows
the identification and prioritisation of the stakeholders on the basis of legitimacy, power
and urgency (Orazi et al., 2017).
S.No Stakeholder Need Contribution Benefits
1 Customers Experiences, services,
and goods to fulfil their
requirements
Promotion, Attraction,
and loyalty
Enhanced brand value and
sales
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2 Shareholders/
Investors
Return on Investment Funding/Capital Low cast capital and fund
availability
3 Suppliers Loyalty, business, and
payments
Market intelligence,
technology, and
resources
Availability of low-cost
resources, components, raw
material and low cost of sale
4 Employees Job satisfaction and
employment
Loyalty, engagement,
and skills
Enhanced productivity,
incorporation of a high-
performance culture, and
accumulation of intellectual
property
5 Community Development and
employment along with
environmental care
Reputation, operational
permission, support, and
infrastructure
Enhanced Brand value,
lowering of operational cost
6 Government/
Regulator
Compliance to relevant
norms and rules
Permission to work and
support
lowering of operational cost
and ease of operations
Table 1: Contribution and Needs of the Stakeholder at Burberry (Orazi et al., 2017)
Figure 1: Ranking of Burberry Stakeholders (Orazi et al., 2017).
Triple Bottom Line
Burberry is operating on a Responsibility Agenda developed to maximise its involvement in
the Triple Bottom Line framework as a tool for organisational sustainability. The triple
bottom line framework refers to three aspects that are Social (People), Ecological (Planet),
and Economic (Profit) (Armitage et al., 2017).
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Figure 2: Triple Bottom Line Framework to Sustainability (Armitage et al., 2017)
The responsibility agenda of the company pertains to three spate but interrelated elements
namely product, company and communities. The Responsibility agenda is summarised in the
below diagram.
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Figure 2: Responsibility agenda of Burberry as a tool for maximising Triple Bottom Line
(Burberry, 2019)
Burberry Branding – Brand Competitive Environment
The product line of Burberry can be divided into two categories that are Fashion Products to
cater to the market trends and continuity products with a longer life cycle. The focus of
Burberry on “Functional Luxury” as the theme for selling and marketing its products allows it
to access all its customers that include classic as well as trendy customers. The Primary
competitors of Burberry are discussed in the below figure (Armitage et al., 2017)
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Figure 3: Brand Positioning of Burberry amongst its competitor (Armitage et al., 2017)
Burberry is known to provide high-quality goods to its customers on a consistent basis. Its
competitors are the brands that deal in the luxury segment. These include Louis Vuitton,
Mulberry, Radley, Michael Kors, Coach, Gucci, and Prada.
Figure 4: Consumer perception of the Brands (Armitage et al., 2017).
Primary Competitors of Burberry
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Table 2: Major Competitors of Burberry (Armitage et al., 2017)
The CBBE model
Figure 5: CBBE Pyramid Burberry (Molinillo et al., 2019)
The brand salience of Burberry is moderate with high brand recognition but low brand
recall. It has many unique and strong brand associations such as British, bags, Checks and
Beige. It also has a strong presence in bags and outerwear category. Burberry's brand
performance is high with assurance towards product durability and quality. The imagery of
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the brand is also strong that aligns with elegance, style and quality. A disadvantage
experienced by the brand is its reputation for being boring and old among the younger
customers. Burberry receives a favourable brand judgement as to the oldest brand of British
origin recognised for its classic British styles although the young customers consider it
overpriced due to lack of uniqueness. Burberry as a brand instils the feeling of self-respect
and social approval. The brand enjoys a strong resonance with a loyal following that takes
pride in using Burberry products and forms a community that allows for higher prices. The
brand resonance for Burberry can be considered to be moderate (Molinillo et al., 2019).
SCA or Sustainable Competitive Advantage
The Burberry brand was reinvented to gain a Sustainable Competitive Advantage during the
tenure of Rose Marie Bravo as Chief Executive and continued after Angela Ahrendts became
the chief executive in 2006. It involved reinventing the Burberry brand into a stylish,
inspirational and innovative luxury lifestyle brand. The activities towards these end included
hiring experienced professionals, renaming the brand from Burberry's to Burberry, changing
the logo, and upgrading the product range while categorising it into three segments; brand
repositioning as functional as well as a aspiring luxury brand placed between classics and
cutting edge brands. This strategy was successful and the brand Burberry was successfully
repositioned. In addition, the focus of the company on internationalisation was another
aspect of maintaining SCA by accessing the unexplored market and customer bases. The
focus of the company to remain true to its heritage and characteristic brand value helps it to
maintain long term SCA (Molinillo et al., 2019).
Conclusion
In a luxury business like Burberry, the brand can be considered to be the biggest tangible
asset. This can be leveraged for the future growth of the business while ensuring that
business activities don’t damage the brand. The Burberry brand is estimated to have a value
of over £4 billion. This brand value is the result of strong Brand equity although a higher
brand Value in no way affects the brand equity. The focus of the company in exploiting the
digital media will be a strong factor in its future growth since it not only provides it with
access to a new customer base but also allows it to connect to its customers at an individual
level. It’s recommended that the company focus on diversifying its products while
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