Burberry Customer Base: Geographical, Age, and Product Analysis

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Burberry Group Plc's customer base, examining its evolution over the past five years. It highlights how Burberry's consumer base varies geographically, by age, and across different product lines. The analysis covers Burberry's market position, revenue streams from retail, wholesale, and licensing, and the impact of digital sales. It notes the shift in focus towards younger consumers (Generation Z and millennials) and the importance of maintaining brand loyalty through customer interaction and satisfaction. The report concludes that Burberry's success depends on understanding and catering to the needs of its target demographic, emphasizing luxury and brand recognition.

Running head: ANALYSIS OF CUSTOMER BASE
Analysis of Customer Base
Name of the Student
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ANALYSIS OF CUSTOMER BASE
Executive Summary
The purpose of this report is to present an analysis of the customer base of an organisation. The
organization selected in this report is Burberry Group Plc, a famous luxury brand. The report
assesses how the consumer base varies depending on the geographical location, based on the age
factor, and product-wise.

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Discussion:.......................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................6
References:......................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction:
This report aims to analyse the customer base of an organisation to assess the relationship
between the company and its customers. The company selected in this report is Burberry Group
Plc which is a fashion house, and the products are sold worldwide. The report contains a detailed
analysis of the company’s customer base for the last five years.

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Discussion:
Burberry is listed on the ‘London Stock Exchange’ and is a constituent of the ‘FTSE 100
Index.’ The group’s fashion-house is mainly famous for trenchcoats emphases on outerwear,
cosmetics, fashion accessories, and sunglasses for the buyers, which has made it the “most
valuable brand.”Burberry attained the 73rd rank in ‘Interbrand’s Best Global Brands’ report in the
year 2015. It has built a global status for its innovative design of the product through the online
market of personal luxury goods. The brand’s popularity between consumers can be measured
when it gained massive popularity in 2017 on Facebook, and in 2018, it was the most-followed
brand on twitter.
Burberry’s consumer base is exclusive and prevalent in hip-hop and urban community.
Consumer base consists majorly of the younger generation but it is also famous among non-
target customers. There is a constant growth for the products, which helps in expressing an
individual’s style, their attitude and allowing for a combination of mass and luxury products.
Burberry suffered when they relied heavily on the narrow base of leading products which lead to
particular focus only on older male and Asian tourist. The brand was repositioned after setback
by reaching out to a different, and new target consumers but by retaining the former consumer
base. They decided to attract the youth by launching a fashionable and hip clothing line. The
customer prefers those products which are at the top and bottom ends of the market instead of
mid-market and exceptional products. Generation Z and millennial consumers completely drove
the growth in 2018 in the luxury market as compared to the year 2017, which was 85%. The
retail channels of Burberry grew by 4% in 2018, whereas wholesale grew 1% in 2018, but digital
luxury sales were the highest, showing a growth of 22% in 2018. The clothing range
demonstrated a decrease of 15 in 2018 due to the decline in the sale of men’s wear (burberry

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Corporate Website, 2020). The customers are loyal to the brand and follow the brands due to
their genuine and authentic appeal.
For every organisation to do well and achieve the organisational objectives and attaining
the brand value can be achieved only by satisfying the customer and giving them what they
require. They have several stores which allows them to interact with the customers actively and
which leads to higher customer satisfaction as consumers can voice their grievances easily, and
can provide feedback and can also share their experience and expectations. The customer base
can be analysed through conducting an assessment of the market share of the group to reflect the
increase/(decrease). The market size of an organisation in the industry helps in gaining
knowledge about the business level and financial dominance in the market. In 2018, the luxury
market grew by 5% as compared with 2017, due to an increase in demand from Chinese
consumers because of enhanced digital development (burberry Corporate Website, 2020). A
complete situation analysis is required to gain an understanding of consumer’s base. Revenue for
the group comes from the retail and wholesale sale of products and also from the licenses issued
to third parties for using its trademark. The retail and wholesale sales in 2015 were 2523.2
million pounds, in 2016- 2514.7m, in 2017 – 2766m, in 2018 – 2732.8m, and for the year 2109 it
was 2720.2 million pounds. Burberry’s significant revenue is generated from accessories as can
be seen from the revenue figures (million pounds) for the accessories – 2015- 892.5, 2016 -
901.7, 2017 - 1033.2, 2018- 1046.5, 2019- 1012.7. These are comparatively higher than the
revenue generated from the products like women, men and children clothing and at last the
beauty products. The earnings based on the geographical location is higher from the Asia Pacific
in comparison to ‘EMEIA’, and the Americas. The sales from the Asia Pacific – 938.1, 932.9,
1069, 1089, and 1104.3 for the years 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 respectively. The group

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disposed of their beauty line along with the license to use in the year 2017 for 130 million
pounds. The multi-year strategy was set in November 2017 to inspire luxury consumers as they
are the core consumers (burberry Corporate Website, 2020).
Conclusion:
However, it can be concluded that consumers are spending on luxury products like
fashion wear, accessories, to emote individualism and personal attitude. Burberry’s target
consumer is the younger generation and the buyers who prefer luxury, a brand with substantial
goodwill. The analysis of the customer base is done by evaluating the revenue trend for the five
years, comparing the growth and analysing the market share of Burberry.

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References:
burberry Corporate Website 2020. Home. [online] burberry Corporate Website. Available at:
https://www.burberryplc.com/en/index.html [Accessed 18 Feb. 2020].