Burberry's Brand Repositioning: A Digital Marketing Case Study

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This report analyzes Burberry's brand repositioning.

Principles of marketing and communications in a digital
world
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task..................................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
Reference List..................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
Brand positioning and repositioning are vital elements in a business. Brand positioning can be
defined as the conceptual place in the minds of the consumers regarding the benefits of brands. It
is a marketing strategy adopted by a business to place its brand and aims to occupy a distinct
position in the market among the consumers. Brand repositioning is when the company’s sales
goes down, and the firm attempts to change the status of its brand in the market.
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Task
1. The article tells us that Burberry intends to go more up-market. Explain the relevance
and importance of positioning and repositioning for marketers. What are the implications
for the performance of the business if such a move is successful?
Brand positioning is the strategy through which the firm attempts to make a conceptual place in
the minds of the target customers. The firm attempts to ensure that the firm shall be benefitted
when the customers think about the brand. It must be noted that an effective brand positioning
strategy shall contribute to maximising the relevancy of customers and its competitive
distinctiveness, which increases the brand value (Blankson, 2016). The brand positioning is
relevant and important for the firm because of several reasons:
 It helps the firm to set apart its brand from the competition
 It enables the organisation to focus on a specific target market
 Further, it acts as a catalyst in making more innovative and creative decisions
 Unique brand positioning acts as a tool for boosting its visibility in the market and win
over more customers
Brand repositioning is the marketing strategy adopted by different organisations to change the
status of its products and services in the market. Firms usually adopt it during the time when
there is serious fall in the sales, and it desires for implementing for some changes; it is here that
brand repositioning strategy is adopted (Burmann et al., 2017). The importance of this strategy is
as follows:
 The changes made provide its customers with a new vision, and this attracts them to this
new experience
 Further, the changes in the marketing of the firm shall form new goals and objectives,
and this can enable the company to attract more customers
In case, the brand positioning and repositioning strategies are effective; then it shall benefit the
business in various ways- it must be noted that brand positioning and repositioning contributes in
making the products and services hold a distinct place among the target customers. In case the
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strategies are successful, then it shall help the firm to attract more customers, maximise its
revenues, and increase its sales (Iyer et al., 2018). For instance, Burberry is planning to go up in
the market to increase its sales by focusing more on luxurious products especially luxury
handbags. According to the statistical report, it can be stated that its handbags and small leather
goods performed better and the sales increased by 16 per cent (excerpted from a case study).
2. In the case of Burberry, demonstrate by means of a positioning map, how the positioning
of the brand will change as result of this process. In presenting map, also identify where on
the map the following brands would be located: Gucci and Primark
Before Positioning Strategies were implied by Burberry
Burberry was noted with decreasing sales due to weak sterling in the UK. The organisation
Burberry is one of the leading designer brands, which collected approximately 37 per cent of the
total revenues from the sale of the accessories. In the market, Burberry holds a specific place for
its bags. It has been observed that the organisation’s best product is the designer bags targeting
the customers belonging to the age group 16 to 24 years (excerpted from case study). Hence,
before the implementation of the brand positioning and repositioning strategy, Burberry targeted
high-end customers by producing luxurious customers. Similarly, the organisation like Gucci and
Primark also hold a position in the market, which offers high-quality products at a high price
(Borsboom et al., 2018). Therefore, this positioning map shows the position of the three brands
in the market. Gucci holds the top most position is providing luxurious products at a high price,
and then it is Burberry followed by Primark.
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High Quality
Low Price High Price
Low Quality
After implementation of positioning strategies by Burberry
After the organisation Burberry implied the positioning strategies, it shifted to the quadrant of
high quality and low price. It can be stated that the organisation Burberry targeted the young
customers belonging to the age group of 16 to 24 years and had set the prices of the products
accordingly. The demand for this group of target customers is high-quality products but at a low
range of prices (Robinson and Hsieh, 2016). On the contrary, brands like Gucci and Primark
remained in the previous quadrant, and the implementation of the positioning strategy has
assisted to stand out the competition in the market.
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Figure 1: Before Positioning Strategies were implied by Burberry

High Quality
Low Price High Price
Low Quality
Figure 2: After implementation of positioning strategies by Burberry
3. Provide two methods, which brands such as Burberry might use to achieve repositioning.
The two methods to achieve effective repositioning of the brand Burberry are as follows:
 Psychological repositioning: It is known that repositioning strategy is implied by the
organisation when the sales are decreasing, and the company wants to change the status
of its products in the market. The psychological repositioning is the technique wherein
the brand attempts to change or alter the belief of the customers about the brand. In other
words, this repositioning strategy attempts to change the perspective of the customers
towards the products and services (Malik et al., 2016). Therefore, if Burberry adopts
psychological repositioning, it shall enable the brand to change the outlook of its target
customers by providing them bags of high quality at a low price. Real repositioning: As per real repositioning, the brand redesigns the products in
accordance with the requirements of the customers. Repositioning of the products shall
help the brand to understand the demands of target customers and design a new product
to meet the demands of the customers. Moreover, Burberry targets young customers
belonging to the age group of 16 to 24 years are designing the bags according to their
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preferences and choices. The luxurious designer shall redesign the bags providing high
quality at a low price.
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Conclusion
It can be concluded from this report that brand positioning and repositioning would help the
organisation Burberry to enhance its growth of sales. Since the market is changing, and so does
the taste and preferences of customers, these designer brands have attempted to reposition its
products to attract young customers.
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Reference List
Blankson, C., 2016. Positioning a brand. The Routledge companion to contemporary brand
management, pp.164-185.
BORSBOOM, L., CASE, B. and LAWSON, N., 2018. BURBERRY JOUSTING FOR
REDEMPTION. LBMG Corporate Brand Management and Reputation-Masters Case Series.
Burmann, C., Riley, N.M., Halaszovich, T. and Schade, M., 2017. Strategic Brand Management.
In Identity-Based Brand Management (pp. 91-172). Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden.
Iyer, P., Davari, A., Zolfagharian, M. and Paswan, A., 2018. Market orientation, positioning
strategy and brand performance. Industrial Marketing Management.
Malik, A., Sudhakar, B.D. and Rahman, M.S., 2016. Brand positioning constructs and indicators
for measurement of consumer's positive psychology toward brands. Indian Journal of Positive
Psychology, 7(1), pp.18-20.
Robinson, P.K. and Hsieh, L., 2016. Reshoring: a strategic renewal of luxury clothing supply
chains. Operations Management Research, 9(3-4), pp.89-101.
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