Market Positioning and Repositioning of Burberry: A Case Study

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

Assignment 2
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task..................................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
Reference List..................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
Market positioning refers to the place occupied by a brand in the consumers’ mind. Consumers’
attitude and perception about a brand relatively influence its position. Organisations establish the
identity and image of a brand to enable consumers to perceive and behave in a particular way.
The market positioning analysis will be performed by considering Burberry’s business, its
branding strategy and competitive advantage. The report will recommend two methods that can
be helpful for achieving repositioning.
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Task
1. 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?
Positioning is important to create an image in consumers’ mind and make them aware regarding
the current offerings of the company. In the case of Burberry, it has become essential to attract
high-end customers by introducing new goods and accessories. The major requirement of re-
positioning for Burberry is to scale back sales to lower-end wholesalers and retailers. Other
designer brands like Givenchy, LVMH’s Celine, and Mulberry are taking similar moves to
enhance their offerings and increase high-end customer base. The competition has been
increased in the luxury fashion industry. Therefore, both repositioning and positioning are
important for responding to the challenges in the US market and the adverse competition in the
fashion industry. The market is witnessing a weak Sterling due to the EU referendum. It means
the market is witnessing economic disruption. Burberry’s repositioning can help it to develop
new marketing and branding strategy that can allow a new target audience to respond towards its
products. The relevance of positioning and repositioning is to create a connection with loyal and
potential customers through the stable, strong and two-way oriented bridge.
Repositioning is relevant and important for Burberry in terms of enhancing its sales performance
and increasing its sales in the competitive market. The management and employees will work
and give their best to accelerate the repositioning activities; thus resulting in increased
performance and output. If such moves become successful for Burberry, it can regain its
competitive position in the market and attain a higher percentage of revenue in the upcoming
financial quarter (Radón, 2012). It can acquire a large consumer base as compared to its
competitors. The business should create customer awareness regarding its new positioning
strategy, give essential customer information to execute the strategies correctly and ensure
customers will like the product, and pay the actual amount for new products.
2. In the case of Burberry, demonstrate by means of a positioning map, how the positioning
of the brand will change as a result of this process. In presenting the map, also identify
where on the map the following brands would be located: Gucci and Primark
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High quality
High PriceLow price
Low Quality
The positioning of Burberry can be demonstrated through an overview of perceptual mapping.
Burberry will develop different sets of consumer perceptions for its luxury brands. It does not
want to lose its younger buyers. The current positioning of Burberry can be understood through
emphasising the two dimensions of the perceptual map including quality and price. It shows the
company’s product quality and price strategy for the perceived quality. The existing positioning
demonstrates that Burberry is operating in second quadrant, which is high quality and high price
segment. The following figure shows the positioning of Burberry along with two popular brands
including Primark and Gucci.
Figure 1: Current Positioning of Burberry
(Source: Created by the learner)
As Burberry is not performing up to the mark, it needs to rethink its strategy. It needs to change
consumer perception that has developed in recent years. In order to compete with established
luxury brands like Givenchy, Mulberry, Michel Kor, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Primark and others,
Burberry needs to focus on younger consumers, who are one of the important parts of today’s
luxury market. As per consumer research made by Designer Fashion, the UK in 2017, the active
shoppers fall under the age category of 16-24 (Academic.mintel.com, 2019). This particular age
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High quality
High PriceLow price
Low Quality
group prefer to buy most of the entry-level products from the market. Therefore, it would be
suitable for Burberry to build a segment that can serve young consumers within this age group. It
will result in shifting of market position from the high price and high quality to low price and
high quality product. The number of consumers in this particular age category is more. They tend
to purchase luxury brands (Hwang and Kandampully, 2012). Low pricing strategy will attract
consumers within this age group. Burberry may witness a higher sale after major changes in its
positioning strategy.
Figure 2: Re-positioning of Burberry
(Source: Created by the learner)
3. Provide two methods, which brands such as Burberry might use to achieve repositioning.
Burberry needs to adopt the following two methods to achieve repositioning.
Customer engagement
Burberry needs to make customers feel like they belong to the brand. It should develop
customised products in order to fit young consumer needs. It should be creative and identify
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what consumers want. Conducting market research, collecting feedback from consumers and
obtaining suggestions from them can help in engaging with customers and rebuilding its existing
brand (Jewell and Saenger, 2014). Increasing customer engagement will enable Burberry to
achieve repositioning and serve consumers effectively.
Unique selling proposition
Consumers are attracted to product having unique value and identity. If Burberry designs its new
product segment by embedding value and quality, it can get a good response from consumers’
end. It is essential to deliver what consumers want and emphasise on making a brand or product
unique among the competitors. Conveying valuable elements to the target audience can help
achieve repositioning in the market (West et al., 2015).
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Conclusion
The importance and relevance of positioning for Burberry have been discussed in the report. The
current positioning and re-positioning of Burberry in the luxury fashion industry have been
determined through perceptual mapping. The suitable methods for achieving repositioning are
customer engagement and unique selling proposition.
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Reference List
Academic.mintel.com. 2019. Designer Fashion - UK - November 2017 - Market Research
Report. [online] Available at: http://academic.mintel.com/display/793889/?__cc=1 [Accessed 14
Mar. 2019].
Hwang, J. and Kandampully, J., 2012. The role of emotional aspects in younger consumer-brand
relationships. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 21(2), pp.98-108.
Jewell, R.D. and Saenger, C., 2014. Associative and dissociative comparative advertising
strategies in broadening brand positioning. Journal of Business Research, 67(7), pp.1559-1566.
Radón, A., 2012. Unintended brand endorsers' impact on luxury brand image. International
Journal of Marketing Studies, 4(1), p.108.
West, D.C., Ford, J. and Ibrahim, E., 2015. Strategic marketing: creating competitive advantage.
Oxford University Press, USA.
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