Analyzing Burberry's Market Repositioning Strategy: A Case Study

This case study examines Burberry's strategies for repositioning itself in the luxury fashion accessories market. It evaluates the role of positioning and repositioning, focusing on methods that benefit Burberry in the competitive luxury market. The study identifies the importance of product positioning, digital innovation, and luxury strategies. Burberry's effective repositioning through extended price architecture and digital platforms, including augmented reality, has attracted new high-end consumers. The case study also highlights Burberry's competitive landscape, particularly its rivalry with brands like Gucci, and analyzes the company's efforts to enhance its market position through digital innovation and a focus on luxury branding, ultimately leading to success in the luxury market.

FASHION ACCESSORIES
BURBERRY

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY......................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................8
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List of Figures
Figure 1: Positioning Map for Burberry...........................................................................................5
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INTRODUCTION
The given study has been done to identify various procedures for increasing the repositioning of
the famous luxury fashion house, Burberry which excels in providing luxury clothes and other
accessories to its customers. Further going in the study, there would be an evaluation of the
role of positioning and repositioning by marketers and would identify those approaches which
would benefit the Burberry efficiently in the given luxury market.
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MAIN BODY
Proper positioning of the product in the given market segment is an effective measure before
preparation of a market plan. Many organisations utilize this strategy to convey their products
to their target consumers and should be based on the pressure exerted from the competitors
and demands of their customers. If the product positioning is effectively utilised by the
organization such as Burberry, then it would be easy to attract their specific customers.
Moreover, the company would also be able to persuade them to purchase their products with
great ease which would make them achieve success in the upmarket (Massara, et al. 2018).
In order to excel in the business and seal its position in the given market, the organization
include product positioning in its operation and should also take into account manufacturing
and customer services from customers’ point of view. Moreover, product positioning would be
designed in such a way so that it should ensure relevancy and sustainability for a longer
duration in the future. So a good and effective product positioning would help the organization
meet its corporate objectives easily and help their business to achieve great heights. From the
case study, it could be said that although Burberry has been established well in the industry; yet
it has brought is bringing more innovation in its product which helped it to focus on its target
customers and thus enhance its growth in the given UK market (Villas-Boas, 2018).
For any organization to succeed in the business, repositioning is an essential part. This is done
after the current position of the given organization and the outlook towards its product in
critically assessed. There are various reasons behind using this strategy which could be
understood by going through the given case study. According to it, the changes have come to
the surface when it was identified that the purchase of luxury items was more from age-group
of 16-24 who are still hesitating in buying these products and are demanding entry-level
products (Derval, 2018).
Another reason identified from the given case study is that Burberry has been facing stiff
competition from other organisations such as Gucci and Primark who are waiting to acquire the
market position of the Burberry in the luxury market. Third reason found from the case study is
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that Burberry has recently launched a new product which comes with some additional benefits
and requires a good repositioning to get success in the given market. Nevertheless, the given
case study has also revealed that Burberry has effectively repositioned itself in luxury market
and has provided extended price architecture which has been able to attract new high-end
consumers (Fernie and Perry, 2018). This indicates that if this decision meets success in the
market, the organization would be able to gain new profit with high growth which in turn would
result in its expansion and acquiring a high position in the market.
Figure 1: Positioning Map for Burberry
Source: [Khelladi and Castellano, 2019]
Positioning map is utilized by the organisations for assessing their products in terms of quality
and price and whether it could withstand the pressure from the products of other competitors
in an effective manner or not. From the above-given diagram, the position of various
organisations such as Burberry, Prada, Primark, Gucci and Mulberry are displayed efficiently.
The given map illustrates that the Burberry has been present High price and High-Quality chart,
while its competitors Gucci and Primark are present at High Quality and Low Price and Low
Quality and Low Price respectively (Horoszko, et al. 2018).
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So from the given positioning map of Burberry, it could be assessed that the given organization
has taken a step ahead from its given competitors in the luxury market. The products of the
Burberry are of the high price but are also of high quality which would help it to target its
specific customers in an effective manner. However, it would likely to face some competition
from Gucci as its products are sold at a low price and come with high quality.
So in order to improve its business and ward off competition from the Gucci to enhance its
position in the luxury market, Burberry has been utilizing two important methods. First is the
use of digital innovation, which was previously overlooked by the organization. It has designed
its own digital platform where the customers could select the products online without visiting
its stores. Also, it also allows its customers to use augmented reality via Apple's ARKit so that
they could digitally use which accessory would fit them in a comfortable manner (Fernie and
Perry, 2018)
The second method is the utilization of a luxury strategy aggressively among its target
customers. Various studies have pointed out that the CEO of Burberry; Marco Gobbetti is
planning to go more upmarket by reducing the number of products in its outlets which have a
high price. Using this planning, the customers would be attracted to such luxury products after
an effective social media marketing campaign and would not hesitate to buy these products
even if there is a shortage in the stock (Trotter, 2018).
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CONCLUSION
From the given study, it could be concluded that Burberry has been able to proceed to
upmarket by effectively utilizing positioning and repositioning methods and thus has been able
to get success in the given luxury market. The position map has confirmed its comfortable
position with some competition coming from Gucci. At last, it has properly utilized digital
innovation and luxury strategy to improve its operations and enhance its growth in the luxury
market.
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REFERENCES
Derval, D., 2018. Finding the Right Positioning. In Designing Luxury Brands (pp. 51-76). Springer,
Cham.
Fernie, J. and Perry, P., 2018. Luxury supply management chain. Logistics and Retail
Management: Emerging Issues and New Challenges in the Retail Supply Chain, p.149.
Horoszko, N., Moskowitz, D. and Moskowitz, H., 2018. Inside the mind–expectations about
one’s perfume. In Understanding the Marketing Exceptionality of Prestige Perfumes (pp. 156-
162). Routledge.
Khelladi, I. and Castellano, S., 2019. Play It Like Burberry!: The Effect of Reputation, Brand
Image, and Social Media on E-Reputation–Luxury Brands and Their Digital Natives Fans. In
Handbook of Research on the Evolution of IT and the Rise of E-Society (pp. 281-300). IGI Global.
Massara, F., Porcheddu, D. and Melara, R.D., 2018. Luxury brands pursuing lifestyle positioning:
effects on willingness to pay. Journal of Brand Management, pp.1-13.
Trotter, C., 2018. Inside the retail strategy of Burberry. (Available Through:
https://www.insider-trends.com/inside-retail-strategy-burberry/. Accessed on 23rd February,
2019)
Villas-Boas, J.M., 2018. A Dynamic Model of Repositioning. Marketing Science, 37(2), pp.279-
293.
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