Principles of Marketing Communication: Burberry Case Study

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Assignment 2: PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING
COMMUNICATION
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task..................................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
Reference List..................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
Aim of this assignment is surrounded by assessing different principles that are needed to be
taken into consideration for making marketing communication. It will be a case study analysis
where the focused company is Burberry. It is a fashion house located at United Kingdom and it is
one of the oldest fashion houses of the country. There are 498 stores under this fashion giant as
they earned €2732.8 million revenue at the financial year of 2018 (burberryplc.com, 2019).
At the assignment, importance of repositioning as well as positioning from the perspective of
marketers will be evaluated. In addition to that, two methods will also be described that might be
considered by the Burberry as their effective positioning strategy.
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Task
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?
From the perspective of any organisation, positioning can be illustrated as an important tool that
assists it extensively towards creating awareness regarding their products as well as services for
gaining more consumers. From several different instances as well as the following case study, it
has been observed that Burberry always considers premium pricing as their pricing strategy.
Therefore, their basic target consumer base is high spenders. In recent context the organisation
needs to reposition their market in context to lower-end retailers as well as wholesalers at certain
extension. Moreover, it has also been observed that other competitors of the organisation such as
Mulberry, Givenchy and many others are also opted to conduct similar things for moving up
their productivity as well as profitability through attracting high spenders as their basic consumer
base (reports.mintel.com, 2019). Therefore, it can be considered that in UK fashion market the
level of competition is growing rapidly and every fashion houses including Burberry are opted to
reposition their market in such a way that is profitable for them.
Positioning as well as repositioning is also adequately important for sustaining the competition
level at the current regulated market sector. From several different instances it has been observed
that the current markets of fashion houses are facing extensive economic depression, which is
also a key reason why recent fashion houses needed to consider positioning as a strategy for
mitigating market related risks (Chik, 2015). The new repositioning strategy of Burberry will
certainly assist them towards developing new marketing as well as branding strategy for earning
more revenue from their regulatory market. The key importance of positioning is that it assists
the organisation Burberry at creating special connection with their existing as well as potential
consumer base through the help of stable as well as two-way oriented bridge (reports.mintel.com,
2019).
Repositioning is also quite important from the perspective of enhancing Burberry’s overall sales
performance at the current competitive market sector. Both the employees as well as the
management of the organisation needed to work collaboratively for making the repositioning
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High Quality
High PriceLow Price
Low Quality
Burberry
strategy. Successful as well as adequate repositioning strategy will certainly assist the
organisation at regaining their position at the high competitive market place and it will also assist
them towards earning high amount of revenue from their regulated market (Dragnea et al.,
2019). Moreover, the organisation can also create awareness regarding their luxury products
while considering repositioning strategy. It will allow their basic consumer base towards buying
its products while spending a considerable amount.
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
Perceptual mapping can be used extensively towards demonstrating the positioning map that has
been opted by Burberry at certain extension. Burberry needs to create separate set for mitigating
different perceptions of their consumer base regarding their luxury products. The organisation is
quite obsessed with millennial generation as most of its products have been designed for
millennial. The recent positioning map regarding Burberry is easily understandable while making
emphasis towards two different dimensions, which are price as well as quality (Johns and
English, 2016). The perceptual mapping shows that the organisation always maintains the quality
of their products since they always consider premium pricing strategy at certain extension. The
current position map from the perspective of Burberry has been demonstrated below:
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High Quality
High PriceLow Price
Low Quality
Mulberry
Gucci
Primark
Figure 1: Position Map of Burberry
(Source: Created by the learner)
From previously illustrated positioning map, it can be illustrated that Burberry falls under the
second quadrant, which indicates that the organisation always cater high price as well as high
quality as of their product base (Song, 2017). Subsequent competitors of the organisation, which
includes Primark, Gucci, Armani, Mulberry and many others also follow the exact market
positioning strategy so[ that they can earn their expected revenue from their primary investment.
Positioning map from the perspective of these organisations has been demonstrated below:
Figure 2: New Position Map of Mulberry Primark and Gucci
(Source: Created by the learner)
From the above positioning map, it can be demonstrated that its entire competitor base has also
consider similar positioning strategy, which is high quality as well as high price. Therefore, it has
been observed from recent instances that the organisation Burberry is losing consumer
perception in recent instance, which lead them towards earning less revenue from their primary
investment (Shachar et al., 2015). Therefore, for being competitive with the recent competitive
marketplace, it is adequately important for the organisation to target younger as well as baby
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High Quality
High PriceLow Price
Low Quality
Mulberry
Gucci
Primark
Burberry
boomers as their primary consumer base. However, it might not be an effective strategy as baby
boomers are generally not opted to buy fashion related products clothing products.
Therefore, it is essential for the organisation Burberry to reconsider their positioning strategy. In
order to become successful, they need to follow the below described positioning map.
Figure 2: New Position Map of Burberry
(Source: Created by the learner)
Considering high quality and low pricing will assist them towards attracting younger generation
that does not have much spending power but have a good sense in fashion. The positioning
strategy will certainly assist the organisation at getting competitive advantage.
3. Provide two methods, which brands such as Burberry might use to achieve repositioning.
Retail offering- From the case study, it has been observed that the organisation Burberry has
faced a range of different negative effects from Sterling’s weakness. In order to reduce this, the
organisation needs to consider increasing their sales (Weiner et al., 2017). For doing so, they can
offer significant discounts towards their target consumer base for moving up their revenue
generation. Retail offering will also assist them towards extending their consumer volume.
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Making USP (unique selling proposition)- The organisation can easily attract consumers while
offering embedding quality as well as value at products. It will also assist them towards getting
positive response regarding a product. Therefore, it has been suggested for the organisation
Burberry to make USP from the perspective of their products so that they can gain reposition at
their regulated market.
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Conclusion
From the entire assessment, it can be concluded that positioning as well as repositioning is
adequately important for Burberry since it will assist them towards earning revenue. Moreover,
form the perceptual mapping; it can also conclude that high quality as well as low pricing will
assist the organisation at ginning relevance at their current regulated market. Lastly, making USP
and retail offering can assist them towards gaining relevance at the current regulated market.
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Reference List
burberry Corporate Website. (2019). Home. [online] Available at:
https://www.burberryplc.com/en/index.html [Accessed 14 Jun. 2019].
Chik, A., 2015. Recreational language learning and digital practices: Positioning and
repositioning. In Discourse and Digital Practices (pp. 124-141). Routledge.
Dragnea, D.C., Nobacht, S., Gericke, A., Parker, J., Oellerich, S., Ham, L. and Melles, G.R.,
2019. Postoperative repositioning of inverted descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty
grafts. Cornea, 38(2), pp.162-165.
Johns, R. and English, R., 2016. Transition of self: Repositioning the celebrity brand through
social media—The case of Elizabeth Gilbert. Journal of Business Research, 69(1), pp.65-72.
Reports.mintel.com. (2018). Fashion Accessories - UK - January 2018 - Market Research
Report. [online] Available at: https://reports.mintel.com/display/858699/# [Accessed 2 Sep.
2019]
Shachar, S., Voss, T.C., Pegoraro, G., Sciascia, N. and Misteli, T., 2015. Identification of gene
positioning factors using high-throughput imaging mapping. Cell, 162(4), pp.911-923.
Song, M., 2017. A Study on the Repositioning for Strengthening University Hospitals
Competitiveness. Korea Journal of Hospital Management, 22(3), pp.105-117.
Weiner, C., Kalichman, L., Ribak, J. and Alperovitch-Najenson, D., 2017. Repositioning a
passive patient in bed: Choosing an ergonomically advantageous assistive device. Applied
ergonomics, 60, pp.22-29.
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