Analyzing Social Media Influencers' Impact on Burberry's Competition

This research report investigates the effectiveness of social media influencers in helping Burberry navigate the competitive landscape of the fashion industry. It uses secondary data for a literature review and primary, quantitative data gathered through questionnaires to achieve its aims and objectives. The report explores the conceptual framework of social media marketing, focusing on connection, collaboration, content creation, and creation. It identifies various platforms, like Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat, used by influencers to promote Burberry's products through posts, stories, vlogs, and live sessions. The study further examines how influencer marketing enhances brand awareness, expands reach, and influences consumer purchasing decisions, ultimately helping Burberry compete with brands like Gucci and Prada. The report also touches upon the challenges Burberry faces in approaching and collaborating with social media influencers to promote its products and maintain its market position.

Research Methodologies
TO INVESTIGATE EFFECTIVENESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA
INFLUENCERS IN DEALING WITH MARKET COMPETITION
OF FASHION INDUSTRY. A STUDY ON BURBERRY
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Abstract
Main purpose of the current research is to investigate effectiveness of social media
influencers in dealing with market competition of fashion industry. This is a main purpose that
will be achieved by using different types of research methodologies. Secondary sources are used
for literature review that turn to impact in attainment of research aim and objectives successfully.
Questionnaire will be used for collecting primary and quantitative data that resulted in
accomplishment of research objectives. Therefore, all these are important methods in attainment
of aim and objectives of the research in effective manner.
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Table of Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
Place the proposed study in context............................................................................................4
Value of the study.......................................................................................................................5
Research Questions Aim and Objectives....................................................................................6
Literature review:.............................................................................................................................8
Research methodology...................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................13
Books and journals....................................................................................................................13
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INTRODUCTION
Relevance of the Proposed Research to Business Research
Social media influencers are those individual who has the power to convenience other by
their skills, knowledge. They with their ability can change the purchasing decision of an
individual (Enke and Borchers, 2019). They are those who are has expertise in some particular
field. Some social media influencer may have expertise in food industry, fashion industry,
photography industry and many more. Large number of followers follow them. On regular basis
they attract people and change their state of mind about the product. They can earn millions of
money through blogging in Instagram, Facebook, YouTube etc. They create content for specific
area in which they are, to attract the general public.
Place the proposed study in context
Social media influencer is categorizing on different way according to their followers:
 Nano influencer: Influencer who has less than 1,000 followers who attract viewers from
niche market.
 Mega influencer: They are those individuals who has large number of fan following on
their social platform. To become a mega influencer, they have more than 1 million
followers. In this type of influencer came are basically celebrities, musician, sport person
etc.
 Macro influencer: They have the following range between 40,000 to 1 million.
 Micro influencer: Individual having followers between 1,000 – 40,000 on a single social
media platform (Newberry, 2021)
These people attract audience through making reels, blogging, creating content, vlogging
etc. They try to entertain fans and connect with them by their skills. Some of the famous social
media influencer are Khaby Lame, Huda kattan, James cahreles and many more.
In recent era social media influencer is gaining advantage as they are earning more money
through using different platform. In fact, some of the companies are using them to promote their
product.
About the organisation
Burberry is the leading British luxury brand. It is a fashion brand who manufacture
product related to the fashion industry. The companies headquarter is in London, England. The
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brand is a public limited company. It was founded in 1856. The organization was founded by
Thomas Burberry when he was just 21-year-old. The company sales its product in different
continents. The company produces product for men, women, kids. They manufacture goods like
clothes, footwear, accessories, cosmetic, fragrances, eye wear etc. The most loved one product of
the organization is trench coat in their closet. The venture got famous by selling gabardine in
1879. they got their patent right in 1888. the current CEO of Burberry is Macro Gobbetti.
According to one of the author wall st. s., (2020), the market capital of the company is uk46.2b.
The logo of Burberry is eye catching, the log has an image of equestrian knight. The company is
listed on London stock exchange. Burberry has store in more than 90 countries. Burberry is the
subsidiary brand of united kingdom's great universal stores. In 2021, Burberry announced that till
2040 they will become climate positive company. Recently the brand is target in china to boycott
xinjiang cotton. Due to this backlash the sale of the company effect. Burberry is well established
brand and the competition of Burberry is high. The major competitor of the brand is Gucci,
Prada, Louis vuitton etc. The major competitive advantage of organization is that company
resources are so strong that other brand cannot compete. For marketing of their product they use
premium pricing strategy. The target customer of their products are from the high class society.
Justification of the chosen topic
The topic selected for carrying research is about the impact of social media influencer to
compete in the market from their competitor. The main reason behind the selection of this topic
is that help in accomplishing of dual objective i.e. personal and professional. In regard of
personal, this help the researcher to identify the importance of social media influencer to cut the
competition (Yesiloglu and Costello, 2020). This also aid me to know what are the platforms
they are using, how much followers they have. In regard to professional objective, this research
helps to know that how they can increase their brand awareness with the help of social media
influencer. How it can be used to reduce market competition. In future this will help me to
develop my career that help organization in decreasing competition.
Value of the study
This research is helpful for the organization as this help then to know about the benefits
of social media influencer on their product. With this research they will know that by using
influencer they can increase the brand awareness. They can also use this to increase their sell. It
can also be used as promotional activity for the organization. Through this they can cover large
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audience. They will also get to know what are the social platform they can use to market their
product. This research is helpful to customer as well; they will get to know about the product of
the company. They will get to know what are the discount and offer company is giving. This
research is beneficially for researcher as this will improve the skills and knowledge. Helps to
know how to collect data, what are the approaches for research and many more. It will develop
the skills of writing and analysing the things. They will get to know about how social influencer
plays a vital role in increasing the image of the brand.
Problem statement
The current research is based on the market competition that Burberry is facing which
become a major concern for the brand. So to gain competitive advantage Burberry is using social
media influencer to sell their product. As the competition in the company is so high that it affects
the sale of the company and decline it market share (Ki and et. al, 2020). So to increase the sale
they are taking help of these influencer so that they can market their product on social media
platform. The company sell their product in high society and to gain share they need to use the
platform so that they can attract the consumer. To decrease the market competition, they should
innovate their product in such a way that it will become an advantage for them. Brand with the
collaboration with the influencer start marketing in most initiative way. This could help them to
change the perception of people towards their brand.
Research Questions Aim and Objectives
Aim
To investigate effectiveness of social media influencers in dealing with market
competition of fashion industry. A study on Burberry.
Research Objectives
 To analyse the ways used by social media influencers for promoting products of
Burberry.
 To examine the effectiveness of social media influencers for Burberry in dealing with
market competition.
 To discern the challenges faced by Burberry to approach social media influencer for
promoting their products.
Research questions
 What are the ways used by social media influencers for promoting products of Burberry?
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 What is the effectiveness of social media influencers for Burberry in dealing with market
competition?
 What are the challenges faced by Burberry to approach social media influencers for
promoting their products?
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Literature review:
A literature review is the study of the existing research topic so as to evaluate them and provide
finding.
Theme 1: Conceptual framework of social media is:
 Connection: The first most step in social media is that in this company try to connect
with the influencer so that they can make business connection to do business with them to
promote their product.
 Collaboration: In this influencer and the managers collaborate with each other and sign a
contract to do business in the term and condition that are written on the contract paper.
 Content: This is the the third step in social media marketing where influence think a
innovative and creative way through which they can make content with the given
product or goods. Creation: The last step in this framework is that influencer final create content and post
it on social media platform and try to attract customer so that they can buy.
Theme 2: Ways used by social media influencers for promoting products of Burberry
According to Jolly (2021), there are so many platform which are used by influencer to
promote their activity but Burberry are promoting their product with the help of social media
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influencer on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter. In this platform they are marketing it on
different innovative method.
 Instagram post: The top ranked Burberry social media influencers like: Che holton,
Charly Cox post Instagram feed to promote the product by mention each and every item
prices there uses their importance. By this Burberry promote its product by highlighting
its importance.
 Instagram stories: Influencer also post stories of the product which let them post photos
and videos in an innovative and creative way which attract the customer. This helps in
enhancing brand visibility, interact with large audience and help the brand to generate
lead for the goods.
 You tube blogging: in the recent time the use of you tube blogging has increase. You tube
blogging means crating a short videos or v log and then posting it on you tube channel
which they create. This is becoming a popular way through which influencer promote
product. Burberry influencer like: Wendy Rowe, Musa Tariq etc. create short v log and
post it on their channel which helps the user to know about the product.
 Snap chat: This is also a great source to promote the product. By this snap chat influencer
makes snap and promote the videos.
 Instagram live: Influencer also use the technique of going live and then promoting the
product. they use this method so that mouth publicity of the brand increase and can
interact with large audience at the same time.
Theme 3: Effectiveness of social media influencers for Burberry in dealing with market
competition?
According to Williams (2020), with the help of social media influencer, Burberry has
effectively competing it with their competitor. There are so many benefits of influencing
marketing to enhance your business and grow in the market. The first most benefit is that
influencers helps them to create a strong image of the brand in the market which helps in
improving the brand awareness activity. Now even a normal people get to know what is Burberry
which product they can buy from there which is affordable for them which in other hand help
them to fight with their competitor with the factor of brand awareness. They also help the
company to reach vast area and be visible to great audience, by doing this sale of the companies
increases as know they are selling their product outside the demographical boundaries. This help
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in gaining market share outside the country. Burberry influencer make it possible to reach to
their target audience and change their purchasing decision in their favour. They are mentioning
the brand name in their post and stories which help the audience to look at the brand and
purchase the product. With the help of the influencer company try to set trends for their
competitor to compete with them. Influencer spotlight the brand cool products and review them
in such a way that it is difficult for competitor to fight. Influencer also helps in making
connection and providing loyal customer to the brand. By their ability they provide path to the
followers that how they can purchase the product, recommends them about which product to buy
or not which helps in driving the connection.
Theme 4: Challenges faced by Burberry to approach social media influencers for promoting
their products?
According to Geyser, (2021), there are so many challenges Burberry faced to approach to
social influencers. The first problem that they face is to find the influencer which is right for their
marketing as well as by which method they can find it. Companies initially struggle a lot to
match their brand product with the influencer. They also faced problem of costing where
influencer demand dollar for promoting. Burberry face this as they are paying high cost to
promote their goods on different social media platform. Initially to approach to the influencer
they are been fraud by third party as companies cannot directly make contact with them, they
need to relay on other party which fraud them. Some of the influencer which they contact are
more focused on increasing the followers rather than trying to engage with the product and the
brand. Some of the influencer controversies also make it impossible for the brand to approach the
influencers.
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Research methodology
Research methodology is a process of analysing data and information in most effective
manner. It helps in completion of research on given time period and by using these methods,
researcher will be able to achieve research objectives effectively. In this given research, research
is using research onion model in understanding of information and making decision accordingly.
Research philosophy: This is the first layer of research onion framework. It is a set of
beliefs in which researcher build upon. There are two types of research philosophy. These are
epistemological and ontological (Vogel, Top, and Schlaudecker, 2021). Ontology refers to how
and what. What is the nature of reality and what they really able to know. In case of
epistemology, how information can be obtained. In this present research, researcher is using
epistemology philosophy, in this positivism philosophy is used because it analyse practical
information which is gather for developing true results.
Research approach: There are two types of approaches. These are inductive and
deductive approach of research. Inductive approach involves theories and deductive approach
includes begin with a theory or aim to build a theory. In present study, researcher uses deductive
approach because this research involves numerical information (Hawk, Dabney, and Teasdale,
2021). Deductive approach usually involve quantitative research that begins with theory and
progress is calculated through hypotheses.
Research choice: Research choice are of two types qualitative research and quantitative
research. Qualitative research refers to the information which is non numeric and which does not
involve any statistical data. On the other hand, quantitative research is that which makes use of
numeric information and statistics data and graphs is used. In this research, researcher is suing
quantitative research which is collected through survey and makes use of charts and tables.
Quantitative information is helps in bringing valid and reliable information about a particular
task and topic.
Research strategy : This is another layer of research onion model. These strategies helps
in collection of data and information (Huang, Liesner, and Akanezi, 2021). Some of the
strategies it includes are case study, action research, experimental research, interview, literature
review and survey etc. Present information is collected through literature review and survey. In
survey, questionnaire is used to gather information which includes close and open ended
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questions. Literature review on the other hand, brings in-depth informations about a particular
topic and collect through books and news papers.
Data collection method: Data is collected through two methods primary and secondary
method. Primary data collection source includes practical data and information. It makes use of
graphs and charts to collect information. Secondary information is conducted through non
numeric basis. It involves in depth information about a topic. Present research includes both of
the data collection method. Primary data is collected through questionnaire survey which
includes close and open ended questions. It is to be filled by respondents. It makes use of graphs
and charts (Butler, Lloyd, and Thorn, 2021). Secondary data is collected through books and
newspapers and presented in a form of literature review. This provides in-depth informational
about a specific topic. Primary data brings true and accurate information about a topic as
compared to secondary data collection method.
Sampling : In this current research, probabilistic sampling is used to select sampling
because it involves random sampling which does not involve biasses among selecting sample.
The sample size taken is 30 respondents who are the employees of Burberry.
Time horizon : Time horizon is generally of two types. These are cross sectional and
longitudinal. Cross sectional data is used by researcher when all the observations is needed for
single point of time. It includes practical information. On the other hand, longitudinal data, is
needed for observation for specific variable that is available for several years (Shao, Shen, and
Zhang, 2021). In this research, researcher is using cross sectional time horizon because there is a
use of questionnaire survey. This helps in getting true and reliable information and achieve
research objectives on given time period.
Validity and reliability : The present study is providing valid information because
researcher is using questionnaire survey to gather data and information. Questionnaire includes
close and open ended questions which is filled by respondents to get true interpretation. On the
other hand, reliability is calculated through literature review which includes books and articles.
This results in bringing in-depth information about a given topic.
Ethical issues : Some of the ethical issues faced by researcher is to maintain
confidentiality among answers of respondents (Thomas, 2021). The other researcher should not
be biased with any of the answers of respondents.
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