The Impact of Digital Marketing on Burberry's Fashion Retail Growth

This research proposal examines the impact of digital marketing on the fashion retail industry, specifically focusing on Burberry. The report includes an introduction outlining the background of digital transformation and its influence on consumer behavior, particularly in the luxury fashion sector. It sets the aim to determine the effectiveness of digital marketing methods on Burberry's sales and growth. The objectives include understanding digital marketing concepts, evaluating various methods, and analyzing their impact on Burberry. Research questions address the meaning of digital marketing in retail, methods used by Burberry, and the impact on its sales. The rationale highlights the challenges faced by retail sectors in gaining market share through digital marketing. The literature review covers the concept of digital marketing, types of digital marketing, and its impact on the retail sector, drawing on various sources. The methodology section describes the qualitative research type, inductive reasoning approach, descriptive research design, and interpretivism as the research philosophy. Data collection involves primary (surveys) and secondary (reports, articles) sources, with purposive sampling of Burberry employees. Data analysis will use thematic analysis, and ethical considerations include informed consent and confidentiality. The study acknowledges limitations in time, resources, and sample size. References include a list of books and journals used in the study.

Research proposal

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title..................................................................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Background..................................................................................................................................3
Aim and objectives......................................................................................................................3
Research questions.......................................................................................................................3
Rationale......................................................................................................................................4
Literature Review............................................................................................................................4
Theme 1. Concept of Digital Marketing......................................................................................4
Theme 2. Types of digital marketing...........................................................................................4
Theme 3. Impact of digital marketing on retail sector.................................................................5
Research methodology.....................................................................................................................6
Research type...............................................................................................................................6
Research approach.......................................................................................................................6
Research design...........................................................................................................................6
Research philosophy....................................................................................................................6
Data collection.............................................................................................................................7
Sampling......................................................................................................................................7
Data analysis................................................................................................................................7
Ethical considerations..................................................................................................................7
Validity and reliability.................................................................................................................8
Limitations of the research..........................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

Title
The impact of digitalisation on the marketing and growth of the fashion retail industry: A
study on Burberry, UK.
Introduction
Background
In present times, the world is witnessing a growth in the digital technologies through
innovation, particularly in the fashion retail industry which drives a significant part of the global
economy. The large-scale changes and digital transformation are resulting in a change in the
consumer behaviour and there is a high requirement of the digital marketing strategies to drive
growth in the business. Burberry is a British luxury fashion house that designs and delivers ready
to wear clothing such as trench coats, leather goods and fashion accessories for the high-end
consumers. The company is headquartered in London and is known for adapting innovation in its
products. The company also indulges in digital marketing which has notable impact on the brand
equity, revenue and sales growth (Zhu and Gao, 2019).
Aim and objectives
Aim: To determine the impact of digital marketing methods on Burberry in clothing retail sector.
Objectives:
 To understand the concept of digital marketing in fashion retail sector.
 To evaluate the types and methods of digital marketing for Burberry.
 To analyse the impact of digital marketing on sales and growth of Burberry.
 To propose recommendation on dealing with barriers and effectively implementing
digital marketing in Burberry.
Research questions
 What is he underlying meaning and concept of digital marketing in context to retail
industry?
 What are the various methods of conducting digital marketing in relation to Burberry?
 What is the impact of digital marketing on the sales and growth of Burberry?
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 Propose some recommendations on how the Burberry can overcome the barriers in
implementing digital marketing strategies for improving the growth of the business.
Rationale
The major issues that the retail sector is facing is in current times is the intense
competition among high end firms to gain market share through effective implementation of
digital marketing. There are various challenges that companies face in dealing with digital
marketing such as production of effective referrals, generation of traffic to websites, investment
and budget of social media marketing, keeping up with the latest trends and continuous
interaction with the potential target market. The high-end luxury companies like Burberry
implement strategies like pay per click, influence marketing, affiliate marketing, search engine
optimization and social media marketing in order to maximise the brand equity and performing
to the best levels. Therefore, it is essential to study the impact of such markets and its efficiency
on the company productivity and proposing ways to deal with the challenges (Rathnayaka,
2018).
Literature Review
Theme 1. Concept of Digital Marketing
As per the opinion of Confos and Davis (2016), digital marketing is a modern approach
of promoting product on social media as well as another online platform. Large number of
population surf internet and easily attracted by different types of advertisement. It becomes a tool
to reach to customers on time as well as decrease expenditures of retail industry. Developed
countries such as UK, US etc. have large number of internet users and they purchase most of
items online. Routine life become so much busy that shopping habit of people stop, even they
pay very little attention on Television, Newspaper etc. And hence it becomes important tool for
gaining customers and increase profit share in business environment. Most of big retail firm
have their own digital marketing team while some take outsources.
Theme 2. Types of digital marketing
In the opinion of Brindle (2017), retail industry in United Kingdom gives example of
multiple types of digital marketing to influence customers and increase profit share in changing
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business. It includes SEM (Search Engine Marketing), SEO (Search Engine Optimisation), PPC
(Pay-per-click), SMM (Social Media Marketing), Content Marketing; Email Marketing,
Influencer / Affiliate Marketing, Viral Marketing, Radio Advertising, Television Advertising and
Mobile Advertising. It easily attracts customers and take very less time as well as processing is
fast. Retail firms in United Kingdom use social media marketing comparatively as compare to
other because large numbers of country population uses it and hence organisation can easily
target them. Separate department is places for promotion of product on digital channels by
various organisations and invest high in it which helps in gaining customers as well as increase
profit share in present business environment.
On the contrary Kingsnorth (2019), believes that digital marketing become ineffective
with time as per the research number of users selected that they offended by watching repeatedly
same advertisement on different platform. Many of social media firms giving option of ads off in
sites and users use this option to not to watch advertisement. Scholar also focus that people do
not believes on online platform because of fake ads and more trust on media platform such as
Television, Radio etc.
Theme 3. Impact of digital marketing on retail sector
In the view of (Herhausen and et.al., 2020), people can easily manipulated and influence
by digital advertisement and hence it become important tool for marketing in retail sector. There
are number of companies in United Kingdom which highly invested in it and able to gain loyalty
of large number of customers for product & services such as Tesco, Mark & Spencer etc. It
decrease time as well as cost and helps to reach customers on time.
On the opposite side Nyagadza (2020), emphasizes that every firm taking it in wrong way
to influence people in country For example: Advertisement which tries to gain attention of others
by saying our company provides best product & services in world. Improper handling tool can
plays against firm such as Tesco Christmas advertisement affected its image as well as decrease
number of loyal customers.
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Research methodology
Identification of appropriate research methodology is essential for determination,
selection and analysis of the information gathered for the chosen topic. In order to effectively
conduct the research procedure, these criteria have been selected for undertaking the research.
Research type
The research types are divided into majorly two categories, qualitative and quantitative.
The qualitative study deals with in depth means and middle groups generated from an
exploratory research question while the qualitative research in confirmatory in nature and deals
with numbers by taking a hypothesis and concluding its result. This study will adopt a qualitative
research method to analyse deeper meaning sand gain insights ion the impact of digital
marketing (Peterson, 2019).
Research approach
There are two types of research approaches, inductive and deductive. Inductive reasoning
is based on generation of a new theory from the outcomes of the study during its course while
deductive reasoning conducts experimentations in present theories. This research will adopt
inductive reasoning to study the various concepts, patterns and experiences through which newer
findings can be observed.
Research design
The research designs can be categorised into various formats, such as exploratory or
descriptive. This research will adopt descriptive research design which help the study to
substantiate the findings in context to what, when, who and where and gain a comprehensive
understanding of the subject. This design will explain the population, concepts and phenomenon
in a descriptive manner (Snyder, 2019).
Research philosophy
There are different philosophies in context to researching, gathering data and analysing
problems on the basis of certain phenomenon such as pragmatism, interpretivism or positivism.
This study will select interpretivism as the research philosophy to gain deeper insights into the
problems and research question through human qualities and conducting a careful observation of
the social world.
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Data collection
Data collection can be referred to the process of gathering the information using primary
and secondary sources as per specific variables for enabling the researcher to answer all research
questions and observe conclusions. Both primary and secondary sources are selected in this
research. The primary research will be conducted using the survey method of questionnaire. The
secondary sources will be business reports, journal articles, online websites and sources, books,
government reports and other authentic publications (Kadam and Joshi, 2019).
Sampling
The sampling s the procedure to conduct a survey on the subset of a population and
utilising the sample population to reach to conclusions of the subject. The non-probability
sampling method called purposive sampling will be selected for this research and a specific
population of marketing managers and employees from all Burberry branches will be selected.
The sample size of eh questionnaire survey method will be 30 employees of Burberry which will
be selected randomly and questionnaires will be sent electrotonically.
Data analysis
The process of systematic application of relevant data and statistical tools to observe, evaluate
and analyse the available or collected data in order to draw meanings and findings to reach to the
research objectives. The thematic analysis method will be sued in this rese and every question
will be systematically evaluated through the qualitative data collected whereby the analysis will
undertake themes, concepts, patterns opinions and ideas during the findings and discussion
(Castleberry and Nolen, 2018).
Ethical considerations
All necessary ethical consideration was taken by the scholar in the and non-unethical
behaviour of any kind was practiced during the entire course of this research. Informed consent
was obtained from the sample population in Burberry, and it was stated that their privacy,
anonymity and confidentiality will be protected. The respondents shave taken part in the research
voluntarily and no coercion was practiced. Then entire research will be a work of transparency
and honesty, where no conflicts of interests were determined (Leibovici, 2016).
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Validity and reliability
The entire research is a work of appropriate methods to collect and analyse the data. The
reliability of the study can be termed moderate to high as all procedures were practiced
effectively and high similarity will be observed in the repeated course of applications. All the
data collected in both primary and secondary research through authentic, valid, latest and from
highly approved journals and books (Galanis, 2013).
Limitations of the research
There are certain constraints in the conduction o the research due to hindrances in time,
resources and budget. The sample size taken was also small due to the time constraints. Inspite of
these all necessary requirements were countered effectively through increasing the extent of
research by available means and optimal utilisation of time, budget and other resources.
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References
Books and Journals
Brindle, F., 2017. The impact of digital marketing disruption on the localization industry.
Multilingual. Marchp.44-47.
Castleberry, A. and Nolen, A., 2018. Thematic analysis of qualitative research data: Is it as easy
as it sounds?. Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning, 10(6), pp.807-815.
Confos, N. and Davis, T., 2016. Young consumer-brand relationship building potential using
digital marketing. European Journal of Marketing.
Dumitriu, D., Militaru, G., Deselnicu, D.C., Niculescu, A. and Popescu, M.A.M., 2019. A
perspective over modern SMES: managing brand equity, growth and sustainability
through digital marketing tools and techniques. Sustainability.11.(7).p.2111.
Galanis, P., 2013. Validity and reliability of questionnaires in epidemiological studies. Archives
of Hellenic Medicine/Arheia Ellenikes Iatrikes, 30(1).
Herhausen, D and et.al., 2020. The digital marketing capabilities gap. Industrial Marketing
Management.90.pp.276-290.
Kadam, A. and Joshi, S., 2019. Introduction to design dissertation & research methodology.
Kingsnorth, S., 2019. Digital marketing strategy: an integrated approach to online marketing.
Kogan Page Publishers.
Leibovici, L., 2016. Ethical considerations in research published in the CMI. Clinical
Microbiology and Infection, 22(12), p.957.
Nyagadza, B., 2020. Search engine marketing and social media marketing predictive trends.
Journal of Digital Media & Policy.
Peterson, J.S., 2019. Presenting a qualitative study: A reviewer’s perspective. Gifted Child
Quarterly, 63(3), pp.147-158.
Rathnayaka, U., 2018. Role of Digital Marketing in Retail Fashion Industry: A Synthesis of the
Theory and the Practice. Journal of Accounting & Marketing, 7(20).
Snyder, H., 2019. Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and
guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 104, pp.333-339.
Zhu, G. and Gao, X., 2019. Precision retail marketing strategy based on digital marketing
model. Science Journal of Business and Management, 7(1), pp.33-37.
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