Custom «Burberry PLC» Essay Paper

This is a top class British luxury brand started in 1856. It has been lately leveraging its established strategies and highly talented team who ensure sustainability, and profitability growth. Burberry continues to use its marketing innovation to expand its impact and reach through managing its brand content to connect and engage consumers worldwide.

The goal of this paper is to explore how Burberry moved from a weakened corporation in the year1997 to a highly profitably internationalized brand. It highlights Burberry's marketing strategy and target. This paper aims at discussing Burberry’s current problems, in addition to, its financial position, advertising, history, pricing, products, and public relations.

History

It is a producer and dealer of clothes for men women and children, in addition to accessories and colognes. Burberry’s name was practically identical with its tan gabardine raincoat initiated by the corporation about145 years ago. In 1989, Andrew Collier described Burberry garment in the Women's Wear Daily (WWD) as "a leader in outerwear globally, that represents all that is Great Britain: powerful and inconspicuous, similarly at home in top class hotels and mucky lanes (Swanson and Everett p. 53)."

•  

  0

  Preparing Orders

•  

  0

  Active Writers

•  

  0%

  Positive Feedback

•  

  0

  Support Agents

 

Title of your paper

Type of service

Type of assignment

Number of pages

-

+

Academic level

Timeframes

Spacing

Currency

USD

• Total price

Continue to order

 

In the year 2000, Burberry owned 58 outlets, and most of its products were as well found in specialty and department stores worldwide. The company initiated the Prorsum designer collection in 1999, as a component of its strategy to reinvent its luxury brand standing. A symbol of classic clothing, this company has made use of brand extensions and licensing to attract younger and fashion-conscious consumers. Burberry is part of the British Great Universal Stores (GUS), a directly held nine billion dollar mail-order, credit reporting, and the retail Clothing Corporation.

19th-Century Origins

Thomas Burberry is the founder of this company; he was born in the year 1835. He started his own drapery company in Basingstoke in 1856. A sportsman, Mr. Burberry was discontented with the rubberized Mackintosh raincoat that was popular at that time. These Mackintosh raincoats were heavy, stifling, and restricting, and thus not fitting for long outings.

Burberry designed a firmly woven fabric that was made from cotton yarn or water-repellent linen. Although tear-resistant and sturdy, this "Burberry-proofed" fabric was not heavy and permits air to flow, making it much more comfy than the extremely heavy Mackintosh.

This cloth was trademarked "Gabardine," a Shakespearean expression that described to shelter from stormy weather. Burberry was an astute marketer, using advertising and trade marking to immense benefit. Exemplifying advertisements attracted many buyers to Burberry's retail store in Haymarket. 

Burberry’s brand

A brand is basically a symbol or name used to categorize the origin of a given product. The kind of accessories and clothing an individual wear habitually depicts the kind of person one is. That is the reason why people frequently like to wear luxuriantly branded accessories and clothing. The Burberry longtime realization that fashion is a major part of daily life to everyone globally has made it maintain its brand (Chadha and Husband p. 32).

When Burberry introduces a new product, its branding is the most significant decision to be made. Its branding has added considerable value to its products because it is renowned and has highly positive connotation in the customer's mind. Burberry has very high brand equity. This is an indescribable asset that relies on the imaginations made by the customers. There are three major viewpoints from which one can view Burberry’s brand equity.

One can view brand equity financially by finding out the premium price that its brand fetches against another generic product. For instance, if buyers are prepared to pay an amount such as100 dollars more for a Burberry branded accessory over one that is Unbranded, the premium offers significant information in regard to the brand value.

The Burberry products have had well received brand extensions. This is because its brand has been used as a stage to introduce associated products. Burberry has highly benefits from its brand extensions through the leveraging of its existing brand popularity thereby reducing expenditures on advertising at a less risk from the consumers’ perspective. These fitting brand extensions have been improving the core brand.

Burberry has a strong consumer-base. Its strong brand has increased the attitude strength of consumers toward product related to other Burberry brand. This attitude strength has been built by positive experienced by customers with the company’s products. These consumers’ association and awareness have led to imaginary quality, indirect attributes and finally, loyalty to the brand.

Clearly, Burberry’s brand equity in its line of clothes emanates from its well-known checkered pattern. Burberry first introduced its check pattern in the beginning of the 1920s as an inner lining to its stylish trench coat, and it was registered as a trademark. This trench coat was selected to be the British arm’s official coat in the First and Second World War. Over the following years, celebrities, socialites, politicians, movie stars, explorers and even kings all dressing themselves in the checkered flag. Consequently, the brand more and more became a sign of both social status and luxury.

Compared to many other companies Burberry has many followers to a range of10 millions. As much as many other companies might be attempting to develop their brands to such a level, it is wise instead to learn them. Burberry’s ability to develop a big mass of followers on the social media has been contingent in creating its high brand affinity. It has been able to reach its target market by executing a good content strategy. 

Burberry Brand Affinity

Burberry brand has been outstanding because of its quality e-commerce website and seamlessly-blended content. The brand message which Burberry conveys through its digital marketing tools is “an association to a rare experience. Basically it is a desire, a dream, and something to desire to.” Even though there is a small number of the more than 10 million followers that can have enough money to buy branded Burberry products, all the followers have the affinity for Burberry brand. 

Content Strategy

A major objective of executing a properly defined content strategy is to maintain a continuous engagement with the target audience. An important element of this approach is that organizations or companies must utilize their brand message to show their main attributes through various social media websites.  The Burberry content strategy utilizes vivid images of photos and videos as observed on the Facebook Page wall regardless of the goods being promoted.

Key Findings

This company has been operating a global luxury brand ever since 1910, with divisions in Asia, the US, and continental Europe, in the1998's financial year, Burberry’s profits plummeted by £ 37 million. At this point, Burberry’s business model needed reconstruction desperately. In 1997, the company’s products were offered in 60 different stores in London, apart from the most prominent retailers such as Harrods, Selfridges, or Harvey Nichols (Bickle p. 23).

Burberry's IPO prospectus noted a high dependence on small base key products, a company-hold retail system based on non-strategic areas and conflicting wholesale distribution approach with goods that are sold in a broad-range of retail settings of different quality. They exhibited matching trading of goods by genuine wholesale clientele to several other illegitimate stock lists and distributors and a weakly restricted licensing plan that resulted in discrepancies in prices, quality, and design control in the entire markets. There was low-investment in commercial infrastructures, particularly in regard to merchandising, marketing, merchandise development, and several other support roles as key strategic problems the company faced.

As an initial step, Burberry employed a new CEO and started concentrating on improving its brand image, sourcing and product design, and the distribution of the brand. To bring into line Burberry with several other luxury lines Burberry opened its first store on the New Bond Street that had extra 10,000 square foot space for selling, and improved the its London brand to show the recently introduced lifestyle-image it at present represents. The latest Burberry business model consists of four interconnected dimensions: manufacturing and sourcing, products, marketing communications and distribution channels.

The last changes were implemented by the year 2000 and 2003 Burberry turnover grew by 263 percent and its profits grew by 630 percent. In order to generate and create a unified brand identity every Burberry marketing operations are run from London. The three main strands to its communications model are advertising, editorial placement, and fashion shows.  Burberry as a result exhibits its Prorsum line two times a year in the city of Milan, and its London line is publicized at the London Fashion Week every season in showrooms in London (Capon p. 34).

In conclusion, the Burberry's business model standouts as both a general model of how to build a successful luxury brand, nevertheless, a unique brand as well. Burberry’s model recognizes five major success features: the significance of positioning the brand clearly with attractive lifestyle and values; maximum market exposure through synchronized distribution where all the wholesale and retail chains match each other; expansion into closest product areas by way of strong internal capability and licensing agreements; supple management of vital overseas markets, and outstanding management of media relations to maintain and create the brand's status.