Brand Positioning Analysis



centercenterBenjamin Perryn8859612 | AMB211Brand Positioning AnalysisBurberry00Benjamin Perryn8859612 | AMB211Brand Positioning AnalysisBurberry38982658105775Word Count: 19750Word Count: 197539008057651115Tutor: Benita Bell0Tutor: Benita BellFrame of ReferenceBurberry is a luxury fashion brand that was established in 1856 by Thomas Burberry and rose to prominence after the First World War. Such iconic products as their military trench coat and the unique Burberry check have become the defining images of the brand. CITATION Tok12 \l 3081 (Tokatli, 2012). In modern times, the brand has shifted from its original roots in British fashion royalty CITATION Str16 \l 3081 (Straker & Wrigley, 2016) and has recently cultivated a reputation for being ‘trendy’ and ‘cool’ CITATION Pha11 \l 3081 (Phan, Thomas, & Heine, 2011). This evolution is significant when analysing the brand’s evolving frame of reference, as they begin to narrow their focus to younger consumers. Historically, the target market for Burberry has been exceptionally broad, with no particular focus on gender, age or geographic location, but rather on income level. Approximately 74% of the company’s total sales fall under the “women’s, beauty or accessories” CITATION Bur161 \l 3081 (Burberry, 2016), so it can be seen that purchases of their products were predominantly made by females. This did not, however, define their frame of reference in terms of brand positioning. Conventionally, they segmented the market primarily on economic grounds CITATION Ahr13 \l 3081 (Ahrendts, 2013). 2011 signalled a change in focus for the Burberry and they have changed from targeting the market as a whole, to focusing their attention on millennials, aged 18-30 years CITATION Bur161 \l 3081 (Burberry, 2016), a group they believed their competitors were not engaging with CITATION Ahr13 \l 3081 (Ahrendts, 2013). Burberry still maintains a global appeal. Socio-economic factors still play a major role in segmenting their target market, however, Burberry has importantly recognised that it is not necessarily income that is relevant, but rather the level of disposable income CITATION Dub93 \l 3081 (Dubois & Duquense, 1993). It is important to note, however, that demographics only account for a tiny fraction of what drives consumers to buy luxury brands. Personality characteristics play a far greater role CITATION Sub16 \l 3081 (Subhadip, Raj, & Rashmita, 2016). The Burberry consumer has aspirational values and is seeking to associate themselves with the status and prestige of the Burberry brand. Research published in the Journal of Business Research has shown that a major influencer in the decision to purchase luxury brands, such as Burberry, is to provide satisfaction through enhancing one’s image CITATION Meg12 \l 3081 (Megehee & Spake, 2012). Therefore we can see that consumers seek primarily symbolic benefits when purchasing Burberry products CITATION Kel93 \t \l 3081 (Keller, 1993). Furthermore, Burberry is making a conscious effort to reinforce the experiential benefits that their products, and particularly their service, can offer. Burberry has been particularly successful in creating an online experience around their brand, which adds to these experiential benefits. Consumers feel that they are a part of this community when they engage with and purchase Burberry products CITATION Tok12 \l 3081 (Tokatli, 2012). This shift in direction Burberry has made in recent years has dramatically narrowed their target market to those 18-30 years of age, but in doing so, Burberry has managed to revitalise their brand petition within the broader luxury fashion market is considerable. Burberry faces challenges from many of the world’s most recognisable luxury brands, including Ralph Lauren, Armani, Prada and Estée Lauder to name just a fraction CITATION Con15 \l 3081 (Consultancy UK, 2015). If we investigate the products that define the brand’s image, namely it’s outwear and accessories, it’s main rivals within are Gucci and Louis Vuitton. Currently, Burberry owns a far smaller market share than these two competitors. The top 100 brands in the global luxury fashion market netted US$ 214.2 Billion in sales in 2015. Louis Vuitton and Gucci commanded market sales of approximately $US 22 Billion and $US8.5 Billion respectively, compared to Burberry’s $US 3.7 Billion CITATION Del15 \l 3081 (Deloitte, 2015). However, the growth figures for these companies provide some optimism for Burberry, whose sales grew by 16.6%. Comparatively, Louis Vuitton’s sales were stagnant and Gucci’s sales grew by only 4.2% CITATION Del15 \l 3081 (Deloitte, 2015). These three brands are significant as they encompass a substantial portion of the global accessories sales within the luxury fashion market. Burberry is therefore in direction competition with these brands and should be looking to capture some of this market share from Louis Vuitton and Gucci. To aspirational and style conscious millennials who seek greater status and prestige, Burberry is the luxury fashion brand that successfully balances traditional heritage with contemporary style and trendy chic. Its innovative digital and social media strategy focuses on its iconic products and British heritage and encourages participation in the global Burberry online community. Points of ParityIn order to be a viable player in any given market, a brand must meet certain basic requirements, or points of parity, within that market. Failure to do so will mean that consumers will not include that brand in their consideration set CITATION Kel02 \t \l 3081 (Keller, Sternthal, & Tybout, 2002). Burberry gained first-hand experience with this issue in the early 2000s when they suffered a significant hit to their status as a luxury brand. The minimum requirements a luxury fashion brand has to fulfil are that it has to be selective and exclusive. At the turn of the century, Burberry’s lax licensing strategy and ventures in to the polo shirt and even the kilt market, had led to their brand, and in particular their famous Burberry check, becoming ubiquitous CITATION Pha11 \l 3081 (Phan, Thomas, & Heine, 2011). By 2004, pubs and clubs in Britain has started to ban anybody wearing Burberry from entering their premises, and the brand had become particularly popular amongst the ‘football hooligans’ in England CITATION Tok12 \l 3081 (Tokatli, 2012). Burberry had failed to maintain the points of parity required to be a luxury brand and consumers were no longer buying Burberry as it could not provide the symbolic benefits that consumers in this frame of reference were looking for CITATION Wil12 \l 3081 (Willems, et al., 2012). Through years of rebranding efforts, Burberry has managed to remedy this crisis. By closing factories that produced the polo shirts and ending the majority of its licensing agreements with foreign producers, Burberry has once again become an exclusive brand. It also protected the price point for its iconic trench coats, which will never again be on sale for a reduced price CITATION Ahr13 \l 3081 (Ahrendts, 2013). These strategies were required so that Burberry could attain these points of parity and be considered alongside competitors such as Gucci and Louis Vuitton. Points of parity have to be continually reassessed by established brands as the global markets change and the basic consumer demands change. A classic example of this is the accessories market pioneered by Gucci. Gucci handbags had become the staple of their brand, and was a significant point of difference for them. However, consumer demands shifted and soon all the major luxury brands were expected to offer accessory options to complement their apparel ranges CITATION Hra13 \l 3081 (Hracs, Jakob, & Hauge, 2013). Similarly, Burberry was the first luxury brand that ventured in to the digital and social media landscape CITATION Pha11 \l 3081 (Phan, Thomas, & Heine, 2011). It was an extremely successful point of difference for the brand that was quickly copied by the other players in the sector. It is now impossible to find a luxury brand that does not have a major online presence across all the social media platforms CITATION Kim12 \l 3081 (Kim & Ko, 2012). Not all competitor points of difference are necessarily goals to strive to. Brands need to consider their own personality and offerings before attempting to copy their competitors. A good illustration of this is the customer experience that Louis Vuitton has cultivated as their point of difference. Louise Vuitton offers an extremely personalised shopping experience where the goal is to make each customer feel ‘noble’ and elevated above the rest of society CITATION Tho11 \l 3081 (Thompson, 2011). This point of difference should not be an ambition for Burberry. Consumers seek out Burberry to be a part of this community and to benefit from that sense of belonging, so if Burberry were to copy the individualistic model of Louis Vuitton, their customers would lose this extrinsic communal benefit. This example is demonstrative of what established brands need to consider when they are operating on the mature phase of their product life-cycle. It is important for these brands to continue to innovated and extend their offering, but it is also equally important to remain true to the brand equity they have fostered among their consumers CITATION Kel02 \t \l 3081 (Keller, Sternthal, & Tybout, 2002). Points of DifferencePoints of difference are key leveraging tools that elevate brands from average players to formidable forces within a market. In order for an attribute of a brand to be a successful point of difference, it must different, desirable and deliverable CITATION Kel93 \t \l 3081 (Keller, 1993). Points of difference, when promoted effectively, create strong, favourable and unique brand associations in the minds of the consumer. One such point of difference for Burberry is its unique ‘Britishness’ CITATION Str16 \l 3081 (Straker & Wrigley, 2016). Burberry is the most recognisable and successful British luxury brand on the global market and this forms a key part of its strategy. This point of difference for Burberry is linked to the location of the brands heritage and, as such, is impossible to mimic for its competitors. There is strong evidence to suggest that a brand image that is tightly interwoven with a country identity provides enormous brand equity both domestically and internationally CITATION Jun14 \l 3081 (Jung Jung, Lee, Kim, & Yang, 2014). Burberry has taken several steps to capitalise on its British heritage by centralising the creative design of its products globally through its London office CITATION Ahr13 \l 3081 (Ahrendts, 2013). It has also run promotional campaigns the feature prominent British celebrities, such as Emma Watson, as brand ambassadors CITATION Bur161 \l 3081 (Burberry, 2016). While all the major luxury fashion brands have a proactive online presence, Burberry’s offerings in this space are quite unique. Other brands talk at their consumers, like a traditional advertiser would talk to an audience, whereas Burberry treats its customers more like an army of brand ambassadors, leaving a lot the heavy lifting with respect to content creation to its broader ‘fan base’, and example of this being the ‘Art of Trench’ campaign CITATION Pha11 \l 3081 (Phan, Thomas, & Heine, 2011). This forms a stark contrast to the traditional fashion industry model CITATION Meg12 \l 3081 (Megehee & Spake, 2012). There is obviously a lot of risk here for Burberry, by outsourcing its promotional content creation to its customers, they relinquish a fair amount of control over their brand image. This risk has paid off for them, however, and this point of difference adds significantly to the experiential benefits of community that have become so important to the Burberry Brand CITATION Bur161 \l 3081 (Burberry, 2016). RecommendationsBurberry has performed a terrific turnaround in recent years and has largely managed to salvage a brand that at one point threatened to drop out of the luxury category entirely CITATION Wal16 \l 3081 (Walker, 2016). However, there is still room for improvement for Burberry. Their strategy of focusing on millennials has done wonders to bring new customers to Burberry, but the risk remains that these customers will not remain to the brand as they get older. Customer lifetime value is vital to the ongoing success of a luxury brand CITATION Kim121 \l 3081 (Kim K. , Ko, Xu, & Han, 2012), so Burberry should offer incentives for these customers to remain loyal. This could be done by maturing their promotional content to mirror the maturation in their consumer base.Furthermore, Burberry needs to be wary of the effect of competitors on their social media point of difference. Burberry must continue to innovate the way that they promote themselves through these platforms by staying ahead of their rivals. Brand innovation is a key factor in maintaining luxury status CITATION Mil12 \l 3081 (Miller & Mills, 2012). One option for Burberry could be to pioneer the bourgeoning f-commerce market, which is yet to be fully utilised by any of the major players in the luxury fashion industry. Burberry prides itself on staying ahead of the stylistic trends; being contemporary and traditional at the same time. In order to keep these associations strong, favourable and unique it must continue to innovate its brand position. These recommendations should allow Burberry stay one step ahead of Gucci and Louis Vuitton in the highly competitive luxury fashion industry. Reference List BIBLIOGRAPHY Ahrendts, A. (2013, February). Burberry’s CEO on Turning an Aging British Icon into a Global Luxury Brand. Harvard Business Review, .Burberry. (2016). Strategic Report 2015-16. London: Burberry Plc.Consultancy UK. (2015). Global luxury market worth 224 billion, top 20 brands. London: consultancy.uk.Deloitte. (2015). Global Powers of Luxury Goods 2015. London: Deloitte.Dubois, B., & Duquense, P. (1993). The market for luxury goods: Income versus culture. European Journal of Marketing, 27(1), 35-44.Hracs, B. J., Jakob, D., & Hauge, A. (2013). Standing out in the crowd: the rise of exclusivity-based strategies to compete in the contemporary marketplace for music and fashion. Environment and Planning, 45, 1144-1161.Jung Jung, H., Lee, Y., Kim, H., & Yang, H. (2014). Impacts of country images on luxury fashion brand: facilitating with the brand resonance model. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 18(2), 187-205.Keller, K. L. (1993, January). Conceptualising, Measuring and Managing Customer-Based Brand Equity. Journal of Marketin, 1-22.Keller, K. L., Sternthal, B., & Tybout, A. (2002, September). Three Questions You Need to Ask About Your Brand. Harvard Business Review, 3-8.Kim, A. J., & Ko, E. (2012, October). Do social media marketing activities enhance customer equity? An empirical study of luxury fashion brand. Journal of Business Research, 1480-1486.Kim, K., Ko, E., Xu, B., & Han, Y. (2012, October). Increasing customer equity of luxury fashion brands through nurturing consumer attitude. Journal of Business Research, 65(10), 1495-1499.Megehee, C. M., & Spake, D. F. (2012, October). Consumer enactments of archetypes using luxury brands. Journal of Business Research, 65(10), 1434-1442.Miller, K. W., & Mills, M. K. (2012, October). Contributing clarity by examining brand luxury in the fashion market. Journal of Business Research, 1471-1479.Phan, M., Thomas, R., & Heine, K. (2011). Social Media and Luxury Brand Management: The Case of Burberry. Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 2, 213-222.Straker, K., & Wrigley, C. (2016). Emotionally engaging customers in the digital age: the case study of “Burberry love”. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 20(3), 276-299.Subhadip, R., Raj, S., & Rashmita, S. (2016). The effect of demographic and personality characteristics on fashion shopping proneness. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 44(4), 426-447.Thompson, D. (2011, May 11). Branding Louis Vuitton: Behind the World's Most Famous Luxury Label. Retrieved August 24, 2016, from : , N. (2012). Old firms, new tricks and the quest for profits: Burberry’s journey from success to failure and back to success again. Journal of Economic Geography, 12(1), 55-77.Walker, R. (2016, February 24). Burberry Puts on a Brave Face as Luxury Goods Environment Worsens. Retrieved August 23, 2016, from : , K., Janssens, W., Swinnen, G., Brengman, M., Streukens, S., & Vancauteren, M. (2012, October). From Armani to Zara: Impression formation based on fashion store patronage. Journal of Business Research, 65(10), 1487-1494. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download