BURBERRY - brand contact and internal marketing

The Burberry group is a successful, prestigious fashion brand started in the UK in 1856 by Thomas Burberry.

They have established five brands:

• Burberry London (the main brand image)
• Thomas Burberry
• Burberry Brit
• Burberry Sport
• Burberry Prorsum

Situation Analysis:

Creating and implementing a marketing strategy is to purely make sure the brand will succeed and sales will increase. To ensure that this happens, the SWOT analysis and the PEST was invented.

SWOT:

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Using this, a brand can carefully analyse and establish their internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats.

PEST:

PEST stands for Political, Economic, Social and Technological. A brand uses this to analyse these four external factors in relation with their brand. It helps to determine how these factors will affect the performance and activities of the brand in the long-term.

Objectives:

Business to customer objectives:

The smart objectives chose for the marketing plan of Burberry is:

Creating awareness - the main aim is to make sure that the brand is positively and visually                                                     represented. That includes designing adverts, creating campaigns, etc.

                                   that will promote the brand.

                                - another aim is to promote the product as a 'must-have'. That way, you draw                                          attention away from the high price. You have to promote the quality of the                                            product and make people believe their product is worth the price.

Management objective:

Marketing management is important because that will control the image that's being sold.

Strategy:

Pricing Strategy:

Burberry is a very high-class fashion brand, which means that they will be able to attach high prices to their clothing. The majority of the clothes will be priced from 200 pounds up to about 1 000 pounds depending on the item being sold. Items such as scarves, caps and smaller accessories will be in lower price ranges.

Store design:

Burberry stores would be described as modern, chic, sophisticated and edgy. In the store open and natural light will be featured. Every visit or experience would be handled in such a way that the customer will come back time and time again.

Burberry customer experience:

Burberry stands out amongst other brands when it comes to customer experience because they succeed when it comes product customization and social media.

Many other fashion brands and retailers face challenges in the omnichannel environment which could lead to lack of customer experience due to too many store outlets as well as clashing customer experience. Many retailers try to overcome this challenge by taking a phygital approach. 'Phygital' refers to a physical/digital retail experience. The phygital trend was invented to improve a customer's overall retail experience of different fashion brands.

Burberry launched a line of scarves designed to be customized by customers. The online store Scarf Bar, allows customers to choose from over 30 different colours and prints and the choice to add their own three-letter monogram. This is a great example of how Burberry strategises to appeal to their sutomers. 

Customization is a great way for customers to experience a brand and its products. Customization is also a sign of class and style. According to The Telegraph, "Burberry's Scarf Bars join an ever-increasing list of designer facilities pandering to luxury consumers' desire for customization. It's no longer the done thing to tote the latest 'it'-bag, or in this case, 'it'-scarf. Premium products need to have the personal touch, whether it's a customized pair of Jimmy Choos, engraved Faberge egg charm or initialed Louis Vuitton leather goods."

Another great example is how Burberry effectively uses digital marketing and social media. Burberry streamed the photo shoot of the Spring 2016 line to give fans a behind-the-scenes look. Snapchat is Burberry's main source of inside info through social media the two things they have to carefully manage is timing and experience.

With Snapchat, fans gained early access to the Spring 2016 collection. Snapchat also allows fans a fun and unique way to experience the bran. Christopher Bailey, the CEO, told Mashable: "We wanted to play with the traditional format of an advertising campaign to make it much more immediate and accessible. We are totally focused on capturing the energy and the rawness of the shoot and sharing the moment as it happens."

Burberry tries to create and display their social media as an experience on its own. Even though it gives millennials access to the brand, they still manage to maintain its prestige and high price tag. By focusing on their digital marketing they aren't only succeeding in creating a good customer experience, but their sales also increase.

Burberry has always worked towards a signature trend - the distinguishable tartan pattern. Having a signature trend is a huge advantage because it helps establish a brand's name and identity. Not only does it have a signature pattern, but also an iconic product - the trench coat.

The marketing plan is designed to increase the overall performance of Burberry by increasing brand image, sales, brand value and customer satisfaction.

"It's really important to be disruptive and do things that are actually kind of a little scary and bold"

-Christopher Bailey

Bibliography

Burberry. (n.d.). Retrieved December 5, 2017, from Burberry: https://www.burberry.com/

Milnes, H. (2015, December 2). How Burberry became the top digital luxury brand. Retrieved December 5, 2017, from Digiday: https://digiday.com/marketing/burberry-became-top-digital-luxury-brand/

Pestininkaite, E. (2015, March 1). Strategic Fashion Marketing Plan for Burberry. Retrieved December 5, 2017, from Issuu: https://issuu.com/emilepestininkaite/docs/emile_strategic_marketing_final

Wilson, R. (2017, November 6). Burberry and Mulberry face branding challenges in luxury market. Retrieved December 5, 2017, from Media & Tech Network: https://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2014/nov/06/mulberry-burberry-luxury-branding-challenges