Burberry Case Study
1. The Burberry brand has be come a symbol of both luxury and durability. The brand has been repositioned to a niche market between cutting-edge fashion apparel, like Armani, and classic fashion apparel, like Polo Ralph Lauren. Burberry has also excelled in the accessories market, positioning itself between the Coach and Gucci brands. Burberry does not want to be cutting-edge fashion and at the same time, does not want to be viewed as just classic, as this market is already saturated with other brands. Burberry represents “accessible luxury”, meaning they were fashionable, but also functional.
Burberry’s competitive position is sustainable over the long-term providing that the industry itself remains stable. Burberry’s competitors, like Ralph Lauren, have proven that they can maintain their position over the long-term in both low-end traditional and high-end fashion markets so I believe Burberry has the capability to do the same. Burberry maintains its position of fashionable and functional. If they can do this, the barrier to entry for this niche should remain too high for competitors to enter.
2. Since her arrival at Burberry, Rose Marie Bravo set out to make Burberry “great from a global perspective”. She attempted to do this by implementing multiple key changes to the Burberry brand. These changes include repositioning the brand, updating the product line, establishing flagship stores, expanding the brand portfolio, and promoting the new brand image.
Bravo was able to reposition the Burberry brand into the category of luxury brand. She did so by filling an empty gap in the market, between that of classic fashion and cutting-edge fashion. The goal of this change was to attract younger customers while retaining their core customer base. While repositioning a brand is always risky, finding a niche market and not directly competing with these other luxury brands helped Burberry to minimize some of the risk from the change. Burberry also limited
Burberry’s competitive position is sustainable over the long-term providing that the industry itself remains stable. Burberry’s competitors, like Ralph Lauren, have proven that they can maintain their position over the long-term in both low-end traditional and high-end fashion markets so I believe Burberry has the capability to do the same. Burberry maintains its position of fashionable and functional. If they can do this, the barrier to entry for this niche should remain too high for competitors to enter.
2. Since her arrival at Burberry, Rose Marie Bravo set out to make Burberry “great from a global perspective”. She attempted to do this by implementing multiple key changes to the Burberry brand. These changes include repositioning the brand, updating the product line, establishing flagship stores, expanding the brand portfolio, and promoting the new brand image.
Bravo was able to reposition the Burberry brand into the category of luxury brand. She did so by filling an empty gap in the market, between that of classic fashion and cutting-edge fashion. The goal of this change was to attract younger customers while retaining their core customer base. While repositioning a brand is always risky, finding a niche market and not directly competing with these other luxury brands helped Burberry to minimize some of the risk from the change. Burberry also limited