The Burberry Case, Marketing Plan Example

In the business world, it is important to consider supply and demand. This is even more important in the fashion industry because it is difficult to predict the wants of customers. Since high end clothing is more of a want than a need, business professionals in this field need to carefully think about how much product should be released and for what cost. Rose Marie Bravo was a good business woman because she helped restructure her company in a manner that minimized risk in light of the unavoidable dangers of her industry. Ultimately, she made many changes that helped decrease Burberry’s risk profile.

Broadly, a risk profile is defined as a balance between an organizations threats and the risks that they are willing to take. In order to drive profit, it is essential to determine which risks are likely to result in the highest amount of money, which will therefore allow the company to best determine which risky decisions it should make. Bravo’s attempt to overhaul the company’s distribution strategy and revamp their product line resulted in success and Burberry had become one of the best known name brands in the world. Since Burberry had started out as an outerwear line and Bravo wanted to remarket the brand as a luxury clothing line, it was first necessary to reposition the brand. This step helped to significantly decrease the company’s risk profile.

To reposition a brand ultimately means to redefine what it means to consumers. Since Bravo wanted to make Burberry into a well-known luxury line, this phase of the project involved many challenging steps. It was helpful for Bravo to consider the several luxury lines that were already in existence, such as Ralph Lauren, to define what types of standards she wished the company to have. This was a useful step in surveying the market to determine what types of products were in existence and how much they cost. Based on these findings, Bravo worked to reduce risk by marketing Burberry as a brand that would be considered “affordable luxury”. It would have the same quality clothing as well-known brands and the same reputation, but the cost would be lower. Therefore, Burberry would do well compared to its competitors because it would be able to reach a broader marker. This was a significant move in reducing risk because although the fashion industry is somewhat unpredictable, research indicates that well-made products sold at low prices will perform well.

In order to achieve a luxury brand status, Bravo recognized that it was necessary for her to update the product line. Although Burberry traditionally sold functional trench coats and associated outerwear, there was a need to remodel the clothing line into one that would be considered more fashionable by those who favored luxury brands. To do so, Bravo reduced the models of clothing that would be sold in stores. Since they originally sold many, it was easy for the clothing to become outdated quickly. Instead, she decided to focus on a smaller amount of clothing that would be recycled and replaced more regularly. In addition, the brand decided to focus on selling accessories in addition to coats. This significantly reduced the company’s risk profile because a constant cycling through available products would drive the fashion world’s interest into the new products that were developed and they would stay popular for a longer time because there would be less available. Furthermore, selling different types of products in addition to coats would allow individuals who may already have a coat for the season to accessorize. Thus, business would be expanded to individuals who are not interested in the company’s primary product. Through this effort, the company was able to communicate the value of their product, which means that they were able to demonstrate the quality of their goods for the price it was being sold at.

An additional action that helped reduce Burberry’s risk profile is that it recognized it needed a target market. Bravo realized that one store could not possibly reach out to every age group, social class, and gender, so she implemented many “sub-labels” to complement the main label “Burberry London”. Since teenagers have different fashion wants and needs than adults, stores such as “Burberry Blue” and Burberry Black” were created. This helped create brand equity, which is defined as generating business based on the value of a name brand. Thus, Burberry was able to sell clothes to many different kinds of customers based on its already established name. Furthermore, different types of Burberry stores were opened in different countries to reflect their unique cultural needs. In this manner, Burberry found a way to have a product from everyone. Once it achieved its goal of becoming a higher end store, it was at the same time able to market its reputation as a store that sells practical clothing. Therefore, their clothes would have high usability at the same time that models would be able to walk down the runway wearing this brand. This reduced Burberry’s risk profile because reaching out to a larger market results in a greater profit. Since the company was not able to reach out to an entire target market in one way, it adjusted so that it could reach smaller parts of the market through individual stores.

One of Bravo’s major successes that further decreased Burberry’s risk profile was due to her genius in advertising the brand. She was aware that to market the company as a luxury brand, it would be beneficial to involve people that were already associated with fashion and luxury into this process. Therefore, she recruited well known photographers and allowed a large budget for this portion of the project. The aim of this campaign was to emphasize Burberry’s new modern look while showing that their character was the same as it had been for years. As their advertising campaign evolved, they recruited well known models so that they would be able to continue to sell their image. In the end, this contributed to the success of the company because people were able to associate this with things they believed to be classy and worthwhile. The use of models such as Kate Moss in their later campaigns demonstrated that celebrities backed the company. This reduced Burberry’s risk profile because it showed that the company was legitimate and supported by many people that were already considered to be trustworthy. This helped contribute to the brand’s competitive dynamics, which marks its success compared to its competitors.

In conclusion, Rose Marie Bravo’s actions helped Burberry shift from a failing company facing many risks to a successful one that is well known today. By restructuring the company to sell new products at competitive prices, redefining the brand as comfortable and affordable, creating different stores to reach different target markets, and creating successful advertising campaigns, she greatly reduced the company’s risk profile. Ultimately, Bravo helped turn around a company that might have gone bankrupt into a very successful luxury clothing line. Although the company has a lot of work to do to ensure that it stays at the top, Bravo did a good job that will help keep it at the top.

References

Kotler P, Keller KL. (2012). Marketing Management. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.