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Going Digital Top Priority For Brand Building: Burberry

November 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

You can spot a Burberry scarf, handbag or coat anywhere in the crowd. But even this iconic luxury brand had to dive into unchartered water to weather the financial storm that shook the markets two years back.

Angela Ahrendts, CEO, Burberry, like other leading retailers present at the event, stressed on the importance of a digital strategy and the role it should play as part of the brand building effort. And so Burberry, too, boarded the digital tsunami as Ahrendts explained.

She touched upon the “soft strategies” — style, structure and value — the fashion retailer focused on during the recession. “Transitioning the business to the digital age was the top priority. We turned our world upside down in every area. But everything we do with the brand at the core, keeping with the ethos of the brand,” she said.

 

 

At Burberry, they created a Strategic Innovation Council, an interdisciplinary council to transport the brand into the digital age. The company created its own Icon Awards to recognise good work, it’s the luxury retailer’s version of the Oscars.

Burberry spoke to customers via Facebook (and has two million fans on the social network) and created live streams of 3D fashion shows simultaneously across all its markets and 3D advertising campaigns. She said Burberry rediscovered its purpose and values.

 

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Burberry Shows Off Its Biker Look – And Its Technological Nous

September 22, 2010 By Leave a Comment

A heavily studded leather biker jacket isn’t the most obvious high summer look. But then British superbrand Burberry, which showed its new collection at London fashion week today, no longer plays by fashion’s rules. The 154-year-old brand is now undoubtedly the most technologically savvy fashion powerhouse and even refuses to see other international clothing labels as its competitors.

Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts recently told the Wall Street Journal that she no longer looked to the likes of Gucci and Chanel for comparison, but to Apple. “They’re a brilliant design company working to create a lifestyle, and that’s the way I see us,” she said.

The label’s chief creative officer, Christopher Bailey, the designer behind the “heritage biker” look, is a self-confessed gadget nut and music fan. He regularly speaks to his customers directly via social networking sites and is intent on building a so-called Burberry community.

Today’s show included a multitude of high-end leather biker jackets, some heavily studded, some made from dyed python skin and some trench-come-biker jacket hybrids with padded leather sleeves. Leather motorcycle trousers with articulated knees and leopard-print ruched minidresses completed the look.

Patent handbags and belts in opal, spearmint and merlot provided shots of colour while biker-inspired court shoes provided the challenge: some of the models found them impossible to walk in. The show was watched not just by the likes of Anna Wintour and Sarah Jessica Parker seated in the front row, but by invited VIP customers who saw it broadcast in 25 of Burberry’s stores worldwide.

During the show they were able to browse the collection on iPads and buy selected clothes and makeup. Their orders will be delivered in seven weeks’ time – a speeded-up version of the long-established catwalk-to-wardrobe cycle which makes a mockery of the usual four-month wait.

Last season Burberry tried out a scaled-down version of this click-and-buy formula and its decision to connect directly with its customers is clearly working. Recent reports say the luxury brand is worth $2.2bn in sales.

The show also got the nod from the government today. Speaking from the front row, Ed Vaizey, the minister with responsibilities for communication, culture and the creative industries, said he was there to celebrate fashion as a business: “It’s important to show that behind the glitzy catwalk show Burberry is a business that employs thousands of people in the UK. If they were making widgets we would be shouting from the rooftops about it. So let’s shout about it.”

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Burberry to exit spain – Retailing Burberry products in spain unviable

February 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Burberry is to close its loss-making ­Spanish business which produces a cheaper ­clothing line sold in department stores such as El Corte Engles. The luxury fashion company said sales had collapsed by almost 40% as consumers cut back spending in the recession ravaged country. As a result Burberry said it was “no longer viable” to make a separate collection for Spain. The company has begun talks with 300 staff at the head office in Barcelona, which is to close.

Burberry
Spain is unusual within Burberry’s presence in 25 countries with the business a hangover from its days as a franchise operation. The company bought it back ten years ago and had slowly been moving it into line with other European markets such as France. ­Burberry chief executive Angela Ahrendts said the deterioration in sales meant decisive action was called for.

Burberry said its Spanish business had a turnover of £145m in the year to March 2009 but six months into this financial year, sales were down 37%. The company will now meet Spanish clients such as El Corte Engles to discuss options as the winter collection is already in production.

Ahrendts’ predecessor Rose Marie Bravo reinvented the dowdy British trenchcoat maker as an international ­luxury brand whose glamorous campaigns are now fronted by Harry Potter actress Emma Watson. Bravo began buying out licence-holders so the group could regain control of the brand’s image.

The luxury label said it would launch its main collection, which is designed by Christopher Bailey, in Spain next year. The change may put off some retailers as it is more expensive – and fashionable – than the Spanish diffusion line. The designer collection is only sold in three Spanish stores at present.

Burberry said the restructuring costs could run to €70m (£61m) and it would explain how next year’s profits would be affected at full-year results in May. Shore Capital analyst Kate Calvert said Spain had been Burberry’s “achilles heel” for some time: “Spain was run under licence and the brand became over-exposed. We believe this is the right decision even though there may well be some short-term financial pain.”

Analysts estimate that El Corte Engles accounted for 50% of Spanish sales and its decision would be key to determining the future size and shape of the business.

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