MIT World Peace University, Pune, India.

School Of Management
MBA- (MARKETING )
Trimester-IV
Course Code & Name
MBA4008 MM / Marketing Of Luxury Goods
CASE # 1

MOLG/CSAE/1

CASE STUDY ON HOW BURBERRY BECAME A DIGITAL

LUXURY BRAND

About – The Burberry Story

Established in 1856 and headquartered in London, England, Burberry Group Inc is a

British luxury lifestyle fashion house founded by Thomas Burberry. The company

designs, manufactures and sells products under the Burberry brand. The company

specializes in ready-made apparel, accessories, fragrances, cosmetics and sunglasses.

And, it’s merchandise is known for its signature check patterns. The brand has dressed

notable celebrities from diverse fields.

The brand is synonymous with its tan Gabardine raincoat pioneered 145 years ago.

Founder Thomas Burberry was not particularly pleased with the then popular rubberized

mackintosh raincoat. Gaining inspiration from the country folk’s loose smocks; Thomas

designed a breathable weather proof fabric, which was then trademarked as

“Gabardine”, a Shakespearean term meaning shelter from inclement weather.

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The rain coat was first exported to Japan during World War 1 and brought glory to

brand. The coat later came to be known as “Trench Coat” due to the pervasiveness and

endurance it offered during trench warfare.

The ‘Burberry Check’ was first introduced as a lining to the trench court. The Paris store

owner using his dexterity turned up the hem of one of the coats to highlight the

checked lining and repeated the ‘check’ for the umbrellas. The idea was a runaway

success and it made & sold hundreds of umbrellas. The experiment led to the

introduction of the checked cashmere scarf, a perennial bestseller.

Burberry has branded stores and franchises around the world and the brands first store

opened its doors to the public in 1891 in the Haymarket region of London, while the

first overseas store opened in 1910 in the city of Paris. Presently, the brand has more

than 500 stores in more than 50 countries.

Burberry Group Inc is listed in the London Stock Exchange and CEO and Chief Creative

Officer Christopher Bailey has been at the helm of affairs of the since 2014.

Business Objective – Why go for Digital Marketing?

About a decade ago, Burberry was struggling and the luxury brands performance was

not at par with its peers. In 2006 the then CEO Adriana Ahrendts decided to reinvent the

the brand and attract younger customers.

Ahrendts prime objective was to make Burberry the first company to go fully digital and

to build a social enterprise. She quoted to the Harvard Business Review “The number one

strategy that came (from our first meeting) was all centered around the brand. We want

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to purify the brand message and how we were going to do that; by focusing on outer

wear, by focusing on digital, by targeting a younger consumer”.

Broadly Ahrendts wanted to develop a well-defined and modern brand identity and

design excellent customer service.

Strategy – How they did it

The brand has employed a strong social strategy in order to reach out to its target

audience in the digital space. The bulk of their campaign has centered around social

media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The fashion house has

maintained a steady theme across different platforms but has optimized the content to

suit each platform. For example it has used Facebook for live streaming and exhibiting

products, Instagram for visuals and Twitter to incite user engagement and interaction.

Apart from the social media platforms Burberry has also leveraged Burberry.com in a big

way to engage with customers.

1. Art of the Trench Campaign – First Launched in November 2009, it was

Burberry’s first major campaign after is foray into the digital space. In order to
enhance the appeal of the campaign Burberry joined hands with Scott Schuman also
known as The Sartorialist after his fashion blog. The team created a micro site
wherein existing customers could post snaps wearing their own trench courts. Users
could comment, like the content and share the snaps on Facebook, Twitter and E-
mail. The idea was to transfer the limelight on to customers and make them feel
special. It enhanced the aspirational value of the brand and at the same time
enhanced brand loyalty by establishing a connection with customers. The same year,
the Spring/Summer 2010 show was streamed live, giving the world free access to
exclusive ramp action for the first time. Within a year, Burberry’s Facebook page had

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 more than a million followers, the largest at the time for a luxury brand and Burberry
recorded a 50% growth in e-commerce sales year on year. In 2014 the campaign was
rebooted to give it a global footprint. The reintroduction video has more than 1.4
million views, while the micro site has about 25 million views till date. Kudos!

2. Acoustic – Launched in June 2010 Burberry Acoustic is a set of exclusive videos

showcasing young local UK music artists wearing Burberry outfits. The idea is to
promote fresh local talent and at the same time engage with consumers and initiate
consumer discussion. The campaign helps Burberry establish a greater connect with
the millennials and provides a platform to exhibit its products subtly. The initiative
has resulted in greater traction across micro sites and social media channels and has
created a buzz about Burberry products. Nice!

3. Kisses Campaign – In June 2013 Burberry launched its kisses campaign in

collaboration with Google. The initiative was used to market Burberry’s cosmetics,
specifically lipsticks now popularly known as Burberry Kisses. The website would let
users send out virtual kisses in the colour of their favourite Burberry Lipsticks using
their webcam or by just kissing the screen of their touch screen devices. Users also
had the option of adding a personalized message to the post. Google Street View
using its 3D landscape then enabled users to actually follow the journey of their kiss
to the recipient. It was an engaging and fun campaign that enthralled people from
all parts of the globe. There were more than 250,000 searches on Google during the
campaign and people from 13000 cities participated during the first 10 days of the
campaign. Sweet!

4. Tweetwalk – Burberry in collaboration with Twitter launched its Tweetwalk

campaign in September 2011. The fashion house shared backstage visuals of its
unreleased Spring/Summer collection 2012 with its fans even before the collection
made it to the ramp. To add to the excitement Burberry fans were given an
opportunity to buy products from the latest range before it was made available to
the general public. The idea was to celebrate the brand with its customers. The

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 campaign took Twitter by storm with 50000 views and #Tweetwalk &
#ChristopherBailey trended on Twitter. The ramp show was then streamed live on
the Burberry’s Facebook page. Further, Burberry decided to hand over control of
their Instagram account to the brands most followed user, Mike Kus. Kus live
streamed ramp day visuals with #Burberry #LFW #MikeKus thus increasing
Burberry’s fan base & also his own. Masterstroke!

5. Burberry.com – Burberry’s internet home burberry.com is one of the most

impressive fashion sites available on the net. It is optimized to suit all platforms and
provides a smooth user experience. It is visual appealing, rich on content, quick to
load and has readable URLs. Navigating through the website is a breeze. It’s a one
stop solution for all that concerns Burberry. The website facilitates e-commerce sale
and customers can avail the latest and expansive Burberry collection right with a
click of a button. Burberry offers free shipping and a 30 day return policy depending
on the customer’s location. For any queries relating to the brand customers can use
the Live Chat and instant Call Me Back facility. Moreover, the website has links to a
host of other digital content such as look books, Art of the Trench and Burberry
Acoustic etc. It’s brilliant!

6. The Flagship Store – The Burberry flagship store at Regent Street, London is no

less than a digital marvel. It is technology packed and is inspired by the site map of
burberry.com. The layout and architecture replicates that of the website and the
store has 100 screens and 500 speakers spread across the building showcasing
digitized Burberry content. Radio-frequency Identification Technology (RFID) chips
have been fitted in certain products. Chip fitted products when taken into changing
rooms or in front of screens display ramp visuals and other filmed footage of the
product. Genius!

7. Burberry Bespoke & Burberry Scarf Bar Campaign – These two initiatives

center around the customization feature offered by Burberry. Using the Bespoke
feature customers can choose from a host of combinations that range in thousands

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 to personalize trench coats. Customers can choose from different cuts, collars, cuffs,
linings, belts, epaulets and can even have their initials monogrammed onto the
court. Similarly, the Scarf Bar campaign allows customers the option of selecting
from a range of 30 scarf colours and shades of thread. Like in Bespoke customers
can get their initials monogrammed onto the scarf. These exhaustive features are all
available on burberry.com and customers can do all the customization online with
the help of a tool, which gives users suggestions as well. Thereafter, customers can
check the preview and order the product online. Smooth!

Results Achieved 

Burberry went through historic transformation between 2006 and 2014 under CEO,

Adriana Ahrendts. It transformed from a tepid luxury brand selling trench coats to one

of the leading voices in the fashion industry. It is easily one of the most coveted and

aspirational luxury brands in the world. The company’s revenue skyrocketed from 743

million pounds in 2006 to 2523 million pounds in 2015.

In 2011 the fashion house was named the 4 th fastest growing brand worldwide by

Interbrand (after Apple, Google, and Amazon) and WPP/BrandZ (after Facebook, Baidu,

and Wells Fargo). In 2012 it was the fastest growing luxury brand on Interbrand’s index.

Today Burberry is one of the most digitally innovative brands in the world and the most

popular brand on social media. It has more than 17 million likes on Facebook, 6.7 million

followers on Twitter and 7 million followers on Instagram.

Image Credits: Burberry

Question: Read the case and explain in brief: How Burberry became a Digital Luxury Brand.

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