Strategic Positioning
" A critical step in defining the strategy of a business is to determine its strategic positioning – the essence of how it competes and serves customers in its markets. "
Burberry – an iconic British Luxury Brand has always been known for it’s “Checkered Design” in consumer’s mindset and for being playing strategies pro-actively in the corporate world.
Burberry, who became the pioneer of Digital Innovation in the world of luxury, set the standards so high that all luxury brands thrived and were forced to adopt the digital marketing. This strategy of Burberry has brought them immense success in terms of young digitally aware and tech savvy customers.
Burberry always positioned itself as an iconic British Luxury Brand throughout the world spreading English style of fashion.
Burberry proactively played a strategy to place itself above the competitors by pioneering in digital marketing in the luxury industry. They sensed the future of digitalization and took an important step towards digital innovation.
Being an 150-year-old brand, it still wasn’t at the top due to lack of presence throughout the world. And while mapping the world, all the competitors of Burberry were located at several places throughout the world and Burberry was just located at one place.
All the other brands had stores throughout the world but Burberry was lacking in that, which in turn was a threat to the brand but when the research was carried out, it showed that in “every high group market, the average high net worth was 15 years younger than the developed market.” as quoted by Angela Ahrendts (CEO, Burberry).
And in order to grow, a brand has to target developing markets as they offer more scope for potential growth compared to developed markets.
And the only way Burberry could have positioned itself throughout the world was through digital innovation. And when Burberry appointed Christopher Bailey as the Chief Creative Officer, they tried to create a bridge between the current generation and the future generation.
With a clear vision in mind, Mr. Bailey brought some changes in the marketing department with the help of the Chief Marketing Officer of Burberry by creating a proper balance between IT professionals and technology.
This led Burberry to enter the world of digital marketing where it targeted the new age of young customers who were tech savvy and can help in building up their future growth.
Through digital innovation, Burberry catered to the whole world by enabling them buying their desired items online anytime and in any part of the world.
This strategy of Burberry helped in exploring hidden potential markets, which were not considered to be of great potential. Currently it has stores in almost every developing and developed market of the world making it present in more than 40 countries of the world.
Hence, the result is that there are more customers who visit the website burberry.com every week than compared to those who visit the store in any part of the world.
“ More people go onto burberry.com every week than all points of sale around the world for buying.” as quoted by Angela Ahrendts (Former CEO, Burberry)
And as social media, which was, growing in leaps and bounds was taking toll over everyone’s life, gave birth to an breath-taking opportunity for Burberry which would have complimented its digital marketing. It created a need for hiring an expert. For the first time in the history of luxury brands, a positioned dedicated to social media was designed as “Social Media Director” established by Burberry.
Today Burberry has millions of likes on Facebook and millions of followers on Twitter and Instagram and other social networking platforms also.
To enhance and compliment is digtal marketing strategies, Burberry came up with an innovative idea of showcasing its collection through a Holographic Fashion Show in China to attract the Chinese customers, who are considered to be the buyers with the highest potential in the world for luxury goods.