From the early 2000s Burberry became a brand that was mainly associated with British 'chav culture, a stereotype of the British 'working class' that sent sales plummeting. Burberry has previously been a brand that was strongly connected to being linked to the country aristocrat. The re-brand saw Burberry not go back towards their country house roots. Rather tell a new story, opening a new chapter for the brand to give a story of an upscale and contemporary Britain.
Burberry always had a sharp eye for marketing. Its’ founder, Thomas Burberry, worked hard to ensure that Victorian luminaries like Robert Baden-Powell wore Burberry gabardine weatherproofs. Burberry outfitted several explorers and daredevils, outfitting Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition. With the arrival of the First World War, Burberry outfitted British troops in a garment that was christened the “trench coat”.
The rebrand was lead by a new understanding of its audience, the majority of sales were now happening overseas rather than in the UK. In order to bring their brand back to the consumer base they wanted to be able to portray they needed to tell their story of the brand they were, but in a way that shows they are moving with fashion.
The rebrand also was inspired and led by Burberry's changing online presence, they began to embrace their social media, showing content in a live fashion. Their website was redesigned to in-fit with the new brand, keeping thing simplistic and the focus on the fashion. Burberry even redesigned their regent street store to in fit with the design of their website, meaning they have a seamless experience from digital to retail.
Burberry had reached an impasse with their brand not only because of their downmarket associations, but because they had not evolved their brand for some time prior to Bailey’s hiring. For all brands, creativity and evolution will continually refresh their brand. Ahrendts and Bailey agreed on a creative vision that leveraged the best of Burberry’s history, but was resolutely contemporary.
This tells me how high end brands must move with their consumer and even to the point of 10 years without a re-brand can be detrimental in the way consumer society views that brand.
Design comments:
Designed by Peter Saville
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| Old vs. New Logo |
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| New Monogram |
Burberry Burns £28.3 Million Worth of Stock:
Burberry, the upmarket British fashion label, destroyed unsold clothes, accessories, and perfume worth £28.6m last year to protect its brand. It takes the total value of goods it has destroyed over the past five years to more than £90m. Fashion firms including Burberry destroy unwanted items to prevent them from being stolen or sold cheaply. Burberry said that the energy generated from burning its products was captured, making it environmentally friendly.
"Burberry has careful processes in place to minimize the amount of excess stock we produce. On the occasions when the disposal of products is necessary, we do so in a responsible manner and we continue to seek ways to reduce and revalue our waste," a spokesperson for the company said.
The FTSE 100 company said last year was unusual as it had to destroy a large amount of perfume after signing a new deal with US firm Coty. As Coty would be making new stock, Burberry had to dispose of £10m worth of old products - largely perfume. Over the past few years, Burberry has been working hard to make its brand exclusive again after it went through a phase when counterfeiters were "sticking the Burberry check on anything they could", said Maria Malone, principal lecturer on the fashion business at Manchester Metropolitan University. Destroying unwanted products is part of that process, she said.
"The reason they are doing this is so that the market is not flooded with discounts. They don't want Burberry products to get into the hands of anyone who can sell them at a discount and devalue the brand," Ms Malone said.Burberry is not the only company having to deal with a surplus of luxury stock. Richemont, which owns the Cartier and Montblanc brands, has had to buy back €480m (£430m) worth of watches over the last two years. Analysts say some parts of those watches would be recycled - but much would be thrown away. Environmental campaigners are angry about the waste.
"Despite their high prices, Burberry shows no respect for their own products and the hard work and natural resources that are used to made them," said Lu Yen Roloff of Greenpeace. "The growing amount of overstock points to overproduction, and instead of slowing down their production, they incinerate perfectly good clothes and products. It's a dirty secret of the fashion industry. Burberry is just the tip of the iceberg,"
Fashion paradox
Tim Jackson, head of the British School of Fashion at the London campus of Glasgow Caledonian University, said luxury fashion firms such as Burberry faced a paradox. To satisfy shareholders, they have to keep expanding even if that risks "diluting their identity and creating excess stock", he said.
"There's no way they are ever going to solve this problem."
Last November, Burberry announced a revamp intended to "re-energize" its products over several years. That includes taking its brand further upmarket, closing stores that are not in "strategic" locations and creating a "center of excellence" for luxury leather goods. It has also cut costs, which has helped boost profits. In Burberry's most recent financial year to 31 March, the company reported a 5% rise in profit to £413m, with sales little changed at £2.7bn.
Interview with a Burberry Designer:
Whilst working on my research into this rebrand a friend of mine noticed the Burberry logo in an Instagram story I put up, as can be seen below, he contacted me back informing me that they knew a designer who worked for Burberry. We began talking about the possibility of me getting in touch with the designer, unfortunately, Burberry has strict rules on their colleagues having any personal opinion on that could reflect on the brand's stance. Although they did agree to answer some questions for me, on the basis that our mutual friend would act as a liaison between us and their name be kept anonymous. Therefore I will not be using this information in my final pieces, neither practical nor essay based, yet it has allowed me to gain a much more rounded perception of the reasoning behind the rebrand, and also an insight into the opinion of the people who work most closely with the brand.
Interview with a Burberry Designer:
Whilst working on my research into this rebrand a friend of mine noticed the Burberry logo in an Instagram story I put up, as can be seen below, he contacted me back informing me that they knew a designer who worked for Burberry. We began talking about the possibility of me getting in touch with the designer, unfortunately, Burberry has strict rules on their colleagues having any personal opinion on that could reflect on the brand's stance. Although they did agree to answer some questions for me, on the basis that our mutual friend would act as a liaison between us and their name be kept anonymous. Therefore I will not be using this information in my final pieces, neither practical nor essay based, yet it has allowed me to gain a much more rounded perception of the reasoning behind the rebrand, and also an insight into the opinion of the people who work most closely with the brand.
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| Interview |
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