From a Branding Perspective

CEO of Burberry, Rose Marie Bravo

In my last post, one of the highlights on Burberry's timeline was that in 1997, Rose Marie Bravo was hired on as the CEO of Burberry. It was the smallest description on that timeline, yet had an amazing impact on the brand of Burberry and its future. I discussed in a classroom forum today how Burberry faced repostioning challenges when it was time for the brand to revamp their unexciting and slowly evolving product line. Bravo is mostly to thank for Burberry's transformation and successful launch of a new product position. The following was the discussion topic:


"Repositioning is a challenging strategy. What are some of these challenges, and how did Burberry manage to deal with them?"




Some of the obstacles that Burberry faced in repositioning were transforming the brand’s image without compromising core values, redesigning the product mix and positioning it cleverly, and hiring a new team that was trained in interpreting and analyzing consumer market trends. Burberry also wanted to keep focus on the importance of the aesthetic values of the brand’s identity. Rose Bravo did an amazing job with revamping the brilliant brand that already was Burberry. She made several modifications to what most think of as cosmetic changes, such as the brand’s name (Burberry’s to Burberry) and introducing a more modern logo and packaging designs. These changes, though, did not distract from the core quality and accessibility of the British brand. Additionally, with her new team, Bravo studied the luxury market and had one goal to work toward: establish a niche where Burberry could grow, and create a product mix capable of sustaining traditional products while adding complement products to the mix. Once Bravo got this ball rolling, the addition of designer Christopher Bailey in 2000 boosted Burberry’s image and has continued to prove their reposition successful.

Christopher Bailey of Burberry

Hameide, aled . Fashion Branding Unraveled. Fairchild Books & Visuals, 2012. <http://books.google.com/books/feeds/volumes?q=978-1-56367-874-5>.