Social Media and Luxury Brand Management: The Case of Burberry

Abstract

Social networks, and social media as the tools, are everywherein the marketer’s world today. Their growing importancewas quickly acknowledged and they were casted one of thetop research priorities by the trustees of the Marketing ScienceInstitute (MSI) in 2006. Brands, and in particular luxurybrands with their high brand equity, ought to have a clear understandingof what social media could do for them, and developa clear strategy of how they could enhance customers’experience and perceptions of their brands. Social media are highly related with the concept of Web2.0, which go back to O’Reilly (2005) who realized that thecompanies that had survived the dot-com bubble in 2001seemed to have something in common. These shared principlesand practices are the modern second era of the web that canbe described as Web 2.0. Beyond the social classification ofcontent by tagging (folksonomy), Web 2.0 pages allow and encouragethe creation of user-generated content. This includescreating and sharing texts, pictures or videos and commentingand editing on existing content. Besides these practices, theWeb 2.0 principles require webpage creators to trust and to involvetheir users, but enable them to harness network effectsand collective intelligence to create applications that actuallyget better the more people use them. The collection of theseinteractive, user-controlled applications can be described as socialmedia. Besides blogs and forums, content communities facilitatestorage and sharing of media content between users. They empowerusers to upload a wide range of different media types,such as photos (e.g., Flickr), videos (e.g., YouTube),PowerPoint presentations (e.g., Slideshare), podcasts (e.g.,PodOmatic) and text (e.g., BookCrossing). Social network sites(e.g. LinkedIn) enable users to connect and stay in touch withother people. Brands can exploit the potential of social mediaby establishing an online brand community, which is a specialized,non-geographically bound community, based on a structuredset of social relations among admirers of a brand. Abrand community is created by setting up a profile on a socialnetwork site or by developing an own brand community website. The most important social media pages that are usedby many luxury brands include Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. These platforms encourage communication betweenbrands and consumers, but also among the consumers themselvesas they can view and comment each other’s messages. This study examines how Burberry succeeded an amazingturnaround from a brand for “chavs” and English hooligans toa major trendsetter in social media marketing. Burberry wasthe first luxury fashion brand to invest wholeheartedly in socialmedia. Burberry’s Facebook page now has more than 7millions fans and its Twitter’s account recorded more than400,000 followers, way ahead of Louis Vuitton, Gucci andother fashion brands. Burberry was also the first to broadcastlive and in 3D its fashion show from London to five internationalcities simultaneously in 2010. In April 2011, Burberrystaged a catwalk show in Beijing where live models are mixedwith holograms, creating a new and unique experience for itsaudience. All the videos were immediately posted on YouTubefor fans that had missed the shows. This social media strategyhelped Burberry to rejuvenate the brand and reposition it as amore fashionable and aspirational one than ever. With this repositioningBurberry can attract younger consumers. However,to preserve its core customer base the company continues toinvest in mainstream marketing activities such as print mediaadvertising and public relations. The company recorded awhopping 34% increase in total revenue in the second quarterof 2011 alone, confirming its strong financial health of 39.8%increase in profits (before tax) of the previous financial year,ending at 31st March 2011. The company’s steep rise in recentyears gives reason enough to dedicate this paper to analyzingits major strategies and success factors. One ofBurberry’s key success factors was undeniably its decision tobe the first luxury brand to invest in digital communications,and social media in particular, to reposition its brand as a‘cool and trendy’, and increase its appeal to younger andweb-savvier consumers. Young consumers are the future of allfashion brands and Burberry knows “how” to speak to themdirectly through social media. Social media platforms such asFacebook or Twitter are the best means to reach young consumersthat are increasingly difficult to address via TVadvertising. Burberry is the best-ranked luxury brand in theTop Social Network ranking by Famecount in 2011. In theoverall brand category, it spotted the 22nd position behindbrands such as Coca-Cola, Starbucks and H&M, but the bestamong luxury brands, ahead of BMW and Chanel (Famecount,2011). Moreover, Burberry was ranked the most popularFTSE100 Company on Facebook and Twitter, according to areport by social media agency Three-D in 2011 (Retail Week, 2011). Social media seem to play a key role in Burberry’ssuccess. However, how did it actually manage to exploit theirpotential? Is the high number of fans on social media a goodindicator of success? Companies are beginning to understandthat the brand transition to social media ultimately involves are-casting of the customer relationship. In social media, thecustomer is an ally, not an “audience.” The audience model isa carryover from obsolescent marketing thinking, as if thebrand was an “act” in front of a crowd. A brand that considerscustomers an “audience” often finds itself resorting to theatricsto make an impression. These can work, for a time, butat the cost of a stagnating brand on a shrinking stage. As allies,customers can add value to the brand, many times over. It will be interesting to see how Burberry handles the“customer audience vs. customer ally” question in the future. The objective of the paper is to highlight how Burberrymanaged to re-build its luxury image over the last ten yearswhile being closer to its customers than ever and accessible tothe mass through its social media marketing. The paper successivelypresents the heritage of this iconic English fashionbrand, its strategy to overcome a major drop in its brand desirabilityin the late 1990’s with the arrival of Rose MarieBravo as the Chief Executive Officer. It will then analyze therevitalization strategy of the brand with the arrival of itsCreative Director Christopher Bailey in 2001. Burberry’s socialmedia strategy, initiated by the current CEO Angela Ahrendts,and its performance will also be evaluated using the findingsof two recent independent studies. Burberry’s social media performancecan definitely be improved and it will be with time,as social media will help it to run the business differently. Finally a discussion about the importance of social media forluxury brand management is presented. The conclusion highlightsthe fast-growing importance of the Chinese market whereBurberry is deploying the most advanced brand experience toits consumers. The lessons learned from this study will certainlyhelp luxury brand marketers to engage in social mediaif they were still hesitant, or improve their social media strategyif they have started, but not sure of how and where to gonext.