Burberry’s Repositioning and Its Sustainability Until 2007

In 1856 Thomas Burberry started with a small shop for men’s clothing in Hampshire. Since 100 years Burberry is famous for the patented caro, the “Burberry check”, and turned to into one of the upper class’s leading brand. Originally famous for high prices and very practical design, basically targeting mid-aged to old people, Burberry almost ran itself into bankruptcy until the mid-90s. This was mainly due to the uncontrolled use of licences for Burberry products, especially in Asian. To prevent and save the company of further problems and the total failure Rosa Maria Bravo was taken on board in 1997. Bravo was “one of the most well-known executive in retail and fashion trade and became Burberry’s new chief executive. Together with her new top management team, exclusively made up of A-list industry talents, Bravo aimed to manage the “reinvention of Burberry”.

The team’s first action was the change of the company’s name from Burberry’s into Burberry, immediately followed by the creation of a contemporary logo and packaging for the company’s products. Additionally many strategic decisions were made, aiming to transform every aspect of the company. These decisions included the following aspects:

 Repositioning of the brand partially made due to an increase of prices

 Updating the product line in including womenswear, menswear and accessories

 Expanding the brands through collections targeting the young and urban population and Burberry Prorsom, offering haute couture

 Change in advertising to attract new customers and help to reposition the brand

Additionally to support these strategies gross margins to Burberry were increased by 9% and Christopher Bailey was hired as the company’s new creative director.

By 2000 through previous actions and the company’s new direction Burberry had “3162 wholesale doors worldwide”. These were made up of 434 department stores, 2728 speciality stores and 132 company owned stores. Especially the number of the company owned...