Burberry

Introduction

The Burberry business

model: creating an

international luxury

fashion brand

Christopher M. Moore and

Grete Birtwistle

The authors

Christopher M. Moore is the Director for the Glasgow Centre

for Retailing and Grete Birtwistle is Head of the Division of

Marketing, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK.

Keywords

Premier brands, Brand management, Fashion

Abstract

The performance of the British fashion brand Burberry has been

determined largely by the adoption of business models which, on

occasion, have been detrimental to the company’s performance.

For the financial year ending 31 March 1998, Burberry saw its

annual profits drop from £62m to £25m, leading financial

analysts to describe it as “an outdated business with a fashion

cachet of almost zero”. However, from 1997, at the instigation of

a newly appointed chief executive, Rose Marie Bravo, Burberry

has radically re-aligned its business model and has enjoyed, as a

result, significant improvements in its business performance.

Drawing from extensive documentation that was published by

Burberry in support of their initial public offering (IPO), this paper

will provide a review of the history of Burberry; evaluate

Burberry’s re-positioning strategy as defined by the firm in their

IPO prospectus; and critically delineate Burberry’s current

business model.

Electronic access

The Emerald Research Register for this journal is

available at

www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is

available at

www.emeraldinsight.com/0959-0552.htm

International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management

Volume 32 · Number 8 · 2004 · pp. 412-422

q Emerald Group Publishing Limited · ISSN 0959-0552

DOI 10.1108/09590550410546232

The viability, or otherwise, of a fashion brand is

dependent upon the efficacy and appropriateness

of the decisions of those responsible for its

management. There are numerous examples of

brands...