Burberry Doffs Its Cap to "Chavs" - Business Analysis

Rea d in gs Week Week 3 B urb erry d offs it s c ap t o 'c h avs' The Burberry brand has become so synonymous with so-called 'chav' culture that the one-time plaid check addict Daniella W estbrook probably doesn't even wear it anymore. Not that the most British of luxury labels seems remot...

Rea d in gs Week Week 3 B urb erry d offs it s c ap t o 'c h avs' The Burberry brand has become so synonymous with so-called 'chav' culture that the one-time plaid check addict Daniella W estbrook probably doesn't even wear it anymore. Not that the most British of luxury labels seems remotely worried. In the past seven years since Rose Marie Bravo was placed in charge, the 148-year-old company has grown from a £200m business to a market capitalisation of £2bn and delivered revenues up 14% in the six months to September . The much-predicted collapse of Burberry at the hands of a hijacking by football hooligans and D-list soap stars has not materialised and the "nay-sayers" who said Ms Bravo over-popularised the brand owe her an apology , according to one marketing expert. Far from shying away from its much-copied camel, red, black and white plaid check, Burberry has extended the pattern into a pink colourway and added a "scratch-look" design and striped variants. And although the check features on only 8% of Burberry's products, it is the first thing to greet visitors to the company's website and adorns the company's latest fragrance, Burberry Brit. Burberry appears to be far from ashamed of the acquired naffness of its iconic logo. Ms Bravo, an American, has managed to negate the ef fect of every luxury brand's nightmare - rampant appropriation by mainstream culture. She has stuck to her guns despite heavy criticism and lampooning from the media. The Sun recently ran a spate of chav-themed features with its pages emblazoned with the Burberry check. Even other companies are piggy-backing on the Burberry bandwagon. Mobile phone company 3 has dressed one of its advertising characters in a Burberry cap and gold earrings in a bid to appeal to bling-obsessed youngsters. But while Burberry will not comment about the downmarket association its brand has acquired in Britain, a source close to the company said it is not seen as a problem and that Britain is only one small region in the 26 countries Burberry operates. And while a large internal anti-counterfeit team operates from Burberry's Haymarket headquarters ready to pounce on any fakers, the company wants to be seen as an "accessible luxury" brand, which is "welcoming" and "democratic" with a wide appeal. In other words, it is reacting in the opposite way to how a luxury brand might be expected to - it is steadfastly refusing to express outrage that its high-class image has been tarnished by downmarket associations and instead is embracing its customers whether they hail from council estate or country estate. Mark Ritson, assistant professor of marketing at the London Business School, has for three years been a vocal advocate of the opinion that the mainstream hijacking of Burberry irrevocably damaged the brand. Only now he's changed his mind. "I have said for three years that they were not going to succeed, that Rose Marie Bravo had done a nice job of growing the brand and fattening it up for the future. But in the last 12 months I've realised she's a lot smarter than she's been given credit for," said Mr Ritson. "They haven't gone tits up. The UK is not at all representative of the rest of Burberry's marketplace. If London was the world they would be knackered, but it's not. They have maintained their global strength. And Burberry's strategy of not trying to stop downmarket customers championing the brand has prevented it coming across as snobbish.Readings 1 "The media has done Rose Marie Bravo a disservice. She has stuck by the brand, which is not just a sign of a good leader but the sign of a good brand leader," said Mr Ritson. "The stereotyped story that Burberry is in trouble is simply not going to happen and the people who were the nay- sayers before, like me, owe [Ms Bravo] an apology ." Rita Clifton, the chairman of Interbrand, the company responsible for the branding of clients including Marks & Spencer and P&O, said UK customers are particularly cynical when it comes to logos, labels and luxury but Burberry's business must be set in its successful global context. "Every luxury brand wants three things: a strong, well-crafted product, a strong brand experience, and the right people to be seen loving and buying it. "But the one thing a brand owner can't control is who buys it. When Burberry relaunched it did two things to allow the chav phenomenon to happen. It used Kate Moss in its advertising and confused the check for its logo. "Moss is not upmarket. She is aspirational for a whole range of women, highly accessible and has helped democratise luxury brands. She brought instant accessibility that was not there before and an instant volume [sales] hit. "Burberry also got confused about the check - it allowed it to get wrapped up with its logo which became ubiquitous," said Ms Clifton. But the fact that Burberry is now "playing" with the colour and design of the check is "interesting and encouraging", according to Ms Clifton. She cited Louis V uitton as having done a similar thing successfully with its best-ever seller, the multicoloured logo handbag. But she believes Burberry's move to expand the brand upmarket with the top-end Burberry Prorsum label may prove difficult. Burberry has three labels: the cat-walk label Prorsum, which includes very little check; Burberry London, the most well-known and largest range, which includes the famous check-lined trenchcoats; and Thomas Burberry , for 16- to 25-year-olds. And it is Prorsum that Burberry maintains is untouched by any negative chav-effect. "Extending a sub-brand upwards is not a tried and tested formula," said Ms Clifton. "When a brand goes downmarket it is dif ficult to drag it up again and it is very difficult to do within a generation." But Ms Bravo, who previously ran upmarket US store Saks Fifth A venue, has just signed a new contract keeping her at Burberry until July 2006. Her unwavering commitment to the brand, chav or not, looks to be giving her the last laugh.Readings 2