Burberry, popularly known as a luxurious British fashion house, makes, designs, and distributes ready wear, accessories, perfumes, and is famous for its trench coats. 

The brand has been associated with numerous contributions that have made it the biggest name in luxury ready-to-wear clothes. 

In this case study, we will go through the SWOT Analysis of Burberry in greater detail by digging into its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. So, let us understand Burberry as a company first.

About Burberry

Burberry is a luxury fashion brand that affords personal accessories, footwear, clothing, etc. The clothing line was established in 1856 by Thomas Burberry based in London. The company has come a long way from producing its waterproof fabrics to designing a luxurious, and high fashion clothing line.

The fashion house sells accessories, apparel, shoes, jewellery, small leather goods, handbags, and even merchandises other beauty businesses. 

It caters to the upper echelon of society and manufactures, designs, and distributes its products all around the world. The brand’s products satisfy almost all age and gender demographics. 

Now that we know about the company, let us go through Burrbery’s business activities further by going through its SWOT Analysis in the coming section. 

 

SWOT Analysis of Burberry

SWOT analysis is a tool applied to a company to know about its strengths, risks, prospects, and dangers. SWOT analysis is commonly used at the organizational level to determine how closely a company’s growth trajectories and success standards are aligned. 

Let us see how Burberry has formulated its SWOT Analysis in the coming section individually.

 

1. Strengths of Burberry

Strengths are the areas where a company is strong enough to run its business and also to compete with its rivals. A few major strengths of Burberry are mentioned below. 

• Focused Branding: Burberry is promoted only through fashion websites and also within the magazines like GQ, Elle, Glamour, Vogue, and a lot more. It relies on celebrity endorsements who helped the brand to gain its reputation after its downfall during 1970-2000. Celebrities such as Kate Moss, Agyness Deyn, Robert Pattinson, and Rosie Huntington-Whitey kept the brand fresh and appealing.

   

• Reinvented From A Manufacturer To A Lifestyle Brand: The company’s management made prudent selections in investing in both renovating and growing its brand. The corporation started offering trendy fashion clothes along with its regular products. Over the years, the company’s design has become reputable, serving as an icon of fashion, class, tradition, and luxury.
• Gained Royal Warrant Twice: Burberry has received a Royal warrant twice; one from Queen Elizabeth II and another from Prince Charles, which suggests that the corporation can publicize that they’re the supplier of products to the royal family. These historic achievements have added great value to the brand.
• Presence on Social Media: The firm clearly understands that interactive and engaging social media is vital to appear relevant to its target audience. The success of the brand’s social media marketing strategy is evident in the number of fans it has accumulated, the company currently have 14, 241, 285 likes on Facebook, 1,403, 981 followers on Twitter, and has 47, 061 subscribers on Youtube with 17, 769, 628 video views.

Brand image can be increased at an effective level with these strengths of Burberry. Now that we’ve covered the strengths of Burberry. Let’s get to know about its weakness. 

 

2. Weaknesses of Burberry

Weaknesses are the negative aspects of a company which is the sole purpose of ruining the brand. This factor makes the brand lose its competition. The organization needs to improve its weaknesses to maintain its business. 

Let’s find what are the weaknesses of Burberry in the below section. 

• High Price Range: Though pricing suggests quality and desirability, the high price range has made it reachable within the pocket of a few customers only. The younger generation who yearns for fashionable and luxurious lifestyles can’t afford high-priced products.
• Asian Markets: A huge proportion of the group’s sales come from Asian consumers globally. Consequently, any change to consumer tastes or economic, regulatory, or social and political environment in Asia could adversely impact Asian consumer’s life. A substantial proportion of group profits rely upon its licensed business in Japan and other key licensed products.

This concludes the part of weaknesses. So now let us learn how Burberry grasps its opportunities to tackle its weaknesses. 

 

3. Opportunities of Burberry

Opportunities are the external factors that gives a positive impact on the company. Here, the opportunities of Burberry help it to increase its productivity. Let’s have a check on it. 

• Collaborations: Burberry can try to make clothes affordable by collaborating with other brands. The company can reach out to more clients if they use e-commerce effectively.
• Developing Emerging Markets: Expanding into new potential markets like Thailand, Turkey, Mongolia, Egypt, and many other potential countries will be a way to succeed in the future because developed economies are already having high competition. EMEIA (Europe, Middle East, India, and Africa) and the Asia Pacific have a growth rate is 17-18% (2014) only. Penetrating in these markets can increase the brand’s revenue.
• Expanding The Product Line: Extending its product line will open a new set of opportunities while at the same time it can differentiate itself from the competitors.

Using these opportunities can help Burberry can help to improve itself from its competitors to a higher level. Now, let’s peek into the last segment of the case study – threats of Burberry in the coming section. 

 

4. Threats of Burberry

Threats are also the external factors that harmfully affect the company to the core. The firm needs to be aware of its condition to fight against its risks. 

Let’s have a look at the major Threats faced by Burberry. 

• Extreme Competition: Intense competition from other players like Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Prada having a worldwide presence possess a serious threat to the existence of Burberry. But all sectors have competition, so the company needs to launch its new and fresh product portfolio frequently.

   

• Change In Customer Lifestyle: Continuous change in trend and lifestyle panics the company because the brand needs to produce and design a new set of fashionable products. As far as this industry is concerned, as Fad items have the shortest life cycle, the fashion house should maintain its position by manufacturing new apparel often.
• Threats From Imitation And Fake Products: One of the major issues faced by a popular brand is counterfeit products which can affect the brand equity over some time. Trademarks and Intellectual Property (IP) rights are fundamentally important to the group’s reputation, success, and competitive position. Using these illegally will become a drawback for Burberry.

Thus, this concludes the last part of SWOT Analysis. Now that we’ve explored the SWOT Analysis of Burberry thoroughly, let’s wrap this case study shortly. 

 

Conclusion

 

Burberry is one of the most distinguished fashion brands in the world. Since its inception, the company has been a prominent name among fashion critics and buyers, setting its niche really into the high-end customer.  

However, in this rapidly digitizing world, the company has been doing its best to adapt to better changes with time passing. After being in the headlines recently for setting up digital stores to incorporating creativity with artificial intelligence, Burberry has all bases set in the right places.

I hope that you liked this case study. Are you interested in learning further? Do check our website if you want to learn about the Digital Marketing Strategy of Burberry.

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