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Burberry

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Isabelle Quevilly
Isabelle Quevilly

With the launch of The Art of the trench, Burberry certainly became the first truly digital luxury brand. The first luxury brand to really understand and adopt digital behaviours to conceive and support its brand online communications. There are many reasons why it became a clear success and digital is certainly one piece of a bigger picture. However, I’d like to share some thoughts with you on what they’ve done rights and where they might go. All comments are welcomed!

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Why Burberry gets it? The first truly digital luxury brand All images belong to Burberry. Crafted by @DigitalPlanner. London. May 2011.
Case in point. Burberry created its own community inspired from its core product: the trench coat. The company describes the site ‘Art of the Trench’ as ‘a living document of the trench coat and the people who wear it’. Impact on awareness? Between its launch in November 2009 and mid-2010 the site had already notched up more than 7Mvisits. On facebook, it took a year to have 1M fans, 6 mth to double that figure and today they reach out to 6.4M fans, took them 2 years to get there. Value creation? Brand growth: 86%. It’s ranked 4th in fastest growing brands by MillWardBrown. Revenues in the second half of this year had risen by 30% to £860m (sce: Guardian).
Why is this exceptional? For a luxury brand the web is a very tricky environment. The nature of the medium itself contradicts all the vocabulary of a luxury brand is trying to express itself with: - It is not exclusive. Anyone can enjoy the same experience. - The brand cannot fully control how the final experienced is packaged. - The consumer decides on how he wants to interact: he can pick the device, the browser, he’s in full control with the product etc. - Any online brand could benefit from the same online experience. Contrary to the retail environement where you coul decide to have only one store on the Champs-Élysées.
“We could not have been more wrong in our expectations of the internet” - Alex Bolen. Chief executive Oscar de la Renta, quoted in The Economist, on the news that the brand had received an online order for an $80,000 sable coat from a new customer
No.1. The Sartorialist. Art of the Trench showcases images from professional fashion photographers, Magnum photographers and the public. One of the key ingredient is that Burberry leveraged a trend that was already successult among its target audience. The experience includes contributions from celebrated fashion photo-blogger Scott Schuman, better known as The Sartorialist. He was already a recognized authority and influencer among this target market. By doing so, they earned instant credibility in this highly selective online audience.
No.2. They acknowledged. As IWC recently did with their new website, they took into consideration their target audience. They offered an experience that matches the digital knowledge and habits of their audiences. Outside of the Art of the Trench platform, the website also provides end-users with a great only shopping experience. Flow, options, images have been treated a well as the offline merchandising would be, which is not something common in that industry.
No.3. Digitally savvy. Every images post is ready to be connected and shared through the internet. Original content is created and spread online supporting the awareness of the brand online. Like’, ‘Comment’, ‘Share’ all functions making it possible for one to: 1- get the word out online and 2- borrow from the Burberry brand and reflect back on your online status as someone who has great taste, fashion-sense etc
No.4. Fuelled by love. Burberry based its online communications strategy on sending out one single message that aligns with the brand DNA (British roots) and the product (trench coat). They embedded it in a digital environement using its code and vocabulary properly, all steps being there for the brand to succeed. With such a digital statement the buzz was there day 1 (Nov. 9, 2009) with 1.5M results in Google when searching for ‘art of the trench’. Oh, and of course fans were there too because at the end of the day what fuels all this is a true passion for one of the most inspiring fashion brand.
No.5. They embraced it. The unique democratic positioning of the brand allowed it to articulate a digital vocabulary that is unique and consistant at every touchpoint. We’ve briefly surfed through the social media initiative, but this is true for many other initiatives: the brand launched its owned Youtuve channel in 2005, they orchestrated livestream fashion shows with 3D, they offer an incredibely enriched website. Not only the communications are digital but the wat the company operates is truly digital.
“Attracting the Millennial customer to luxury started two years ago — I said that we can either get crushed or ride the greatest wave of our life” - Ms. Angela Ahrendts - CEO Burberry
Take-aways As a luxury brand, Burberry showed the industry that luxury brands can engage with their audiences online. The days of big flash story-telling websites might be gone as new venues are catching-up the attention of the digital savvy luxury consumer: http://www.net-a-porter.com/ for instance. Through its digital commintment, the brand delivered on its ‘PRORSUM’ statement. The more niche your community is, the more successful it will be. Social media is a great tool to reach out to like-minded crowds that can posivetly impact your online presence. Brand, culture and consumers are brought together around the same value.
What could be next?
The next Monocle? "Burberry is no longer just a fashion company - today they are a thriving media enterprise. It is successful not just because it makes great clothes but because it understands the importance of sparking interest in the community and using social media to engage and delight their consumers." - J. Shields, VP at Facebook
About the beauty line? The recent launch of the cosmetic line is very interesting, very little luxury brands have succeeded in retailing their cosmetics line online. How Burberry is going to express its uniqueness in the digital world outside of the key product - trench coat?
Getting mobile Burberry has a huge potential through the mobile world via the Instagrams world. The Creative Class is currently taking over some mobile time, could Burberry leverage this trend? Platforms like Instagram could help it go a step further and move The Art of The Trench to a new mobile stage.
Thank you. Crafted by Isabelle Quevilly. @DigitalPlanner Image credits: Google Images, Burberry fans, Burberry/Testino. London. June 2011.

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Burberry

  • 1. Why Burberry gets it? The first truly digital luxury brand All images belong to Burberry. Crafted by @DigitalPlanner. London. May 2011.
  • 2. Case in point. Burberry created its own community inspired from its core product: the trench coat. The company describes the site ‘Art of the Trench’ as ‘a living document of the trench coat and the people who wear it’. Impact on awareness? Between its launch in November 2009 and mid-2010 the site had already notched up more than 7Mvisits. On facebook, it took a year to have 1M fans, 6 mth to double that figure and today they reach out to 6.4M fans, took them 2 years to get there. Value creation? Brand growth: 86%. It’s ranked 4th in fastest growing brands by MillWardBrown. Revenues in the second half of this year had risen by 30% to £860m (sce: Guardian).
  • 3. Why is this exceptional? For a luxury brand the web is a very tricky environment. The nature of the medium itself contradicts all the vocabulary of a luxury brand is trying to express itself with: - It is not exclusive. Anyone can enjoy the same experience. - The brand cannot fully control how the final experienced is packaged. - The consumer decides on how he wants to interact: he can pick the device, the browser, he’s in full control with the product etc. - Any online brand could benefit from the same online experience. Contrary to the retail environement where you coul decide to have only one store on the Champs-Élysées.
  • 4. “We could not have been more wrong in our expectations of the internet” - Alex Bolen. Chief executive Oscar de la Renta, quoted in The Economist, on the news that the brand had received an online order for an $80,000 sable coat from a new customer
  • 5. No.1. The Sartorialist. Art of the Trench showcases images from professional fashion photographers, Magnum photographers and the public. One of the key ingredient is that Burberry leveraged a trend that was already successult among its target audience. The experience includes contributions from celebrated fashion photo-blogger Scott Schuman, better known as The Sartorialist. He was already a recognized authority and influencer among this target market. By doing so, they earned instant credibility in this highly selective online audience.
  • 6. No.2. They acknowledged. As IWC recently did with their new website, they took into consideration their target audience. They offered an experience that matches the digital knowledge and habits of their audiences. Outside of the Art of the Trench platform, the website also provides end-users with a great only shopping experience. Flow, options, images have been treated a well as the offline merchandising would be, which is not something common in that industry.
  • 7. No.3. Digitally savvy. Every images post is ready to be connected and shared through the internet. Original content is created and spread online supporting the awareness of the brand online. Like’, ‘Comment’, ‘Share’ all functions making it possible for one to: 1- get the word out online and 2- borrow from the Burberry brand and reflect back on your online status as someone who has great taste, fashion-sense etc
  • 8. No.4. Fuelled by love. Burberry based its online communications strategy on sending out one single message that aligns with the brand DNA (British roots) and the product (trench coat). They embedded it in a digital environement using its code and vocabulary properly, all steps being there for the brand to succeed. With such a digital statement the buzz was there day 1 (Nov. 9, 2009) with 1.5M results in Google when searching for ‘art of the trench’. Oh, and of course fans were there too because at the end of the day what fuels all this is a true passion for one of the most inspiring fashion brand.
  • 9. No.5. They embraced it. The unique democratic positioning of the brand allowed it to articulate a digital vocabulary that is unique and consistant at every touchpoint. We’ve briefly surfed through the social media initiative, but this is true for many other initiatives: the brand launched its owned Youtuve channel in 2005, they orchestrated livestream fashion shows with 3D, they offer an incredibely enriched website. Not only the communications are digital but the wat the company operates is truly digital.
  • 10. “Attracting the Millennial customer to luxury started two years ago — I said that we can either get crushed or ride the greatest wave of our life” - Ms. Angela Ahrendts - CEO Burberry
  • 11. Take-aways As a luxury brand, Burberry showed the industry that luxury brands can engage with their audiences online. The days of big flash story-telling websites might be gone as new venues are catching-up the attention of the digital savvy luxury consumer: http://www.net-a-porter.com/ for instance. Through its digital commintment, the brand delivered on its ‘PRORSUM’ statement. The more niche your community is, the more successful it will be. Social media is a great tool to reach out to like-minded crowds that can posivetly impact your online presence. Brand, culture and consumers are brought together around the same value.
  • 12. What could be next?
  • 13. The next Monocle? "Burberry is no longer just a fashion company - today they are a thriving media enterprise. It is successful not just because it makes great clothes but because it understands the importance of sparking interest in the community and using social media to engage and delight their consumers." - J. Shields, VP at Facebook
  • 14. About the beauty line? The recent launch of the cosmetic line is very interesting, very little luxury brands have succeeded in retailing their cosmetics line online. How Burberry is going to express its uniqueness in the digital world outside of the key product - trench coat?
  • 15. Getting mobile Burberry has a huge potential through the mobile world via the Instagrams world. The Creative Class is currently taking over some mobile time, could Burberry leverage this trend? Platforms like Instagram could help it go a step further and move The Art of The Trench to a new mobile stage.
  • 16. Thank you. Crafted by Isabelle Quevilly. @DigitalPlanner Image credits: Google Images, Burberry fans, Burberry/Testino. London. June 2011.