Marketing Strategies Used by Burberry - Essay Example

?Running head: brands and branding 4th December Burberry Burberry Company is known to operate in 3 brands that make it to be widely known and to be scattered in almost 50 countries. Some of the brands are jackets, coats beauty gifts, and bags which are said to be the base line of the company (Lenskold, 2012). The second type of brand is heritage outwear. Which are termed as “wear to work” items and the last type of the brand is Burberry Brit which is the most accessible brand that includes the perfumes and other types of outwear that are commonly used by a lot of people. According to Burberry, the founder of the company he said that the company was established to help the young people realize their dreams through innovation and engage in creativity thus making life bearable to them. Marketing strategies used by Burberry The marketing strategies of the company are focused at providing provide value to the customers through the products and the type of information concerning the products that are in the market. Retail marketing Retail marketing has been commonly used by the company. As one of marketing strategies, it has the capability to make the company to be more competitive in the market. The core importance of using retail marketing plan is to make sure that the sales ratio of the company increases on the international front making the company to invest a lot in other marketing strategies (Clancy and Kriegafsd, 2000). When using retail marketing, the brand is recognized and established to the market thus having a trademark that the brands are widely known for. Due to use of retailing marketing, the company is also able to venture in foreign countries like China where the company has retail shops thus making great venture to the fashion brands that are in the industry. The only challenge that face the company when using the retail marketing are cheaper brands that are offered by the competitors. Customer awareness Burberry enjoys strong customer awareness, since the company brands in the past were favorite brands to Queen Elizabeth two and the Prince of Wales. Additionally, through the use of extensive advertisement, Burberry brands are used by many people and are given respect worldwide due to royal families’ involvement with the products. Objective as a marketing strategy in Burberry The primary aim of the company is to make sure that the brands are represented visually to target the customers hence making sure that the customers are satisfied and their ideas are listened to and again implemented, according to their wish (Philip, 2006). The customers are encouraged to be creative and if any one of them has an idea to come up with a brand that is unique in the market he or she is given the attention. This is based on the fact that the company was founded to make use of innovation and use of modern technology (Philip and Kevin, 2006). Social media The company uses Facebook and Twitter and the management post their new brand and others to social media as a method of advertising to make sure that it effectively competes with rivals. The company introduced the use of YouTube and launched films to promote the brands (Joshi 2005). The company still opens discussion forum which are used by the customers to make sure that their views and ideas are listened to and later implemented. Market segments in Burberry Market segmentation for Burberry is divided according to characteristic and personality aspects. For example, for the consumers who are 18-30 years old they have a certain brand of Burberry which they use as their product of choice. The second market segment is secondary age group that includes 30-40 years old. This category has certain brands of their choice that have unique characteristics that make them to be accepted by the secondary age group (Lenskold 2003). The third market segmentation is the families with high income and this gives them opportunity to buy expensive brands. The last market segment is for student and working individuals who are model and have a sense of style and creativity. These effective market segmentation help the company to get high profits since is able to sell its products to wide range of consumers who have a high purchasing power. Starbucks Starbucks is a firm that is located in America and is a global coffee company that provides varieties of coffee drinks. The company is based in Seattle, Washington and it is known as the largest coffeehouse in the world. The company is widely spread in 62 countries with 20,891 stores, some of the good examples where Starbucks has already established its stores are United States where the firm has 13,279 stores, Canada with 1,324 stores, Japan with 851 stores, United Kingdom with 806 stores, 377 stores in Mexico among others. The company is known for serving hot and cold beverages, whole coffee beans, and full- leaf tea among others. Other stores provide packaged food items, mugs, and tumblers among other brands. The company is also known for offering variety of beers and wines, entertainments during evening and still markets books, film, and music to other company. The company was established in 1971 as Seattle coffee bean roster and retailer, up to date the company has expanded and opens two stores per day. From early 1980s, Starbucks had been making a lot of profit from the different types of brands they sell to the customers. The company had been struggling to be the best coffee provider in US and in1980s, the company lost some of funds trying to expand to the Midwest and to British Columbia. The company had opened 900 stores outside of the United State in 2009 but 300 stores have been closed to date. Sales and expansion In 1980s, coffee sales were failing in US but special coffee prices kept on increasing by 10% in the market as compared to 1989 where the demand of coffee was at 3%. During this time the Starbucks had only 7 stores in Seattle. In1987, the company was sold to Howard Schultz who rebranded coffee outlets and the company expanded to 140 outlets making revenue of $73.5 million up from the $1.3 million attained in 1987 (Miller 2009). The market value of Starbucks store was about 271 million, and the company sold some of its part to double stores that were outside the country to make sure that their brands were in large quantity in the market. The line chart above shows how stores were opened for a number of months from 1971 to 2000 and the percentage estimated. Expansion of new markets and products The company had to launch constituent branches to other parts of the foreign countries since the competition was stiff. The first store that was opened outside North America was in Tokyo, Japan this was in 1996. In 1998, Starbucks started 65 outlets in United Kingdom and all the products were rebranded as Starbucks and the company expanded further and opened the first store in Latin America at Mexico. The company kept on expanding making a lot of profits from different outlets in different countries (Schwaner 2008). In 2008, the firm started a website that was designed to satisfy the customers; this meant that customer suggestions to the company were regarded important to the growth of Starbucks. The customers were given permission to access the website and comment on issues that can make the company progress similarly any dissatisfaction from the customers was received. Again the company introduced programs that were to reward active users of company brands and it came with Starbucks cards that were meant as gifts to the customers since the customers could enjoy free internet access and even no charge to milk and flavored syrups. This made the customers to come in large numbers making Starbucks to achieve high sales and increased profits. Corporate governance Orin Smith was the Starbucks CEO from 2001to 2005 and the chairman was Howard Schultz. The aim of the company is to make sure its growth will not deteriorate but keep on increasing to its highest. In 2007, the company slowed down the growth and this made smith to step down for Schultz who was to be the CEO in 2007 to restore its growth to normal. Starbucks brands Starbucks is known for selling coffee but the company also sells other brands like hot and cold beverages, pastries, snacks and other types of beverages. The company still came up with the idea of selling instant coffee packets 2009 and it was tested in New York City, Seattle, Chicago, and London. In U.S. and Canada markets Starbucks introduced a brand that was quite challenging in taste which the customers could not tell the difference between instant and fresh roasted coffee and this made the customers to enjoy the brand and be accepted in the market (Keller et al, 2008). In US, Starbucks introduced beer and wine selling in 2010. In 2011, the company announced that it was going to open a juice company and the plan was to provide juice bars around California, San Francisco in order to ensure that in 2012 it gained high to enhance its expansion. The company has a lot of tea brands which were started in 1999 when it acquired Tazo brand for US$8.1 million and later Teavana which is worth US$620 million. The company also started coffee brands but they received a lot of competition from McDonald’s premium roast. For a couple of years, Starbucks was ranked as the second in coffee quality. Marketing strategies used by Starbucks Social media The company is known as the first world wide to adopt the use of social media for marketing and E- commerce. Starbucks Company has built a website that the customers use to see different brands. Starbucks has social platforms like Twitter, Facebook which it uses for advertisements. Additionally, again it has a blog called “my Starbucks idea which is used as a marketing strategy. Execution Another marketing strategy that the company uses is the focus of producing original products like high quality coffee and services. The nice environment that is around the company makes a lot of people to visit the company making it easier to advertise its products. Again the company uses innovation since the company is able to produce different brands annually that make the customers to be eager to know the new brands. Customer relation Another marketing strategy is the strong positive company-customer relationship. The company aims at keeping current customers though it still makes an effort to accumulate new customers (Riezebos 2003). Starbucks makes sure that the photos taken during cross-promotions are posted on Twitter and Facebook and directed to customers. This method of marketing normally works well for those who are well equipped with technological know how. The company normally engages customers in conversation and the marketers listens carefully, observe and finally they implement the ideas given by the customers. Encouragement of customers Another marketing strategy is to encourage the customers. For example, the company has come up with an idea of buying one and getting one. This means that the customers are encouraged and motivated. The company has a website that is called “my Starbucks ideas” and has a lot of customers who usually visit the website and the idea behind the designing of website is to encourage customers to submit ideas for better products, and how the company can improve the customer experience among others. These ideas are then implemented thus making its customer to be satisfied. Marketing segments in Starbucks Starbucks is known as the marketer and retailer of coffee in more than 60 countries. The company has four market segments which it operates that include America, Europe, Middle East, and Africa. The company sells wide range of coffee and tea brands to young consumers as well as executives in big firms. The market segments are used by the company to get more customers world wide making its brands to achieve a competitive edge as compared to its rivals like McDonald’s and Dunkin Donuts. The market segments targets the high and middle class income earners. Burberry Burberry is known for distributing clothing and fashion accessories and licensing perfumes which are widely used by many people. The company is mostly known for designing of trench coat that was designed by Thomas Burberry. The company is known for many stores that are distributed around the world. Burberry is among other companies that are listed on the London stock exchange due to wide spread in the market. In 2013, the company brands were ranked as 77th worldwide due to their high usage in the local and foreign markets. The company was founded in 1856 and the objective of the company was to come up with development of outdoor attires. The company came up with a brand that was waterproof and hardwearing brand that was popular in the market making the company to get a lot of customers in the market. The company is based in Westminster in United Kingdom. Burberry Company has established some of its stores in London for instance in the Haymarket. The company developed a logo in 1901 and the aim of logo meant that forward always, this logo was registered as the company trademark. Innovation made Burberry to be competitive in the market based on the modern technology the company used. As a means to try and advertise the company fashion wear, the company designed British casual cult and this made some of football firms to be associated with the company (Roper and Fill, 2012). In 1998, Burberry changed its marketing name and this made the company to change some of products but the items were still using Burberry’s name. In 2001, the company hired Christopher Bailey as creative director since the company was going low in London stock of exchange and this made the director to expand the company to foreign country in Japan where it opened a retail shop worth $435 million. According to Rose Marie Bravo, who was the chief executive of the company mass market success could only be attained through licensing and she made sure that licenses were given to all stores that were opened at that time. Burberry has been rebranding itself with the advertisement and the company is well known to use British celebrities. In this way, the advertisement through the use of the successful celebrities and fashion models make the products of Burberry to be associated with the celebrities. One of the celebrities that the company uses is Kate moss and a singer George Craig who were named as the face of Burberry 2009 during the winter campaign. References Clancy, J and Kriegafsd, P. 2000. Counter Intuitive Marketing. New York: Free Press. Joshi, M. 2005. International Marketing. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Keller, L., Apria, T and Georgson, M. 2008. Strategic Brand Management. A European Perpective. London: Sage. Lenskold, D. 2003. The Path to Campaign, Customer, and Corporate Profitability. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional. Miller, C. 2009. Starbucks Will Close 300 More Stores. New York: New York Times. Philip, M. 2008. Discovery-Based Retail. Bascom Hill: Publishing Group. Philip, K and Kevin L. 2006. Marketing Management. New York: Pearson Prentice Hall. Riezebos, R. 2003. Brand Management, a Theoretical & Practical Approach. Westministers: Prentice Hall. Roper, S and Fill, C. 2012. Corporate Reputation, Brand and Communication. New York: Pearson Education. Schwaner, A. 2008. Tasting the Future of Starbucks Coffee from a New Machine.  New York: New York Press. Read More