Burberry’s Strategic Shift Is Helping Redefine Its Brand Values

British luxury goods company Burberry is turning to its core values to survive the pandemic, and its reliance on its transparency and ethics, along with investment in adaptable digital strategies, could help the brand come out stronger on the other side.

Even as it faces layoffs, Burberry has been investing in customer experience and experimenting with digital programmes. This adaptability is helping the brand maintain strong customer ties in trying times, according to a new analysis of Burberry by market researcher Forrester Research.

“Burberry is the latest in a long line of retailers to announce staff cuts, store closures and a rethink of some of its core assumptions about how customers interact with the brand and how work gets done,” said Martin Gill, vice president and research director at Forrester, in a blog post.

“As a forward-looking retailer with a proven track record of digital, supply chain and operational innovation, Burberry is well positioned to weather the economic downturn by making rapid, adaptive pivots as the world turns around it,” he said.

Focusing on brand values

Transparency and ethics are values that many luxury brands have defined as part of their core beliefs, but Burberry has put that into practice.

When the pandemic hit, Burberry opted out of the United Kingdom government’s furlough programme and instead kept employees on full time, and cut directors’ salaries by 20 percent. This move illustrated how the company was willing to pivot and support its employees even during tough times.

The pay cuts among executives were donated to COVID-19 related charities, a move that showed personal sacrifices that the company was willing to make to give back to the community.

The company also used its West Yorkshire factory to produce personal protective equipment to help healthcare facilities in the area. By reinforcing its brand values through these transparent and ethical behaviours, the company is likely to build lifetime loyalty.

Another brand value that Burberry is championing is the customer experience. Ensuring that it is fully connected at every point with consumers, even as the company is challenged at retail.

“While half-year sales are down significantly year-on-year, Burberry’s ecommerce growth of 22 percent shows that its customers are more than comfortable dropping a cool grand on a trench coat they’ve never tried on,” Gill said.

“As stores begin to reopen, Burberry must continue the work it pioneered with the launch of its Regent Street flagship store and reimagine its customer experiences not as single channels, but as blended physical/digital journeys,” he added.

Burberry’s latest customer-focused endeavour can be seen in the luxury sector’s first social retail store in Chinese tech hub Shenzhen, binding the physical and social worlds in a digitally immersive retail embrace.