burberry off a lesson in consistency

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BURBERRY OFFERS A LESSON IN CONSISTENC

On any decent MBA course there is usually amarketing simulation. The class divides into sixteams and each is assigned a specific brand. Theteams th en have to m ake strategic decisions on

an annual basis and as these decisions are fedinto the simulation their subsequent performancecompared with the other teams is computed.

The team tha t usually tr iumphs is not the onethat made the best decisions, but the one thatmade good choices and stuck to them, while lessexperienced, and ultimately less successfulteams, chopped and change d their strategy fromone period to the next. Success is as much aboutconsistency and execution as it is about analysisand decision making.

That 's the key message marketers should takefrom Burberry's continued success. Last weekwe learned that the brand's revenues are againup by 27%. Profits up by 40%. And with theAsian taste for luxury - and particularly

Burberry - catching fire, there is only moregrowth to come.

Burberry's current success can be traced backto 1997 and the arrival of CEO Rose-Marie Bravo.It was Bravo who surveyed the late 20th centuryfashion landscape and dug deep into the roots ofthe brand to uncover the right positioning. Whenshe re-emerge d it was w ith a clear focus on threebrand associations. First, it had to b e British.Second, it was a curious blend of function andfashionable bec ause Burberry's history, unlikethose of its Latin peers, w as one born fromgabard ine - a thoroughly practical and waterprooffabric. Third, the bran d w as certainly luxuriousbut it was alw ays accessible. Burberry was, afterall, the product of a draper from Basingstoke, nota couturier from the Left Bank of Paris.

It 's one thing to have a clear position, butquite another to apply it consistently. Bravotightened up the l icenses, sorted outdistribution, introduced flagships, cut back morethan 75% of products on offer and, crucially,hired a creative director, Ch ristopher Bailey, torestore the fashion credentials to the dustyBurberry brand .

Bailey, of course, turne d out to be amasterstroke. Not only was he a gifted designer,he was also perfect ly al igned with the b randpositioning Bravo had articulated for Burberry.He was British, he designed clothes that youcould actually wear on the high street and - as

anyone who has met the man can at test -he isalso one of the most humble and accessibledesigners on the planet .

You m ustcombine tberight marketingstrategy witbconsistentexecution

Mark Ritson is anassociate professorof marketing, an awardwinning columnist,and a consultant tosome of the world'sbiggest brands

application of Burberry's positioning can witnessed in its advertising strategy. To fBurberry's advert ising over the past decawalk through an E nglish meadow of beau

yet ever-consistent muses . Always fresh, the same.In 1998 Stella Tennant represented the

she was British, she was fashionable and had that practical posh kind of look the braspired to. Then came Kate Moss, who a deven more fashion to the brand whilesimultaneously increasing its accessibilityis , after all, the only supermodel who comCroydon. There was Rachel Weisz, then SDahl, then Agnes Deyne, followed by EmmWatson, then Rosie Huntington-Whitely. Anow Karen Anne in this year 's cam paign.

I haven't heard of the last one, either, bwill and that's the point. Burberry has seldifferent young face each season to conti

brand's rejuvenation. But while the face mhave changed the story has remained theThese are all British girls. They are stunnibeautiful and yet each one is solidly middclass. Accessible yet fashionable.

Thanks to M ario Testino taking thephotographs, the ads remain high fashion iaesthetic appeal, but because the clothes bworn are Burberry they remain relatively pin their style. Fashionable yet functional.

A decade is a long time in branding. Avbrands have gone through three marketindirectors and at least as many brandposit ionings and com munications campaithat period. The likes of Vodafone, BarclaNokia, for example, have shared more thadozen different ap proaches in the pa st tenEach has dan ced an un eve n and confusindifferent steps and mis-steps that have seonly confuse the consumer.

In contrast. Burberry has staye d true tosimple, beautiful and carefully choreograwaltz. The greatest achievem ent of RoseBravo and now Angela Ahrendts, the wowho replaced her as CEO in 2006, isconsistency. Marketers have short memoand even shorter at tention spans. The leBurberry teache s us is that you must comthe right marketing strategy with at leasyears of consistent execution.

Ignore your new manager and your new

agency and steer the ship in the right direand hold course for a decade or more. Do and the real power of brand success will

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