Process of developing a “Kingdom of Fashion”
Burberry like so many global companies persistently develops market share around the world. Burberry designs new products attract and expand a new group of consumer as strategies, like Blue Berry in Japan. Up to now, Burberry proves that it is successful.
Step One: Start a local business - 19th-Century Origins
Founder Thomas Burberry starts its business for designing a more comfortable raincoat and he successfully developed a little reputation among locals in 1856.
Step Two: First try of entering new market - Late 19th and Early 20th Century
Burberry established its first foreign outlet in Paris in 1910 and soon in the United States and South America. In 1915, Burberry entered new Asian market – Japan.
Step Three: Continue to expand overseas market - In the 1980s and 1990s
Burberry continually emphasized on exports and Women’s and Children Apparel. Its export business increased dramatically during the 1980s. Overseas sales continued to grow by double-digit percentages in the early 1990s.
Step Four: A setback of development of Asian market - Late 20th Century
Due to the Asian economic crisis, sales decreased and profits tumbled in its business. The company began to slow down its shipments to the Asian market and shut down three production facilities in UK.
“The goal is to turn the Burberry name into a brand as hip as Gucci, Louis Vuitton, or Prada."
[i]- June 1999 Daily News Record article. (3)
Step Five: Expansion in Worldwide
Burberry rebuilt Asian market as well as European and American markets. In Japan, Burberry started a new style that suit Japanese and even Asian. Burberry also featured new product lines including lingerie and swimwear.
Globalization
“Globalization (or globalisation) describes an ongoing process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a globe-spanning network of exchange. The term is sometimes used to refer specifically to economic globalization: the integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, and the spread of technology. However, globalization is usually recognized as being driven by a combination of economic, technological, sociocultural, political, and biological factors. The term can also refer to the transnational dissemination of ideas, languages, or popular culture.” (1)
It is a global current trend that well-developed and reputed companies attempt to expand market to global. Globalization phenomenon indeed consists of the above idea – to be a popular brand name in worldwide. Globalization can be defined as two different ways, which are fact and value according to the definition given by Davos Economic Forum in Switzerland. (2)
Globalization as a fact is the real economic ties, institutions, and realities that underlie a new economy. Also, Globalization as a value is further integration of markets, pools of capital, and industries.
Good Sides of Globalization
Globalization helps spread a new technology and business ideas. Take developing countries as an example, a global brand names shift to new market and, at the same time, they bring new technology. But it doesn’t mean that they bring the least and innovation technology to developing countries. I believe some secrets need to veal. Anyway, some residents in developing countries never had seen this kind of technology. It is important that provide ideas for them to know how to use it. May be it helps them to be a skilled worker; thereby it helps improve their living standard. Also, spreading new business ideas is similar to new technology. New perspectives of business come from foreign brand name, for example, Burberry open a retail in Shang Hai. Before that, Chinese probably don’t know what luxury goods, brand name are. They understand what the differences among the operation of local brand names and a real global brand name. To absorb and apply it to individual business such as the strategy of hiring employees, advertising promotion and so on.
For global brand, I agree that one of the good sides of globalization is that “the integration of developing economies into the main stream global economy has created amazing business opportunities for global brands.” (4) It is sure that global brands expand market share and customers by operating new retailer shop in different countries. It is indeed a golden opportunities for them.
Bad Sides of Globalization
For local brand, it makes harder of running a business because the business world becomes a “highly complex and highly competitive battleground for companies”. (5) Small local brands have to use a large amount of capital and human resources to compete those global brand names. As you know, building up reputation is not an easy task. In order to grab enough market shares, local brands must find their specialty and prepare for a long run “business battle”. Therefore, I agree globalization “made this global market an extremely complicated place to do business in.” (6)
Culture Identity
As successfully global brands, recognizing different culture identity is a must as culture identity can decide business whether it is able to stay or quit. I agree that “the term cultural identity refers to an individual’s sense of self derived … group that transmit and inculcate knowledge, beliefs, values, attitudes, traditions and ways of life.” – 7 The above minimize six segments need to concern clearly. The basic thing have to be careful is that respect other people culture and, at least, don’t insult it as it is a taboo of doing business.
Children begin to develop a sense of identity as individuals and as members of groups from their earliest interactions with others (McAdoo, 1993; Sheets, 1999a).
One of the most basic types of identity is ethnic identity, which entails an awareness of one’s membership in a social group that has a common culture. The common culture may be marked by a shared language, history, geography, and (frequently) physical characteristics (Fishman, 1989; Sheets, 1999a).
Globalization Strategies of Burberry that impact cultural identity
1. Customization
SUSUMU YOSHIDA states that “we need to be aware of significant differences between Eastern and Western thought in order to deeper understanding of intercultural communication gaps.”(8) Like Burberry, it is obviously that body structure of Asian is different from that of European and United States. Therefore, in order to suit the need of customers in Asian, Burberry starts two new product lines – Blue and Black Burberry. It is good example of why we have to know intercultural communication gaps.
Burberry is a British luxury fashion brand which has the select collections of apparel and accessories for men, women and kids. The company operates in markets throughout the world, with a balance across major geographic regions such as Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East, North America, Oceania and Russia. For the greater integration of global markets, the group adopted the strategies that can facilities the intercultural communication.
Example: Burberry Blue and Black Label for Japan
(9)
Burberry has different lines for different countries. We can know the members of the Burberry family from the above figure.
Burberry blue label and black label are for customized for Japan and Asian Countries. These two lines are licensed to a Japanese Company which calls SanYo Company (三陽商社). Sanyo owns and operates the Burberry flagship store in Tokyo and also two Burberry Blue and one Burberry Black stores. The two licence partners are jointly responsible for the wholesale distribution of the Burberry ranges to department stores and specialty stores across Japan. As part of their responsibility as licensees, both firms provide product, visual merchandising and sales staff to their department store customers.
To fit in the taste of Japanese, there are some adaptations made.
- Price. There is a large price range between Burberry Blue/Black Label and the Burberry London/Proprsum.
Here, we can see the price range even in the Yahoo action. The price of London is five times more than that of the Blue Label one even they are two very similar bags.
- Design. Black Label is mainly for men’s formal dressing. Blue Label is mainly for Asian Youngster. The design is much more colorful, casual and young. However, the design of London and Proprsum is mature, classic and conservative. There is a comparison. Guess which one is from Burberry London and which one is from Blue Label?
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For more details, you may have a look of their official web sites.
BlueLabelhttp://www.burberry-bluelabel.com/index.html (10)
BlackLabel: http://www.burberry-blacklabel.com/ (11)
BurberryLondon: http://www.burberry.com (12)
A success customization of a market can make the brand more fit in the local culture. Because of Blue and Black Label, Burberry is not only a British Brand, but it is also a tailor made brand for Japan. Under collectivism system, like Japan, to be “Japan” is important. If you are “Japan” enough, people will like you and they will collectively support you to show their identity of being Japanese.
2. Social networking site
Burberry will launch a social networking site on October 2009. The site will feature users sending in pictures of themselves that wearing Burberry trench coats. There have already been more than 660,000 fans on Facebook. This site helps interaction between Burberry and its customers all around the world. Also, people can communicate with others that have similar branding preference. Through the sharing and communication, some norms and common values are formed. This is a main part of a sub-culture, or even a culture. Also, these values make how people think about who they are, i.e., identity. For example, the more the people join the site, the more the popular Burberry is. People will use its products to tell others that they are fashionable, and to fit in with their social groups. If you don’t know Burberry, you are not a “normal” person. To be “normal”, you will follow the trend.
3. Official website with multi-languages
There are many languages version of the official web site and online store of Burberry. Hong Kong people can shop and get the information they need with their native languages. Therefore, people can know more about Burberry. culture is not as board as we think sometime, culture can be found in a company as well. An official web site can share the company’s culture with the visitors. Under the mother language, sense of belonging can be built more easily. It is good for intercultural communication because information and cultural flow are speeded up since one of the biggest communication barriers was broken down.
4. World-famous top model for commercial and fashion show
To build up its international fashion brand image, Burberry launched a radically different advertising strategy that sought to change perceptions of Burberry through the use of leading models, such as Kate Moss and reputable fashion photographers, while retaining distinctly British themes as the content of these advertisements. The world leading model can help Burberry spread the British culture over the world. Also, human being likes to follow its idol to show confidence and self-confirmation, so the fans of the model will follow what their idols wear to become fashionable, specialty and confident. What is more, the use of these models, Burberry or even the world fashion industry makes people believe that “slim” is pretty. This changes people’s thoughts towards their identity. If they want to be popular, trendy and pretty, they need to buy clothes from Burberry or others high class fashion brand.
5. Recruitment
Expansion is not an easy task that needs to arrange human recourses in different region or countries. In recruiting employees, Burberry has a good strategy and I think Burberry really make good use of local recourses. It is easily to increases the awareness of locals. On the other side, it is able to decreases the conflict of intercultural communication. Burberry recruits purely on the basis of skills and experience and without regard to sex, race, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, age, religion, disability or sexual orientation. It entirely benefits of running a business.
6. Charity
Moreover, Burberry Foundation is developed in order to help poor and teenagers around all over the world; it cooperates with different local organizations such as Robin Hood in New York, Changing Yong Lives Foundation in Hong Kong. The mission of Burberry Foundation is to build up confidence and self-esteem through daily life and help build relationship among family, friends and community. More importantly, it encourages teenagers develop creation and make their dream to be true. It helps build up another kinds of reputation in those communities except for that of in business.
Burberry in HK
Actually, Burberry sees Hong Kong as a valuable marketplace as well. It did a lot here to draw attention and maintain its brand knowledge here. This make Burberry’s image and culture are deeply affecting Hong Kong. Here are some examples of what it did.
1. Sponsorship
In order to become one of the most important top brands in HK, Burberry has put much effort on advertising and sponsorship. For example, Burberry has sponsored the Hong Kong local movie, My Lucky Star. The clothing of the leading actress in the movie was all sponsored by Burberry. This can make Burberry more fit in the HK culture. Also, famous people can be the fashion leaders that can affect the local fashion culture. More people will like the England Burberry fashion. Meanwhile, more local brand will learn from this England design.
2. Localized Official Web Site
There are many languages version of the official web site and online store of Burberry. Hong Kong people can shop and get the information they need with their native languages. Therefore, people can know more about Burberry, its cultural can affect the Hong Kong culture more.
3. Sixteen Burberry shops in HK
There are sixteen Burberry London shops and counter in total even in a relatively small Hong Kong marketplace. It is penetrated in here and welcomed by the Hong Kong people. In its official web site, there is a detail Hong Kong map for visitors to find out the shop location easily. The products in Hong Kong are largely standardized with style, category and price. In the shops, local staff are hired to provide luxurious services to the customers.
Blue and Black Label are two lines that produced and designed in Japan. Blue is more casual and the black one is more formal. These two lines are more fit in to the Asian people’s body shape and their preferences. The price is a bit lower than Burberry’s other product line. So it can attract the region, like HK, that the living standard is lower the European one.
Burberry’s impaction on the culture identity in HK
Culture includes many elements such as food, buildings and beliefs. Fashion is also an important element of culture. Actually, Hong Kong does not have its own unique culture. As Hong Kong is an international city, our fashion is influenced by many other countries such as Japan and Korea. For teenagers, the fashion trend of Japan was strongly affected them. It is not surprised that we saw a girl who wears Lolita in the street. Also, there are many teenagers that follow the fashion trend blindly. They pursue some luxury brands such as Gucci and Burberry because of vanity. In certain extent, Burberry influences the fashion trend of Hong Kong unobtrusively and imperceptibly.
Moreover, there are many international luxury fashion opened their branches in Hong Kong. For examples, Gucci from Italy, DKNY from America and Burberry from England are all international fashion brands. All those brands represent the image of prestige and position in the society.
Burberry is a conservative and quiet fashion brand. Almost all of the Burberry’s products are based on tartan pattern as main design. In certain extent, Burberry aroused the preference of tartan pattern. But in fact, there are many substitutes of Burberry. For example, Dunhill is also a conservative England fashion brand. To show the prestige of ourselves, we can choose Louis Vuitton, Gucci’s products. So the introduction of Burberry in Hong Kong doesn’t affect the culture of Hong Kong much.
The branches in different countries of international brand can increase the unity of world. It is because we can see our familiar brand in different countries all over the world. But on the other hand, it just diversifies our choice of fashion brand. It doesn’t really affect the culture of Hong Kong. In fact, Burberry pours the new elements and new culture to the fashion culture of Hong Kong.
However, even Burberry didn’t affect Hong Kong’s culture comprehensively; it did affect part of the people, especially its fans and followers.
As we said above, Burberry is a prestige, conservative and classic brand. It is also fashionable, but it is not as stylish as the brands like DKNY or Gucci. Burberry is mature and a bit conservative. Its target market will mainly be the high class people which like conservative and moderate clothes rather than exaggerated one. When people wear Burberry, they will feel like that—rich, be respected, fashionable and mature. They wear in the Burberry style because they think they are the kind of people that suit the brand, which is their own knowledge about themselves, they think who they are, their own identity.
Suggestion
1. Co-operate with well-known charities.
Those non-profit charity organizations which cooperate with Burberry are not well-known enough. I suggest that if Burberry wants to increase awareness in societies, it should cooperate with some popular charities, such as Red Cross, World Vision, etc. Peoples believe that popular charities make better use of the donation money and have a clearer report than those unpopular charities to tell public about what they did. Also, popular charities like a global brand name have built up around the world. Normally, at the beginning, voluntary work can be easily accepted by local public rather than business. Therefore, in order to improve awareness of local, Burberry should first operate with popular charities through regularly sponsors or donate their work in different countries. It helps Burberry build positive image of social responsibility and even enter a new market.
2. Save animal and respect animal rights.
Burberry as a fashion house, fur industry use fur to make products. Some anti- animal fur organizations and supporters oppose Burberry to use real animal fur because one states that “To kill the animals without damaging their fur, trappers usually strangle, beat, or stomp them to death.” (13) As a result, animals must be killed in order to get beautiful and valuable fur. In China, Burberry uses a kind of dog fur which is called Raccoon dog fur that as a material of being a part of Burberry products. (14) Burberry has to change the material. Animals also have life; they are a part of nature, so we need to cherish them. One also argue the environment provide for animals are so harsh when they are caught. They live into “filthy wire cages, exposure to harsh weather conditions and survival without clean water, adequate food and space” (15) The truth is unbelievable and unacceptable. Burberry should use innovative technology to make some fur-like materials instead of real fur. We should consider the feeling of animals.
Reference:
1. Globalization – Wikipedia Bhagwati Jagdish. In Defense of Globalization. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globalization
2. Daily News Record article. June 1999
3. Randy Kluver. Oklahoma City University. Globalization, Informatization, and Intercultural Communication http://www.acjournal.org/holdings/vol3/Iss3/spec1/kluver.htm
4. Martin Roll. Venture Republic. Cross-cultural branding and leadership http://www.venturerepublic.com/resources/Cross-cultural_branding_leadership.asp
5. Martin Roll. Venture Republic. Cross-cultural branding and leadership http://www.venturerepublic.com/resources/Cross-cultural_branding_leadership.asp
6. Martin Roll. Venture Republic. Cross-cultural branding and leadership http://www.venturerepublic.com/resources/Cross-cultural_branding_leadership.asp
7. Daphne A. Jameson. Journal of Business Communication. Reconceptualizing Cultural Identity and Its Role in Intercultural Business Communication P.207
http://job.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/44/3/199
8. SUSUMU YOSHIDA, Managing Director, Sumitomo Chemical Asia Pte Ltd. Vital Speeches of the day. P.710
9. The Burberry Product Brand / Model. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/insight/
10. Blue Label. http://www.burberry-bluelabel.com/index.html
11. Black Label. http://www.burberry-blacklabel.com/
12. Burberry London. http://www.burberry.com
13. Tell Burberry to stop selling fur. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/tell-burberry-to-stop-selling-fur
14. JIM SHI. Could animal activists soon be sporting Burberry plaid? http://www.animalliberationfront.com/News/2006_04/BurberryBansFur.htm
15. Tell Burberry to stop selling fur.
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/tell-burberry-to-stop-selling-fur
16. (Further information about animal rights) http://fur.elehost.com/
