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Burberry held in check

Posted in General, Marketing December 12th, 2006 by Branwell Johnson

In our latest analysis in conjunction with YouGov’s BrandIndex we assess Burberry’s performance as the company looks to transfer manufacturing overseas.

Fashion company Burberry is seen as one of those quintessentially British brands that flies the flag for quality, reliability and good taste.

At least these are the brand values that the company wants to associate with its well-known products. However, Burberry has seen some upheaval over the past year beginning with its spin-off from GUS last December and the departure of CEO Rose Marie Bravo in July – replaced by Angela Ahrendts. It is currently embroiled in a heated and headline-grabbing row over the possible closure of its Welsh factory.

Politicians, Welsh celebrities and actors, such as Ioan Gruffudd, and even Prince Charles have waded into the debate arguing for intervention to stop jobs being lost and manufacturing being transferred to China. The irony that Gruffudd appeared in a campaign to promote the fragrance Burberry London earlier this year has not been lost on media commentators.

The recent negative publicity is reflected in YouGov’s BrandIndex, that measures the “Buzz” amongst brands along with other factors. Burberry’s Buzz has been dropping over the past four weeks and as of Friday (8 December) stood at - 6.2. This is the lowest score of the year for the brand.

Burberry was showing a slight recovery from its association with the “chav” crowd earlier this year. Suggestions that the Burberry brand had been tarnished due to its adoption by football fans and other less aspirational demographics have occasionally aggravated the company.

The recovery can be seen in the “Recommend” rating found by the BrandIndex. This started the year at -8.93and managed to clamber to -3.2 by March. However, it plunged again in June and July – the months of the World Cup –  to hover around -6 and now stands at -7.2.

The recent reappointment of Kate Moss as a brand ambassador may give Burberry a lift among the young and stylishly chic, although her turbulent relationship with the unpredictable BabyShambles frontman Pete Doherty always has the potential to undo good brand building work.

The “Quality” mark for Burberry, which one would think of some importance with a fashion brand of its heritage, has had something of a rollercoaster year. It started in January at 10.8 and rose to 13.7 by the end of the month. In April it fell to 6.6, then recovered but dipped to 5.4 in August. By last week it was at 8.6 – what happens to quality perceptions if manufacture is outsourced to China will be interesting.

Other brands thought of as British, such as Dyson and Dr Martens, have moved manufacturing overseas and survived the negative publicity. But as a fashion brand often utilised by tourism and cultural bodies to represent Britain abroad, the company may find it needs more than its gabardine coats to weather this particular storm.

About YouGov

YouGov is a full service agency, pioneering the use of the internet for market research and public consultation.

Using proprietary consumer and specialist audience panels, YouGov operates in the UK, North America and the Middle East. One of the most quoted research agencies in the UK, it has an established track record of consistently accurate and high quality survey data, expertise in constructing nationally representative samples online and developing consultation and deliberative research techniques. The launch of BrandIndex in 2005, which monitors the brand health of over 1,100 brands continuously, underlined YouGov’s reputation for innovation and the service now counts some of the UK’s largest brands amongst its subscribers.

BrandIndex is a daily measure of public perception across 32 sectors, with brands measured on a 7-point profile and data delivered next-day. For BrandIndex, YouGov interviews 2,000 people each weekday, more than half a million interviews per year. Respondents are drawn from YouGov’s proprietary online panel of more than 130,000 UK respondents. For full methodology please see www.brandindex.com