The Burberry Case: How a Luxury Brand Almost Died (and Saved Itself with a Brilliant Rebranding)
Burberry is now one of the most prestigious luxury brands in the world, a symbol of British elegance and status. But few people know that in the 2000s the brand was on the brink of total disaster:
- Gangsters and thugs had adopted it as their uniform.
- Parallel markets were flooded with fakes.
- The brand was considered cheap and had lost its luxury appeal.
Then, in a stroke of genius, Burberry has made one of the most spectacular rebrands in history, returning to being an exclusive and desired icon. Here’s how it happened.
1. From Luxury Icon to Gangster Brand
Founded in 1856, Burberry was synonymous with luxury, quality and British class. Celebrities, politicians and even the royal family wore his famous trench coats and scarves in beige, red and black tartan.
But in the early 2000s, something went wrong.
The Problem: The “Chav Takeover”
Burberry made a fatal mistake: to increase sales, lowered prices and licensed the brand to too many manufacturers.
Result? The famous Burberry check pattern ended up on:
- Baseball caps and tracksuits sold cheaply.
- Streetwear bought by British “chavs” (the equivalent of Italian tamarri).
- Every market stall and second-rate shop had fake Burberrys for a few euros.
From a luxury brand, Burberry became the uniform of hooligans, gangsters and football hooligans. Even pubs in England banned anyone wearing Burberry, for fear of brawls.
By 2005, 99% of Burberry tartan products sold worldwide were counterfeit.
Disastrous damage to image
The brand was now associated with the culture of crime. Even the English rapper Dappy (N-Dubz) declared that “if you wear Burberry, you are a criminal”.
Result? Sales plummeted. The wealthy target did not want to be associated with the brand any longer, and even shareholders feared that Burberry had become beyond redemption.
2. The Stroke of Genius: How Burberry Saved Its Brand
In 2006, Burberry brought in Angela Ahrendts as CEO and Christopher Bailey as creative director. They had an impossible mission: transform a declining brand into an exclusive luxury icon.
Here are the most brilliant strategic moves that turned the situation around.
1. Rid the brand of criminals (literally)
Burberry made a drastic and risky decision:
- He removed the tartan logo from the most visible items.
- He stopped licensing with low-cost manufacturers.
- He removed tartan entirely from the most commercial accessories (such as baseball caps, which had become the symbol of chavs).
Within a year, Burberry cleaned up its brand image, making products with the iconic motif rare and desirable again.
2. Creating an Aura of Absolute Exclusivity
Burberry returned to targeting the high end of the market:
- He raised prices.
- He launched limited collections.
- He chose luxury ambassadors such as Emma Watson, Kate Moss and Cara Delevingne.
The strategy worked: the message was clear. Burberry was no longer for everyone.
3. Technology + Luxury: Digital Innovation
Burberry was one of the first luxury brands to aggressively embrace digital:
- It was the first fashion brand to live stream its runway shows.
- It created a unique platform for custom-made, allowing customers to personalize trench coats.
- It launched highly engaging social campaigns such as “Art of the Trench”, which turned shoppers into brand ambassadors.
Burberry transformed the concept of fashion marketing, becoming a point of reference for the industry.
3. The Return to Success: From Dying Brand to Emperor of Luxury
Within 5 years, Burberry’s rebranding was one of the most spectacular in history:
- Sales rose 27% a year.
- Burberry shares quadrupled.
- Rich customers flocked back to the brand.
Burberry had succeeded in get rid of unwanted audiences and become synonymous with luxury and refinement again.
4. The Marketing Lesson Behind the Burberry Case
Burberry teaches us that a brand can quickly destroy itself if it loses control of its image, but it can also rise again if it adopts an intelligent strategy.
Here are 3 key lessons from the Burberry case:
- Exclusivity = Desire → If a luxury brand becomes too accessible, it loses value. Rarity is the secret of desire.
- The right audience is more important than the largest audience → Burberry understood that it didn’t have to sell to everyone, but only to the right customers.
- Digital can reinvent a brand → The combination of luxury and digital experience has made Burberry a pioneer of fashion tech.
Today Burberry is once again a global icon. But without this stroke of genius, it would probably have failed in 2010.
Conclusion: Marketing Can Save (or Destroy) a Brand
Burberry is proof that marketing is not just advertising, but strategic positioning. If a brand is perceived in the wrong way, it can die. If it manages to regain control of its image, it can be reborn stronger than before.
The Burberry case is one of the most extreme and spectacular examples of rebranding in history.
The question is: how many other brands today are making the same mistake and risking collapse?
