Age Doesn’t Limit Burberry’s Digital Transformation
Burberry is one of the legendary brands when it comes to fashion.
We often associate Burberry with its iconic trench coat. This timeless coat is long, hits at the calves, and features epaulettes, storm flaps, buckles, and metal D-rings. The brand’s iconic check under the collar has become a classic in the fashion world.
Established in 1856, the 165 years-old trench coat has transformed into a sleek and slim silhouette — which is different from its roots.
Despite the success in the past, luxury brands like Burberry need to constantly stay on trend so that the new generation will continue to be their customers.
This is where marketing comes into play.
Burberry has achieved in the last few years in elevating its brand identity in the digital world. Setting a new benchmark for brand storytelling and reinforcement for its continued brand excellence.
Burberry did an excellent job in creating interactive content to maximize personalization.
New Luxury Shopping Experience: The Burberry App
By 2021, the worldwide mobile commerce share in e-commerce is expected to reach 72.9% globally.
Well-aware of the shopping trend, Burberry has created an app aiming to capture mobile commerce users. The user interface is simple and clean. Under the “For You” section, the topics of “Trending This Week”, “Your Lastest Arrivals”, and “Editor’s Weekly Picks” guide the users on a personal level. The “Shop” section allows the user to browse the products in-app and add the item to the cart seamlessly.
In terms of in-app customer service, Burberry chooses a slightly outdated way — chat by sending text messages. It seems like they could incorporate AI chatbots here to elevate the whole shopping experience.
Burberry has adopted the Facebook messenger chatbot features during New York Fashion Week back in 2016. As a digital leader in luxury brands, Burberry would be beneficial to incorporate Facebook chatbots with the app. It will create a more integrated online experience for its core audience and loyal fans.
The WOW Moment: Burberry’s WeChat Mini Program
In 2020, there was an unprecedented luxury market decline in Europe and North America (some brands even lost 75% or more of the revenue!). However, China has been the “silver lining” — it has been the only place where most brands achieve positive market performance in 2020. The Chinese luxury market grew by almost 50% in 2020, reaching approximately 50–55 billion!
It is obvious that China is the market where luxury brands should invest their marketing money on.
The question is: where are the Chinese audiences?
WeChat.
Burberry has an official account on WeChat. They constantly update the brand story and new season arrivals like other brands do. What sets them apart is that they create a WeChat mini program called “Burberry Space”.
It creates highly interactive content that allows users to scroll through different images to know more about the brand story, store events, and new season arrivals. Users can also share photos wearing Burberry’s garments or bags. The most WOW moment is that Burberry creates a virtual character as your pet. Users can choose outfits for the virtual character — but first, users need to explore the content on the mini-program to unlock the cloth selection! It’s like a game. Burberry definitely captures the new generation’s attention.
It’s a smart marketing strategy for Burberry to engage with users and encourage them to spend time on the app. The more the brand exposure, the higher the chance the brand can convert users into customers.
Final Words
Burberry is a leader in the luxury market that successfully adopts digital marketing strategies to attract the young generation. Brand’s digital ambition reflects on its product designs, campaign videos, creative contents, and marketing channel selections. Burberry understands that the young generation is the future spending power and it needs to act quickly to capture their attention.
Big data allows brands to understand their customer better and deliver relevant content that will interest them. I believe Burberry will continue creating more interactive content on a personal level and remain its excellence in the digital world.
