Burberry is in the content business
Saw a brilliant quote this morning from Christopher Bailey the chief creative officer of Burberry. Goes like this:
“We are now as much a media-content company as we are a design company, because it’s all part of the overall experience.”
I thought Burberry made raincoats. And scarves. And apparel. But no, according to Bailey, Burberry makes content. They’re a media company. And from what I can tell, a pretty damn good one. First they impressed us with Art of the Trench. Now they’re at it again, live streaming their London Fashion Week show to 25 flagship stores.
Retail theatre if you will.
Burberry plans to present its 2011 line via high def screens, surround sound and an experience that lets customers view the entire line on iPads from which they can then place advance orders.
This is a far way from traditional advertising in the Sunday New York Times Magazine. Burberry isn’t buying media, it’s creating media.
You could make an argument that is the new frontier in marketing creativity. Less about messages, more about innovative ways to engage with customers and add value in the form of original content.
Granted plenty of companies and forward thinking brands are making content part of their business model. Retailers like Uniqlo. Online services such as OK Cupid. Young start-up “me-commerce” businesses in the mold of Gemvara.
But there are two aspects to Burberry’s idea that make it particularly smart. The first is that it focuses on existing customers. The Grateful Dead approach, if you will. Embrace, invite, involve and celebrate the people most likely to influential your success and spread the good word.
The second, potentially offering even more value, is that this idea creates a direct link to sales. Burberry will know almost instantly what its customers like and what they choose to pre-order. It might even help Burberry make decisions about inventory, and how many pieces to stock.
Yet even those benefits may be secondary to the simple idea expressed in Christopher Bailey’s quote. The idea that every business needs to be in the content business.
Are you in the content business yet?
Comments
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paulzink Hey Paul, we're really sorry about that. You might have been caught in the middle of our recent update. Can you e-mail details of what happened to support@livefyre.com? We want to get to the root if the problem so next time you see us fast-and-smart. :)
Also, when you roll over a comment you can see the delete button which will take care of that double post. Thanks!
jennalanger Thanks, I'll try to reconstruct the sequence of events u00e2u0080u0094 primarily a circular loop of pop-ups asking me to register and then noting that I was already registered.
paulzink It's a beta. But they are quite responsive.
Re: "We are now as much a media-content company as we are a design company, because itu00e2u0080u0099s all part of the overall experience.u00e2u0080u009du00e2u0080u00a6 Too bad, I say u00e2u0080u0094whatever happened to the "overall experience" of buying/owning/wearing an actual well-made product? When I got my Burberrys "Trench 29" raincoat (made in the UK then u00e2u0080u0094 today, who knows?), the company was in the business of making renowned weather gear and related apparel. Now it appears that actually making things is not the primary purpose of Burberry, according to Mr. Bailey. So when it comes time to replace my venerable Burberrys trench coat, I'll have to shop elsewhere, and spend my $1,200+ with a firm that still prioritizes producing top-quality outerwear rather than media content and/or design. But good luck to Burberry with their "son et lumiu00c3u00a8re" show in the stores, I'm sure it's very sexy.
paulzink Remember the great scene in Kramer vs Kramer. Buying a Burberry was a right of passage for an ad guy. Great scene. Inspired me to buy one. But like lots of brands in the space (Coach, for example) they've become a fashion brand, not just a functional brand. Haven't bought one in a while, so can't attest to the consistent quality, but I'm hoping it's still great. Made in the Far East somewhere?
edwardboches I do remember that scene; I think the Dustin Hoffman character and I have the same trench coat, and yes, it probably is made today in the Far East somewhere. You're right about luxury goods having become fashion brands. I used to get all my leather goods from Coach and now it's hard to find men's products there, as men are generally not fashion buyers. I knew Burberry was undergoing a transformation when I began seeing the signature plaid coat lining on tote bags, mini umbrellas, and especially on those damned scarves. Same for Dunhill, where I'd shopped since 1972; I remember that in the NYC flagship store, Dunhill would offer regular customers like me house accounts with which one could sign for items (no plastic needed, they kept your name & address on a 3x5 file card and knew your face) and be billed at the end of the month with a politely hand-written invoice. That quality of service, to me, is true luxury u00e2u0080u0094 and ironically, a better example of effective customer engagement than may possible today. But I'm sure that Burberry, Coach, Dunhill, et al, are making a heck of a lot more revenue these days than under the old business model.
Hey Edward, great post.
I'd argue that Burberry is in the intellectual property business, not just the content business. Some of that IP gets output as patterns. perfumes and clothes. Some gets output as content -- video, text, images. Some gets output as events and fashion shows.
Now with the combination of better, cheaper, more widely distributed tools for content creation and distribution, it makes perfect sense that Burberry have started creating their own content instead of relying on the media to do it for them.
Because they can then start to build their own direct audiences instead of relying on intermediaries to build the audiences.
The direct relationship can be used for e-commerce, promotion, message propogation, campaign testing -- tons of opportunities for a brand open to participation and that people want to attach to themselves.
But I think the risk for other brands is they see a strategy working for Burberry and want to emulate it. Before they do, they need the right context:
* do they stand for something specific like Burberry?
* do people want to participate with them?
* what incentives do people have to participate?
* how can the brand invest in the required support, seeding and outreach?
* is the brand a leader in their category of will this be a me-too effort?
The rewards can be huge when the right context is combined with the right strategies. Sounds familiar, right? New means to the same right-context + right strategies story!
We've worked with some big brands on similar campaigns and found that some have the context for success and some don't. It's uneven. Some are just taking baby steps. Some are onto optimization of efforts.
But one thing holds true -- the sooner the brand starts to discover if it has the right context, the better.
And it's never been easier, cheaper or lower risk to start.
AdHack You get a thumbs up for this thorough and thoughtful comment. Content can be anything. For OK Cupid, it's real utility based on data. For Gemvara, it's perspective on jewelry. For Gary V, it's personality and info on wine. For Timberland, it's functional iPhone apps. No shortage of ways to do this,.
Cool post, but to me this is the gem:
"... the new frontier in marketing creativity is less about messages, more about innovative ways to engage with customers..."
Call it content, call it whatever, but going forward, companies will have to engage with their customers in ever more interesting ways, and clever messages alone are about the least interesting way possible.
JeffShattuck This point holds very true for a company like Burberry. When you have a high-end product that shows status it make sense to get the consumers involved. Make them feel special and involved with the brand and the customer will help spread the word.
What's also remarkable is the luxury industry transformation. So many luxury companies have been unwilling to bring consumers into the brand experience because it represents, to some extent, a lack of control. The digital ideas Burberry is bringing to the table represent a shift to adapt to ways today's consumers consume content, and it's in a controlled, branded way. Very smart, no doubt, but do you think they could have gone farther with the level of engagement and user generated content?
adamcohen Sure they could have and perhaps they will. I only know what I've read of the project and was more impressed with Bailey's mindset. Also the fact they have wisely focused on customers, made it an in-store event, which drives traffic and sends a statement to loyalists that they get a closer inside look at the brand and its efforts. Some of this may have been coincidence, but dissect what works about it and you have a good model. I am already sharing with clients in the form of ideas that they can embrace. Letting customers more into the brand experience.
my accountant would say that when burberry get paid for media content they are a media content business.
davidish And that's why accountant's have the reputations that they do. Fact is that every business invests in places that deliver a return. Your accountant, like lots of service businesses, could himself make more money, win more clients, and be more successful, if he got in the content business. Providing his content is better than the advice he proffers in your above statement.
edwardboches davidish perhaps, as long as the content isn't ready to wear and utterly commonplace
davidish edwardboches You should have a look at the excellent Steven Blank on Why Accountants Don't Run Startups http://www.justin.tv/startuplessonslearned/b/26267... and this is exactly what is happening at Burberry but instead of a Startup it is a Skunkworks. Additionally the business model of providing something else to generate revenues from an oblique result is nothing new. Is Google for instance in the search business or the advertising business. Well both but they only make money off the advertising because they do such great search technology.
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