The beginning of the end for Burberry, or the end of the beginning....

Jonathan

Jonathan

VFG Member
http://www.slate.com/id/2145165/?nav=tap3&GT1=8391

I found this article online and as I read it I was getting feelings of deja vu. This pattern of business is common and I predict that within a few years Burberry will be going bankrupt, sold to another company, split up and die.

I know Burberry was huge a couple of seasons ago and still has a following but I think its on the down swing now and yet they are expanding their retail outlets. After a long history of quiet respectability their plaid is now on the lips of plebes -- a sure sign that the fad is about to fade. This happened with Doc Marten. They had a run of popularity that built in the late 1970s and early 1980s to a level of success never imagined in the late 1980s and early 1990s and then plunged in popularity in the late 1990s after becoming a mall fashion in the outback. The company is now all but gone. Remember Benetton? Same thing. Fashion doesn't take saturation well for any length of time. Fashion no longer becomes fashion when it becomes commonplace, there is no status left in it. The only time it works is in something like jeans that are continually reinvented wardrobe staples.

No offence to Topeka Kansas, but when retailers start locating their luxury good outlets there, the item no longer has a high status.
 
Interesting article, well I hope they can muddle through the storm....as they have such a classic product....it would be sad to no longer be able to buy a good aquascutum raincoat!

But I guess that's the chance you take when you sell a staple and then begin market yourself trendy! Overkill and then what...people have always been fickle and move on to the next thing.
 
"topeka kansas" is not "topeka kansas" anymore. Due to the transient nature of most people in America, rich folk end up relocating to all sorts of places to live better on less or to start businesses. Even living in the sticks, I know some people who would be their market. They just have to drive for hours and hours to get what they want.

In the sticks where I live, 45 minutes away from my front door they are building a new upscale mall with a Talbott's, Anne Taylor, etc. This would have been totally ludicrious and unheard of even 5 years ago.
 
It will be interesting to see. When Lord and Taylor tried a store here in Louisville, it didn't make it.

I don't know about Kansas City, but Indianapolis isn't a super high end town.

Hollis
 
it is a shame, and does make me sad. But they really have got quite a job on their hands.

When the football game is on in our town (every few Saturdays) it is chaos. The last time I got caught in it I couldn't believe my eyes - there were mounted policemen, police dogs, armoured riot vans.. all to escort the 'away' fans through town to the football ground in a weird kind of crocodile (they get a lot of trouble which is ridiculous as we are at the very bottom of the league and a very small city)

Th entire high street/ shopping area was at a standstill and we all had to wait in shops or side streets behind a police cordon to let this crocodile of people pass. The 'crocodile' was a sea of Burberry caps and scarves, as it truly is en vogue amongst the hooligan elite! And you can spot the ones who have escaped the police escort for that very same reason.

Once it's that far gone it will take a marketing genius to pull it back in, in my opinion. Having Kate Moss head up the last advertsing campaign moments before her scandal was an unfortunate twist of fate too.

Such a shame though. :violins:
 
The hooligan elite must have some money!

I can't imagine a store like Burberry succeeding in most US communtiies, partly because most American think Ann Taylor and Coach are upscale. For most of the people I know - all professionals with good jobs, a $200 Coach bag is a real splurge. I don't see them even considering shelling out $500+ for a Burberry.

Actually, I'd tend to think of Burberry in the same vein as a lot of European luxury brands, like Etro, Gucci, and even Ferragamo. They are the types of things American buy when they travel. A pair of Ferragamo boots looks a whole lot more attractive in the Florence or Rome showroom than it does in Saks. And people who would never think of spending $300 for a Burberry scarf might do so when under the influence of shopping in London. (Trust me on these points!)

And for most Americans, I'd think a trip to New York or other big city and a trip to Saks or Neiman Marcus would big on the desire to splurge. But Kansas City? Or Indianapolis? I wonder how the Charlotte store is doing? I really can't see that, either!
 
Are they really that expensive? I have a Burberry raincoat I wear that I got for $20.00 in a thrift shop but the last time I had anything new that was Burberry was a trench coat in the 1970s and I think it was $125.00 new. It was so Royal family uncool then that I rarely wore it. I guess maybe inflation takes its toll!
 
Originally posted by fuzzylizzie
And people who would never think of spending $300 for a Burberry scarf might do so when under the influence of shopping in London. (Trust me on these points!)
Click to expand...

That's a hell of a splurge with the exchange rate! =O

I avoid the high street shops when I'm in the UK for that same reason. Takes a lot of the fun out of shopping, lemme tell ya.
 
>The hooligan elite must have some money!

Nope, the chavs wear knock off Burberry. The hooligans (they are called Chavs over here) are known for wearing Burberry knockoffs that they get from market stalls. It's all fake but I think that is what has led to the dmeise of Burberry.
This website is all about Chavs, ironically, the photo of one of the main page is wearing a "Burberry" cap!
http://www.chavscum.co.uk

My extravagent Burberry pruchase was a winter riding vest for £50!! It's lovely and warm and so comfy to wear when riding. It has the beige plaid lining too :) But I'm not a Chav so I wear real Burberry to the stables :USETHUMBUP:

Lei
 
Devil's advocate time....

is the construction really that superb that overcoats and some handbags merit a $1500 price tag? or is it just "cache' " now.

I know part of some desinger goods are clearly superior construction wise, but also think sometimes the laws of supply and demand are ignored. If everyone doesn't "have to have it" anymore, do they stick with the prices because that's the way it always has been and have the atitiude that if you have to ask you shouldn't own it, or do they strive to give people more bang for their buck at that price point - or do they rethink thing entirely.
 
When sales of Doc Martens started to plummet in the mid 1990s the company had overextended itself and was overproducing for its numerous outlets and contracts. THey began suing every company that knocked off their brand or anything that was vaguely similar to their boots, claiming they had copyright on about a dozen design elements of their boots. The problem was they only thing they had copyrighted was their sole design and they spent a fortune in courts in Australia (suing BLundstone), Canada, the U.S. etc. etc. By 2000 the English manufacturing facilities were closed and the boots are now made in China. They are still around but only a shadow of what they were and it was largely due to their overzealous expansion right at the moment when the company has saturated the market so it nearly destroyed them. The story is nearly the same for Benetton.
 
Just saw a story from the Mirror speculating that Victoria Beckham may be the new "face" of Burberry. I assume they're hoping that if Posh can escape the "chav" label, maybe they can too!
 
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