This report compares the British luxury fashion houses Burberry and Aquascutum. It provides background on both companies, which were founded in the 19th century and are known for their trench coats. In the 1990s, both brands struggled with a "chav" stigma but have since improved their brand images. The report examines the luxury market, consumer behavior, and each company's marketing strategies, products, and financial performance. It aims to analyze how effectively Burberry promotes its brand and identify recommendations to increase profitability.

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Comparative Shopping Report
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15th December 2014

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Contents
Introduction
Burberry Profile
The Luxury Market
Aquascutum Market
The Consumer
Product Comparison
Recommendations
Conclusion
References
Bibliography
Page 3
Page 4
Page 7
Page 8
Page 9
Page 10
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Introduction
This report will look at Burberry as a competitive retailer and how successful it
is, giving possible recommendations to increase profitability. In this report
Burberry shall be compared to Aquascutum, another British luxury fashion
house, in terms of product, competitiveness, marketing strategies, background
and consumer. This shall in turn review how effective Burberry’s marketing
strategies are and how well the company performs overall. By looking into the
history of both Burberry and Aquascutum it is clear to see the similarities in
their company blueprints, it is because of the comparable history between both
companies that Aquascutum has been chosen to compare with Burberry in this
report. “To anyone with even a passing interest in the industry, the fact that both
Burberry and Aquascutum are famous for their trenchcoats and heritage status
will not have gone unnoticed. So why should one blossom and the other wither?
It's to do with hard times, of course, but also with marketing and vision.” (The
Guardian, 2012) This difference in success shall also be divulged within the
report, supported by the marketing research into journals, books and online
sources conducted by the author.

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Burberry Profile
Thomas Burberry founded Burberry in 1856 in Basingstoke, England when he
opened a store selling men's outerwear. The reputation of the company was
enhanced through Burberry's development of “gabardine”, a fabric that was
resistant to tearing; was weatherproof but was also breathable (Burberry, 2002,
cited in Emerald 2004)
The marketing strategies Burberry employs weren’t always so successful, for
example the financial year ending 31 March 1998, Burberry saw its annual
profits drop from £62m to £25m, leading financial analysts to describe it as “an
outdated business with a fashion cachet of almost zero” (Finch and May, 1998,
cited in Emerald 2004) This could be due to the ‘chav’ branding of the 90s where
Burberry was seen as undesirable and cheap to the market often associated with
the visibility of the classic check print on the products and the well known image
of Danniella Westbrook donning the Burberry check head to toe.
However, from 1997, at the instigation of a newly appointed chief executive,
Rose Marie Bravo (Menkes, 2002, cited in Emerald 2004) Burberry managed to
remove the check print from all but 10% of its products in order to remove the
“chav” status the brand became linked with. This radical re-alignment of
Burberry’s business model has proved genius and as a result, Burberry has
enjoyed significant improvements in its business performance (Menkes, 2002,
cited in Emerald 2004).
Burberry now has a strong use of the marketing mix which uses the seven Ps to
aid the profitability of their brand. They stand firmly within the high-end luxury
market, with their target customer falling the A and B classification of the

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National Readership Survey (NRS, 2014). It is defined by the exclusivity and
rarity of the products, limited sizing and limited production on each garment.
With the products being largely inaccessible to the wider market, their more
affordable pieces such as accessories, perfume and cosmetics are extremely
successful and appeal to a larger consumer base allowing the C1, C2 and even D
classifications of consumers to buy into the brand and feel as though they have
become part of the Burberry family by owning a small piece of the brand.
Burberry, although being a heritage company of traditions and British history,
have opposed this within their promotional strategies, using a variety of
technological advances to target their consumers directly through the use of
their advertisements, collaborations, websites, personalization services and
interactive stores. The brand openly admits that it has become as much a media
content company as a design company, because in the words of Christopher
Bailey "it's part of the overall experience". (The Guardian, 2013)
Their flagship store on London’s Regent Street is the epitome of technological
innovation as well as customer service and excellent quality. In 2013 Burberry
added built-in technology to its runway Prorsum collection. Alongside the ability
to have your name engraved on a metal coat tag or bag plate, the pieces now
contain built in microchips which when scanned with a smartphone reveal the
design and manufacturing process of the piece. The microchip also interacts with
Burberry’s flagship Regent Street store allowing users to stand in front of screen
and a personalised video will be displayed. (Mintel, 2014) This form of customer
interaction is not only creative, it is also intriguing and truly impressive for a

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customer to be involved with, it gives them a sense of personalization and
exclusivity tailored to the individual. This very personalised approach is able to
work where a brand is uniquely differentiated in its products and has a loyal
customer base willing to buy the distinctive range of life style products
produced, (Jackson and Shaw, 2011:40) and offering monogramming services
not only increases the sense of involving the consumers within the brand but it
marks their products with a uniqueness that the customer buys into that they
would struggle to get anywhere else, as well as offering this monogramming
service on the higher end product, they continue it down through to their
accessories and cosmetics and most recently their ‘My Burberry’ perfume on
which customers initials can be engraved onto the bottle for free of charge. The
idea of the perfume being named “My Burberry’ with the allowance of
personalization markets that it is in fact “My Burberry” and no one else’s.
Christopher Bailey, Chief Creative and Chief Executive Officer, commented:
‘Looking ahead, in a more difficult external environment, we continue to focus on
the things that we can control. Through authentic products, great customer
experiences and a culture of continuous improvement and innovation, we
remain confident of Burberry's sustained outperformance.’ (Mintel, 2014)

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The Luxury Market
Luxury has been described as the state of great comfort and extravagant living,
also an inessential item which is expensive or difficult to obtain (Oxford English
Dictionary, 2014). By using this definition we are able to class Burberry and
Aquascutum under this market segment with their products being that of an
‘investment piece’ rather than a necessity, when we are buying luxury goods we
are sometimes buying a little bit of heritage; the DNA of the brand & therefore
the price is often irrelevant. (Grose, 2012:144)
Verdict predicts that the Luxury market will grow within the next 6 years,
especially with online purchasing, “we expect more consumers to shift spend
online, driving the online luxury market to reach €49.7bn by 2020.” (Verdict,
2014) The growth of luxury is an opportunity for brands such as Burberry and
Aquascutum to excel their marketing strategies to ensure an increase in sales, it
could be suggested that although luxury brands are thought of as exclusive and
unattainable, Burberry could extend its consumer base to a wider more varied
audience. This could aided by the rising passenger numbers and consumer
wealth that are luring designer brands into the airports, allowing for global
brand recognition and building a larger, more varied customer base, Burberry
have reported that they will be investing in travel retail. (Verdict, 2014)

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Aquascutum Profile
Aquascutum draws on its heritage combining quality and fine craftsmanship
with innovation and exquisite design to create its own quintessentially British
style that offers luxury, attention to detail and authenticity. (Aquascutum.co.uk,
2014)
In common with Burberry, Aquascutum was founded in the 19th Century and
renowned for its coats but their similarities didn’t stop there. With their
timelines almost mirroring each other from the trench coat to creating the first
waterproof textile, being known for mens outerwear, iconic street locations,
developing fabrics for extreme explorers to the iconic check print, it is not
uncommon to compare these two British heritage labels. During the late 90s and
early 2000s, similar to Burberry, Aquascutum underwent a major decline in
terms of reputation as a ‘chav’ brand. There is a fascination among football
hooligans with designer labels such as Lacoste, Burberry and Aquascutum (BBC
News.co.uk, 2002) however, as international megabrand Burberry announced a
rise of 17.1 per cent in its revenues, Aquascutum – whose apparel once warmed
the burly shoulders of Winston Churchill – has entered administration. (The
Independent, 2012)

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The Consumer
With the Luxury market consumer sitting in the A, B and C1 categories, the
expectations of product are high. Exquisite hand crafted products are a must for
the highly priced label attached to them, however most luxury brands also have
lower end product to sell to the mass market such as accessories and perfume
that the lower earning consumer can buy into the brand and feel a part of the
brand community.
The consumer, in general is becoming a lot more savvy, they will now look and
products and compare them themselves to get a better deal, therefore companies
are in constant competition with each other. As the double dip recession is
coming to a close, the consumer now has more money to spend, although
through the fears brought on by the recession people are now becoming a lot
more wary of where they invest their money and are less prone to excessive
spending. The consumer is also now becoming larger as obesity levels are
growing, this could be a market for Burberry to expand into however it could
also damage their “exclusivity” appeal which is the idea that the less the amount
of people who can obtain luxury goods, the more appealing it will be.
Convenience is now playing a big factor in consumer buying, supermarkets are
becoming high competitors now as
they are the convenient way for most
working people to buy their clothes.
The graph here (Mintel.com, 2014)
shows Tesco and ASDA to be higher
than retailers such as H&M and

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Topshop in terms of where women buy their clothes. However, the rise of
supermarkets wont affect Burberry as such, this idea of “convenience” could be
used in technology, allowing the customer to shop more easily through their
phones – this could be an area that Burberry could branch into as they do not yet
have a phone/tablet application.
Product Comparison
In order to create an effective product comparison, hierarchies have been
created in order to narrow down each company’s products into one specific
group. The chosen product sector for the comparative grids is coats, this was
chosen due to the fact that both companies are renowned for their Trench coats
and that the coat - albeit the trench coat - is the product which launched the
extensive luxury success of both Burberry and Aquascutum. It is evident through
these hierarchies that Burberry’s product sectors are wider and more varied
than Aquascutums, this is due to the innovative marketing strategies that
Burberry launched to nurture the company into overwhelming success and
Aquascutum’s slow decline through the years, the last set of figures filed at
Companies House showed a loss of around £10m on sales of £28m for the year to
February 2010. (Drapers.com, 2012)

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Each company have created a similar set of styled coats to sell to their consumer
at a luxury price. The comparative grids below shall highlight the comparable
and differing areas of each chosen product. The coats that have been chosen are
similar in price and style to portray how closely these two companies sit next to
each other in the luxury market in terms of product.

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All of the above products show that the coats from both companies are similar in
more ways than one, price, composition, colour-ways, sizes and the overall look
of the product, however Burberry have surpassed Aquascutum in terms of sales
and popularity. By the look of the images that have been taken off the company
websites it is clear to see the difference, Burberry’s images appear warming and
more relaxed whereas Aquascutum have used a bright white light, which does
highlight the better product features, yet manages to make the product look less
appealing on the model and to the customer. Luxury retailers online have more
to rely on than middle or mass market as customers are paying a lot of money for
something that they cannot touch, try on or see in person, so the whole internet
sales experience has to be perfect and here just the look of Burberrys products
are more appealing than Aquascutums, something as little as the lighting on the
photograph can be imperative when the customer is willing to pay a vast amount
of money, they want to ensure they are getting the product they see and want.

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Recommendations
With Burberry being such a successful international brand that seems to be
taking on every possible opportunity in order to ensure profitability, it is hard to
suggest where they could go next. However, there is one recommendation that
could prove a winner, with their main target audience being women they have
slightly strayed away from Burberry’s original concept, which was mens
outerwear garments and did not branch into ladies wear until the 1920s
(Burberry.co.uk, 2014) and even then it was still mainly a producer of
outerwear. Women’s wear has far overtaken mens wear in terms of profitability,
but the men’s wear market is slowly creeping back up and could prove highly
profitable if Burberry were to extend and nurture further their men’s wear
product sectors.
(Mintel.com,2014)
It is clear from the graph above, retrieved from Mintel, that the mens wear
market area is forecast to grow significantly, with even the worst case scenario
resulting in possible profits.

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So far, Burberry is in the early stages of taking advantage of the significant
growth prospects within the menswear category, having only fully integrated
menswear two years ago and Burberry introduced its first menswear-only store
in 2012, providing male consumers with an environment more suited to their
shopping habits. (Verdict.com, 2014) The graph below shows how Burberry’s
menswear sector has increases in profits and the percentage of year on year
change from 2009-2014.
(Verdict.com, 2014)

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Conclusion
Looking at Burberry from a competitive buying analysis it is clear to see their
vast improvements on their Business model which has upgraded their status to
an international super-brand that has so far surpassed its competitors in terms
of technological innovation and creating a personal shopping experience for
their target consumer without neglecting their secondary consumer products
that create more turnover, such as accessories and cosmetics, that have seen a
year on year rise since 2009
(Verdict.com, 2014)
Although Burberry are already branching into menswear, they could create
further profits by opening more stand alone mens clothing stores and creating
the same personal experience for men as they already do for women, with a
more comfortable shopping atmosphere.
Overall, the question of “How competitive are Burberry for AW14/15?” has been
answered within this report to show that Burberry are a highly competitive
brand with a strong heritage ideal, bringing their heritage into their modern
customer by advancing in the opportunities in technological innovation. They
have wildy surpassed their competition Aquascutum, yet there are always new

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ways to reinvigorate customers, recommendations have been made and through
research into journals, books and online sources, it is clear to see that Burberry
are underway with excelling their brand further and boosting their profits.

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Reference Page
Aquascutum.com, (2014). British Luxury Fashion Brand | Heritage Fashion Since
1851 | Aquascutum. [online] Available at: http://www.aquascutum.com
[Accessed 7 Dec. 2014].
BBC News.co.uk (2002). BBC NEWS | Programmes | Hooligans | Undercover with
'the firm'. [online] Available at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/hooligans/1979909.stm [Accessed 11
Dec. 2014].
Burberry.com (2014). Burberry - Iconic British Luxury Brand Est. 1856. [online]
Uk.burberry.com. Available at: http://uk.burberry.com [Accessed 7 Dec. 2014].
Drapers.com (2012) Aquascutum up for sale. Available at:
http://www.drapersonline.com/news/aquascutum-up-for-
sale/5035371.article#.VI3_ykv-BuY (Accessed: 14 December 2014).
Emerald.com, (2004) "The Burberry business model: creating an international
luxury fashion brand" Christopher M. Moore, Grete Birtwistle, (2004,
International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Vol. 32 Iss: 8, pp.412
– 422 [Accessed 6 Dec. 2014]
The Guardian (2013) ‘How Burberry’s digital strategy is boosting brand value’,
11 July. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/partner-
zone-brand-union/burberry-digital-strategy-brand (Accessed: 14 December
2014).
The Guardian (2012). Tale of two macs: Aquascutum goes bust while Burberry
booms. [online] the Guardian. Available at:
http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/shortcuts/2012/apr/18/macs-
aquascutum-bust-burberry-booms [Accessed 6 Dec. 2014].

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Grose, V. (2012). Concept to customer. Lausanne, Switzerland: AVA Pub.
The Independent, (2012). Trench warfare: Burberry vs Aquascutum. [online]
Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/analysis-and-
features/trench-warfare-burberry-vs-aquascutum-7654738.html [Accessed 11
Dec. 2014].
Jackson, T. and Shaw, D. (2001:40). Mastering fashion buying and merchandising
management. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Mintel.com, (2014) Menswear – UK – March 2014 Executive Summary| Mintel
[online] Available at: http://www.mintel.com [Accessed 6 Dec. 2014].
Mintel.com, (2014) Womenswear – The consumer, where do women buy clothes |
Mintel [online] Available at: http://www.mintel.com [Accessed 6 Dec. 2014].
NRS.co.uk, (2014). Social Grade | National Readership Survey. [online] Available
at: http://www.nrs.co.uk/nrs-print/lifestyle-and-classification-data/social-
grade/ [Accessed 7 Dec. 2014].
Verdict.com, (2014). Burberry | Verdict Retail. [online] Available at:
http://www.verdictretail.com
https://service.verdictretail.com/verdict/incoming/article41340.ece/BINARY/
w520norat/Burberry+accessories
https://service.verdictretail.com/verdict/incoming/article41340.ece/BINARY/
w520norat/Burberry+clothing

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Appendix
Easey, M. (2009). Fashion marketing. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Goworek, H. (2007). Fashion buying. Oxford: Blackwell Pub.
Rosenau, J. and Wilson, D. (2006). Apparel merchandising. New York: Fairchild
Publications.
Slack, N., Brandon-Jones, A. and Johnston, R. (n.d.). Operations management.