1. What are the main motives behind the product line extension from the original Burberry trench coat into other product areas?

2. Please describe the brand transformation process of Burberry? What were the main reasons why Angela Ahrendts were so successful with this brand transformation?

Burberry has positioned its brand in the minds of consumers to be ‘functional luxury’. Burberry maintains a product line with great width and depth consisting of many products. Their products fall into one of the two main categories: fashion or continuity. Fashion products are designed to be responsive to fashion trends and are introduced on a collection-by-collection basis. Continuity products have life cycles that are expected to last for a number of years. Burberry also has three primary collections: womenswear, menswear and accessories. With so many different products offered in different collection and the fashion versus continuity of Burberry products the product mix is very great. This contributes to the positioning of the Burberry brand. 

However, market positioning for Burberry also varies. Burberry can appeal to the hip 25-yearold man or the conservative 65-year-old man. However, many Burberry ads feature younger models. Recent Burberry ads have featured everything from a British landscape with aristocratic looking models to edger ads with models in bikinis. Taking all of this into account, Burberry is targeted towards many different segments of the population with one common theme, functional luxury. Burberry has gone through many changes, especially in the past ten years, to transform itself into a luxury lifestyle brand that is stylish and innovative, but at the same time traditional.