Burberry isn't new to taking part in a rebrand, it went from being viewed as a ‘gangster’ or ‘chav’ brand as it became too accessible to many people....
Burberry isn't new to taking part in a rebrand, it went from being viewed as a ‘gangster’ or ‘chav’ brand as it became too accessible to many people; to a luxury and high-end brand. Due to the former impression, many customers started to dissociate from the brand as they didn't want to be associated with that demographic. Every brand needs to evolve with the market or they run the risk of being left behind. Burberry did this by capitalising on its long heritage and its core values: creatively driven, open and caring, proud of its heritage, and forward-thinking. By doing this Burberry where able to mould itself into a whole new brand with a new audience which helped it become this authentic, luxurious brand that would directly correlate with its brand values. To do this, they had the famous graphic designer, Peter Saville create the new Burberry logo and introduce a completely new monogram which the brand still nurses and loves to this day. To help build up some hype for this rebrand, Burberry even wrapped some of the world's most significant landmarks, its stores, and even some public transport in the new monogram to showcase the new era of the brand.
The brand has always had the opportunity to play with nostalgia and the product in itself is an investment in technology, but they weren't ever really able to use this to this full advantage until the last decade. In recent years, the popularity of the Polaroid camera has spiked and due to popularity, Polaroid has hit our highstreets in shops such as Urban Outfitters. The brand's main strategy today is based on influencer marketing. The brand works closely with a platform called Social Native which is a platform with 14 million independent creators that create user-generated content for brands. By 2015, there were over a million Instagram posts with the #polaroid and in 2023 there are now over nine point eight million Instagram posts using this hashtag. The brand also used the platform to interact with followers and created a number of micro-campaigns such as the 2016 holiday initiative called #PRINITitFORWARD which encouraged fans to share their holiday polaroid. The appeal of Polaroid is hugely based on nostalgia which is an effective way to create a connection with customers as a brand which was successfully used to their advantage.
The evolution of brands is almost inevitable when trying to remain relevant in the modern day, so in 2017 Converse decided to make a change to their traditional logo. There are many risks associated with rebranding and a key factor is to be aware of your customer's core values and keep these in mind when trying to maintain a positive relationship with them. The brand strategist Shannon Fitzgerald highlights this when she stated “You must articulate why this is better - explain they'll still get the parts they loved plus new exciting benefits”. The rebrand was done to convey a younger brand image that's easily readable on social media while retaining the classic spirit of the brand. This also resonates with the company's new purpose statement “Converse exists to serve the daring spirit of the youth with tools that enable movement(s).” Perhaps the movements are a reference to physical activity that their shoes are meant for but also the cultural change the company and the world itself is going through.
In 2008 Crocs suffered a loss of $185 million, they had mountains of shoes but no one to buy them, so Crocs needed to make the ultimate comeback and they did it with great success. Crocs saw potential in TikTok early-on and found massive success on the app. They got their audiences interacting with them by creating many trends in which they encouraged their followers to participate. After Crocs collaborated with Afterpay, the #StrapBack challenge was created with TikTok influencers who were hired to create comedic scenes and dances that highlight Croc's affordability and asked viewers to create their own videos. The campaign earned 7.5 billion views on the app. The company has also used celebrity marketing to reach out to the Gen Z audience they had been hoping to gain a connection with, the brand managed to collaborate with artists such as Post Malone, Justin Bieber, SZA, and many more. By dropping these limited edition Crocs it created a sense of hype around the brand. As well as celebrity marketing, the brand collaborated with designer fashion houses such as Balenciaga to create a more “luxurious” shoe. Not only do Crocs just come as you buy them, but Crocs have made them ultimately personal with there being Jibbits available for customers to buy to create the perfect shoe for them, The Jibbits have collaborations with brands such as Disney, Marvel, NBA, and many more so there is a Jibbit suitable for everyone.
Levi's went through a massive transformation under the leadership of Chip Berth, his secret being “Always acting like a start-up”. He made drastic changes to the company such as new targets, new markets, adopting the e-commerce trend, and lastly, he made massive changes to his top team. By following these new changes, the company managed to have great success which led them to hit a sales record of $4.9 billion in one year. The use of celebrity influencer marketing was a massive sales point for Levi's. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Type III Trucker Jacket the company invited 50 influencers to come and customise their own version of the jacket. After the event, many celebrities such as Kate Moss, Justin Timberlake, Zac Efron, and Gigi Hadid were all spotted wearing Levi's. On the Levi's website, they also introduced the Levi's virtual stylist which is an AI-powered chatbot that helps customers find the perfect pair of jeans. The company understands that “One of the biggest barriers to buying apparel online, specifically denim, is fit.” Therefore, Levi's created a solution for this problem. The bot can analyse what the customer's needs are and find exactly what they are looking for. By creating this software conversion rates skyrocketed for the brand. Levi's also partners with NGOs to create meaningful campaigns to scale impact this helps Levi's to build brand awareness. An example of this “Water Less” campaign was run off Levi's as a brand being sustainable. In this, the brand created new jeans that required less water to make and allowed Levi's to save more than 1 billion litres of water in a year.
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