The global expansion of the fashion brand creates several challenges for companies. In the luxury clothes industry, brand names and designs are important. The value to the customer is increased when the item is created in one global design center that supplies other locations with its designs. However, not all designs fit the tastes and preferences of the local markets, which poses a question of how to resolve the conflict between the different tastes of local consumers around the world and centralized design. Hence, Burberry has to find an international brand strategy that balances the standardization and adaptation in the most profitable way.
In the luxury clothing industry, the market demand can be more globalized, minimizing the effect of local preference as luxury items should be recognized worldwide. One of the examples of a company that manages to match local design preferences is Zara. Zara has gained an advantage over its market competitors by providing fashionable clothes faster and at a lower price. This has been attributed to the way Zara’s supply chain is organized. Firstly, the staff at Zara shops gathers information about the clothes demanded from customers and instantly reports it to the main office in La Coruna, Spain (Aftab et al., 2018). Then, the demand reports are communicated to designers, which instantly contact all 23 factories which start to produce the needed items (Aftab et al., 2018). Such a model could be applied to luxury clothes companies such as Burberry to find a balance between the different tastes of local consumers around the world and centralized design. Hence, Bruberry should focus on the international brand development strategy, which entails modifying the brand story and minor aspects of brand to be more acceptable in host nations. Yet, the core products and designs remain standardized to achieve the consistent brand image needed for the luxury segment.
Reference
Aftab, M. A., Yuanjian, Q., Kabir, N., & Barua, Z. (2018). Super responsive supply chain: The case of Spanish fast-fashion retailer Inditex-Zara. International Journal of Business and Management, 13(5), 212.