Burberry recently announced radical changes in how it creates, presents and sells its runway collections, effective from September 2016.
The February show and the September show will feature both womenswear and menswear collections. The collections will be available to purchase in-store and online immediately following the show in a move that significantly shortens the traditional gap between the runway show and retail availability.
“The changes we are making will allow us to build a closer connection between the experience that we create with our runway shows and the moment when people can physically explore the collections for themselves. Our shows have been evolving to close this gap for some time. From livestreams, to ordering straight from the runway to live social media campaigns, this is the latest step in a creative process that will continue to evolve,”Burberry Chief Creative and Chief Executive Officer Christopher Bailey said.
Bailey refers to some facts, such as the agreement signed by the fashion brand with Snapchat or Kakao, just to quote some examples of the presence of Burberry in social media.
There’s another fact that makes this decission possible: Burberry owns a network of branded retail stores and e-commerce site, so the brand is selling its products direct to consumers. But I think that Burberry cannot expect that other retailers and runways change their time schedule.
Burberry’s announcement, partnerships and strategies mark a clear turning point in the way upscale fashion brands manage the relationship and iits business value chain, it is not the first upscale fashion brand that carries out direct sales to consumers just after or even before the runway show. Alexander McQueen offers an online preview of the collections and carries out sales through the Intrnet to selected consumer clients.
Ad media planning and buying change as well
All store windows and point of sale material will also display the new collections immediately following the shows.
Building on the success of recent live digital campaigns on Snapchat and Instagram, Burberry’s main advertising campaigns will also appear in key digital and print media immediately after the collections have been presented on the runway.
Burberry design becomes as global as the Internet
The collections have also been evolving alongside the shows since early 2016. They have featured a seasonless mix of styles as the Brit, London and Prorsum lines merged into one new Burberry label designed for a worldwide audience. This approach will continue in the new runway collections with designs created to suit a global customer’s immediate needs.
