Product Ubiquity will kill Luxury, but Product Regionalism won't

What do I mean by product regionalism? Regionalism is intended to represent an anthropological concept that is more authentic to local culture, climate and identity, closer to home design and features, and, in a way, opposite to the standardization that globalization brings with it. So, product regionalism is the recognition of local culture and production of product that are adaptable to certain regions instead of the standardization of a collection.

If you have been paying close attention to what is happening all around the world, you will notice that a war against globalization has started. It wasn’t the case 20 years ago or more where the world was open for business. Globalization led to the standardization of the economy, business, fashion, architecture, etc. driving by communication and the marketing efforts of western cultural industries. Currently, this cultural globalization is being challenged by the majority of people and movements protesting against it in defense of local uniqueness, individuality and identity all around the globe. It is my belief that more than the economic and political factors, the anthropological and social factors are very strong here, and this change cyclical:

In a nutshell, in a society and culture shaped by regionalism, younger generations often aspire towards openness and globalization. This inclination fosters a globalized and standardized economy, business practices, fashion trends, architecture, and more. However, in a globalized society and culture, younger generations lean towards products and services that reflect their local culture, desiring authenticity and closeness to home. This preference fuels a resurgence of regionalism in various aspects of the economy, business strategies, fashion choices, architectural designs, and beyond. While this progression seems logical, its simplicity is deceptive.

It is impossible to please everyone, and brands have difficulties in adapting to this never-ending cycle. Should they adopt a regionalism or globalism strategy? Should they be Glocal? Should brands even be Global? How can they expect to please 7 billion people all over the world with the same strategy, the same brand and the same product when every society, every country lives in different cultures, religions, identities and time? Not everyone, in all the continents and all the countries, live in the same levels of globalization and/or regionalism, so how can brands navigate this sensitive and changing ocean?

This isn’t an Ode to globalization nor a plea for its destruction. It is about the brands, and how can they navigate this ocean of uncertainty and simultaneously stay true to their foundation, to themselves. How to keep their core values, their brand purpose and mission, in the middle of a globalization expansion? Or a Regionalism one? How can we predict the masses’ desires culturally speaking?

Let’s look at the Burberry case study and when Angela Ahrendts became its CEO in 2006.

The Burberry Case Study

Burberry, in the early 2000s had its own kind of Glocalism and Regionalism happening within their organization and their design team. Burberry had started its Globalization journey with a licensing strategy in the 60-70s, and designers all over the globe designed what best suited their audience and we could find products in Hong Kong different from the ones in New York or London. Licensing brands such as Burberry Blue and Burberry Black (originally constructed for the Asian market) and the Spanish Thomas Burberry, where flooding the global market with ubiquity products, the Burberry check mark, and low quality products. Despite the tremendous profits that the license strategy brought to the company, it was hurting its image.

Ahrendts in 2006 understood that the luxury client was global, and he wanted to find the same product and services all around the globe with the same consistency. But Burberry had forgotten its legacy and its licensing brands where ubiquitous themselves, not keeping the essence of the brand alive – the trench coat - not a consistent Brand Image.

Before Ahrendts, licensing threatened to destroy the brand, and Burberry was in risk of going down in history as another Pierre Cardin. Burberry had 23 licenses around the world, each doing something different. In Hong Kong, the design team were designing products exclusively for the Hong Kong market: polo shirts, woven shirts and everything they could add the Burberry logo and pattern, but not trench coats. In America, another design team were designing and manufacturing outerwear for the American market not only at half the price as in the UK, but British classic designs were carrying the “Made in U.S.A” tag. The same in countries such as Italy and Germany. Burberry were selling dog cover-ups and leashes on one market, and kilts on another. Daily items that satisfied the needs of local consumers, but, all together, didn’t build a strong and consistent brand. Furthermore, the design wasn’t centralized and the brand was inconsistent.

Other legacy luxury brands understood the desire of the global luxury client and not only had a centralized design team, but also were in full control of their manufacture and supply chain process, and a client could find the same product in Miami as in Paris, with the same quality, design, and the same in-store service and experience. Burberry didn’t had that. An experience in any given Burberry store in the world might be very different from the customer’s previous one. It was ubiquitous, and not luxurious.

Burberry had lost track of itself and its foundation in this rush to globalization many decades ago. Fast forward, Burberry had failed to understand that not only the client was now fully confident of this globalization, it desired the cultural changes that it brought with it. The lack of a strong, central and consistent brand strategy, purpose and positioning in its global expansion, was not only hurting the company and its brand image, but sending it back. In luxury, ubiquity will kill your brand, it means you are not really luxury anymore, and Burberry was becoming ubiquitous.

Luckily for Burberry, they hired someone that understood the swinging changes of the clients’ desires and her strategy paid off. In 2011, Burberry was named the fourth fastest-growing brand in the world by Interbrand (behind Apple, Google, and Amazon).

What did Ahrendts did exactly?

In order for Burberry to became a true luxury brand and compete with luxury brands such as the ones within LVMH and Kering Group, Hermes and Chanel, it was clear that it needed a Global Design Director, brand manager and a centralize design team in the UK, control the supply-chain and manufacturing process and focus on innovating its core heritage products.

Burberry Fall/Winter 2014 Campaign

It is quite common for a luxury brand to be born from a single product and then diversify its offer. Louis Vuitton began in luggage, and Gucci with leather goods, but, even as they diversified, each continued to develop and focus on its original core products. Benchmarking the industry, Burberry realized that it was the only iconic luxury company that wasn’t capitalizing on its historical core and that needed to change. Burberry needed to reinforce their heritage, their Britishness. It needed to scale back the use of Burberry check, highlighting and developing their core luxury products – the trench coat.

Ahrendts also rethought the marketing approach and centralized the communication and digital platforms. Before 2006, Burberry had regional websites, each one with their own communication and marketing approach to the local market. Ahrendts consolidated all of them under one website, one platform. She explains “we understand how critical it is (the website). More people visit our platform every week than walk into all our stores combined.” Once again, centralized the communication and marketing efforts, as the design and products offered, and developed the digital platforms was central to offer the consistent and strong brand desired.

All these changes seem logical: to have a strong brand you need to have the same purpose, the same values, the same consistency in your global ambition, but can and should there be exceptions? In the current market, does it make sense to offer the same product all over the globe? And can a brand be loyal to itself, its brand purpose, positioning, values and consistency if it diversifies its offer Worldwide? And is it possible to diversify your offer without becoming ubiquitous?

Current climate

How to be Glocal?

17 years had passed since Ahrendts took over Burberry. Does the current client still desire the same global product as back then? Let’s just take a look at the article by Vogue Arabia named “Muslim consumers want luxury. They just can’t find it”, written by Ezreen Benissan and published May 7, 2021. Of course, this particular case is as much related with religion than with the simple desire for regionalism and cultural designs and identity, but, can a global brand ignore this fact and expect to sell the same product in the Middle East as the one they sell in Great Britain?

The article explains how, although the international and luxury brands are becoming more diverse on their quest to become a more socially responsible brands, in the attempt to connect and attract the local consumer, they shouldn’t expect people all over the world, with different cultures and religious, to buy the same product in this attempt of standardization of culture and taste. These brands are falling on understanding, in this particular case, the muslin client, and offer very limited pieces and choices to them.

The Somali-Norwegian model Rawdah Mohamed, goes further and says that luxury brands aren’t including consumers in their conversations, standing the feeling that brands are designing what they think the customer want instead of surveying the customer and designing what they really want.

In my opinion it is important to analyse what is happening in our politics to better understand the mentality of our consumers today. When the majority vote for someone that promotes regionalism and nationalist politics, it means that, somehow and in short, the public is tired of what globalization has to offer, politically, economically, and culturally.

Currently, what we see in politics is also what the clients want - regionalisms and authentic products and services. People want to feel special; they want the brand to recognize their uniqueness and special features. They understand that a brand wants and perhaps needs to be global but they don’t want to go to Japan and find the same architecture and product they found in South America, it is somehow inauthentic and it ignores the local culture. The Japanese, in this case, may appreciate the products and core heritage pieces of the British, but they have different routines, different cultures, different tastes, and people currently demand that brands recognize their needs and local culture and tradition. So, once again, how can a brand be true to itself, its values, purpose and its core heritage products and fulfil this demand from the younger generations and the current customers? The answer? Glocal strategies – being global while simultaneously having local characteristics and strategies.

We already saw how difficult it was for Burberry to navigate and establish itself on the globalized market. It made the brand lose itself within licenses and local demand. Ahrendts’ centralized and standardized design approach paid off in a time when the customer wanted Global. But what about the current customer that demands Glocal?

Well, first it is important to have a creative director making the decisions in order to keep the brand consistency, but it is also important to have local consultancy, local brand managers, or local designers to co-design certain pieces or give their feedback on the collection itself and individual pieces, communication and marketing strategies. Having a local perspective is important, if not essential. For example, if Burberry wants to establish itself in a country such as the UAE, in the Middle East fashion capital of Dubai, the trench coat won’t be very successful - for obvious climatic reasons. Alteration and manipulations of the trench coat into local garments is necessary if the company desires to be successful in the region. It could keep the trench at the heart but with adaptation to the local climate, culture and religion, and address the muslin luxury consumers' needs. For that, a local team is necessary, someone that understands the local client, their desires and behaviours. Don’t be arrogant enough to assume that your creative director in London knows what people want all over the world, with so many cultures, identities and religions.

Burberry store in Dubai Mall Fashion Avenue in 2018, where we can see Trench Coat being sold

Another important characteristic is to listen and give voice to the frontline employees. They are the ones that can give you direct and live feedback about the desires, likes, dislikes and behaviours of the locals regarding your brand, your product, whatever the country. They are living surveying tools. They receive first hand feedback, directly from the customers, whether the product itself fits their daily lives or not, their preference in colours, shapes, etc. And perhaps, in some markets, offering limited pieces specially designed to fit the culture of that market is the best option. But always remember to keep your brand consistency and stay true to yourself. Don’t fall into the trap of becoming ubiquitous.

Personalization is also key element to offer the consumer authentic and cultural local trades. The development of core heritage products is important, but consumers place a greater value on customized products than they do on standard products. These unique products better fit and communicate their taste, preferences and identity. Customization enhances the experience with the product and makes a statement about the customer itself. It feels more personal, authentic, and the customer attributes an emotional bond with it and with the brand that offers these experiences.

Conclusion

Covid-19 had a tremendous impact on our daily lives. It changed how we perceive our lives and made us rethink our consumer patterns. Purpose, authenticity and happiness are now in the frontline of every decision we make. The desire for Glocal strategies, products and services were only amplified by the 2020 pandemic. It changed the luxury industry, much of it supported by the luxury travelling client, now a home-based luxury client. Growth will increase by local demand and authenticity. The ones that manage to be Glocal, keeping real to their core values and keep a brand consistency while simultaneously listening the desires and demands of local consumers will thrive in the current saturated and cycle market.

There are different opinions and desires by customers all around the globe, and the opinion may differ from country to country, culture to culture, religion to religion, language to language. The thought that there is a unique strategy, a unique answer that fits all is what is here in question. Each civilization has their own desires, mentality, aesthetic, cultures and times. What may be antiquated and outdated in one country may be desired elsewhere. Simultaneously, one society may still desire the standardization of globalization while others may want the authenticity of regionalism. This is the challenge that brand managers have currently navigating their brand into the global and international market – how to have a strong and consistent brand, while simultaneously offering different solutions for different markets?

The future will come and another generation and the majority of the global audience will want brands to develop once more the standardization of cultures and designs that globalization brings with it. It is my belief that authenticity and personalization characteristics will still be important but this is something that we will have to wait and see. The best way a legacy brand can safeguard itself is by building a strong, consistent brand and developing flexible brand strategies around its products (marketing and communication) that can be adapted with the changes of time and geographies. Afterall, a strong brand isn’t only about what it offers physically, but most important what it represents.