A tough thing for any producer, business or manufacturer to do is admit they need to readjust their plan as a company, change course and go back to their roots. Many see it as a failure, but just look at how Burberry’s readjustment helped them save their brand.
— Forbes.com: A Conversation with Burberry’s CEO —
A recent video on Forbes.com features an interview with Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts who talks about what the classic trench coat maker did to reestablish themselves as a major player in the fashion world.
They didn’t spend money to create a new marketing campaign, or develope a new line of clothes, instead the classic company looked inside and focused on what made Burberry, Burberry. Ahrendts said they looked at the roots of the company and instead of looking into the future they decided to take pride in their past as a British company focused on making trench coats.
Not only was the plan an easy one to execute, after all Burberry was just doing something it had done in the past, but it is one other companies should focus on. Think about your company and whether the current plans to grow your business focus on branching out into new and uncertain areas or focusing within and growing from your strengths?
If you are trying to branch out to help reestablish your brand and don’t want to have a whole lot of risk involved in it, perhaps looking from within is the better way to go. Not only is it easy for your company to do that, since you have done it before, but it helps people remember why they began purchasing from you to begin with.
Sometimes the decisions with the greatest impact on your business are some of the easiest ones to make. Just look at Burberry, who focused on what made them a major player in the fashion world to begin with, and how they reclaimed the trench coat and created the buzz needed to grow other areas because of it. Reclaiming what you do as a company could be just the spark your business needs to spur growth in other areas.
