Publication details
Olteanu, Luminiţa, 'Rebranding strategies and their boomerang effect - the curious case of Burberry’ (2020) 23 Journal of World Intellectual Property Law 777.
Abstract
The idea of protecting trade marks with reputation against dilution is often justified on the principle that it is only fair to reward the trade mark holder for their financial investment in creating a strong brand. This approach has been rightly criticised in the literature, since there are others who are arguably equally important in the creation of the brand, including the culture industries, those intermediaries that sell the goods and, of course, the consumer. This article considers the way in which Burberry has, as a brand, masterfully capitalised on consumers’ emotional attachments to social and cultural events and technological changes ever since the company's establishment in 1856. It does so by examining how Burberry's branding strategies and its brand image is reflected in its advertisements over this period. The case study highlights the increasingly important role of consumers in creating or destroying a brand's image, and calls some of the assumptions which underpin European trade mark law's protection against dilution into question.
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