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01.09.2015
TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING IN LUXURY FASHION INDUSTRY: REAL VS VIRTUAL SPACE WRITING ASSIGNMENT SUPERVISOR: PROF. DR. STEFAN SONNENBURG
MARIA OSIPOVA KARLSCHOCHSCHULE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY Karlsruhe, Germany
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Table of contents:
1.
Abstract
2.
Introduction
3.
Theoretical framework:
3.1. The practice of storytelling in branding 3.2. The New Media 3.4. The concept of transmedia and transmedia storytelling 3.5. The connection between branded space and stories 3.6. Virtual reality in physical spaces: Flagship stores 4. Research context: The case study of Burberry brand 4.1. The story of Burberry 4.2. Burberry digital assets 4.3. Virtual space: “Art of the Trench” campaign 4.4. Physical space: Burberry Regent Street Flagship 5. Methodology 6. Conclusion 7. List of references 8. Appendix
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Abstract “Doing things digitally is how the entire world communicates. Now everybody is a digital customer, so doing things digitally is no longer a niche”, says says Angela Ahrendts, former CEO of Burberry (Amed, 2013). Luxury brands are passionately competing for millennial consumers who are trendsetters obsessed with new technologies, heavily reliant on the word of mouth and “looking to the new media for an authentic look at what’s going on in the world” (Schawbel, 2015). To engage their interest it is a must for brands to speak their native language which is digital. Traditional marketing strategies have given way to multimedia campaigns - interactive, encouraging a higher involvement on the consumer side and integrated across multiple channels, both online and offline, with an individual storytelling practice developed for each medium. New models of marketing seek to expand consumers emotional, social and intellectual investments, with the goal of shaping consumption patterns based not on “impressions” but on “expressions” (Jenkins, 2008 p. 63). Following the suit of tech savvy brands like Apple, Google, Nike to name but a few, fashion headliners have made this important but challenging step forward - from storytelling to transmedia storytelling, which is “a continuous on-going and improvisational process, made up of interlinked content” (Singh and Sonnenburg, 2012, p.192) unfolding across multiple communication platforms. It refers to a new aesthetic that has emerged in response to media convergence and depends on the active participation of consumers. The purpose of this study is to explore the development of storytelling in the context of transmedia and to show how the virtual and the physical space can be intertwined in the co-creation of overall brand experience, taking as an example Burberry, an iconic British brand with an impressive 159-year history and deserved reputation of the leader in the sphere of technological innovations among luxury fashion brands. The Financial Times dubbed it “the most connected brand in luxury” (Friedman, 2013). Burberry was the first brand to let people order from the runway, and the first to ‘tweet’ walk its shows. In the light of the above, this paper starts from the analysis of storytelling practice and the role of brand stories in consumers’ engagement. The study proceeds with an overview of the new media, briefly outlining their benefits and challenges for luxury brands. After that the concept of transmedia and transmedia storytelling in the context of convergence culture is considered. To continue, the branded space and its realization in the flagship store concept is explained. The next section presents a case study research of Burberry and its marketing strategy in digital and offline environments with a focus on the “Art of the Trench” campaign and Burberry Regent Street Flagship “store of the future”. Finally, following the methodology review, the paper draws conclusions and offers suggestions to enable luxury brand owners to keep in tune with their customers and differentiate themselves more effectively.
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Introduction In the course of time the concept of brand has gone through considerable changes. Originally brands were invented as symbols of ownership, marking the boundaries of a company. Now brands are becoming “the means by which owners, consumers, employees and financiers can transcend those boundaries” (Jones, 2012). An impressive technological progress contributed to the launch of new platforms for consumer communication and caused significant shifts in the distribution of roles in the marketplace, development of brands and marketing strategies applied. The new media have transformed the way brands interact with consumers and vice versa. “The web has given us great opportunities to tell stories in different ways and to have it spill off into the lives of people, and create communities that can discuss it, discover it and figure it out… and give the audience a chance to participate in the story” commented on Susan Bonds, CEO of 42 Entertainment (Social Media Week, 2011). Brand owners have become more relaxed about ownership and customers have turned from passive recipients of marketing efforts into full-fledged partners of the brand creation process. Consumers showed that they can and, most importantly, want to participate in shaping the brand. They tell stories about the brand “to assign brand meanings which helps them construct their identity around the brand” (Woodside, 2008). Marketing today is more about audience engagement so it is not enough for the brand owners to build relationships with consumers, they also need to develop relationships among consumers. “While traditional advertising is great for awareness, nothing beats the interactive, participative and addictive story that can be told across multiple media platforms applying unique storytelling practice for each of the them”, says Laurent Guerin, Transmedia Producer at Murmures Productions ((Sociel Media Week, 2011). The digitalization of our society contributed to the appearance of such a concept as “transmedia storytelling” that can be defined as a “process where integral elements of a fiction get dispersed systematically across multiple delivery channels for the purpose of creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience” (Jenkins, 2010). To put it another way, transmedia storytelling demands the intentional use of multiple platforms to tell consistent narratives that extend the brand’s core story. Historically, luxury segment has always stayed away from digital world keeping its primality and exclusivity, focusing more on in-store experience through their flagship stores rather than social media platforms. Phoebe Philo, Creative Director of LVMH-owned Celine, which has neither e-commerce nor a social media presence in any market, has been quoted as saying: “I’d rather walk down the street naked than join Facebook” (The Business of Fashion, 2014). Markus Kramer, Marketing Director of Aston Martin, in his turn, commented on: “Many brands are afraid of adopting new media too quickly because it means accessibility of information that was previously reserved for a select few people” (Clickz UK, 2013). However, the situation is changing as we can see that the leading fashion brands (Gucci, Dior, Chanel to name but a few) have bravely 4
entered the new media waters and extend their strategies beyond the couture taking an advantage of telling stories across different platforms to create online brand experience and bringing a new prospect on offline brand experience. For instance, such practices as iPads in the changing room walls of the new Chanel flagship store, digital displays or digital merchandising in McQueen flagship store can be good examples of mixing online and offline brand experiences. Moreover, quite a few luxury fashion companies are noticed to hire a new generation of managers to be in touch with the social media generation. For instance, Oliver Rousteing, Head Designer of Balmain, took over the company at the age of 24 and has taken Balmain into the new digital world. The same is true for Burberry, which with Christopher Bailey, who joined the company at the age of 30 to become Creative Director only three years later, hit the digital world considering it was vital for the future success of the business. The idea of using multichannel marketing triggers the change of the concept of branded spaces itself turning it into an immersive transmedia brand experience. In-store spaces are created on the basis of digital layouts, not the other way round, and the latter actually become their continuations. The example of the new flagship Burberry store on Regent Street in London, where customers can experience every facet of the brand through immersive multimedia content, exactly as they do online, proves that the story can be successfully transferred from the virtual to the physical space being a part of unified communicative process in the brand-customer relationship.
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Theoretical framework 3.1. The Practice of Storytelling in Branding “Great brands and great businesses have to be storytellers too”, stated Angela Ahrendts, former CEO of Burberry (Future of Storytelling, 2013). Storytelling has been popular since ancient times when people gathered around the fire and enjoyed their time together singing and telling stories. To say more, storytelling is a traditional source of entertainment for children - they love listening to them, reading them and inventing their own. Stories bring excitement and empathy while comforting and educating us. Stories are actually the fundamental building blocks of the brain. Shrank (1990) proposes that people understand the world in terms of stories that they have already understood, and new events or problems are understood by reference to past experiences. The more indices a story has, the better it is recalled. An indice may be a recognizable song from a popular movie or a visual from a TV advertising that remain stamped in our minds and hearts. According to Singh and Sonnenburg (2012), brands of the 21st century are created by stories shared in cyberspace. Stories is an incredible device to sneak ideas into the audience’s minds in a seamless way that can be compared to the 25th frame effect used by filmmakers. Branding literature recognizes the importance of brand storytelling because, while stories generated by brand owners are stable, coherent and tend to follow particular communication strategy (Gensler et al, 2013; Singh & Sonnenburg, 2012), user-generated storytelling is unpredictable and very likely to promote completely different meaning of the brand. Consequently, brand owners have to be both attentive and reactive to safeguard the brand’s reputation. The rise of digital media has revived the storytelling tradition by the application of transmedia strategy with its multiple opportunities to create stronger and more varied connections between co-created narratives and audiences generating them. Brand can be defined as a network of stories kept together by the main topic. Brand owner is the main storyteller but not the only author involved. According to Holt (2004), four primary types of authors can be distinguished: companies, the culture industries, intermediaries such as critics and retail salespeople, and customers, particularly when they form communities. Stories enhance connections between brand and consumers by providing a theme around which to create conversations. Crucial part in the co-creation is the consumers’ continued engagement in the storytelling practice. “Brands can encourage consumers’ participation by maintaining conversations through provoking, engaging and providing platforms for conversations. To participate in the brand narratives consumers need to be motivated: usually if the stories written by the already involved consumers resonate strongly enough with the consumer, this prompts him to become a participant of the conversation, otherwise he remains an interested spectator. “We embrace stories which touch our
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hearts and keep them with us. Brands that manage to communicate through relevant and human emotion narratives are able to connect deeply with consumers” (Vincent Teo, 2012). To put it another way, brand owners need to be consistent in enacting the brand tension in order to maintain the customers’ engagement in the brand’s performance and periodically refuel their interest with challenging stories which generate a diversity of opinions.
3.2. The New Media The new media have now been widely used to refer to the online environment where consumers, products and brands meet. Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Wikipedia and Twitter are listed among the Top 15 websites, accounting for more than 11 percent of global internet traffic (Alexa, 2010). For instance, according to statista.com 61 % of the global online population used social networks (Figure 1). Technological progress has provided brands with multiple touch points - discussion forums, blogs, social platforms not to mention many video-, photo- and news-sharing sites enabling user-generated brand content. In this paper ‘new media’ and ‘social media’ will be used as synonyms. The power of social media with its incredible linking capacity is in the ability to foster collaborations allowing consumers to exchange information about products or services as well as to take part in the brand value co-creation (Vinerean et al, 2013). Brand owners have received access to numerous networks allowing them to communicate with consumers directly and frequently, no matter what part of the world they are in. As social media provide convenient setting for spreading stories, brand storytelling has become increasingly interactive and influential (Singh & Sonnenburg, 2012). Brands can actively engage with consumers, receiving feedback and gaining insight into the their mindset and preferences and on the basis of received information create a more in-depth, multimedia experience for customers. Social media communication used to be perceived by luxury brands with caution due to its unpredictable and spontaneous character. However, “the rapid growth and popularity of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. prompted brands to rush into social media in an attempt to foster their relationship with consumers” (Laroche, Habibi & Richard, 2013). Managing the co-created brand narrative can be compared with playing pinball: you can set the direction of online communication, but you can never be sure that the ball will go that way (Hennig-Thurau, 2010). It is essential for the brand owner to navigate its brand content through the consumer-generated content to ensure that consumers’ brand stories remain as close to as the brand owner’s desired story. The closer the stories correspond with the basic script, the easier it is to navigate the brand narrative and its cocreation towards a more universal perception and meaning. Singh and Sonnenberg (2012) use the metaphor of ‘improvisation (improv) theatre’ to give a deeper understanding of brands in social media 7
communication. The brand owner sets the stage, and the consumers and other participants of communication process perform on it. For instance, the designer Michael Kors used the notion of stage in the so-called “Destination Kors” (http://destinationkors.michaelkors.com/), a platform that allows fans to share how and where they wear their Kors pieces and even what is in their Michael Kors purses and similar items via branded hashtags. In the “branding theatre” the setting is made up by various social media platforms. While theatrical performances are the result of collaboration between the actors and the audience, online brand performances are the result of collaboration between the brand owner, brand followers and other participants involved in communication. Improvisational theatre introduces an interactive relationship between the cast and the audience, in which the roles of participants may vary depending on the sketch. The same is true as regards online brand communication. Consumers may take on different roles during the on-going performance depending on the degree of improvisation and level of tension offered by the brand. A rotating leadership and responsibility sharing are common features for both theatrical and digital realities. Understanding the customers and the roles they play is crucial for meaningful brand performances. To encourage the improvisation process, brand owners should not only be good storytellers but also good story listeners, searching for contradictions that help develop the brand narrative and performance. Appealing brand narratives play with several types of tension - internal, personal and external - which allows them to create a truly engaging story world. Another important characteristic worth mentioning is processorientation of social networks rather than output-orientation: in other words, the process of improvisation is more important than the output of communication. In spite of improvisational character, each performance has an overall predetermined structure. The basic script provides guidelines for all interested to get involved in the brand storytelling and helps synchronize the processed stories into a coherent whole. For instance, Burberry request to follow content guidance when uploading pictures with trench looks on the “Art of the Trench” platform. A photo must be portrait orientation, outdoor, with the submitter or a friend wearing a Burberry trench. According to Singh and Sonnenburg (2012), general script or brand concept and interrelated stories are needed for producing a desirable content. The other three components worth mentioning here are context, content and process – all three are shared by the theatre and branding terminology. The context refers to the choice of platform which influences what kind of audiences, opinion leaders and critics have access to the brand story and how it will be shared. Context is directly connected with content because users only share what arouses their emotions. What is important for marketers to acknowledge is that user-generated storytelling is a process in which people are welcome to develop and share their stories, but still certain guidelines need to be set by the brand itself to protect the brand’s reputation. Social networks (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.) offer luxury brands ways to communicate with the audience. 8
While initially many luxury brands, fashion labels in particular, believed social networking would weaken the relationship with consumers, now the new media are viewed as an opportunity to improve customer relationships and to ultimately attract a larger audience. For example, Gucci in 2009 launched an innovative microsite on the occasion of a new sunglasses collection launch with the digital generation consumers in mind (www.guccieyeweb.com). The last but not the least point to be considered here is blogging. Blogs are among of the most powerful sources on the Internet as they provide a gathering point for people willing to voice opinions and challenge critics. Blogs are defined as personal websites, “usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video, where entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order” (Wikipedia, 2009). According to the statistics, 50 % of all Internet users are regular blog readers. Blogs are second only to newspapers as a trusted information source. For instance, by 2011 there were 173 million online blogs across various platforms (Figure 2). No wonder, popular bloggers are the main target of top fashion brands as the new influencers able to take the lead in brand-customer relationship. As Ambika Zutshi, CEO of Fashionbi Milan (2013) claims, bloggers today “gained ‘celebrity status’ for themselves”, and heavily influence “the consumer purchasing decisions”. Several luxury brands have already recognized this and use blogger outreach as an important part of their marketing activities. This is an early indication of the impact users have on brand marketing activities. Burberry invited Sсott Schuman, a “pioneer and a leader in the fashion blog world, with his site The Sartorialist averaging around 13 million page views per month by 2011” (Grieve, Idiculla, Tobias, 2013), as a photographer of its first community based social microsite “Art of the Trench”. Authoritative marketing agencies now represent bloggers on par with well-established brands which points to the evolving influence of blogs, especially in fashion sphere.
3.4. The Concept of Transmedia and Transmedia Storytelling Transmedia storytelling has transformed the way brand value is created. “The never-ending online story is just starting to be written, in that people are thinking about storytelling for the web in a different way,” commented on Susan Bonds, CEO of 42 Entertainment (Social Media Week, 2011). The term ‘transmedia’ was coined in 1991 by an American scholar Marsha Kinder, while the transmedia storytelling concept was developed by the researcher Henry Jenkins. “A transmedia story unfolds across multiple media platforms, with each next text making a distinctive and valuable contribution to the whole. In the ideal form of transmedia storytelling, each medium does what it does best – so that a story might be introduced in a film, expanded through television, novels, and comics; its world might be explored through gameplay or experienced as an amusement park attraction” (Jenkins 2008, p. 97-98. The proliferation of social networks and electronic devices which have made digital 9
communication possible brought about a convergence between the old and new ways of telling stories and distributing content. Customers are encouraged to seek out new information and make connections among dispersed media content. In other words, it demands the intentional use of multiple spaces to create consistent narratives around the core story. Contemporary research on transmedia storytelling situates it in the field of convergence culture. “In the world of media convergence, every important story gets told, every brand gets old, and every consumer gets courted across multiple media platforms” (Jenkins 2008, p. 3). The convergence culture marks a shift from traditional models of audience interactions with the media to the new ones characterized by the participatory power of the audience precipitated by digital networked technology. Transmedia storytelling stimulates the collective intelligence of brand fans and brand owner to work together to deepen and map the stories of the co-created narrative across different media and from many different perspectives. The value of transmedia is that it encompasses not only cross-platform storytelling but also allows the audience to participate in the storytelling. Jenkins emphasizes the audiences’ productive role: brand communities are free to experience, explore and expand the primary storyline defined by the brand owner. A diverse mix of digital technologies enables people to get involved more fully in shaping the brand and makes them dependent on several platforms rather than only one medium to appreciate the brand story in a comprehensible way. To engage with brand-related stories consumers need to be motivated. Surprise and newness have been cited as necessary message characteristics for maintaining the interest of a social audience (Knox, 2012). Transmedia storytelling contributes to raising brand awareness and improving perception of brand image to name but a few beneficial effects the strategy brings, however, brands need to be hyper-aware of communication processes going on all social platforms to protect brand reputation if needed. The challenge is to maintain the right balance between brand communities spreading the word about the brand through the social networks and the image of the brand as intended by the owner and its core marketing goals.
3.5. The Connection between Branded Space and Stories “The conceptual starting point is that brands cannot tell stories without space”, and branded space itself emerges through communication and interpretation. The branded space is constituted in the process of creating relations between the brand owner, the main storyteller, and the audience, creating narratives around the primary storyline. Lucy (2004) uses the term of ‘branded spacetime’ referring to the mode of organizing activities in time and space which make up the brand. Following Massey (2005), we understand space-time as the coexistence of trajectories as stories-so-far or, to put it a little differently, as the encounter of ongoing stories. Without a narrated story a space is nothing more than a container, “a meaningless vessel of architecture or body”. There is a close connection between 10
stories and branded spaces. “Branded spaces are created in the mind and in the process of communication just like stories”, argues Sonnenberg (2013, p. 15) and depend on the situations out of which stories emerge. Storytelling is embedded in branded spaces. We believe that nowadays space and brand are in a productive interdependency which leads to new forms of interaction between brand and people in spatial settings (Sonnenberg, 2013, p. 10). It is important to make a distinction between the notions of ‘space’ and ‘place’ as both are featured in branding literature. “Place” refers to the physical dimension of a branded space, while ‘space’ is the more social dimension which emerges through narrating and perceiving, an entity for cultural practices and change as well as social relationships. Space and place are given meaning through branded objects and social practices of branding (Pike, 2009, p.192). Owners of branded place tell stories in order to involve people to co-create a story through their interpretation of the perceived information about the place, and in this way branded space is created. In other words, place serves as a vessel for spaces which are “vessels for meaning” - a brand meaning is necessary for a space to become a branded space. The point of marketing practice becomes not so much to sell the stuff that one can produce, but to “unlock the productive potential of relationships” (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004, p. 10). Contemporary brands have changed the strategy - rather than pushing their messages they seek to engage consumers in a conversation, using both traditional and new media channels. “The digital innovations of the last decade made it effortless, indeed second nature, for audiences to talk back and talk to each other” (Deighton and Cornfield 2009). Immaterial qualities like experience, identity, and community have become more important (Pine and Gilmore, 1999). The author of an article “Global brands as embodied “generic spaces” (2004), Yakhlef Ali considers global brands in spacial terms and introduces the concept of ‘spatiality’. Generic spaces are specific embedded spaces: lived spaces embedded in a culture that is historically and contextually constituted. In the works of Lefèbvre (1974/1991) global brands are represented as “perceived, conceived, and loved spaces» rather than disembodied generic spaces as in the theory of Lash (2002). Lefèbvre views brands as generic spaces that are specific experiences lived through their associated images and symbols. His generic space “overlays physical space, turning its objects into symbols - tending to become more or less systems of nonverbal symbols and signs» which relate to the cultural context from which they spring and speak embracing passion, action and lived experience (1974/1991, p. 39).
3.6. Virtual Reality in Physical Spaces: Flagship Stores The complex story world of the brand encompasses not only narratives created in the virtual reality, but also the material environment where the products are presented and the purchase actually takes place. Brand experience would be incomplete without the physical space in which it finds expression. 11
Flagship stores opened by luxury brands stage products in a unique environment creating “spatially ‘tellable’ branded stories” (Bker and Sonnenburg, 2013, p. 21) and in this way contribute to an integrated branding concept. Moore et al. (2007) view the flagship as embodying an amalgam of roles, each interrelated, suggesting that the flagship is “the brand at its most concentrated – a distillation of the core dimensions of the brand”. The term ‘space’ here unites under its umbrella both physical characteristics (location, exterior, interior etc.) and the experience the customers receive on entering the stores. Branded space is used as a manifestation of brand is space. Flagship stores are becoming the physical expression of the product’s cultural domain. Customers are invited to experience contextual notions of lifestyle and identity that are embedded within the store’s physical boundaries. “Brands do not just sell products. Indeed, they sell identities and experience of imaginary lives” (Palaiologou et al., 2013, p. 136). Brands sell the experience of consumption – “the purchase and possession rituals” (Du Gay, 1997) performed within the physical and contextual domain of their branded worlds. The marketing intentions are summarized in the concept of highlighting the product and at the same time establishing a spatial bond with customers through the cultural activities that take place inside the boundaries of its world. “The branded experience offered to the customer is mostly about the development of in-store relationships and the provided service within the retail experience” (Palaiologou et al., 2013, p. 146). Flagship stores of the future not only promote a more engaging experience of the brand’s essence but also satisfy consumers looking for entertainment alongside their shopping. Entertainment consultant Wolf (1999) asserts that, as entertainment has seeped into every aspect of the economy, shopping has become blended into entertainment, becoming what he terms ‘shoppertainment’. In-store brand experience enhances an ultimate brand experience. Due to the new technologies the shopping experience has gone through considerable transformations. Experience created online is frequently subsequently transmitted to the offline world. To have a long lasting impact a multichannel mindset must be embedded in the store design and in employees' ways of working need to be adapted to the digital reality. Offering representations of online activity in the offline physical world is increasingly common. In an attempt to approach consumers in an expanded range of everyday spaces marketers connect spacial practices with digital technologies “to extend the scope of emotional or affective bonds forged between consumers and brands” (Moor E., 2003). The flagship store enhances the company’s reputation within the luxury firmament, establishing credibility and context. Other studies have identified that the flagship store serves principally as a means of communicating and enhancing the image and personality of a luxury retailer’s brand identity. To sum up, flagship stores can be considered a device for maintaining relationship between the brand and consumers. Flagship stores can be considered a device for maintaining relationship between the brand and consumers. They are operated with the intention of reinforcing the image of the brand rather than 12
operating to sell product at a profit. In the international context, flagships exist to influence market awareness and perceptions through their emphasis on lifestyle, and to provide organizational contexts that transcend the product by selling the brand narrative (Moore, Doherty, & Doyle, 2007).
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Research context: The case study of Burberry brand 4.1 The Story of Burberry “Lots of marketers are talking about storytelling now, but few really understand how it works or why. Burberry does… by creating a ‘story world’ that customers can step into at will” (Rose, 2015). An effective cultural strategy creates a ‘storied product’ - a product that has distinctive branded features through which customers experience identity myths (Holt, 2004).). Burberry perfectly succeeded in implementing this strategy. The iconic trench coat having given start to the now legendary fashion house in the past has turned into a timeless ‘storied product’. As Christopher Bailey, CEO of Burberry, commented on: “It’s not just a coat. The coat has a story… People want the soul in things” (Jeff Chu, 2015). Within 159 years Burberry has achieved a status of iconic British brand that stands for authentic British heritage, craftsmanship, excellent quality, innovations in design and customercentric approach. Today Burberry operates under three brands: Burberry Prorsum, a very high-fashion line; Burberry London, which encompasses more everyday looks; Burberry Brit, an array of laidback casual pieces. Burberry products are sold globally through its stores and Burberry.com as well as through third-party wholesale customers, both offline and online. When Angela Ahrendts (currently Senior Vice President at Apple Inc.) joined the company in the capacity of CEO in 2006, the digital revolution of the brand began. Today the company is held up as a shining example by companies like Facebook and Twitter for its forward-thinking (Burberry logo contains the Latin word ‘Prorsum’ which means forward), savvy approach to digital marketing, commerce and communitybuilding. By 2011 Burberry had placed 60 per cent of its marketing budget into a digital strategy targeted at the luxury customers of the future, the so-called millennials. Together with Christopher Bailey they made a shift from aging luxury brand to innovative brand, keeping its core products at the heart of the business and focusing its marketing activities on the digitalization. In his interview to “The Telegraph” Christopher Bailey said: “Technology is an intrinsic part of most people’s lives. All we’ve done is make sure to weave technology into the fabric of the company. This is how customers live, they wake up with a device in their hand and life begins” (Emily Cronin, 2012). To fulfill new strategic goals, Burberry started with re-design of the official website Burberry.com aiming to reach digital generation consumers through emotive brand content: music, movies, heritage and, of course, storytelling allowing to immerse into the Burberry World. In the course of boosting its online presence, Burberry has shown great courage becoming the pioneer to enter the social waters among luxury fashion brands: they launched Facebook (2009), Twitter (2009), Tumblr (2009), Pinterest (2009), Instagram (2009), YouTube (2009) and Google+ (2011) accounts. The story-making continued with
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a series of very successful digital concepts. In 2009 the company launched an interactive social-networking website “Art of the Trench”, in 2010 - Burberry Acoustic, a music collaboration between the British fashion label and talented British artists, followed in 2011 by a customized story Burberry Bespoke on Burberry.com offering around 12 million possible styles and a possibility to add a personalized monogram. In 2012 with the opening of Burberry flagship store on Regent street in London all the accumulated digital templates were transferred to the physical space to create an integrated brand experience. Burberry’s commitment to innovative content marketing and social media engagement earned the fashion label a place among the most exciting and popular luxury brands in the online sphere. As it is stated on official corporate company web page (http://www.burberryplc.com/): “Burberry finished the year (2014) as one of the most followed luxury brands in social media, featuring over 16 million fans on Facebook, over 3 million on Twitter and over 2 million on Instagram”. Burberry dominates the list of Top 25 Social Global Luxury Brands released by Shareable Social Scorecard in the first half of 2015 having 23.3 million total followers actively posting, tweeting and publishing media content across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (1,277 feeds) (Figure 3).
4.2. Burberry Digital Assets • Facebook
The official Burberry Facebook account (facebook.com/Burberry) features 16,841,175 followers. They tend to post about once a day, sharing a combination of photos and videos of new collections, ad campaigns, behind-the-scene and catwalk shows. The most sharable content includes new season gifts, accessories from Burberry, behind-the-scenes with Romeo Beckham and a cast of dancers, Heritage archive, greetings from Burberry, YouTube video from the full Burberry Prorsum Womenswear Autumn/Winter 2013 show, London view (memories, positive feelings) and new flagship store on Regent Street. Burberry also made use of their Facebook page to live stream their catwalk shows, which received a great response from fans who were unable to witness it in person. An invitation to watch the show online was published in the form of a note handwritten by the designer giving it a personal touch. As mentioned above, besides promoting products, Burberry supports Burberry Acoustic campaign inviting its followers to listen to young talented British musicians emphasizing the company’s identity as an authentic British brand. In an attempt to build a community around this campaign a dedicated account was launched (facebook.com/Burberry.acoustic), it lasted one year (2011-2012) and reached 2,269 followers. Another example of a temporary Facebook page is the official Burberry Regent Street Flagship account (www.facebook.com/BurberryRegentStreet with 9,845 followers) that existed one year (2012-2013) and was launched to create buzz around the opening of a new Burberry store in London in 2012. 15
• Twitter
Burberry is the most active on Twitter (@Burberry) of all platforms, posting on average five times a day. The brand has worked with Twitter on a number of initiatives in the past, including a live stream of their Spring/Summer show at London Fashion Week in 2012, and in 2014 they sold Burberry products through the ‘Buy Now’ function on Twitter. Approving Burberry activation during London Fashion week, Brian Zeug, Google’s director of branded apparel mentioned “As more people use the Web for shopping and inspiration, reaching people online is critical for fashion brands, particularly around key moments like fashion week” (MacDonald, 2014). Burberry uses Twitter to offer fans exclusive content via its ‘Tweetwalk’ campaigns. In 2015 Burberry introduced a new initiative #Tweetcam which allowed users all over the world to take photos live from Burberry Prorsum Autumn/Winter 2015 Womanswear at London Fashion Week by using the hashtag #Tweetcam. After personalizing user-generated photos with their Twitter handle, Burberry tweets them back to the users. Earlier in 2011 Burberry gave their fans an exclusive access to its new collection images before the items were shown by the models on the catwalk via the hashtag #TweetWalk. There are a few links back to Burberry’s e-commerce site but the brand’s general policy is to build its brand image, leaving it up to users to find their way to the online store. Burberry has also the official Burberry Customer Service (twitter.com/burberryservice) featuring 3,593 followers that deals with customer service enquiries - available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and rolled out across a multitude of different international territories. Finally, Burberry frequently uses celebrity endorsement to promote their products by sharing images of the high profile individuals wearing their products and this way supporting the credibility of the brand. • Instagram
The official Burberry Instagram account (instagram.com/burberry) features 4,291,329 followers. The images of iconic English landmarks are combined with slow-motion videos of the latest runway show and behind-the-scenes shots of models, guests photo and collection previews - they reinforce the brand's heritage perfectly capturing its essence. The posts are predominantly atmospheric and storytelling. Each picture on average gets 30,000 likes. Burberry incorporate several hashtags campaign #ArtoftheTrench/#AOTT, #burberryweather (linkage to trench coat origins) and special ones for their catwalks (for instance, the London Fashion Week community was built under the hashtag #LFW across the platform and Burberry incorporated it into their posts throughout the event for optimum exposure) and for its campaign #BurberryGifts to activate their community during the seasons. • YouTube
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The official Burberry YouTube channel (youtube.com/burberry) features 183,152 subscribers. The content consists of videos and playlists of different products and campaigns, music events, make-up tutorials, eyewear and behind-the-scenes footage. Not only does the company shoot videos for almost everything it does, but also streams the videos live securing a high rate of viewers. The most viewed video (850,143 views, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16GvbiRq1Gg) was filmed in the style of 80s, celebrating the Britishness and youth, and dedicated to Burberry Autumn/Winter 2015 Campaign. • Pinterest
The official Pinterest Burberry account (pinterest.com/burberry) features over 136,856 followers, and 7,6k pinned 7,6 k images across 20 boards with all but one featuring the brand name in the title. They include ‘Burberry Weather,’ ‘Wearing Burberry,’ ‘Burberry Menswear’ and ‘Burberry Eyewear,’ ‘Burberry Trench’ with the odd one out being ‘The Britain’. To sum up, the boards are an appealing mix of product ideas, celebrities, music videos and pictures of London, which is precisely the kind of things people enjoy sharing on Pinterest. Speaking about Timblr blogging platform (burberry.tumblr.com/), it is dedicated to only one campaign “Art of the Trench”, suggesting owners of Burberry trench coat to upload their looks. Besides while many brands put very limited effort into G+ (plus.google.com/+burberry), Burberry keeps its page regularly updated with eye-catching photos and videos (4, 816,454 subscribers). Much of the content appears to be repurposed from Facebook and Twitter, however the order in which it’s posted slightly varies. While running all its digital initiatives, Burberry keep thinking in terms of linking everything up together whether its Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Burberry.com to unite them under one integrated concept dubbed Burberry World. However, some of the criticisms are worth mentioning. In spite of its omnipresence on the most frequently used social media platforms, Burberry shies away from actively engaging with its followers. The brand maintains a certain distance with the audience, emphasizing its exclusivity, rather than being friendly and accessible. Reported to be numberone in digital reach, according to Shareable Social Scorecard (1H of 2015) the brand demonstrates lack of engaged actions (likes, comments, shares, retweets, favorites) across the media platforms skipping ahead such luxury clothing brands as Valentino, Dior, Louis Vuitton and Dolce & Gabbana. To get a full picture Gucci ranks first in “digital customer experience”, trailed by Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, Cartier, Ralph Lauren and Ermenegildo Zegna (Figure 3).
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4.3. Virtual Space: Art of the Trench In 2009 Burberry launched the “Art of the Trench”, an interactive platform for discussing and sharing opinions on a dedicated website artofthetrench.com, which has received over 2.5 million visitors to date. Burberry felt that it was the right time to involve customers in the story of its iconic product and make it evolve in individual stories that Burberry fans can share across social media. Ahrendts and Bailey came up with the campaign, which instead of traditional advertising enhanced the social experience of the brand followers. To make the platform appealing both for existing and aspirational customers the “Art of the Trench” offered the option of uploading photos of themselves in their Burberry trenches so that the others could comment on them, like, share the photos via Facebook, Twitter, email, etc. In this way Burberry fans have received a unique opportunity to participate in story-writing of the brand and to feel themselves part of this incredible experience. “Each of the photographs captures the fashions being worn in very casual, non-posed scenes. It's so easy to picture yourself sporting these coats throughout the city emulating the lifestyles of the celebrities in these images” (Kelsey Drain, 2014). The campaign “Art of the Trench Los Angeles” perfectly illustrates the point that the trench coat can go with various personal styles - it features pro skater Ben Nordberg showing how a classic midnight trench can be paired with a tattered T-shirt and cuffed jeans for a stylish look. Burberry regularly selects its favorites from the submitted images to post them onto the front site, creating a body of images showing styles from across the globe. The hundreds of trench images can be browsed by categories such as weather, colour, style, gender, popularity and the where the photo originated (user submitted, Sartorialist, fashion) and click-through to the Burberry site to make a purchase. The artofthetrench.com also provides information about the history of the Burberry trench coat, showing vintage models from 1910 and onwards through the decades with pictures, videos and ads featuring the likes of Stella Tennant and Kate Moss. The “Art of the Trench” project stimulates consumers to interact with the brand’s culture and brings them closer to the brand (Pic. 1). A possibility to become a featured part of the brand website enhanced a sense of their belonging and affinity to the brand. Every image posted on the microsite artofthetrench.com can be easily shared across customers preferable social media channels (Pic.2). The campaign has been adopted across Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Timblr and Facebook. The images can be found under the hashtags #ArtoftheTrench (3,836 posts) and #AOTT (3,187 posts). There are also user-generated hashtags: #burberrytrench, #burberrytrenchcoat, #heritagetrenchcoat having approximately 4,000 subscribers. It is worth noting that the campaign was designed as a standalone social media platform, instead of being hosted on one of existing platforms. Burberry chose to control the aesthetics of the site rather than to be confined to a particular format. The first series of pictures for the campaign was taken by Scott Schuman, a popular street style photographer and fashion blogger, which was done to set the 18
tone of images. By that time the street style photography had become a hot trend, and Burberry mastermind embodied it in the “Art of the Trench” project. The campaign was promoted via word of mouth generated through The Sartorialist and users sharing their submissions on Facebook and Twitter. Having this positive experience, Burberry continues to invite fashion bloggers to participate in the project. For instance, Carolina Engman, awarded as the best Blogger of the Year with 500k followers of her public page (https://www.facebook.com/fashionsquad) was invited to take part in the project, and she shared the experience across her social accounts. It has become a common practice that the story “Art of the Trench” evolves on different fashion blogs and dairies (streetstylista.com, kufashionclub.wordpress.com, lartoffashion.com, to name but a few), on the fashion websites by amateur fashionista (http://lookbook.nu/alexanderliang). Moreover, some of bloggers is so enthusiastic about Burberry trench coat that conducted their own investigation about the origins of the coat and telling their stories (Personal story by famous blogger about the History of the trench coat in “Trench Coat Pairings” YouTube video). While browsing the website and seeing hundreds of different people wearing the coat, customers can be entertained by listening soundtracks of talented young British musicians wearing items from the latest Burberry collection and represented on Burberry Acoustic platform. They constantly take part in events organized by Burberry to celebrate the “Art of the Trench”. An interesting tendency can be traced: Burberry usually activates trench campaigns and initiatives by purpose, mainly before opening new stores. For instance, to celebrate the launch of the Michigan Avenue flagship store, Burberry captured images of Chicagoans wearing the iconic trench coat in different locations. This story appeared in fashion blog: http://chicityfashion.com/burberryart-of-the-trench-chicago/. The innovative platform “Art of the Trench” made Burberry one of the most successful luxury brands regarding user-generated content. “Burberry’s Facebook fan base grew to more than one million, the largest fan count in the luxury sector at the time. The site had 7,5 million views from 150 countries in the first year” (Business Today, 2013). The campaign registered a high rate of customer engagement and enthusiasm of uploading their own photos. The “conversion rates from the Art of the Trench click-throughs to the Burberry website are significantly higher than those from other sources” (Grieve, Idiculla, Tobias, 2013). The story has received its continuation in the space of the flagship store aimed to enhance the overall brand experience, generated a global revenue of approximately 1.81 billion GBP in retail channel in 2015 (Figure 4).
4.4. Physical Space: Burberry Regent Street Flagship Christopher Bailey said to GQ: «We had realized that we had created a lot of platforms that only exist online so we decided we had to bring these to life. Our approach to the store was to make a bridge between the online and offline experience. Today I think we’re less concerned about where 19
we actually shop, and more concerned about the experience we have while we’re shopping» (Robert Johnston, 2013). All Burberry shops have been designed to provoke the conversation, however, the flagship store on Regent Street in London is a special case. Seeking to bring the online environment Burberry.com to life in a physical space - complete product assortment, RFID technology to trigger targeted multimedia content, omnipresent digital screens continuously projecting brand imagery - the layout of the store was created identical to the layout page of the website. Entering the front door one feels as if one is actually entering the website. The combination of online insights and offline interactions resulted in a unique brand experience, giving people a place to hang out and explore. The store generates luxurious interactive brand environment by combining the event space, innovation hub and store itself. Constructed in 1820 for the Prince Regent, the building in which the store is located has housed galleries, a cinema, livery stables and a radio broadcaster over the course of 200 years. The facade still celebrates the original ticket stalls for the cinema, which was among the first to entertain Londoners at the beginning of the twentieth century. The story behind this building fostered Burberry team to preserve the ‘soul of the building’ and reveal its entertainment and interaction experience. Understanding the importance of entertainment in brand experience, Burberry utilize the concept of ‘Retail Theater’ experience that gives its customers emotional attachment with the brand through 500 speakers and 100 screens, including disruptive digital takeovers – such as digital rain showers - synchronized across all screens. RFID-enabled merchandise turn mirrors into digital screens: when a consumer moves around the store, these chips react with mirrors causing them to activate short films about products’ creation, including sketches and runway clips. This allows to tell the story behind the product to satisfy curious customers and engage with the products both online and in-person. Regent Street also gives physical representation to the brand’s most innovative digital launches in recent years, including “Art of the Trench” (2009), Burberry Acoustic (2010) and Burberry Bespoke (2011). The imagery from Burberry social media platform “Art of the Trench” is presented on the screens and featured by digital takeovers at specific moments in the day. Each customer can be presented in physical place creating a notion of online community presence in physical space. In addition to that, customers are encouraged to post their Burberry trench coat selfies in the corresponding online platform. The story with Burberry Acoustic program has found its expression in live performances of young talented British musicians supported by this program. For this purpose, the store was designed like an auditorium-like space that can hold up to 1,000 spectators. The first live concert was given on 23 April 2013 by British band Kaiser Chiefs launching series of free live gigs open to the public. The concert received wide media coverage (GQ, Esquire, Telegraph, Elle, Marie Clare) as well as registered activities on Facebook page of the store (50 likes, 14 shares). Burberry
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Acoustic music videos are streamed to stores. Successfully launched in 2011 Burberry Bespoke service on the website, allowing visitors to customize and purchase their own trench coat and share their design across social media, was implemented as a physical experience in Burberry Regent Street flagship store as well. Customers received an opportunity to create their own customized iconic Burberry trench coats in special private rooms with assistance of Tailoring Specialist. Burberry Bespoke trench models are exhibited on display that gives a chance for customers to make a photo or video and share throughout different social platforms. This practice of customization among luxury brands seems to have a huge market and potential due to an increasing number of high-street labels offer custom-made clothes and shoes (Canali, Gucci, Carnaliani to name but a few). Aiming to reach fullpersonalized experience, all store associates are equipped with iPads to help them keep the track of customers’ purchase history and preferences. A sales associate on her iPad can summon a shopper profile encompassing contact details, transactional history (including the potentially alarming 'lifetime spend' statistic), recommendations based on purchases, and social media comments regarding the brand. Even residential seating around the space make the customers feel like at home with their laptop or iPad and shared in-store experience with the friends. The store keeps the atmosphere of quintessential British heritage as a result of collaboration with the best of British craftspeople which is reflected both in outdoor and indoor design. From the digital side, Burberry has managed to emphasize the traditional rainy weather in UK by digital content on screens throughout Burberry Regent Street, and engage nature of weather and the Burberry raincoat heritage. The purpose of embracing physical and digital space seems to be a trigger for customers. As Nikki Fridrichova, a fan of official Facebook page of Burberry Regent Street, fascinated by in-store experience put it: “See the www.uk.burberry.com website LIVE!. New fantastic young British artist (Acoustic Set), start networking with trendy trench people out there (Art Of Trench ), see the 3D Hologram Runway shows with the latest collections, create an iconic trench coat with your personal specifications and watch the masters making it ( Bespoke ). Or come just hang out... this new fantastic flagship has it all”. Another Facebook user, Teresa Bagley: “Store looks amazing, lots of creative imagination has gone into the shopping experience, can’t wait to step into the store. Hope it is a mega success”. Burberry is an exception, focusing on harmonizing the look and feel of the brand in the off-line and online worlds. Burberry Regent Street is the brand's most comprehensive expression to date allowing the customer to move from one to another in a seamless way. Burberry report perfectly summarizes the point: “Introducing the concept of ‘Burberry World Live’, Regent Street blurred the physical and the digital to bring all aspects of burberry.com (‘Burberry World’) to life in a meticulously-restored heritage space”.
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5. Methodology This section shall discuss the research methods employed in the course of the study and applicable for the analysis of the Research Question addressing the role of virtual and physical spaces for transmedia storytelling in luxury fashion industry. This part considers the sources of information most appropriate for the research and explains the selection of the brand for case study. The author presents a theoretical framework of the main concepts with a focus on transmedia storytelling and carries out an in-depth analysis of Burberry marketing strategies as digital luxury leader. For the purpose of this study the qualitative research method was utilized allowing to evaluate the on-going tendencies in luxury segment and the results of the digital revolution. The data was collected by using several methods including the analysis of secondary data research (academic research papers, luxury market statistics, fashion editorial publications, Burberry annual reports) as well as the netnography of target online consumer groups and their behaviour in virtual and physical spaces. The choice of the company for case study was guided by the following criteria: status of the company on global level, authentic story, strong heritage and top-ranked digital profile. Burberry meets all the requirements being one of the first luxury clothing brands that showed a great courage in taking a luxury brand into ‘social waters’ with the launch of «Art of the Trench» campaign (2009) and later, in 2012 reinforcing the position on the digital arena with a new multimedia flagship store on Regent Street in London. The only disadvantage of the research can be seen in the lack of face-to-face interviews with customers, managerial staff, sales representatives and observation of in-store experience of customers. However, since the brand has a strong online presence, including official accounts featuring the activities both on the part of the brand and consumers. Almost every Burberry campaign has a dedicated digital account. The new project Burberry Regent Street flagship store is no exception, its official account has been analyzed among many others using the method of netnography mentioned above. The advantage of this form of data collection is that “it provides marketing researchers with a window into naturally occurring behaviors, such as searches for information by and communal word of mouth between consumers” (Kozinets, 2002, p.62). Thus the study examined Burberry official website, www.artofthetrench.com microsite, social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Timblr, Google plus), fashion blogs, video clips contents, selected websites brands with expert reviews in the digital and luxury fashion spheres. The combination of the research with a theoretical framework allowed to get a deeper understanding of the role of digital technologies, in particular social media, in transmedia storytelling.
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Conclusion Cutting-edge technologies and new practices of networked consumption have changed the patterns of communication between brands and consumers. Brands and customers are now communicating with each other without any restrictions in time, place and medium so that old-fashioned one-way communication is changed to interactive two- and multi-way direct communication. In the age of heightened connectivity and creativity irrespective of whether they want it or not, consumers are forced into the possibilities of multi-functional interrelations. Consumers have transformed from passive recipients of marketing efforts into partners in productive relationships: consumers are interested in taking a more active part in the co-production of the products and services they consume. The findings of the research highlight the variety of interactions taking place between luxury brand owners, their customers and members of their respective networks which help to develop a superior value proposition. The strategic focus of brands has shifted away from products to relationships and from pushing sales to entertainment. To be competitive companies need to continually find new ways to interact with customers. It is imperative for luxury marketers to continue to increase their presence on social media platforms that they already use and look to expand to new platforms to engage the audience. Additionally, brands must think how they can reach key customers with each social media platform, harness it to suit the needs of both the brand and the consumer, and how to tailor their message to compel customers to explore deeper on the path to purchase or to joining the ongoing communication. Burberry gives an innovative and effective example of using social media strategy and e-commerce in the fashion world. In the course of time it evolved from a product-focused brand (the iconic trench coat which Angela Ahrendts called the DNA of the brand) to a brand that tells a story, and with the advent of digital era transformed it into a brand that co-creates a story with consumers. Luxury brands can learn from Burberry's experience in using social media, which is effective, drives ROI and is integrated with the company’s other marketing efforts. The utterance of Jenkins (2008) fits perfectly here: "This is how artists can develop narrative construction in more ‘ambitious and challenging works”. The «Art of the Trench» campaign addresses individual value through direct connection to the brand as well as social value as users can interact with others. The trench is simply a conduit through which customers can experience the stories that brand tells. Burberry has used its online presence as a template for the creation of its new digitally enhanced flagship store on Regent Street transferring the ideas from the virtual into the physical environment. «Burberry has interwoven technology elegantly into its core. It understands the internet, has embraced social media confidently, and manages the interface between the physical and virtual with panache», commented on Neil Duffy,
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Managing Director of Interbrand London (2013). Many fashion brands used to think that social networking would weaken their relationship with consumers. However, today the new media are viewed as a unique opportunity to build up stronger customer relationships and to ultimately capture a larger audience. Burberry managed to come up with a construct that resonates with everyone and demonstrated outstanding results on the digital arena, but from my point of view the management of the brand needs to revise the strategy of communication with clients on the suggested platforms which lack response on the part of the brand as customers posts for the most part remain ignored rather than launch and re-launch these platforms for short-term purposes like the opening of a new store or promotion of a new campaign. The lifecycle of fashions is shorter than ever before, therefore it is essential to maintain connection with the audience and capture every second of audience attention. New innovative business models must incorporate social media to allow companies to build strong customer relationships and encourage loyalty, and interact with customers through new channels, formats or revenue models. It is imperative for luxury marketers to continue to build up their presence on social media platforms that they already use and look to expand to new platforms to engage audiences. Additionally, luxury marketers must think how they can reach key customers with each social media platform, harness it to suit the needs of both the brand and the consumer, and how to tailor their message to compel customers to explore deeper, and on the path to purchase or to opt in to ongoing communication. Companies must continually find new ways to connect with customers and increasing social engagement to drive growth. Today digital marketing is no longer a niche, all successful brands are represented in digital platforms. The speed with which information travels in cyberspace and its multidirectional flow, the lack of geographical limitations and the rapidity of social, technological and cultural changes dictate their rules. Transmedia storytelling perfectly fits in this kind of fast environment satisfying the needs of the market players. The brands absolutely need to be 100% present on all digital platforms as well as make sure to be cool on every device and to move as fast as clients, as or even faster. Notwithstanding, competing in this digital race it is important not to forget about the focus of the company. Christopher Bailey says that Burberry is «as much a mediacontent company as a design company» and on the website introducing Burberry’s Travel Tailoring, clients are invited to «explore the technology». However, the company is a fashion brand, and it is fashion which made it famous all over the world and allows to be the headliner in luxury fashion industry for so many years.
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http://press.burberry.com/regentstreet/%2523/store/physical/the-building/1 YouTube, (2013). Authentic Branding for a Global Audience: Angela Ahrendts (Future of StoryTelling 2013). [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krQG2Hceov4 YouTube, (2014). Trench Coat Pairings. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oJEwhiYpmc&list=PLR4K4pIjstQfIHPtjH1XMW58xbbdzmdS Burberry official online sources: http://press.burberry.com/regentstreet/#/store/physical/the-building/1 http://www.burberryplc.com/about_burberry/our_strategy Burberry official social media web pages: facebook.com/Burberry/twitter.com/Burberry/twitter.com/burberryservice/instagram.com/burberry/youtube.com/burberry/pinterest.com/burberry/burberry.tumblr.com/plus.google.com/+burberry Statistics from statista.com
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Appendix Figure 1
Figure 2
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Figure 3
Figure 4
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Pic.1
Pic. 2
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