????2006年，艾倫茨剛從美國服裝品牌麗資克萊本（Liz Claiborne）跳槽至博柏利。當時，博柏利在全球各地都授權了經(jīng)銷店，但作為一個全球性品牌卻缺乏一個具有凝聚力的形象，而且業(yè)績也比不上奢侈品市場的平均水平。（2006年，博柏利的批發(fā)和零售銷量只上漲了2.2%，而當年奢侈品市場總體銷量上漲了13%。）艾倫茨到任后購回了授權許可證，然后開始為品牌尋找正確的定位。

????艾倫茨和貝利認為，在博柏利的前途問題上，公司的“英倫風”遺產(chǎn)和標志性的外套必須扮演一個關鍵的角色（艾倫茨常說博柏利是從一件外套起家的）。不過同時他們決定把目標瞄準“八零后”，這個群體往往被其他奢侈品公司忽略，但它的確是一個新興的市場。博柏利公司的市場調(diào)查顯示，發(fā)展中國家的高凈值客戶的平均年齡要比美國和英國等國年輕整整15歲。

????但是到底應該如何與這個年齡段的人溝通呢？“他們的語言是什么？”艾倫茨問道：“我們面面相覷，異口同聲地說：‘數(shù)碼’?！庇谑遣┌乩_著本著這個原則做事。艾倫茨解釋說：“我們自然而然地問自己，在我們做的每一件事上，如何能讓它做到更好的溝通，如何讓它更加數(shù)字化？”

????她拿自己的孩子舉了個例子。幾周前她的侄女來她家玩，艾倫茨讓女兒轉告她，一個小時后一起吃飯。女兒沒有拿起電話，而是跟她在Facebook上聊天。“她知道她在Facebook上，因為她們從來不會把它關掉，”艾倫茨說：“不打電話，不發(fā)電子郵件。那就是她們的語言，那就是她們的交流方式?！?/p>

????根據(jù)咨詢公司Stylophane的數(shù)據(jù)，現(xiàn)在博柏利在Facebook和Twitter上的粉絲要比任何其他奢侈品牌都多。博柏利大概把一半的媒體公關預算都花在了數(shù)碼媒體上，但它也承認，要計算這些資源帶來的回報并不是一件容易的事。

????事實上，博柏利在社交媒體上的許多努力并不是為了迅速刺激銷量。比如它有一個artofthetrench.com平臺，這個網(wǎng)站主要是讓人們分享自己的照片，展示自己穿風衣的照片。艾倫茨解釋道：“我們經(jīng)常用最有標志性的產(chǎn)品做一些創(chuàng)新的事?！绷硗?，公司網(wǎng)站“博柏利世界”也不僅僅是一個電子商務網(wǎng)站，甚至也不僅僅是一個博柏利門店的數(shù)字化版——雖然許多零售商可能認為在線戰(zhàn)略就是這么一回事。

????博柏利正在推進網(wǎng)站的多媒體體驗?，F(xiàn)如今它的網(wǎng)站上又增添了一個“原聲音樂”部分，可以點擊觀看一些尚未成名的英國音樂人的MV（當然他們都穿著博柏利的衣服）。同時消費者也可以觀看剪輯精美的活動視頻，比如最近網(wǎng)站上有一段臺北門店的開業(yè)典禮，它在表演和編排上都充分考慮到了在線視頻觀眾的需求。

????When Ahrendts arrived from Liz Claiborne in 2006, Burberry, which had licensed its name around the globe, lacked a cohesive image, and was underperforming the luxury market. (Retail and wholesale sales were up just 2.2%, vs. the sector's roughly 13% the year she arrived.) Ahrendts started buying back the licenses and moved to find the right positioning for the brand.

????Ahrendts and Bailey recognized that the company's British heritage and its iconic outerwear (Ahrendts likes to say the company was born from a coat) had to play a key role in defining the company going forward. But they also decided to pursue millennials, a group its peers were ignoring. It was an emerging-markets play as well, with the company's research showing that high-net-worth individuals in the developing world were 15 years younger than in markets such as the U.S. and Britain.

????But how to communicate with this new demographic? "What is their language?" asks Ahrendts. "And that's when we looked at each other and said, 'It's digital.' " Burberry started filtering everything through that lens. "We just naturally started asking ourselves on every single thing we did, how do we make it more connected, how do we make it more digital?" Ahrendts explains.

????She points to her own kids as an example. A few weeks ago when her niece was in town visiting, Ahrendts told her teenage daughter to have her cousin meet them for brunch in an hour. Rather than pick up the phone, she chatted with her on Facebook. "She knows she's on Facebook because they never turn it off," says Ahrendts. "Doesn't call, doesn't e-mail. That's their English. That's how they communicate."

????Today, Burberry has more Facebook and Twitter followers than any other luxury brand of those tracked by consultancy Stylophane. The company spends about half its media budget on digital but concedes it isn't easy to calculate a return on the resources poured into Burberry's technology.

????To be sure, many of Burberry's social media efforts aren't designed to spur immediate sales. Take its artofthetrench.com platform, a compilation of photos that people have sent in of themselves wearing trench coats. "We always do something innovative with our most iconic product," explains Ahrendts. Likewise, Burberry's website, dubbed Burberry World, is more than an e-commerce site or even just a digital representation of its stores, which is how many retailers think of their online strategy.

????Burberry is pushing to make its website a multimedia experience. Today it features an "acoustic" section with music videos from undiscovered British artists (dressed in Burberry clothing, of course). Consumers can also view beautifully edited clips of events, such as a recent production tied to a store opening in Taipei, staged and choreographed with the online video audience in mind.