Bond Street Tube was temporarily renamed Burberry Street as a marketing strategy for the London Fashion Week.
Londoners and tourists were left confused when the Bond Street station in the West End shopping district was renamed Burberry Street to market the fashion luxury brand during the London Fashion Week.
This was to mark the opening of the rebranded Burberry flagship store located on Bond Street. The rebranding that remained in place between Friday and early Tuesday caused confusion among tourists and Londoners as the platform sign was repainted with knight blue, the new colours of the brand.
A staff member for the transport of London said it left many complaints from disoriented customers, with some customers terming the move as a mad and moronic idea.
According to staff members who declined to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media, several customers missed their stop due to the confusion. This is mainly because the sign was in the official bright blue Burberry colour.
“ I heard lots of stuff. But honestly, there was nothing positive!” One staff member said. “People were saying different things. Why have they changed it? This has confused us. When we saw Burberry Street, we thought we were somewhere else.”
According to the Transport of London Tube, the company has been involved in several marketing communication campaigns in the recent past that have involved the renaming of tubes. The company said there was no confusion as the station and in-train announcements would guide customers.
It was unclear how much Burberry paid for the promotion, as a London Tube official declined to answer the question. However, he said that the proceeds from the campaign would be reinvested into the transport system. Burberry, too, didn’t respond when contacted.
In the recent past, Transport for London has been struggling with rising costs and a high inflation cost. In its latest financial statement, the company saw its costs rise by 5%. The passenger numbers are yet to reach the pre-pandemic level and are currently at 86%.
In 2013, a conservative party member suggested that the London Underground Tube be renamed through sponsorship deals to enable Transport for London to earn more.
In July 2018, the London Tube commuters rebranded to Southgate Tube station in honour of the England football manager ahead of their World Cup semifinal match against Croatia.
According to Natascha Radclyfee-Thomas a professor in marketing at the British School of Fashion, she saw the ad signage when riding into Bond Street.
However, the ad’s location was poorly thought out as it was placed in a station commonly used by visitors going in and out of Heathrow. According to her, not many would think that Bond Street is often associated with many luxury brands.
However, Burberry seemed to have achieved its goal as the camping created a buzz during the London Fashion Week, which is yet to recover post-pandemic.
Natasha says it was a clever idea for Burberry to link themselves to London icons as they wanted to position themselves as a London and British heritage. However, she adds that they could have done it slightly better.
According to Silvia Belleza, a marketing associate professor at the Columbia Business School, the campaign was a success.
She says they were probably aware that the campaign would confuse some people and others would get lost. “But that got people talking, and that was their goal.”
Silvia added that on Tuesday, there was a spike in the search for Burberry on Google Trends, a key metric that businesses use to gauge the success of their campaigns. This contributed to its programmatic advertising strategy. She added that people took Instagram selfies next to Burberry Street, and this could also help rejuvenate the 167-years brand.
