(Nar)rating The Story: Analysing the Appreciation of Story-telling in Burberry’s Facebook Videos from 2009-2018

As story-telling is a powerful marketing tool for companies, I researched the story-telling of Burberry on two sections of its website, in its annual reports and in its Facebook videos (2009-2018). This is relevant as studies on Facebook videos are scarce. To measure the appreciation of this story-telling by Facebook users, I looked at the number of likes, comments and shares videos with and without specific story-telling aspects. I divided my research into four parts. Firstly, I looked at the Burberry Group to get more background information about its history, its marketing teams, its activities on social media, its products and its customers. Secondly, I looked at Burberry’s website and Burberry’s annual reports to see how Burberry presents itself and its history towards potential customers and investors. I also compared Burberry’s ‘real’ history with what Burberry tells about itself on the website. Thirdly, I examined how this story-telling was implemented in Facebook videos and whether the story was consistent. Fourthly, I investigated whether the inclusion of story-telling aspects led to a higher number of likes, comments and shares for Burberry’s Facebook videos. My research showed that the core of Burberry’s story-telling can be brought back to four aspects: Britishness, trench coat, check and its equestrian knight. I measured the appreciation via the use of boxplots. Based on the data, I concluded that there is a slightly positive relationship between the inclusion of Burberry’s story aspects and the number of likes, comments and shares a video receive. However, a video consists of multiple elements and therefore it is not possible to directly draw a link story-telling and a higher appreciation of the Facebook user. Therefore, this research needs be considered as exploratory. Interviews and a content analysis of the comments below Burberry’s Facebook videos form interesting points for further narrating.