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It is easy to see why the Burberry story has been so sensationally and mistakenly reported. Take a luxury brand, a British one at that, throw in Rose Marie Bravo, a newsworthy female chief executive who earns £6.5m a year, then add a bunch of fashion-conscious yobs, enshrined in the modern lexicon as 'chavs', and bingo - your story almost writes itself.

A more careful consideration of Burberry would reveal that this is a brand in very rude health. But let's start with the three fundamental weaknesses of the brand before considering its formidable strengths.

First, this is a very visible brand. All great luxury brands have one or more iconic identifying features that communicate, usually in a subtle and intimate manner, with customers - Chanel's intertwined 'C's or the five-pointed crown of Rolex, for example. Unfortunately for Burberry, its most famous visual element, the Burberry Check, is instantly recognisable. This visibility has hurt the brand in two ways: by attracting chavs in the first place, and by making it clear to everyone that the chav in question is wearing Burberry.

Second, this is a brand that occupies the middle tier of the luxury market.

Unlike competitors such as Armani, Chanel and Versace, Burberry has a relatively weak couture presence. The fantastic runway shows that grace Paris, London, Milan and New York each year, strike everyday consumers as impractically bizarre and accountants as astronomically over-expensive. But these repeated exhibitions of ostentatious creativity are vital not to short-term sales, but to the long-term health of any luxury brand. Burberry suffers because its high-street accessibility dominates its runway exclusivity.

Finally, Burberry has recently displayed an uncharacteristic weakness in press relations. For the past 18 months it has masterfully avoided any comment on the chav phenomenon. But chief financial officer Stacey Cartwright made an enormous blunder earlier this month when she admitted that the UK was Burberry's weakest market. When asked whether this was linked to chavs' preference for the brand, she answered: 'It has not been helpful.' Just five small words, but they have resulted in a flurry of headlines linking Burberry with chavs.

It is a peculiar paradox that most brands are weakest in their domestic markets. BMW is a very average car in Germany, Budweiser is nothing more than a standard beer in the US, and Ericsson is poorly thought of in Sweden.

UK sales of Burberry may have fallen last year, but they rose everywhere else in the world, including a massive increase of 29% in the important Asian market. Burberry is a global brand with healthy global sales.

For all brands, especially those in luxury, it is profit, not sales, that provides the ultimate metric. Burberry's pre-tax profits rose by 25% last year, and by resisting the pre-Christmas discounting trend that many of its competitors adopted, the company can expect to enjoy another stellar year of profitability over the next 12 months.

The people at the heart of the Burberry brand have been hand-picked by Bravo herself. Whether it is in the all-important creative roles or those in management, she has selected some of the sharpest minds in fashion.

So let's leave the superficial analyses of brands to undergraduates and the mass media, and let's recognise Burberry for what it is - a brilliant British brand.

30 SECONDS ON ... BURBERRY

- Burberry was founded in 1856 when a 21-year-old draper called Thomas Burberry opened an outfitters shop in Basingstoke.

- The Burberry Check - a plaid of camel, black, red and white - was first introduced as the lining for a Burberry trenchcoat in 1924. The design was primarily used as a coat lining until the 60s, when it was extended to scarves, umbrellas and luggage.

- Rose Marie Bravo became chief executive in 1997 and performed one of the most celebrated brand turnarounds of modern times. She tightened up distribution, revitalised the customer base and repositioned the brand around the concept of accessible luxury.

- Two Leicester pubs recently banned drinkers wearing Burberry. Local PC Karen Holdridge backed the decision, saying that 'well-known football hooligans' were known to wear the brand.