Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
In 1986, Levi Strauss & Company found that the best way to stay true
blue to its customers was to change its colors. Riding high on the results of a
recent “back to basis” campaign with its flagship 501 brand, Levi's was
enjoying reinvigorated jeans sales. But the good news was followed by bad.
Research showed that baby boomers, the core of the company's customer
franchise, were buying only one or two pairs of jeans annually, compared to
Born between 1946 and 1964, the baby boomers had adopted jeans as
a symbol of their break with the tastes and traditions of their parents. They
research for Levi's, helped turn the company into an “international global
colossus” in the apparel industry. Now, however, the baby boomers were
looking for something different. They still wanted clothing that was
comfortable and made from natural fabrics, but fashion had become more
“We set ourselves out to answer the big question,” Goldstein says.
“How could we keep the baby boomer generation in Levi's brands when they
weren't wearing so many pairs of Levi's jeans? And the answer was Dockers,
something between the jean that they loved and the dress pants that their
parents expected them to wear when they got their first job.”
out; cotton khaki (in brown, green, black, and navy, but mostly traditional
tan) was in. Positioned as more formal than jeans yet more casual than
dress slacks, Docker's satisfied an unfulfilled need. They were the right
tailored slacks.
and heritage while establishing the independence of the new brand, and to
Goldstein, the company briefly considered not using the Levi's name at all,
but realized that this would be “sort of like trying to put a space shuttle up
without any launch rockets.” So the original theme for Dockers was “Levi's
100 percent cotton Dockers. If you're not wearing Dockers, you're just
wearing pants.”
Response from retailers and from the target market of 25- to 49-year-
olds was everything Levi's hoped for. All the top menswear accounts across
the country placed the new product in their stores, and in only five years,
older was 98 percent, and 70 percent of target consumers had at least one
With the new brand sailing along smoothly, Levi Strauss & Company
began to dissociate Dockers from the company brand name. In 1993, the
Levi's name and the words “since 1850” were removed from the Dockers
logo. Robert Hanson, vice president of marketing and research for Dockers,
claims the change was needed to “allow the Levi's brand to be focused on
the core teen target because…it's the quintessential icon of youth culture.”
Still following the baby boomer market, Levi's in 1996 brought out
dress pants. “We thought there was room in a man's closet for a third
brand,” says Jann Westfall, president of the Slates division. “That's why
Slates was created to [fill the gap] between khakis and suits.” To Levi
Strauss & Company, it seemed a natural evolution—the guy who wore Levi's
in the '70s and Dockers in the '80s would be ready for Slates in the '90s.
Slates would be the high end of casual, neatly filling the “lunch with
dress pants a chore: slacks departments were dreary; finding the right size
crafted strategy to overcome the typical male distaste for dress pants
various styles and sizes. Levi's also responded with off-the-rack pants that
require little altering. Whereas most dress pants come only in even waist
sizes, forcing alterations for off-size men, Slates also come in odd sizes. All
Slates are hemmed and cuffed and have double pleats in the front. For
customers with larger waist sizes, the pleats are more kindly placed.
charm potential customers, Levi’s agency designed ads such as one showing
a guy springing up from lunch with his partner to tango with his waitress.
“The ads are stylish but they are not over [the market's] heads,” said Nancy
it back in so it isn't so chi-chi that people can't relate to it.” A year later,
everyone agreed that Slates was a dynamite brand. Levi’s had turned on the
“dress up.” Noted one industry insider, “Slates and other labels have pushed
the envelope. This has created a tremendous consumer awareness for
slacks in general.” Some retailers found that their tailored pants business
was up 15 to 20 percent.
However, just like the good news about Levi’s “back to basics” move a
decade earlier, the good news about Slates has been accompanied by bad
Strauss had 30.9 percent of the U.S. blue jeans business in 1990, it had only
18.7 percent seven years later. Worse yet, Levi's sales to teens, the core
blue jeans buyers, had dropped from 33 percent in 1993 to 26 percent in
1997. Once the darling of the 15- to 24-year-old buyer, Levi’s now faces
indifference in this segment and an attitude that Levi's are “your dad's
increasingly prefer brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Old Navy. Even the
young women who have been more inclined buy Levi's are moving toward
brands such as Calvin Klein, Gap, and Guess. Levi's is being squeezed by
upscale brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren on one end and private
It’s a classic marketing goof: Levi's lost sight of the market that
Slates, executives were distracted from the threat to the core jeans business.
“They missed all the kids and those are your future buyers,” says Bob Levi,
owner of Dave's Army & Navy Store in New York. “It's very important that
you attract this age group,” says Gordon Hart, vice-president of the Lee
brand at VF Corp. “By the time they're 24, they've adopted brands that they
will use for the rest of their lives.” Moreover, the younger segment sets
fashion trends that influence older shoppers. The mistake has been costly:
falling sales and market share forced Levi’s to lay off 1,000 salaried workers
in February 1997, and to shutter 11 plants and lay off one-third of its North
What is Levi's doing to fix the problem? It’s pumping up the Silver Tab
consumers. Silver Tab has a baggier fit and uses non-denim fabrics. The
median age of a Silver Tab buyer is 18, compared to 25 for Levi's other
products. Levi's plans to expand the line to include more tops, more trendy
styles, and new khaki pants. The company also plans to boost Silver Tab
promotional spending fivefold for events such as concerts in New York and
and for outfitting characters on hot television shows such as Friends and
more exciting, youthful look. It has dropped plans to open 100 new stores in
malls across the country in favor of NikeTown-type stores, which will serve as
Cone and Belding, which has been the Levi's agency for more than sixty
Strauss & Company] has always been insular, paternalistic, and, quite
Will the new strategy work? Many industry insiders think that Levi has
the money and market clout to pull it off. But didn't we just read that some
of those trendy new styles for Silver Tab include khakis? Doesn't that sound
like Dockers? And speaking of Dockers, Levi's may have a problem making
that brand relevant to the next generation of young men. Baby boomers
who are aging out of the Dockers' target market have refused to leave the
brand behind. Consequently, the Dockers brand that has been positioned for
consumers just moving out of their core jeans-wearing years may now be
thought of as “my dad's brand” by the next generation of young men moving
into this segment. Thus, the “dad's brand” problem that hit Levi’s in the blue
jeans segment now threatens the Dockers market. Even as Levi's is working
to get its core jeans business back on track, it will have to contend with a