Levi’s
Revitalization of the Brand
NCCU IMBA Marketing Management Course
Professors: Charles Trappey,
Betty Wu
94933001
Joyce Liu
94933013
Cathy Chan
94933015
Dennis Lin
94933023
Charles Ok
94933027
Table of Contents
 About Levi’s®




Levi’s® History
Company Profile
Company Transformation
People’s Brand
 Milestone of Levi’s®
 Levi’s® US & Taiwan Markets
 Brand
 Distribution & Pricing
 Promotion
 The “Stay True“ Campaign
 Customer Survey Analysis
 Demographic Profile
 Ownership of Levi’s
 Consumer Purchasing Behavior
 Brand Loyalty
 Conclusion
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Birth of Levi Strauss
Levi Strauss, an immigrant from Germany, used canvas to make into waist overalls for
miners who went to California for gold mining in mid of 1850’s,. The name of denim
came from “serge de Nimes” , named from the place of “Nimes” in French. Its “strong
enough to last” pants were designed and patented by cooperation with Mr. David
Jocobs. The day that Levi Strauss and David Jocobs obtained a U.S. patent on the
process of putting rivets in the men’s working pants for the very first time. This day,
May 20, 1873, was the birthday of blue jeans.
Holding this process patent, rivet pants were solely manufactured by Levi Strauss & Co
from 1873 to 1890. During this period, an entire generation of people grew up with this
notion, which still has strong image in people’s mind. Years later, ever since the
patent went into public domain, the company differentiated their products from others
by endowing them with lot numbers. This was an innovative idea that gave Levi’s the
strong image of origin of jeans.
Near the end of 19th century, the demand of waist overall was so great that the company
needed to secure fabric they needed. Taking advantage of the opportunity ,the company
stopped making the garments out of cotton duck. Due to customers preference, c
ustomers wanted the garments with more lasting as well as comfortable. So the compan
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y focused more on improving the quality of jean. The denim pants, dyed with ingot to
make them blue led the company to be expanded quickly.
The two horse brand leather patch is first used on waist overall. Its purpose is to
demonstrate the strength of the pants and reinforce our status as originator of patent
riveted clothing. The company knew that the patent would go into public domain around
1890 and decided to reinforce their message of originality and strength graphically.
Levi Strauss & Co.
The company is the world’s largest branded apparel manufacturer which has its
presence in more than 110 countries with 53 production facilities in worldwide, with
number of employees over 10,000 covering 3 continents..
The company sells and manufactures jeans and casual wears as well as sportswear under
its various brand names. The products are sold through more than 55,000 retails location,
including 65 company owned stores in nine countries.
At Levi Strauss & Co., the company markets their products under the most successful
apparel brand in world ; Levi’s ,is one of the most recognized brands in the history of
apparel industry, whose range of products cover tops, sweaters, jackets, foot wear, kid’s
wear, hosiery, eyewear, luggage and home bedding products..
Levi Strauss & Co’s commitment to quality , innovation manifested in many ways
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throughout history still continues today
Levi’s
Levi’s is the authentic and original jeans for men, women and kids. This brand and
design captured the attention , imagination and loyalty of generation of diverse
individuals. The brand of Levi’s continue to define the widest range of products
available from classic style up to modern and custom made design.
Dockers
In 1986, Dockers was introduced for the brand of casual wears which was at forefront of
business casual trend in the U.S.A. and now is
leading stylish and comfortable casual
wear, which attracts the individuals who seek for versatile and unique styles. This brand
was introduced as alternatives to jeans and dress pants. The lines were expanded to men,
women , kids, luggage and home bedding products
in more than 50 countries in the
world.
Levi Strauss Signature
In emergence and success of the mass channel, Levi Strauss Signature was launched in
2003 for value conscious customers. The brand provides customers with high quality, af
fordable and comfortable casual wear.
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Levis® US & Taiwan Markets
Levis®® brand is supposed to be brand for people and with great quality. However,
due to the culture and consumer profile’s differences between US and Taiwan, how
Levis®® positioning their brand are very different. We will discuss in detail for through
the four P analysis –
Product / Brand
Levi Strauss Co. carried total three product lines available both in the US and
Taiwan. They are Levis®®, Dockers and Levi Strauss Signature brand.
For these three brands, Levis®® currently is going for the stylish denim clothes
brand strategy to differentiate itself from the regular jeans brand. The target customer
are the young generation age between 15 to 25 years old with market position as
premium level. As for Dockers, it is a casual wear series of line for Levis® and target
with 25 and plus people with more khaki fabrics and the price are in the medium range.
For Levis® Strauss Signature, it is the cheaper product line among the three to create
the jeans for everyone and stay with the original “ People’s Brand” spirit target with the
same range of age as Dockers. ( See exhibit 1 as below )
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Exhibit 1
Brand
Levis®
DOCKERS
Levi Strauss
Signature
Current Brand
Strategy
Stylish Denim
Clothes
Casual Wear
Jeans for Everyone
Target Customer
15 to 25 year old
young generation
25 and plus
25 and plus
Market Position
Premium
Medium
Low
Even though the product lines are same between Taiwan and the US, however, in
terms of design, it’s difference depends on consumers taste and preferences. Normally
in Asia, Levis® consider it as more leading the innovation and new items while US is
more rely on their flagship product 501® and remaining Red Tab line.
From the branding map as exhibit 2 , we can find how Levis® positioning their
brand in Taiwan market and using it’s existing values to leverage with the trend. Also
we can see how Levis® using different influencers to bring up the market’s attention.
Exhibit 2
Brand Culture
Brand Story
Reputation Influence
Customers
Prospects
Influencers
Old jean brand
reborn from 1990
Hiroshi
Fujiwara, KENJI
Current Brand
Strategy
To have the trend
setter using their
brand first then
influence the mass
A pair of jeans that
Young
Keep on innovating
Relationship Influence will not disappoint generation actors their jeans base on
you
& actress
their archives
Experience Influences
Stylish yet
Edison, BOA
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To have celebrities
comfortable
wearing it and create
the premium value
Authentic, original
Symbolism Influences
jeans brand
American
cowboy
Emphasize on it’s
American heritage
with vintage items
Distribution/Place & Pricing
In the US, the distribution of Levis® majority is through wholesaler while in
Taiwan, Levis® is moving towards to a 50-50 split in between wholesaler and retailers.
The channel between US and Taiwan is also very different, in the US, major selling
channel is through hypermart such as Walmart or Costco which carry Levis® Strauss
Signature brand and DOCKERS. Another place will be department store which majority
display with the Levis® denim series.
In Taiwan, Levis® did try the hypermart at the beginning of 90’s. However, due to
the pricing level between two countries are too different, Levis® in Taiwan can not
afford to have their brand in hypermart and decrease its “imported goods” image, they
took back all the hypermart display and now focus on department store, jeanery and
some of the own boutique shop as well as franchised shop.
For pricing, based on research company’s findings, US consumers willing to pay
only $25 per pair (above $25 is too expensive and below that should have quality issue)
as an optimum while consumers in Taiwan saying that a $90 one is a quality one. Surely,
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the people’s definition of quality is different everywhere and all depends on how they
use the products and depends on occasions.
In Taiwan, people perceived Levis®® is an American brand with heritage and
strong with Vintage item and at the same time with strong linkage with youth on
innovative fashion and street wear. This is evidenced by how and who wear this brand.
In USA , it’s people’s brand and every generation wear it. So, the youth image
probably is not that clear and since it’s a brand for people, it’s hard to identify as a
“fashion” label.
Promotion
The promotion strategy between the US and Taiwan is also different due to the
consumer buying habit is quiet different between two places. In the US, due to the
distance to the shop, people usually will have their decision made up in their mind
before walk out of their house. Therefore, the purchasing behavior is heavily influenced
by the previous recognition on the brand. However, in Taiwan, due to people are out on
the street all the time, impulsive buying behaviors are more often to be found.
Due to the different consumer buying behavior, there are different advertisement
and promotion focus need to be developed. For the US, TV commercial and print ad are
heavily influence the consumer selection. Therefore most of the advertisement efforts
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are being spent on TV and print ad. In Taiwan, TV is less important when it comes to
promotion, but print ad, outdoor ad as well as the influencers playing a significant role
on impacting consumer’s buying decision. To promote the right product on the right
print media become very important comparing with the States.
While the promotion focus in the States still on TV ad and print ad, in Taiwan,
point of sales training is currently the main focus. Since jeans is a very customized
product and the selection in Taiwan being so diversified, a well trained sales person at
the shop will be the key impact factor to the buying decision. Levi’s in Taiwan is more
focus now on how to train their POS representative to attract the customer and how to
encourage the buying behavior.
From exhibit 3, we can see how Levi’s Taiwan using different print media to
promote their product base on different market segmentation.
Exhibit 3
Fashion Magazines
Unisex
Luxury
RED / LVC / 501*
COOL,Bang
Others
M’s
W’s
Men’s Uno,
GQ
BAZZAR,
Vogue,ELLE,
Marie Claire,
TVBS
Weekly,
時報Weekly
Cosmopolitan,
With,Elle,
Girl E’f
Here,
Taipei
Walker,
FHM
*Seasonal Trend
*Local stylist
Endorsement
Cashbox
*Styling Cues
*In trend items
Luxury-Entry
N3BP / RL / 501*
Premium High
Type 1 / 501*
Premium
Red Tab
C’est moi,
Hipper
Tactics
Men’s Style
VIVI,Beauty,
Jasmine,
Holiday,
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Sugar,
Cawaii,Mina
*New concepts
inspiration
*Create brand
story
The Stay True Campaign
Levi’s Original 501 jeans were the first Levi jeans named with their style series
number. The design was originally developed by Levis Strauss around 1872.
With
an almost 135-year of history, 501 has become the world’s most successful
manufactured article of clothing.
In 1964, a pair of Levi jeans entered into the
permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC. Early 2006,
Levis Strauss & Co. was the highest bidder for an authentic pair of original Levi’s 501
blue jeans, paying up to $100,000 for this particular item (Economist, 2006). The
Levi’s 501 nowadays just one of thousands of brands and lines of jeans, but it continue
to remain the classic version and the inspiration of all its designer imitations.
Backed in 2004, 501-line was selling around 1% of total Taiwan Levis’
products.
For Levi’s, it was a disappointing sales figure as they positioned this line as
their top promotional item.
Management here in Taiwan was aware the line could be a
bit distant for the youth and it was the right time to reintroduce their Red Tab 501 line
with the global “Stay True” Campaign theme.
The objective for this campaign was simple, to strengthen Levi’s original jeans
proposition and make it relevant to the youth.
The strategy carried out for this
campaign was endorsed by celebrities with “True to Yourself” attitude using simple
English “Stay True” to communicate. Target audiences were coverage to both male
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and female, mainstream and fashion forwarders with the age group between 15-34 years
old.
The marketing plan was 360 º holistic integrated campaigns covered from Word-
of-Mouth, Advertising & Key Visuals, Levis.com, PR and Publicity, Products,
Packaging, and Retail.
This comprehensive campaign started out in Spring/Summer 2004 with Wordof-Mouth, Celebrating Seeding to set the trends, followed with Slogan Sticker Teasers
lasted to Spring/Summer 2005. The comprehensive launch didn’t take place until
October 2005 with Stay True TVC Campaign, Outdoor Advertising, Print Ad, Media
Trip Clippings, 501 limited editions, PR Editorials, Shopping Bag, Retail Display &
Window, Internet Blog, Levi.com eDM, and Department Store Promotion.
The
tonality of the campaign was based on famous music producers as they symbolized
“Original Riveted” just like the Levi’s 501 line.
Artists Hiroshi Fujiwara, Kenji
Furuya, Bird, Dragon Ash, Edison Chen, and Mavis Fan were introduced at appropriate
time of the campaign.
Currently, the campaign is still on going with spokesperson
Edison Chen to carry out the visibility.
EXHIBITS 4 Spokespeople for Levi’s 501 360 º Holistic Integrated Campaigns
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M&W, age 15-34
Mass
Leading edge
High Awareness
Edison Chen
Kenji
Mavis Fan [w]
Some
Awareness
but Kenji
H. Fujiwara
Strong fashion influence
[perceived
as
Bird [w]
fashion
icon]
Word-of-Mouth: Stickers Teasers, Celebrities Sampling, and Blog
Awareness campaign was an early important milestone as it can create buzz and mystic
on the “Stay True” campaign.
them as a fashion item.
For youth, stickers were cool and liked as they utilized
Stickers were also designed like graffiti with campaign slogan
on it to give an artistic appeal. Further more, celebrity shadowing and music features
were incorporated to match the overall theme.
One another good way to promote the 501 line was the use of celebrities
sampling.
Levi’s invited different local media figures and featured editorial articles on
what they loved about their 501 jeans and how they incorporated it into their lives.
Different aspects of the denim were introduced from individual perspective. Masked
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advertising was also used to relate jean wear into every practicality. All models were
presented with a white or black Levi’s top to present one’s genuine appeal and never to
compromise with their true values.
Wretch Blog is by far the most popular blogging site in Taiwan with over 2
million members.
Levi’s spent $5000 TWD for its blog site and introduced their “Stay
True” promotion. With 300-word limit, bloggers needed to express what their “Stay
True” inspiration is and how they applied it to their lifestyles. With it on air for 18-day,
it reached over 141,000 visitors and created 83 interesting topics and dialogues.
This
event was by far one the most cost effective promotions.
Advertising Campaign & Key Visuals: TVC and Print & Outdoor Ads
In order for youth to relate to the key spokesperson for this campaign; famous
Cantonese pop star Edison Chen was chosen as the main local ambassador. Edison
appeared popularly in TV commercials and on Levis.com.tw site.
Impressively,
Edison joined Levis’ design team to introduce Clot Unionrail 501 line to strengthen his
passion for this product.
In October 2005, the most popular Zhongxiao Fuxing MRT
station was chosen as outdoor ad location. Vast “Stay True” images were exposed
along the one-minute escalator area with daily traffic of approximately 450,000
commuters.
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LEVI’S.COM: e-DM, Website and Wallpaper / Screensaver
Levi’s.com aggressively sent out over 16,000 emails to its members to inform
them about the new 501 “Stay True” line featuring new cuts based on its new 501 fit
test. Washes such as Roadster, Blackstone, and Restricted were introduced as they
were already a hit in Japanese market.
The “Stay True” front page featuring Edison
had been on going from October 2005 up-to-date. Wallpaper and screensaver were
also readily available for enthusiasts to download and share.
Levi’s was penetrating its
slogan into target audiences’ daily means with great success.
PR & Publicity: Media Trip to SFO (Heritage Trip), TV Feature Stories and
Interviews and Product Editorials
Media trip was long recognized as the best way to buy journalists’ hearts and
presented them a real connection to the product or company.
In 2005, Levi’s Taiwan
brought journalists to Levi’s birth place San Francisco for a heritage sharing trip.
During the trip, journalists had first-hand experience toured Levi’s museum and the
flagship store.
Interviews were held with Lynn Downey – a historian Levi’s writer,
Caroline Calvin – Levi’s Creative Director, and Amy Gemellaro – Levi’s Publicity
Director to obtain exclusive insights.
Media were also extremely delighted to be
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introduced to 501 vintage collections which most were one of a kind. The responses
from the trip were overwhelming.
58-page of printed newspaper and magazine
clippings, 3-coverpage of leading fashion magazines, and 2 one-hour TV program were
generated amount to over U.S. 3 million in media value.
The Product
Levi’s 501 was officially launched in 1890, and across three centuries, it is still in the
market. What is so unique about the product itself?
Symbols of Brand:
It has Levi’s three symbols of brand: arch stitching, red tab, & leather patch.
Product characteristics:
The color breaks in after wearing and washing and leaves the product a very natural
look. The fabric used for 501 is XX17 denim from Cone Mill. Cone Mill is a large
American textile company which manufactures quality denim. XX17 denim means
extra heavy denim which is extra durable. Until today, Levi’s still use XX17 denim from
Cone Mill.
Product design:
The cutting is anti-fit with straight back riser, so it goes well with most figures. The
Cone Mills denim is meant to shrink to fit yet comfortable. Throughout 120 years,
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Levi’s did not do any alteration to the design, regardless the changes of fashion trend.
This further enhances the originality of Levi’s 501.
Of course, it is not easy to revitalize a-hundred-year old product. In order to impress the
niche market, Levis’ has come out a collection—Levi’s Vintage Collection(LVC). Levi’s
targets LVC at the extremely upscale market. The sailing price is NT10,000 per pair.
The purpose of LVC is to push Levi’s to the much higher market segment.
The package
The package for Levi’s 501 is also tailor-made for the campaign. The hangtags not only
contain product features but also product story to educate consumer why 501 is so
different. Even the shopping bags have Stay True 501 logos printed on the surface. To
reinforce the upscale position of LVC, Levi’s uses wooden box as the package for LVC.
Retail channel
Retail channels are very important to the campaign because it’s the first line to face
customers directly. Levi’s produces window displays and floor stickers to display in
Levi’s retail stores to impress walk-in customers. In department stores, they also have
display spots and transparent bookmarkers to give away. In jeaneries, they hang banners
to attract customers.
To sum up, through the 360 degree holistic Stay True campaign, Levi’s has successfully
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increased 501’s market share by 66 times.
Customer Survey Analysis
To evaluate how well did the Stay True campaign do to revitalize the 501 product line
and re-polish the Levi’s brand in Taiwan, our group has done a field customer survey.
We have selectively picked the respondents in our working environment, on the street,
and in the jeans shops. The total number of survey received is 104, among them are 97
valid, all of the respondents are Taiwanese.

Respondent demographic profile
We got a fairly equally distributed gender group, which is 54% female and 46% male.
The age groups varied from 18-24 to above 45, and the majority is 25-38, which
accounts for 73% of the total respondent body (detail see the exhibit 1). Personal annual
income groups varied from under NT$249,999 to $2,125,000-$2,749,999, and the
majority is $250,000-1,249,999, which accounts for 80% of the total respondent body.
88% of the respondents are with College/University or above educational background.
96% of the respondents are Employed Full-time. The career groups were a bit more
diversified but with a majority of 55% Computer/Electronics.

Customer Purchasing Behavior
A key aspect we want to probe before getting to know the 501 campaign performance is
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to get to know the Taiwan jeans customer’s behavior. We want to know which feature(s)
are the most important to affect customer’s jeans buying decision, in other words, which
feature(s) are the ones that Taiwan jeans buyers most care before buying a pair of jeans.
In the survey, we listed down all the features we can think of a jeans, which are Price,
Fit, Style, Quality, Color, Brand, and Trend, and asked the respondents to check those
which they care the most when buying jeans.
The result was quite surprising; we thought that Brand should definitely one of the most
important affecting factors, but form the survey result, only 3% of our respondents
thought that Brand is amongst the most important jeans buying factors. In contrary, four
more practical factors: Fit, Style, Price, and Quality, are the most important features to
consider when buying a pair of jeans (see the detail in Exhibit 2).
The stunning result not only indicates that Taiwan jeans buyers are rather more practical,
but also aroused a big question mark within our group: If only 3% of Taiwan jeans
buyers care the Brand, then would it be worthwhile for Levi’s to spend so much money
and efforts on promoting the 501 series and the Levi’s brand? The question has been
answered in our next section of study.

Brand Awareness & Loyalty
To test customer’s jeans brand awareness, we put the most popular jeans brands (see the
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detail in Exhibit 3) on the Taiwan market in the survey and asked What Is Your Favorite
Jeans Brand. Levi’s got the highest score in this question and outperformed its peers like
Lee Jeans, Miss Sixty, and Polo Jeans.
Our assumption is that a good branding campaign can link the brand image with the
factors which the customers care the most. In this case, we believe the Stay True
campaign successfully link Levi’s with Good Fit, Cool Style, High Quality, and
Reasonable Price.
As a result, among the 97 respondents, 51% already own at least one pair of Levi’s,
70% would like to buy a pair of Levi’s in the near future. One figure best describes the
loyalty of Levi’s customer: 92% of current Levi’s owner would like to buy Levi’s again
in the future.
Conclusion

Market Share Expansion
Through the Stay True campaign, Levi’s successfully revitalized the brand.
Reflecting in numbers, we can find that 501 product line’s market share in Taiwan jeans
market has increased from single digit to nearly 16% after the campaign. And with the
501’s help, Levi’s has become the leading share jeans brand in Taiwan market.
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
Brand Image Establishment
More important than just sales numbers, the Stay True campaign was believed to reestablish Levi’s brand image in Taiwan customer mind. To probe what is Levi’s brand
image, we ask our respondent: What do you think of Levi’s brand image? Please use
one word/sentence to describe it. We got bunch of positive quotes such as:

Cool & Stylish

The authority of jeans

Strong personality

Evergreen brand

Health, young, cowboy, expensive
But they are no more than following sample which can better show us what Marketing
can do to a company…A 32-38 male said Levi's: Very expensive, unreasonably
expensive, expensive enough that only blind young people would buy… But in fact, this
smart old gentleman not only owns pairs of Levi’s, also he would buy more in the future.
Furthermore, his favorite jeans brand is Levi’s!
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