Marketing Case Study: Levi Strauss Signature
Question
Task:
Case Study Assignment: The use of case studies has been incorporated to provide a range of 'real world' business examples. They introduce a selection of business case studies which include product successes and failures. Some also demonstrate how businesses have tackled the challenges and as a result regained market dominance. Yaur recognition of the issues faced in the marketing environment is required. Informed discussion with relevance to previous and current marketing practices is also required in response to the questions posed by the case studies.
Answer
Introduction
The US company Levi Strauss started its brand development for the mass retail market with their new brand name ‘Levi Strauss Signature', and their fundamental objective was to reach the jeans to the market, where the mass number of people shop. With this new brand name, Levi Strauss Signature planned for the market extension also in Australia, Canada and Japan after the completion of the agreement with Wal-Mart for US market. Based on their brand expansion strategies and their principal objective to strengthen the relationship with distributors, in 2004 the brand was introduced to the European market. Their brand portfolio achieved the highest success in Europe. The analysis of this Marketing Case Study aims to analyse and evaluate the strategies of Levi Strauss and its relationship with the distributors to make progress in Europe.
1. What are the main reasons that made Levi Strauss decide to launch their new brand in Europe?
For identifying the reasons leading Levi Strauss to introduce Levi Strauss Signature in the European market, it is to be stated that the brand was motivated with the aim to hold its leadership in the international apparel market. It can be further elaborated demonstrating their one of the key objectives for global branding strategy and that is to unwrap the underlying factors of the international market to sharpen the competitive edge1 . It is also evident in the context of Levi Strauss Signature, which decided to make its competitive edge, strengthening its grip over the underlying factors of European apparel market.
Furthermore, as per the researches, the brand, with the aim to strengthen its global presence always tends to make substantial growth in an already established market to ensure a strong customer base with constant innovation 2. Therefore, these two contexts were evident for Levi Strauss to introduce Levi Strauss Signature in Europe. One was the registered growth of 7.4% of the European jeans market in the year 2002 and second was the customer response of almost 54% to the mass retail market in Europe. In addition to this, it is evident from the given case study that the brand was popularised for its fit benefits of 501 jeans for young customers across Europe.
2. Should the company evolve towards using an intensive distribution policy?
The brand development or its evolving nature should not end, and it should continue to evolve in the global market to be the game changer in the industry. One of the key objectives of the global brands to grow in new markets is to bring sustainability within their value co-creation model for continuous improvement of customer-base3 . In the context of the brand expansion of Levi Strauss Signature throughout France, Germany and UK markets, it can be stated that the brand has the space to evolve further across the European subsidiary and pan Asia. It is evident from the market research that the global fashion brands are being continuously led by the objective to evolve to respond towards rapidly changing customer demands4 .
In this context, intensive distribution policy plays a significant role in covering the mass market to identify and meet the mass customer demands through as many outlets as possible5 . Most importantly, for the accomplishment of the objective to decentralise and to be responsible towards individual countries, Levi Strauss Signature should adopt intensive distribution policy to evolve.
3. Recommendation for Levi Strauss to use direct channel distribution
The Marketing Case Study itself indicates the gaps in the mass channel retailing of Levi Strauss while expanding its brand across European subsidiaries and pan Asia because of the presence of other goods also. Most importantly, mass channel retailing could not achieve much satisfaction in the market of Germany, compared to France and the UK. On the contrary, direct channel distribution serves the greater purpose to make a direct customer-brand connection, so that the customers could not be diverted towards other options6 . Therefore, it is evident that compared to the mass channel, this direct channel distribution will make the convenient for Levi Strauss to boost up their slow growth, especially in two largest fashion markets- Germany and UK. Furthermore, according to Fashionbi, at the age of digital disruption and needs for cost reduction, direct distribution channel serves a greater purpose for the fashion brands7 .
4. What kind of merchandising actions should the company take?
Identification of the relevant and the most convenient merchandising action is now should be the key objective for the fashion and luxury brands. Standing at the age of rapid globalisation and digital disruption, fashion merchandising has become the most convenient merchandising action for the global fashion brands. Amongst the fashion merchandising operations, visual merchandising in fashion retailing is the most effective way to influence customer attitudes and purchase intentions towards the brand directly8 . Therefore, in alignment with direct channel distribution, this visual merchandising will serve the convenience for Levi Strauss to strengthen the brand communication across Europe and European subsidiary, more than to go beyond the ‘mass loyalists’. It is evident that their visual learning about the brand presentation attracts 65% of the fashion brand consumers and the representation becomes a story 9.
5. What are the main benefits of this new win-win relationship for Levi Strauss and the distributors?
This new win-win relationship strategy will serve greater convenience for both Levi Strauss and the distributors, at the age of continuous evolvement of the brands in the global context. The win-win relationship with the distributors serves the higher purpose to enhance collaborative innovation to evolve10 . Adopting the new strategy, the experience of Levi Strauss Signature across European subsidiaries along with US market can be improved. This new win-win relationship with the distributors will make the benefits to strengthen brand portfolio with the largest distributors.
Conclusion
Concluding the above Marketing Case Study analysis, it can be understood that Levi Strauss still needs to evolve with new merchandising, retailing and distribution processes. The Marketing Case Study analysis has successfully achieved the aim by analysing and evaluating the brand expansion strategies of Levi Strauss in the European market. According to the finding from the report of this study, still Levi Strauss Signature could not identify the relevant strategies or distribution practices to boost up its margin in the fashion markets of Europe and European subsidiaries. Marketing case study assignments are being prepared by our marketing assignment help experts from top universities which let us to provide you a reliable best assignment help service.
Reference
1. Amis, John, and Michael L. Silk. "Transnational organisation and symbolic production: Creating and managing a global brand." In Brands, pp. 133-158. Routledge, 2014.
2. Steenkamp, Jan-Benedict. "Customer Propositions for Global Brands." In Global Brand Strategy, pp. 45-73. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2017.
3. Iglesias, Oriol, Nicholas Ind, and Manuel Alfaro. "The organic view of the brand: A brand value co-creation model." In Advances in Corporate Branding, pp. 148-174. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2017.
4. Bonetti, Francesca. "Italian luxury fashion brands in China: a retail perspective." The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research 24, no. 4 (2014): 453-477.
5. Al-Kwifi, Osama Sam, and Zafar U. Ahmed. "An intellectual journey into the historical evolution of marketing research in brand switching behaviour–past, present and future." Journal of Management History 21, no. 2 (2015): 172-193.
6. Matsui, Kenji. "Asymmetric product distribution between symmetric manufacturers using dual-channel supply chains." European Journal of Operational Research 248, no. 2 (2016): 646-657.
7. Hermanaviciute, Gintare, and António Manuel Dinis Ribeiro Marques. "Social networking as tool for global communication for fashion brands." In 16th World Textile Conference Autex 2016, pp. 1-8. University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Engineering, Department of Textiles, 2016.
8. Park, Hyun Hee, Jung Ok Jeon, and Pauline Sullivan. "How does visual merchandising in fashion retail stores affect consumers’ brand attitude and purchase intention?." The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer Research 25, no. 1 (2015): 87-104.
9. Bhatti, Khurram L., and Seemab Latif. "The impact of visual merchandising on consumer impulse buying behavior." Eurasian Journal of Business and Management 2, no. 1 (2014): 24-35.
10. Alguezaui, Salma, and Raffaele Filieri. "A knowledge-based view of the extending enterprise for enhancing a collaborative innovation advantage." International Journal of Agile Systems and Management 7, no. 2 (2014): 116-131.
Smith, Adrian, John Pickles, Milan Bu?ek, Rudolf Pástor, and Bob Begg. "The political economy of global production networks: regional industrial change and differential upgrading in the East European clothing industry." Journal of Economic Geography 14, no. 6 (2014): 1023-1051.
Appendices
Appendix 1: Value of clothing exports from the European Union from 2000 to 2016
Source: 11
