Levi Strauss Case

Levi Strauss succeeded at promoting their brand with celebrities like Bruce Springsteen and

Marilyn Monroe, and increased their brand awareness throughout the 1980s. Although, the company

had been viewed as successful, the economy downturn during the early 2000’s led Levi Strauss into

turmoil. The primary issues to address in the Levi case are marketing, vertical integration and

increasing the use of technology to target a younger audience.

In an effort to improve sales and reach their most valuable target market, Levi should sell

jeans directly to teenagers. Since Levi had contractual disagreements with Walmart and other “big

box” stores, the company should seek alternative routes. Levi could create a name brand store in

select malls across the United States to compete against vertically integrated stores like Abercrombie

and Fitch and Gap. People go to malls with the intention to purchase goods and services. For Levi,

the company should rebrand their jeans and create a new store with an inviting atmosphere for

people of all ages, specifically teenagers. There should be an emphasis on mens clothing, since most

women typically go to designer or higher end stores in the mall with specific fashion. The store

should be themed like a western store. Their displays could have bails of hay and jeans thrown over

the bails with rope and rugged graphics showing information of sale prices. The positive effects of

this type of store would be it exposes the brand to thousands of mall goers and would increase direct

face-to-face relationship with customers. The cons would be it would cost a lot to set up these stores

and develop a reputation with customers. There is also the problem if the stores do not work out, the

company would lose a lot of money. This type of decision would need to take a long time to

implement and would take high level management making strategic decisions.

Aside from creating Levi branded stores in malls across America, the company is at a stage in

its product development where the company needs to think outside the box. Levi should expand

beyond traditional apparel manufacturing and creatively change the dynamics of the industry.