The Strategies of Introducing new Product LEVI‘S® ENGINEERED JEANS™

Abstract

“Big players” in fashion industry, often enchanted by excellent financial performance and two-digit sales growth figures, tend to forget that doing business in fashion is a demanding task, as well as a permanent and reversible process of adapting to the tastes and needs of the customers. If the needs of the customers are neglected, and all the eggs are put into a single basket, a traditional product, it also means neglecting the fact that fashion does not represent unification, uniforming the customers. Although at a particular point in the product life-cycle it seems that there is no limit to consuming it, it is certainly advisable to find the way of preventing reduced sales while the product is still in its mature phase of development. It can be done either by improving the product or by changing its characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to describe the experience of one of the biggest and most famous garment manufacturers, Levi Strauss & Company, and the methods it used in meeting the trend of reduced sales caused by the shifts in the customers‘ taste and their habits. The application of the academic model proposed by the Boston Consulting Group and of the Ansoff matrix speaks for a close link between theory and practice in marketing analysis and subsequent marketing strategy of introducing a new Levi‘s product to the market.