Levi's Strauss: Global Marketing Strategies

Levi's has always tried to minimize the impact culture has on its ability to produce standardized products and campaigns. This is done to achieve economies of scale and a higher quality but cultural differences can be very important in the global and domestic markets. The characteristics of a particular cultural group will affect the type of products it desires and how they purchase it and use it. From the 1950s to the 1980s Levis was the image of rebellion and counter culture with public icons such as Elvis and Marlon Brando publically seen wearing the brand. This helped in giving the brand an image of originality and authenticity. But what Levis failed to grasp was that culture changes through time and consumer behaviour and choices change along with it. The rap culture which began in 1992 brought about new trends of loose baggy clothes. Levi's which sold straight tapered jeans failed to meet the needs of its consumer market who demanded loose baggy jeans which were considered as "cool" at the time. This demand was fulfilled by competitor brands such as JNCO, Kickwear and Boss etc who were quick to grab on to Levi's market share with products which were more suited to the younger generation. Even the rebellious image of Levis was taken by other brands like Diesel and Pepe.

Diversification of factors determines whether the marketing mix of the respective company can be standardized for all the customers or whether it needs to be adapted to suit to everyone’s different needs. These include socio/cultural, physical environment, demographic, technological, legal/political, and economic factors.

Socio-cultural factors:

Socio- cultural factors consists of language, ethics, religion, values and customer perceptions. It deeply affects t...

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...d while going global. The aim should be to implement a contingency approach also known as adaptstandation; that is an appropriate balance of both the approaches by appropriate balancing between maximizing the gains from standardization and competitive advantage through adequate adaptation to local markets conditions (Terpstra & Sarathy, 1994).

References:

• Vronti, P. & Vrontis, D. (2004). Levi Strauss: An International Marketing Investigation. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, 8(4), Pp.389-398.

• Terpstra, V. and Sarathy, R. (1994), International Marketing, The Dryden Press.

• Lehone, K. (1995), Business Review, Vol. 2 No. 2.

• Jeannet, J. and Hennesey, H. (1998), Global Marketing Strategies, 3rd ed., Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, MA.

• Czinkota, M.R. and Ronkainen, I.A. (1995), International Marketing, 4th ed., The Dryden Press, Hinsdale, IL.