Levi's Strauss Jeans: SWOT Analysis And Market Growth Objectives Essay.

Company Profile

Question:

Write a report about the Marketing Strategy of Levi Strauss?

The report contains a brief introduction on the topic followed by an introduction to the company profile, which would clear us regarding the brand value and products of the company, its industry image and image in the market. A SWOT analysis is done to understand the current market scenario and the challenges and opportunities that the company is facing in the market right now. There are various challenges threats and opportunities and the scope of growth is stiff as the market already has many players with same type of products and accessories. The various objectives for enhancing market growth, profit maximisation and sales volume has also been discussed. This study will give us a thorough understanding of the company and its various aspects.

 Marketing strategies of a company are those strategies, which helps a company to maximize profit by achieving sales growth and a sustainable environment. This study aims at finding out the goals that aim at increasing sales volume, market share, and profit in the market. The current market situation will also be analysed keeping in mind the market, product, distribution, and competition. SWOT analysis has also been done to understand the current market scenario. The market strategies with reference to the 4p`s namely product, price, place, promotion has also been discussed. The product that will be discussed in the report is Levi`s Strauss jeans.

 Levi`s Strauss is an American clothing company that is known worldwide for its Levi Strauss brand of Denim jeans. It was founded in the year 1853. Levi Strauss is world widely divided into three divisions. These divisions are in Europe, Middle East and Singapore. 10,500 employees are presently working for the company. The marketing strategies of the company mainly include television advertisements with old music recordings. The company has done well in the market and holds a good brand equity, the number of cult customers of the levi strauss jeans is very high among the young generation. Levi`s Strauss has a brand name which is very popular among the people who find it a fashion statement wearing the jeans. All the showrooms of levi strauss are very stylish and the ambience is that they can attract the youth easily. The study is done very meticulously to properly understand what are the factors that really affect the market space of levi strauss. The integrated marketing communication of Levi Strauss will help to know the competition in the market and a proper marketing plan can be drawn out of it to know

Levi Strauss is a brand that has a big market to play in. There are various market competitors with almost same product line. In a market like this, the existence is very tough. In order to survive in the market the company has to come up with new marketing strategies to bring in new customers, new strategies that would switch the competitors customer`s to the levi strauss competitors. The SWOT analysis of the study would let us know the various internal and external strengths and weaknesses (Aldridge, 2005). Levi Strauss is a company which deals in with apparels and accessories in the retail sector with the tag line of ‘quality never goes out of style’. The company has its unique selling proposition of selling the oldest jeans with the newest style. It acclaims in the market of presenting the customers with the most stylish designs of jeans. The segment of customers that it handles is the upper segment and the middle segment of the society. The people with a cult to stylish product are its main buyers.

SWOT Analysis

The SWOT analysis of the company is given below:

1. Strong brand name: The brand name of the company is so strong that people while buying stylish jeans and accessories consider going to the Levi`s Strauss outlets (Baines, Fill & Page, 2008). The outlet always provides the customers with best of their stock and up to the level of the customer`s expectations.

2. Master of the industry: The Company has its name in the market since 1853, which is one of the oldest so it is known as the master of the market with extensive knowledge of the market and various strategies that has made it a company that it is existing in the market for so long.

3. Distribution channel and outsourcing: There are three huge divisions that the company has around the globe, Europe, Singapore, and Middle East. It has a huge distribution channel that provides the product all over the globe. In order to retain its entire distribution channel it has to come up with many sales and trade promotions. The sales and trade promotion helps it to retain in the market.

4. 470 self-owned stores and 16000 employees: The Company has 470 stores of its own globally and has more than 16000 plus employees who works for the business. Having this huge number of employees and this many number of stores worldwide is a proof of the reputation of the company in the market. 16000 plus employees are the reason of its growth and Levi Strauss is known for its homely behaviour with its employees. Levi Strauss values its employees and because of which the turnover ratio is low (Breward, 2003). The employee retaining capacity of the company has made it to stand high in front of the competitors.

5. Finance and access to international capital: Since the company has a huge good will and good reputation, its access to international capital is also huge. The financial support that the company gets from the market is brilliant. Access to finance in the market gives the company an edge over its competitors. The market is very volatile having strength like this is very commendable.

6. Retro popular songs: The advertising strategy of Levi Strauss depends on it’s believe of showing the most popular songs on its advertisements. They shoe the popular retro songs, which looks very stylish and makes the viewer perceive a very positive and at the same time very fashionable about the product.

7. Many manufacturing plants: the company bears 60 manufacturing plants in the United States of America and 25 plants across the globe. The demand of the Levi Strauss jeans is high and so the number of plants worldwide is huge (Etzel, Walker & Stanton, 2007).

1. The company has high pressures from its competitors because of which it has to be always prepared to be defensive. The company has stiff competition in the market because of which it has to be very clear about its strategies. The company cannot afford to lose its customers to its competitors.

2. Huge pressure from the market: If there is huge competition in the market, the competitor is holding the same line of product with very less differentiation, then the scope growth becomes very less. The company has to struggle a lot in the market to convince the customer to buy the products of the company instead of the competitor`s. They can only do this if they do not compromise with the quality. Quality is the only factor that holds the cult customer.

1. Low manufacturing cost in international market: The company can view this as an opportunity that there are countries where in the cost of production is low because of cheap labours, low cost of land etc Levi`s Strauss gets this benefit of low production since it has 25 manufacturing plants worldwide (Groom, 2012). These manufacturing plants always produce the products at a very low rate then produced at the home market. It is as an opportunity and the number of plants should increase to have an edge over the competitors (Lake, 2015).

Market Growth Objectives

2. Growing casual wear market: The trend has change, the number of people wearing casual wear has increased and it is a boon to the industry. The jeans industry can play well and Levi Strauss can enlarge its market, as this is a big opportunity. Regarding this, the company can maximise its marketing and its production. The idea is to come up with new designs and styles and with different ranges so that other classes of the society can also become Levi Strauss`s customers. To attract the other customers, the company has to look after it that it has more varieties and it there should not be any compromise with the quality (Jones, 2002).

3. Acceptability in the world market: The company has products and accessories which use to be worn by the western people at some point of time but today the world has changed, people all over the globe has accepted the western apparels, they wear them with great style and happiness. Levi Strauss just has to look for more markets to sell its products (Kerin, Hartley & Rudelius, 2011). 1. Fast changing trends: The world today is very dynamic and the trend is changing day by day which gives very time for everything. Less time for coming up with new designs, less time for production, less time for marketing. This scarcity of time leads to loss of production, wastage of capital in marketing.

2. Lack of property rights: In some countries there are manufactures who manufacture jeans in the name of Levi Strauss and sell them at very low rates at markets. The customer is not able to detect the quality and buys it at a low price (Kerin, Hartley & Rudelius, 2013). This is very common and it has ruined the customer count of the company. The company cannot stop this because this is happening in some other country (Kerin, Hartley & Rudelius, 2011).

3. Increasing competition and product substitution: As mentioned above the company is facing many challenges in the international market because of its competitors (Kotler & Keller, 2009). The market is stiff as the competitors hold same products and accessories like that of Levi Strauss. The company has to look into various aspects before launching its products in the market (Kotler & Armstrong, 2012). There are huge chances of big failures.

There are mainly four competitors of Levi Strauss

1. Lee
2. Wrangler
3. Spykar
4. Tommy Hilfiger

1. To develop a new ad campaign with a goal to increase brand recognition.
2. To meet or exceed the sales target.
3. Increase Conversion ratio of customers every month.
4. Increase the frequency of advertisements in fashion magazines.
5. Monitoring the competitor`s activities to learn the dynamics of the market and create defensive strategies.
6. Increase in the distribution channel, and attaining good sales through them.
7. Increase the number of production plant in those countries where the cost of production is low.
8. Enhance the presence in the global market by increasing online marketing (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel, 2009).

1. Opening new outlets at those places where the company has not entered yet.
2. Bringing new designs in the market and keeping the customer at ease.
3. Increase the distribution channel.

1. All the products should meet the standards of the demand and maintain the same level of reputation in the market.
2. Physically, the company should try to expand its locations.
3. Internally, the organization can do restructuring whenever needed.
4. Maintaining good relationship with the distributors and enhance the channel.
5. Innovation can come by following the trend (Müller, Alt & Michelis, 2011).
6. Keep an eye at the competitors.
7. Drive and implement promotional plans to retain present and attract new customers.
8. The technological up gradation can help advertise the product globally (Pride & Ferrell, 2010).
9. Sale should expand to the existing customers.
10. Develop a new customer database, which can be used for various purposes later on.
11. The implementation of customer relationship management is very necessary in this industry (Tracy, 2014).
12. New products is introduced in the existing market.
13. There should be cost minimization and maximization of profit profit by adequate use of resources, doing less wastage.
14. Levi Strauss should highly emphasize on brand awareness because in an industry like this the product reaches people only when it`s on talk (Wilson, 2011).

Marketing Strategies for Levi's Strauss Jeans

A marketing strategy aims at increasing the sales and profit of the company with new strategies. These are long-term plans that a company implements in order to attain a huge goal. The strategies that a company follows in order to attain profit are well defined, profound and positive. These strategies determine whether a company can do well in the long term or not. Marketing strategies are dynamic and interactive. They may be partially planned and partially unplanned. Marketing strategy needs to take a long- term view, and tools such as customer life- time value models can be very powerful in helping to simulate the effects of strategy on acquisition. There are various strategies that Levi Strauss can follow in order to gain it`s share in the market. It should be done keeping in mind the 4p`s namely product, place, price and promotion.

Product: A product is something that satisfies the need of a customer. All the products adhere to a life cycle. It passes through various phases and riches maturity and declines at the end. Although the fashion of jeans is evergreen but the designs may get obsolete in the market. Product enhancement is what to be done to resolve the purpose. Levi`s Strauss has three sub brands under it namely Levi`s, Dockers and Levi`s Strauss signature jeans. The company has divided these products to cater the needs of the market. The three brands comprises of many products. These brands include accessories, brands, sunglasses, belts, wallets, ladies bags and jackets.

Place: Levi Strauss decides the channel of it distribution according to the products. Whole sellers are mostly preferred. There are more than 110 countries in the world where the Levi`s products are distributed. The market share is actually qualitatively high.

Price: Price is an important factor for all the products. It tells how much value does a customer makes of a product. Levi Strauss has different prices at different markets. In all the Asian markets, the Levi Strauss products are sold at listed prices. There are offers too at seasonal occasions. Operating at a global area the price has a big effect on the market. In Asia Levi Strauss has a niche market. It is a high than the competing brands. Since it has a big reputation in the market hence it is also a reason for pricing.

Promotion :Levi Strauss is known for its very good advertising and promotions. Its advertisements on international fashion magazines and newspapers are making the product effectively popular. Levi Strauss should try promoting its product in the market where still it has not reach. Using internet as a tool for marketing has taken them to a new level. The sales office, distribution level, promotions and offers at malls also contribute to its promotions.

Conclusion:

In the report we studied the integrated marketing communication of Levi Strauss and its impact on competitiveness. The study is done meticulously and very precisely on the marketing strategies of the company. Keeping in mind the 4P`s of marketing. A SWOT analysis has also  been done to study the current market scenario and learn about the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats that the company hold. There are many scope for many development in the company both internally and externally by doing a deep study on these factors. The market is very stiff but the scope of rising does not fades away.

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