Brand makeover, re-brand. How brands stay relevant, Levis & skinny jeans.

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Time for an image change, rebrand or brand makeover?

Looking INTERESTING and SAFE to the market attracts more business and converts more sales.

LEVIS – a rebel brand that risks not being interesting

To turn a cheap item of agricultural clothing into the symbol of late-twentieth century rebellion and anti-establishment culture … brilliant. Truly wonderful.

As Coke will always be a bigger and more culturally engrained brand then Pepsi, so Levis will always ….. hang on, nope, just a sec.

In the 1970s we paid two, three or four times the price for Levis than other brands like Lee and Wrangler. We didn’t care that the jeans didn’t fit. We’d buy sizes too big and happily wear them in the bath in some odd sartorial ritual that was meant to see you emerge a denim rebel with a cause.

Some people kicked their Levis around to get them soft and faded. Later, Levis twigged that people didn’t like the cardboard feel or deep indigo colour of a new pair of Levis.

Over the decades, Levis reinvented itself to good effect several times. The re-introduction of 501s and the buttoned fly was a notable success. Then, did bringing back flares gain Levis a little ground or was it just a stay of execution?

Some brands are rooted in time? Rebel symbols.

If you are known as a badge of rebellion, how do you stay that badge? The most rebellious among us is always the youth of the day.

How rebellious or cool is it if you are claiming to be different by wearing the same jeans as your dad and granddad?

You also don’t want your mum or dad wearing YOUR fashions.

(Oh dear, Mum dressing like daughter, going shopping with daughter, dad wearing designer jeans with his pink – sorry, salmon – Ralph Lauren polo shirt and slip ons and being unctuous around offsprings's young friends. These are parenting offences which for any self-respecting teenager should be the cause of household massacres. And massacres for which the perps should be found not guilty on the grounds of preservation of the teenage species, which is meant to be inimitable.)

But back to the important point. You DON’T want your mum or dad wearing YOUR fashions!

Youth shun parents' brands. Cue skinny jeans!

brand makeover
Teenagers don’t always look great in skinny jeans but they have the massive advantage of youth, and generally that’s quite enough.

But damn sure your mum will look ridiculous and your dad like a complete knob wearing skinny jeans. It’s a total no go zone. (Dad, go buy yourself another pair of D&Gs – but don’t iron them with a crease in the front FFS!)

Heritage brands. What about denim?

Denim is cheap again. No longer the symbol of rebellion, which has probably migrated to the piercing and the tattoo. The daredevils in Cheltenham are communicating their alternative viewpoints via the same inked tribal symbols and Sanskrit messages as the counter culture movement in Hackney and Harrogate.

And Levis? How bad is it? Is a re-brand possible?

Premium denim prices are commanded by fashion houses who keep vivisectors in business.

That little Levi red tab used to be enough … it used to be a tiny, unpretentious yet indescribably potent symbol of anti-fashion fashion. Today, embroidered silver crowns on jean pockets communicate the price tag but do nothing to hide the sorry arse inside.

Is it game-over for Levis? Are they neither interesting nor safe? Would the public accept a brand makeover?

It sort of depends whether there’s a resurgence of either the 1970s hippy movement or 1980s blue collar rock.

Since there hasn’t been much clamouring after trippy Easy Rider clothing or red-hankied Bruce Springsteen denim posing of late, Levis really need to think about their position today rather than rely on nostalgia.

It's not just brands, it's the whole business proposition

A brand can lose currency; a business can go under if it loses touch with consumer preferences.

The demise of Blockbuster taught us that the company was NOT in the product rental business, it was in the entertainment business and it lost touch with consumption and delivery logistics. Woolworths? Completely lost touch with its product set. Toys R Us, House of Fraser ... just two of the latest companies that were not nimble and in-tune enough to adapt to the market.

How do you appear to prospects? Interesting enough to keep them keen? Safe enough for them to buy your products? READ No 1 Sales Factor Interesting AND Safe

For many B2B companies, especially SMEs who haven't considered differentiating themselves from the competition, updating brand and marketing messages has a big impact on sales.