Levi'S Berger: It'S Better To Do The Right Thing And Not To Make The Wrong Decision Easily.

"It's better to do the right thing and not make the wrong decision lightly." is the most popular phrase of the famous jeans brand Levi's CEO Berger, who led the company in the pformation. It's a household name, almost equal to the "American Dream" painting.

It originated in 1853, has a longer history than the first car. The jeans made of blue washes and rivets were originally worn by miners, but they all survived the American Civil War and the great depression. James, Dean, Babu, Dylan and other Hollywood stars were also the symbols of rebellious youth.

In 1996, its net revenue climbed to a peak of $seven billion and two hundred million, which was stronger than the Nike Nike at that time. But in just five years, it fell to about four billion dollars. In addition to sports and leisure, the fast fashion brand jeans won by changing styles and cost performance. The more serious problem is: young people no longer pay.

Chen Shixiu, Levi's's biggest garment supplier and chairman of Xing textile, recalled that a few years ago, he had sent a Levi's jeans to his nephew, who had just graduated from University, and responded: "this brand is my grandfather's wear!" sales data also showed that in 2011, the average age of consumers was forty-seven years old, and this once cool brand has lost its aura.

In the fifteen years after the loss, Levi's missed the two major trends of high priced jeans, color jeans and so on. Even in 2007, it was ridiculed as "litigation leader" by New York Times. It pointed out that most of its energy would be used to accuse the industry of plagiarism and maintain its own classic status. The lawsuit is more than the Disney and Nike Nike that have been pformed.

"It faces the dilemma of all the old brands," Bakhk, director of the Corni management consulting company in the United States, analyzed. When the performance has been defeated steadily, whether we should consolidate our image, grasp the loyal customers, or dare to innovate, but have to bear the risk of reducing the brand value?

The stalemate was broken by CEO Berger, who took office in 2011.

Berger originally worked in Baoqiao for twenty-eight years and served as the general manager of the global business group. His representative achievement was the purchase of Gillette razor.

He wrote in his Harvard Business Review that the first thing he did when he came to Levi's was to start his listening journey, to talk with sixty top executives of the company and spend half a year to separate the financial figures of the products in the brand and analyze the actual sales situation.

The purpose of these actions is to answer four questions: where does the company make money? Where does it lose money? Where does it grow? Where does it go down? After finding out the answer, it goes through a simple and easy slogan: "first develop the core business with lucrative profits, and then expand more."

So Berger started directly from the core products.

At that time, the company had about 80% cash flow and profit from men's jeans from Levi's and Dockers, but since its establishment, people still have only 501, 511 and so on.

The research and development side surprised him even more. Levi's's R & D center was located near a factory in Turkey, flying about twelve hours from the US headquarters, so executives often go to two times a year and often spend a lot of time mailing samples.

"How can a garment company rank the priority of innovation?"

Later, he set up the Eureka innovation laboratory at four blocks away from headquarters. There were thirty designers who launched about thirty samples a week.

For example, the jeans worn by male cycling riders are coated with metallic gloss coatings, which can reflect vehicle lights at night and enhance safety.

As for potential commodities that "expand more", it means that

And jacket.

"Levi's is insisting that we have to win in women's clothing!" he told the head of Levi's San Francisco headquarters. "He let the team face the Yoga craze brought by the sports wind, and developed a soft and flexible female jeans that can be directly worn to the gym.

Since 2015, the performance of women's wear has grown for the eleven consecutive quarter with annual revenue of over $one billion.

"We have to expand the scope of your wardrobe." at the beginning of this year, Clegg, executive vice president of Levi's, further explained at the US NRF retail forum that a pair of jeans needs at least three to four blouses to match.

And so on, are key growth momentum.

For example, sales of clothing last year increased by about 35% over the same period last year.

Radical reform is not without cost.

After a year and a half, Mr Berger left nine of the top eleven senior executives.

Today, the one hundred and fifty middle managers are more than 2/3 years old less than three years.

However, the use of product advantages to stop bleeding is only the first step.

Levi's's biggest problem is that it has been relying on brand auras for years. It has become increasingly difficult to find its own position between history and innovation.

Berger recalled that he relied on the "family visit" strategy he had visited for years, meaning that he randomly visited consumers, asked about ideas for products, and so on to find out the answer.

In 2011, Borg visited a family of female customers in India. She had more than ten different brands of jeans, and a student Levi's. Now she can not wear it, but she can't bear to lose it because of memory.

Speaking here, she said, "you wear other jeans, but you live in Levi's jeans live in Levi's."

"I remember goose bumps when I recall that moment!" said Berger.

Since then, Live in, Levi's has become an advertising slogan.

Instead of overthrowing history, it is better to use the brand's past super market share to pform the emotional link into the strongest marketing weapon.

For example, last year, just 50th anniversary of the classic "truck driver jacket" launched the Google version of the smart jacket, emphasizing the appearance and touch of the jacket as in the past, but equipped with navigation, playing music, answering cell phones and other functions, priced at about 2300 yuan, is trying to find a balance between memories and future feelings, successfully create topics, and promote the annual growth of jacket sales by 40%.

They also use music season to approach young people.

Japan, the United States and other places, music festival has invested a lot of music marketing resources, and has also sponsored many independent orchestras in China.

In 2013, Borg signed a major investment case, buying the naming right of the new football field of San Francisco 49 people for two hundred and twenty million dollars, naming the "Livy Stadium", because football fans are the target customers of the brand.

Cooperation with the fashionable young brands is also one of the important strategies.

For example,

Jointly launched the jacquard denim jacket, and Nike classic.

The joint launch of jeans and so on, attracted a lot of consumers aged fifteen to twenty-four years of concern. "Levi's's current customer structure is like a dumbbell, the two ends are larger and the middle is slender.

Twenty-five to thirty-five years old, the group we lost, "the director of San Francisco headquarters told us.

At present, the average age of customers has dropped from forty-seven to thirty-four years.

Spread out Levi's's earnings report, besides the increasingly profitable revenue and profit, the pfer of sales channels is also worthy of attention.

Berger is more inclined to sell directly than wholesale business in the past, including self retailing, official website and supply to electronic business platform, so as to grasp more cash and instantly get consumer preferences through sales data.

Seven years ago, direct sales accounted for only about 21% of total revenue, and now more than 30%.

"The electricity supplier will join the war.

Cause a big shuffle.

Winners and losers will emerge, and we have to be winners, "he said. Amazon has become one of Levi's's ten largest customers in the world, China.

It's also a big client.

The most painful thing to do with them is that all sales data will become the beneficial information of the other party's own brand in the future. "They will become rivals sooner or later, only if the brand is strong enough to survive."

Bakhk pointed out that in the past fifteen years,

Relying on brand assets, "dishonoured but safe" has gone through the pformation of the apparel industry, no big innovation, and no major mistake has been made. "But if you do not move again in the next ten years, you will not be so lucky!" Levi's, who had lost a whole century, had been through seven years of painful consolidation to make consumers thirteen years younger.

For other brands that are still "seeking no mistake", its story is rich and inspiring.