 |
| David Bergen Levi Strauss. Image credit: Housebeautiful.com |
The biggest worry in expanding is banalization. The jeans industry is as susceptible as fast food chains to cloyed markets, and the former doesn’t even benefit from addictive food seasoning. But if product dispersal reaches as far as developing countries, advertising budgets are necessarily lower, and sales are rattled off simply by word of mouth.
 |
| David Bergen Levi Strauss. Image credit: Inorderforlife.wordpress.com |
If Levi’s arrived in the shores of, say, the Philippines, it wouldn’t need evangelizing missions like the islands’ Spanish conquistadores did in the 16th century. David Bergen and his ilk only ever need to cut ribbons on branch opening day with the help of a local VIP or two. Globalization dictates that a brand name touches base before the product ever does, and with the advent of social media, Kim Kardashian tweeting a photo of herself wearing the product is a better and faster proposition.
 |
| David Bergen Levi Strauss. Image credit: Deviceone.eu |
Back to banalization: there isn’t much by way of curtailing imitations and market saturation. Fortunately, jeans are starting to resemble a Veblen good, again, thanks to Kim Kardashian and peerless trends. An original pair of Levi’s, despite and because of the price, fetches more demand from the target market than a Chinese factory imitation.
David Bergen is former information chief of Levi Strauss. Read more about the jeans industry on this Facebook page.
