I love the fact that I work in a professional industry where I can wear jeans to work. In fact, to be one of the cool kids, there’s almost an expectation that I “have to” wear jeans to work. I can think of worse problems. Anyway, as we all know, it’s hard to beat putting on your favorite pair of jeans and for many years, my favorite choice was a well-worn pair of Levi’s 501 button-up jeans. Ah, yes.
But somewhere along the way, Levi’s started to fade out of fashion in favor of more trendy brands. Levi’s, founded in 1869, always known for their classic look and feel started to chase this high-fashion trend. Like a lot of consumers, I too moved away from Levi’s because they just didn’t fit (sorry, bad pun) for me when they started to lose the essence of what they were all about. They had a great history, solid products and incredible brand equity, but they were losing all of that fairly quickly.
Fortunately, they were able to renovate their brand and make it fresh, authentic and believable again. Rolling out the “Go Forth” campaign positioned them well with a new audience and returned the brand to it’s roots. Images of hard-working people and a strong sense of Americana reflected the brand essence and resonated with people, especially in a time of economic uncertainty.
Often times, we are lured into chasing current trends in whatever category we’re in and adapt our brands to fit that trend. But all too often, these brands begin to lose relevancy and don’t fit the brand perception that was built over many years. When that happens, consumers don’t quite know what to believe and begin to lose interest and trust in those brands. Maybe we just get antsy as marketers and feel compelled to change. And certainly today’s performance expectations demand constant growth. But in cases like Levi’s, what consumers want and need is right in front of our face. It was there all along. The challenge is to keep what’s good and true about the brand, and tell that story in a new, exciting and relevant way.
Thanks, Levi’s. Still loving those 501s.
renovation room blog
