New Levi’s Campaign Looks for Good Fit in Women’s Jeans Market

For years, Levi Strauss & Co. searched for ways to downplay the Levi’s name on the jeans it marketed to women.

While the packaging for the women’s jeans had words such as slim fit in bold lettering, you almost needed a magnifying glass to find the word Levi’s. The Levi’s tags on women’s jeans were a fraction the size of tags on men’s jeans. And it was only on rare occasions that Levi’s advertised directly to women.

So it was no surprise that 70% of the women recently surveyed by Levi’s weren’t even sure if the company made women’s jeans. Beginning this week in Los Angeles, Levi’s will try to change that. The company plans to unleash a massive outdoor ad campaign that will litter the local landscape.

“We’re not going to try to disguise the fact that we’re Levi’s anymore,” said Gordon Shank, vice president of women’s wear marketing. “That was a mistake.” The advertising barrage will appear on billboards, bus shelters, bus sides and kiosks.

Levi’s is very late in playing catch-up in the women’s market, one that it essentially ignored for years. Last year, Lee jeans sold roughly twice as many jeans to women as did Levi’s. The latest action by Levi’s has been spurred not only by its lousy market share in women’s jeans and by the ongoing recession but also by simple marketing logic: Why ignore half of the market?

Other advertisers--whose products were long thought to be primarily of interest to men--have taken similar steps. Brewers Anheuser-Busch and Coors began to look beyond men and started targeting women seriously in some campaigns this year.

To the companies, this represents what would seem to be a relatively easy way to boost sales. Levi’s figures it is well worth spending $15 million on an ad campaign to try to bolster its presence in the country’s $2.1-billion women’s jeans market. And brewers such as Anheuser-Busch and Coors recognize that although women are not their biggest customers, they consume about 20% of the beer sold.

For Levi’s, the task will be especially difficult. Many women prefer to buy jeans made by companies like Guess. Such firms have carefully captured the interest of fashion-conscious young girls with campaigns that use sex as a draw. And although Levi’s are sold heavily in department stores such as J. C. Penney and Target, they aren’t sold in many of the boutiques and specialty stores that young women prefer.

“It’s not a question of advertising,” said Alan Millstein, editor of Fashion Network Report, a monthly newsletter on the apparel industry. “It’s a question of what stores will carry them. You’re not going to find a lot of Levi’s being sold at places young girls shop, like the Gap or the Limited or Judy’s.”

Regardless of the new Levi’s campaign, the specialty chain Judy’s has no plans to carry Levi’s, said Nancy Rosen, a buyer for the Van Nuys-based chain. “We’re looking to be more unique than the rest of the world, not more alike.”

And the Gap announced Monday that as part of a effort to emphasize its own brands, it will quit selling Levi’s products at its stores by year-end.

None of this skepticism has Levi’s officials worried. The company sells more men’s jeans than anyone else. In the second quarter of 1991, it reported record sales and income. Levi’s officials believe that the best way to garner attention for their women’s jeans is to flood a single medium. They selected outdoor advertising because it is far less expensive than television.

The ads all feature black-and-white line drawings similar in style to paintings created by the French artist Henri Matisse. The ads were created by six female artists. At the client’s request, the women in the drawings do not have perfect figures. “We didn’t want to try to one-up Guess in sensuality,” Shank said. “We wanted something that women could relate to.”

Officials say that by year-end, 93% of females ages 14 years and up will see the new ads at least 50 times.

At one time the agency considered using a campaign with real people who poke fun at models in jeans. It also considered a campaign that was heavily feminist. “With campaigns like those, you run the risk of some women responding, ‘Don’t tell me how to think,’ ” said Peter Angelos, creative director at the San Francisco office of Foote, Cone & Belding.

Levi’s isn’t the only product to find a feminine marketing side to its male origins.

When the general public sees ads for Coors, they always see the slogan, “It’s the Right Beer Now.” But when women see ads for Coors Light in magazines such as Working Woman or Shape, they see the slogan, “Right Choices Now.” That’s the name of the sweepstakes the brewer is sponsoring, targeted at women. Prizes include one year’s worth of free day care.

And earlier this year, Anheuser-Busch began to target women directly in an off-beat way. It created a series of print ads for Michelob Light that parody the screaming headlines about self improvement found on the covers of some women’s magazines. One headline shouts: “Body Hair Horror: How to Take It All Off.” Underneath the headline, is this message from Michelob: “Relax. You’re OK. Improve your beer.”

L.A. Shop Captures Asiana Air Account

Now that most of the Asian auto makers have handed their ad business to Los Angeles agencies, the Asian airlines appear to be doing likewise.

Last week, South Korea-based Asiana Airlines handed its $3-million U.S. ad account to the L.A. shop Dailey & Associates. The airlines will begin flying between Seoul and Los Angeles in November.