A few years ago, Dockers was not doing well, and Levi Strauss who owns the brand tried unsuccessfully to Dockers. The company had risen to prominence in the 1990s, due to its khaki pants which had became very popular. But with time its pants fell out of favor with the consumers, this was due to competition from competitors who also began selling khaki pants. So, Levi Strauss was forced to go back to the drawing board. The company immediately decided to hire John Goodman to be the president of the Dockers division in America. Under Goodman Dockers expanded from only selling khakis and began selling other products such as shirts, blazers, sweaters and it also made an entrant into the women fashion clothing. Dockers also begun to make Dockers men’s apparel specifically for four occasions — work, weekend wear, dressing up and golf – these products were marketed that way (Freeland 2003).
After a 21% decline in 2004, Dockers sales stabilized in late 2005 and they have never turned back and have continued to grow. The turnaround by Dockers is happening amid a revival of khaki, there has been a push to upscale by many designers to sell products that are of a higher fashion expensively (George and Jones 2002). This is a major threat to Dockers as it is threatened like what premium jeans earlier had done to the company’s core Levi’s brand. Also big Designers such as Dsquared and Dolce & Gabbana are now making an entrant into the khaki market.
Marketing Strategies are how a company promotes its products and attracts new customers, and can be defined as push or pull strategies.
Dockers operates a pull strategy, this is a strategy that is geared to encourage customers to pull products by using the channel network.
Target Market.
Dockers have over time changed from mainly selling khaki products and diversified to other areas. Dockers has expanded to offering products which are no longer khakis and they include include shirts, jackets, skirts, and accessories such as sunglasses, shoes and wallets. These products are of all genders and are targeted for all, the youth, male, female, young and old. The products are for people of all social classes due to the difference in prices. There is a product for those in the middle class and for others. The company has also moved from selling only clothes that were designed for leisure but also made clothes that can be worn for work, for golf and for other activities. The products are meant for mass marketing as they are sold everywhere in the world.
Product Assortment
Features are competitive tools that differentiate the company’s products from its competitor’s products. The following are some of the main and distinctive features of Dockers products. Comfort, Dockers jeans and other products are comfortable enough to be worn even at the times of protest, war, Cultural Revolution, relative peace and pure fun. Durability, The two figures on the patch of Dockers jeans with whips in hand pulling in opposite directions, yet the jeans remain intact; symbolize the strength and durability of the ‘ Patent riveted clothing’. Style, Clothing means more than just fabric, thread and rivets. To clothe oneself means to put on something that symbolizes who you are. Dockers’ jeans are available in different styles for men and women.
Promotion
The company spends a lot of money on advertising and consumer promotion to build up consumer demand for a product. Their aim is to have long term relations with their customers and provide them with a better product. Dockers do this through sales promotion, personal selling and public relations. Dockers have always had very big advertising campaigns and Trevor Beattie was responsible for the successful and memorable Levi 501s campaigns. Trevor Beattie said “ If we whisper we can’t be heard”. (1999). the company promotes its products in print media as well as electronic media including newspapers, billboards, television and internet.
Dockers use competitive advertising and institutional advertising to sell its products. Competitive advertising stresses on the demand for the product and enhancement of its features (Reynolds and Olson 2001). Levis use institutional advertising to advertise the company’s image by saying many companies copy the red tab but nobody can copy the original. When Dockers advertise a product they are placed at international level and the advertisements themselves are very innovative and eye-catching in order to attract the buyer. Due to Dockers brand equity it is a target for fashion magazines and newspapers. The newspapers give coverage of social events that Dockers are involved with, and the fashion magazines promote the product on the models. This method has given Dockers an edge over their competitors.
Another way in which Dockers uses the pull strategy is through sales promotion. Sales promotions offer discounts on end of season products, they also encourage the customer to purchase more of the product, increasing the company’s sales and profit. Personal selling is very important in the marketing mix. Once the consumer enters the store the company needs them to purchase the product. Dockers train their staff in personal selling and intensive product knowledge so they can sell in the best possible way to increase profit and gain loyal customers. Many of the other high street stores such as Topshop and New Look, do not require extensive use of sales personnel and so Levis exceptional customer service, which uses their staff to connect personally with the consumers to entice them into purchasing garments, gives them an advantage over these other high street stores.
Distribution
Most of Dockers outlets worldwide are placed in the downtown areas of town; this is for them to attract its target market which is mainly the mass market and with much emphasis the middle class and the upper middle class. All the stores are uniformly branded with the same logo and merchandise.
Pricing
Dockers face competition from other brands that price their products moderately such as Haggar and Chaps. The competition is very stiff worldwide and thus the company focuses on the price that is appropriate to its target market which is the middle class.
