This research examines the marketing of Levi Strauss jeans in Eastern Europe. Where practical, the focus within the Eastern European region is placed on Russia and the states of the former Yugoslav federation. The results of this research are presented in seven discussions. These discussions cover company background, market definition, product image, the counterfeiting issue, the Levi Strauss strategy to combat counterfeiting, financial losses attributable to product counterfeiting, and Levi Strauss distribution channels in Eastern Europe.
The Levi Strauss Company, based in the United States, is a global marketer and a global producer of wearing apparel products. The company is pursuing two major objectives with respect to its global marketing effort. First, the company seeks to establish a base market share in each national or regional market for the company's existing products to serve as a launch pad for product diversification in each of the various markets national or regional markets. Second, Levi Strauss seeks to develop a self-sufficiency in each of the national or regional markets to minimize problems associated with long supply lines and import/export factors. Levi Strauss markets its products in 70 different countries and produces its products in 25 separate countries. Thus, diversity is a major characteristic of both the company's target markets and its production and distribution environments. This diversity assumes even greater significance when considered within the context of the development of regional trading blocs around the world.
Although Levi Strauss produces a wide variety of apparel products, the company's success has been built on its basic jeanswear. The company's productive capacity remains oriented to the production of jeanswear products, and indications are that the company's management continues to think along these lines. Levi Strauss jeans are among the most well known Western products...