by Graham Brown

Part of the feature series: The 7 Laws of Youth Marketing by Graham Brown

<Back to Introduction

The Rise and Fall of Youth Brands

What better to illustrate the failure of a youth brand than the prospects of Levi’s?

You may remember the Nick Kamen adverts by BBDO in 1985/6 - he strolls into the laundrette, removes his 501s to remove just a pair of boxer shorts - to the delight of the joint’s customers. All set to the theme of Marvin Gaye’s “I heard it through the grapevine”. In 1986, Levi’s was the original jeans - an iconic youth brand that embodied all the qualities youth aspired to - edgy, sexy, daring, original, different and having the ability to walk into a room and turn heads.

The very same year Levi’s sold 50% of the world’s jeans - a remarkable achievement.

Fast forward to the 21st century and 2006. From being #1 in the world, Levi’s has declined to #7, well behind market leader Diesel. Market share has also diminished from 50% to 9%. As the CEO said “We took our eye off the ball” (read: “we forgot the basics and forgot that what’s good for the consumer is good for the company - source)

By comparison, consider Nike’s prospects. 1986 - the year Air Jordan was literally flying and the brand eclipsed Reebok as world #1. By 2006, Nike is still #1 and has branched out into multiple categories - from women’s sportswear to golf clubs.

It’s all about doing it

If you consider the Nike/Levis story and understand what they respective did right/wrong you get an insight into what makes youth brands work. Nike’s story was one of constant innovation - but not in terms of technological advance - but relevance. True to their slogan of “just do it”, Nike stopped talking about being good and got out their and started doing - doing what was necessary in the youth community to stay relevant.

So can good marketing rescue a failing brand? Quite possibly as it can certainly rescue an ailing industry, albeit thanks to the content owners not the distributors. In this video excerpt interview I look at how the festival community is key in reviving the fortunes of flagging music sales:

Youth marketing is no longer about saying you are for youth (as in this Vodafone example) - it’s all about proving it. Look, for example, the extent to which political pundits go to build a dialogue with young voters. It’s a lot easier to say “we’re cool”, but does it work anymore?

Find out next in What makes a great Youth Brand?