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good afternoon everyone welcome to this
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special LinkedIn LIVE edition of our
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show marketing matters I'm Barbara Khan
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the Patty and JH Baker professor of
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marketing and I'm joined by my co-host
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America spred the Whitney M Young Junior
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professor of marketing and the brand
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identity theorist hello Americas hi
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Barber it's great to be here I'm so
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excited because you know one of the
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things we do is talk about super iconic
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Brands the brands that basically stay
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culturally relevant and that people get
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excited over and so what have we got
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today it's going to be so exciting on
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this very special live session yeah
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we're excited to have another brand guy
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here with us in the studio today and I'd
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like to introduce chip Berg who's the
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former president and CEO of Levi Strauss
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and Company where he served from
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September 2011 to January 2024 welcome
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chip hello Barbara Americus thank you
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very much for uh invi me to join you
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today excellent yeah it's really excited
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and we're thrilled to be hosting our
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featured guest here on the show today
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and later on we'll be taking live
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questions from everyone watching online
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so make sure to put your questions in
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the comments section and let's talk a
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little bit about chip because he's had
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such an incredible care Absol yes he has
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led many iconic Brands during his 45y
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year career spanning the US Asia and
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Europe he spent 28 years at PNG and
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Proctor and Gamble in the roles of
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increasing scope and complexity in brand
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management General management and
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executive leadership among the many
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accomplishments he led the creation and
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launch of Swiffer he oversaw the
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turnaround of Old Spice isn't that one
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of your favorite Brands absolutely and
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he was the first PNG executive to lead
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the iconic Gillette blades and razor
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business globally following png's 57
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billion acquisition of Gillette in 200 F
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but at Levi Strauss chip has been
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credited with leading the company's
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story turnaround and using his platform
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to take bold social stances so Chip
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after all these years what made you
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decide to retire
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now well um I'm 66 and it's been a great
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run and um you know I think uh
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leadership changes at the top you know
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10 years 12 years 13 years 14 years as a
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CEO is probably the right amount of time
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I I have the energy and um stamina I
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think that I could have done this job
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for another four or five years probably
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but you know I've been in the job for 11
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for 12 and a half years and we had an
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amazing successor who I brought into the
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company and um Michelle GS who was the
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former CEO of Kohl's and she was ready
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and I'm totally convinced that she is
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going to take the company to the next
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level so it was time to move on and and
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you know I've been out of the job I it
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was it was two months exactly
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yesterday and wow that's pretty fresh I
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know it's it's fresh um but I can
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honestly say I've been really really
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busy um I miss all of my colleagues I
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miss the fun of being at work but um I
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don't really miss the job because I know
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it's in really really good hands with
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Michelle oh that's pretty exciting okay
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so let's go back to the beginning how
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did you first get involved with Levis
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and what did the brand mean to you then
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yeah okay so um wind back the hands of
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time to sometime in the
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2010s I was running Gillette um you know
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a big Global business was about seven
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and a half billion and all of the men
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male grooming brands of PNG including
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Old Spice um so it was about a 7.5
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billion dollar Global business and I was
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actually in China at a leadership team
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meeting I had my whole leadership team
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over in China and I got a call from a
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head hunter who I knew uh and I had
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gotten several calls for other CEO
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opportunities and she said I think I've
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got something you might be interested in
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ey roll right you know um and I was like
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okay what is it and she said what do you
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think about
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Levis and the words out of my mouth were
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oh wow it was a completely different
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reaction than any of the other calls
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that i' had gotten for a CEO
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opportunity and you know what flooded
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through my mind were two things one some
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of the Vivid memories I had as a kid my
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brand experiences with Levis and and we
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can talk about that um and then the
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other thing is you know I travel all
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over the world in in my prior job and I
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lived in Asia for seven years um and
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everywhere I went you saw Levis and Levi
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stores and um you know I thought at the
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time that this was probably a 10 billion
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dollar business and it wasn't until I
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started really digging into what was
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going on at L that I discovered it was
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you know about a $4 billion business at
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the time and um so anyway so um I do
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like to say everybody has a Levi story I
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started doing homework on the company um
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and uh you know the bottom line was the
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company peaked in 1996 at 7 .1 billion
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in sales and then the next 5 years saw
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massive shareholder value destruction as
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revenues deteriorated from 7.1 to uh
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about4 billion doar and then the next
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decade the
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2000s the company just kind of bumped
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along between four and 4.2 4.3 billion
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dollar in in revenues I have two grown
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boys who today are uh 41 and uh 36 when
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they were teenagers they never had owned
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a pair of Levis it wasn't even in their
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consideration set so I went back to kind
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of my days as a kid when I was going
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into seventh grade I asked my mom to
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drive three Towns over so I could get a
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pair of Levis to go to Middle School
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right because only the cool kids were
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Levis right that's knows cool kids Co
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kids cool kids kids and I'm a brand guy
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and so my whole hypothesis was if we
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could make the brand what it was when I
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was a kid
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that would turn the brand around and
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that would turn the company around
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because the brand is 85% of the
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company's Revenue so the going in
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hypothesis was the fundamental issue
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here is a branding issue and if we can
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make the brand cool again put it back at
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the center of culture have it resonate
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with youth with young people again um
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that that would turn the business around
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well let's talk about that so that's a
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pretty that's one thing to say it's
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quite another thing to actually do so
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you want to make the brand cool like
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what was your first instinct how do you
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make a brand cool well there there were
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a bunch of other kind of fundamental
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issues with the company the first thing
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was we had to start marketing the brand
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again so during the dark days you know
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as the company's revenues tumbled um we
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had piled up a mountain of debt um so we
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were $4 billion in
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revenues uh earning about uh $300
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million before tax profits
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and our our um debt level was over $2
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billion our our debt ratio was 5 to1 we
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were one notch above junk bond
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status um that's what's brought down a
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lot of retailers and and you know and at
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the end of the day the balance the
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strength of the balance sheet is
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everything and our balance sheet was a
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constraint we were actually spending
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more money on interest payments when I
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joined than we were in marketing in
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advertising the brand globally
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globally right and so the first you know
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so to put the brand back at the center
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of culture we had to start marketing it
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again and to start marketing it again we
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had to clean up our balance sheet so
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there there were steps that we needed to
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take in order to set the conditions for
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success to rebuild the brand so then let
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me just dig in on that a little because
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what you're saying is you're under this
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massive amount of debt and your solution
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is to spend more money right yeah so and
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so what do I need to do to spend more
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money I need to pay down the debt to
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free up all that interest interest
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expense that we were spending to invest
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that back in the brand building and so
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that's fundamentally what we did I mean
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the company weird things perverse things
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not weird perverse things happen to
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companies that don't grow for 15 years
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we got
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fat we had you know vice presidents not
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managing any people we became like a
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bank and and you know when people aren't
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getting their bonus every year um the
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only way you move ahead financially is
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to get promoted so the only way to get
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promoted is surround yourself with poor
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performing people so that you look good
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and and so there were lots of
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organizational issues and um anyway uh
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uh we were fat and there was clearly an
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opportunity to restructure the company
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simplify things and um free up a lot of
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cash to pay down the debt and then begin
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investing back in the brand and so we
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did that we went through a big
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restructure in 2013 or so uh and in 2014
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we really started to seriously invest
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back in marketing we also had to fix the
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marketing that was another thing but um
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we can talk about that too well let's do
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that let's because that this is
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marketing matters and what we really
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want marting does matter the brand here
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really did matter thanks for that non we
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appreciate that now so that's
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interesting the first thing you did did
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you had to be you had to do control you
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had to do restraint you had to get you
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know cut the fat out of the system BR
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discipline back Financial discipline you
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know and yeah brought 28 years of PNG
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marketing discipline too so and that's a
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conservative brand it's an open-minded
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brand but it is also conservative Back
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to Basics kind of idea and and we took
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marketing at Levis Back to Basics Back
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to Basics we were going to test our
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advertising we were going to prove that
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it was going to work we were going to
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put money behind it we were going to run
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heavy up tests if the heavy up tests
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worked we were going to expand the heavy
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up tests and that's part of how we built
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it over the the ensuing couple of years
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okay so that was the first year that's
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what you were doing and then you started
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taking money and investing in BR so the
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first thing is make sure you manage your
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costs and your debt the second thing is
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don't let that not let you invest in a
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brand because you can imagine both kinds
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of things either you spend too too much
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and you're a mess so then you've got to
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rain it in but then you can't be raining
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things in so much that you don't
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continue we were spending money in
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marketing we were just not spending it
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well and spending it on things that were
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growing the business so redirecting what
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we were spending into things that were
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going to work yeah yeah I I'm want to
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unpack that just a little bit Barbara
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chip so you said this there were there
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was this period in time where kind of
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things went dark um and the brand sort
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of lost its cultural relevance and so we
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have to start now cut cost and this I
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really invest in brand because brand is
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an asset just like you were saying chip
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so when when you when those eyes awoken
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to like okay we have to become
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culturally relevant again what what was
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your what was your TR what did you look
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at at the difference in culture across
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that time period that says okay now we
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need to kind of fit into this
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conversation this new cultural
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conversation what were the trends what
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were the things that were different that
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were from the earlier times where the
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brand was really built strong in that
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cultural relevance where there are
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things you could see where it's like we
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need to kind of be in these spaces or
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having these types of conversations how
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did that look yeah I mean I went back
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you know you would all do the same thing
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any really good marketer we go
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back but but we about all kinds of
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things but you know actually doing this
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the best the best way to try to figure
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out your way forward is go back to what
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worked in the past right so you know
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pull out the historical reel look at the
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advertising that worked to build the
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business to build the brand from the 70s
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and 80s and 90s and what were the what
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were the big things that this brand did
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that worked really well and there were
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some insights there music was really
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important uh not being too serious about
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ourselves was really important some of
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our best advertising had a little bit of
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a nod and a wink to it was really
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important it was about younger people
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there was a little bit of sexual
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attraction or sexual attension if you
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want to call it that that always works
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in advertising and so um uh and then we
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had some very very iconic um campaigns
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that we ran during the hey days um the
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501 blues is a very very famous campaign
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it was music and it was all about
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product and um and so our advertising
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when I joined the company was it was
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dark it was almost like film Noir it was
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it was almost too intellectually
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interesting stimulating and it wasn't
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really connecting with the consumer so
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let me just before you continue on that
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just that's how did they go so far wrong
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if they had such a rich Legacy how did
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they get to the point where you had to
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undo it I I you
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know I think when you when you're really
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really successful you start resting on
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your Laural and and and not just from a
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marketing standpoint I think this was
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true companywide you kind of begin to
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believe your own press reports and and
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think that when you're successful
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nothing will go wrong and um you know
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when we were 7.1 billion in sales you
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know one of the things that caused us to
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decline to 4 billion over a couple of
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years we lost our biggest
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customer and um and it was Hubris at the
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end of the day and I think huis is kind
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of the the kiss of death to an
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organization and um and it's one of the
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things over the 12 years that I was
00:14:14
there you got it you know when you wake
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up in the morning if you're not the
00:14:17
fastest one running somebody's going to
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get you yeah right so Art of War and um
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and so this notion of really continuing
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to stay hungry continuing to stay humble
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and you know not believe in your own
00:14:30
press reports forever um I think was
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really really important but there was a
00:14:35
degree of arrogance or huus to our
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marketing and it was kind of
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intellectually really interesting and I
00:14:43
could see how they got to it but if you
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go back to the principles of what the
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marketing was that really connected with
00:14:50
consumers in our best days it was
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missing all of it there wasn't you know
00:14:55
there wasn't it wasn't music it wasn't
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dance it wasn't culture it wasn't really
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culturally relevant and um and so that
00:15:03
was key to it um I also I had this big
00:15:07
Insight one of the things I love to do
00:15:09
especially in the early days and we can
00:15:11
talk about some of the other things I
00:15:12
did during the early days but but in you
00:15:14
know I big Global business I was out in
00:15:17
the markets and traveling to the markets
00:15:18
and one of the things I love to do is
00:15:21
consumer research when I'm in a market
00:15:23
right and a consumer inome or a consumer
00:15:26
shop along and there are a lot of people
00:15:28
who say Ah that's qualitative you're
00:15:30
never going to learn anything doing that
00:15:32
but when you do one or two every market
00:15:35
and you're doing 20 markets a year 25
00:15:39
markets a year right that adds up and at
00:15:41
some point you begin to get a gut feel
00:15:44
but I think it was my first trip in this
00:15:47
job um to India and I was in Bangalore
00:15:51
and we had recruited I was going to do
00:15:52
an inhome with a a young woman 27 28
00:15:55
years old she had been specifically
00:15:57
recruited because she was a denim head
00:15:59
she owned lots of denim such a thing
00:16:02
that's an identity oh yeah heads the
00:16:04
denim heads are out there and they're
00:16:05
out there and you know who you are um uh
00:16:09
but uh she was a denim head and she
00:16:11
owned like uh about 10 nine eight nine
00:16:14
10 pairs of of jeans and so she was
00:16:16
recruited specifically for that reason
00:16:19
she didn't know who I was or why we were
00:16:21
there but she um figured it out that we
00:16:24
were talking about denim but anyway you
00:16:26
know when you do these in homes it's an
00:16:28
hour and I had my it was myself the
00:16:30
country manager we had a translator
00:16:32
although this woman spoke perfect
00:16:34
English turns out she went to University
00:16:36
in the UK um and uh we had somebody from
00:16:40
the research firm as well and and uh you
00:16:43
know you start really wide tell me about
00:16:45
yourself and how do you spend your time
00:16:47
where do you work blah blah you start
00:16:48
really really wide and then over the
00:16:50
course of the next 40 or 45 minutes you
00:16:52
kind of zoom into Denim and start
00:16:55
talking about Denim and what brands do
00:16:56
you buy and why do you buy them and da
00:16:59
and then in the last 10 minutes or so I
00:17:01
was like can we can we see your jeans
00:17:04
and she's like yeah come on in and she
00:17:06
brought us into her bedroom opened up
00:17:08
her wardrobe pulled out the jeans the
00:17:11
the facilitator asked if she could lay
00:17:12
them out on the bed we had her
00:17:14
specifically lay out Levis as the last
00:17:16
two and then we went kind of one by one
00:17:19
what do you wear these for and she had
00:17:21
like all the premium Brands he clearly
00:17:24
you know was a very very well-traveled
00:17:26
um individual
00:17:30
well she had you know Hudson she had
00:17:32
paig she had a lot of the premium Brands
00:17:34
guest and uh uh and we went one by one
00:17:38
like what do you wear these for what do
00:17:39
you wear these for and the last two were
00:17:41
Levis so we got down to the second to
00:17:43
last pair and she said well these are my
00:17:45
go-to jeans you know when I'm meeting my
00:17:48
girlfriends for a cup of coffee in the
00:17:49
mall in the mall this is what I'll wear
00:17:52
if I'm going out shopping on a Saturday
00:17:54
these are my go-to casual jeans it's
00:17:56
like okay what about these s
00:18:00
gets a little wispy and she says well to
00:18:04
be honest I don't even wear those jeans
00:18:06
anymore because they don't fit me but
00:18:08
those are the genes that I have when I
00:18:10
went to University and she said all my
00:18:13
memories of University Are In Those
00:18:15
Jeans oh wow and then she said I get
00:18:17
goosebumps every time I tell this she
00:18:19
said you wear other jeans but you live
00:18:22
in Levis o and I was like that's it that
00:18:27
is the idea I've been saying all along
00:18:29
everybody's got a Levi story and it is
00:18:32
about living your life in Levis and and
00:18:35
that became the selling idea behind our
00:18:37
advertising and it's now 10 years later
00:18:39
and we are still using that line that's
00:18:41
incredible I love that idea chip because
00:18:43
I think that sometimes we start chasing
00:18:46
these hardcore quantitative types of
00:18:49
surveys because they feel like they're
00:18:51
really Val valid and objective and we've
00:18:53
got a number here's an average of
00:18:55
something or whatever but what I love
00:18:57
about what you're talking about is that
00:18:58
sort of like go out into the into the
00:19:00
wild like Jane Goodall you're out in the
00:19:02
jungle and you have to study these
00:19:04
people because I don't think that
00:19:05
insight about I live in these Levis
00:19:06
jeans would have come out in a Ser yeah
00:19:08
or that I'm not going to throw those
00:19:09
jeans away because they're they've got
00:19:11
the memories of college or university
00:19:14
power that's brand that that is that
00:19:17
speaks to the power that this brand has
00:19:19
so once you had that big Insight did you
00:19:21
then test it before you went out with it
00:19:23
yeah we developed that so I switched
00:19:25
agencies because the other agency
00:19:27
refused to move off of
00:19:29
um off of the prior idea and I had asked
00:19:32
them for an alternate campaign um and I
00:19:35
knew this agency well because they
00:19:37
worked on one of my Brands when I was at
00:19:39
PNG and I knew the team pretty well and
00:19:41
they just refused and so why did they
00:19:43
refuse that's I think they were really
00:19:45
committed to it and they thought it was
00:19:48
the right decision yeah they thought it
00:19:49
was right even though it wasn't moving
00:19:50
the needle on the business and I just
00:19:53
asked for an alternate campaign I didn't
00:19:54
say I was going to run the alternate you
00:19:56
know so anyway so we had this idea now
00:19:59
live in Levis and we went to a new
00:20:02
agency and they developed advertising to
00:20:04
it we tested it it tested great we put
00:20:07
it on air we tested it in a heavy up
00:20:10
heavy up Market we were spending about
00:20:12
four and a half% of revenues in
00:20:13
marketing at that point I'm a cpg guy
00:20:16
where 15% was kind of like the norm I
00:20:19
was like oh my God what an opportunity
00:20:21
here and you know we're now spending in
00:20:23
the neighborhood of seven or S and a
00:20:25
half% of Revenue and I still think
00:20:27
there's opportunity for us but the the
00:20:30
heavy ups were working and we just kept
00:20:32
putting more money behind it so let's
00:20:35
just switch gears a little bit because
00:20:37
the couple things we want to talk about
00:20:39
one of the things that's I am a
00:20:40
Storyteller I warned you no no I'm happy
00:20:43
to hear these stories that was that the
00:20:45
what we want to hear but I'm also
00:20:46
curious because I know Levis and you've
00:20:49
embraced social issues um and so one of
00:20:52
the things is rebuilding the brand the
00:20:54
other thing and we've talked about this
00:20:55
a lot what's the role of a brand in
00:20:58
purpose driven marketing and social
00:21:00
issues um important issues like voting
00:21:04
lgbtqia plus equality immigration how do
00:21:08
you I mean those are polarizing issues
00:21:10
how do you decide what to embrace and
00:21:12
what not yeah so um first of all the
00:21:15
first thing I will say is this is not
00:21:17
about me this is about the power of the
00:21:19
platform and the role of CEO at at P at
00:21:23
at Levis and um and part of the reason
00:21:27
the board wanted an internal successor
00:21:29
was that they understand how we process
00:21:33
all this and how we decide what issues
00:21:35
we're going to stand for and which ones
00:21:36
were not many many of the issues that
00:21:39
we've taken stands on predate me so
00:21:42
lgbtq we we've been doing this for a
00:21:45
long long time and our brand is very
00:21:48
very tightly associated with it and it
00:21:51
is part of who we are um uh others are
00:21:55
new though and um you know so take a
00:21:58
stand on ending gun violence in the US
00:22:01
specifically is a relatively new issue
00:22:04
for us and and and we had a very
00:22:08
thorough uh process to vet it number one
00:22:12
and to to work it with our board of
00:22:14
directors because there's a governance
00:22:15
role that they've got to play here to
00:22:17
make sure that we don't do something
00:22:19
stupid and um and so let's take ending
00:22:24
gun violence as an example
00:22:26
um how did we get into to it we have 250
00:22:31
or so at the time this was 2016 we have
00:22:34
roughly 250 stores or so in the United
00:22:37
States and our store managers came to me
00:22:40
saying we're concerned people are
00:22:43
walking into our stores brandishing a
00:22:45
gun in open car in open carry states
00:22:49
right and they were like we've got a
00:22:51
company policy you can't bring a gun to
00:22:53
work you can't bring a weapon to work
00:22:55
and and when somebody walks in with a
00:22:57
gun you don't know if they're a good or
00:22:58
bad guy and you you worry about the
00:23:00
safety of your own employees and other
00:23:03
customers in the store and so this was
00:23:06
right before the election in 2016 and we
00:23:09
were kind of we went to school on what
00:23:11
have other retailers done and there were
00:23:13
a couple like Starbucks and Target who
00:23:15
had already kind of been the tip of the
00:23:19
spear on this one to some extent and and
00:23:21
their approach was to publicly just put
00:23:25
out a notice don't bring a gun into our
00:23:29
and they took some blowback for it
00:23:31
anyway we we were going to hold off
00:23:33
until after the
00:23:34
election until a gun went off in one of
00:23:37
our stores jeez so a guy was in the
00:23:40
dressing room oh dear had a gun in his
00:23:43
pocket and when he took his pants off he
00:23:46
the gun went off literally shot himself
00:23:48
in the foot so but you know it could
00:23:50
have been an employee it could have been
00:23:52
you or me or one of our kids right it
00:23:55
could have been you know some innocent
00:23:57
bystander and that was it that that was
00:24:00
the straw that broke the camels back so
00:24:02
we put this letter out that had already
00:24:04
been pre-written and cleared with the
00:24:06
board um that you know please don't
00:24:09
bring a weapon into our store and of
00:24:13
course there was huge blowback um I had
00:24:16
unmarked police in front of my dear
00:24:18
house for a while I had death threats um
00:24:22
but uh but it was the right thing to do
00:24:24
and so that got us into this debate and
00:24:27
then um then the Parkland shooting
00:24:30
happened in 2018 and um and I was like
00:24:34
look we're already in for
00:24:36
this let's go big or go home because
00:24:39
this is now an issue that youth were
00:24:41
mobilizing behind and the Parkland youth
00:24:44
in particular if you remember back after
00:24:46
that they were mobilized and it's like
00:24:50
let's let's Empower them and so again
00:24:53
working with the board you know we were
00:24:55
going to do a one-year program the board
00:24:57
was like no if we're going to do this
00:24:58
we're going to do it big go big or go
00:25:00
home and so we committed to a fouryear
00:25:03
we created a special fund of a million
00:25:06
doll to fund these most mostly youth
00:25:10
organizations we also worked with gord's
00:25:12
you know Gabby gord's organization which
00:25:14
is really committed to ending gun
00:25:16
violence in this country and the Sandy
00:25:18
Hook promise um so other organizations
00:25:21
as well that are committed to to
00:25:23
changing the legislation we're not about
00:25:24
repealing the Second Amendment or
00:25:26
anything else this is about Common Sense
00:25:29
legislation that would reduce the risk
00:25:32
of gun violence in this country that is
00:25:34
broadly supported by weapon owners by
00:25:36
the way um and um and it has been
00:25:40
something that we've been committed to
00:25:42
now for more than four years and we're
00:25:43
going on I think year six or seven now
00:25:47
and uh we played a role um when the
00:25:50
legislation passed Congress uh about a
00:25:52
year or year and a half ago we mobilized
00:25:55
the business Community I got 500 plus
00:25:58
CEOs to sign a letter to Congress to
00:26:01
pass that legislation and I've been told
00:26:03
the business Community played a role in
00:26:06
getting that legisl it's the first
00:26:07
meaningful gun legislation in over 10
00:26:09
years the last thing I will say about
00:26:11
this again I'm a Storyteller sorry it's
00:26:13
great we know that this is one of the
00:26:16
biggest issues with young people in this
00:26:18
country it's second to climate change
00:26:21
you know think about the kids that go to
00:26:23
school they're practicing lockdown
00:26:24
drills my daughter went to Elementary
00:26:27
Middle School in San Francisco they
00:26:29
practice lockdown drills more than they
00:26:31
practice earthquake
00:26:33
drills and and it's a reality that you
00:26:36
know now almost 60% of um almost 60% of
00:26:41
adults know somebody who has been
00:26:43
affected by gun violence so it's
00:26:45
touching everybody so what I I just want
00:26:47
to summarize what I'm hearing you say so
00:26:49
you haven't taken on a lot of issues you
00:26:51
don't take on the flavor of the month
00:26:53
issue but you take on an issue like
00:26:56
lgbtq in the beginning that's really
00:26:58
really true to your brand the second
00:27:00
issue was true to your retail
00:27:01
environment and then you go big or go
00:27:04
home I mean so then once you go into it
00:27:06
you double down on it exactly and so if
00:27:09
there's negative m i mean I imagine
00:27:11
everything you're saying sounds really
00:27:12
positive to me but if there is some
00:27:14
negative you're willing to take that
00:27:16
tradeoff because it's been very
00:27:18
thoughtful and you're going to go into
00:27:20
it with very wellth thought out reasons
00:27:23
and there is that true I mean that that
00:27:25
and you summ summarized it better than I
00:27:27
told the story actually but that that's
00:27:29
exactly right and in fact I have said
00:27:32
one of the biggest challenges we have is
00:27:34
we are known for taking these stands so
00:27:36
we get hit up for everything right can
00:27:38
you help us with this can you help us
00:27:39
with that and and if you if you stand
00:27:42
for everything you stand for nothing so
00:27:43
you it is strategic and it is about the
00:27:47
Halo that it that it provides over the
00:27:50
brand and it has to be consistent with
00:27:52
the brand and you know when you talk to
00:27:55
people about Levis they will say Levis
00:27:57
is a it it is a strong brand it is a
00:27:59
brand that is about using its authentic
00:28:01
voice it is all about empowering people
00:28:04
and so that's why voting rights
00:28:07
democracy all of that is really really
00:28:09
important when the Berlin Wall came down
00:28:11
the kids on the wall were all wearing
00:28:13
Levis that's he took a picture of that
00:28:16
yeah somebody did somebody did it's a
00:28:18
very famous picture it's a famous
00:28:20
picture I love that point sh because I
00:28:21
want to build on that a little bit and
00:28:23
take it in a little bit of a slightly
00:28:24
different direction one of the things
00:28:25
that is a theory about why you get
00:28:28
involved in purpose-driven marketing is
00:28:30
because not only does it signal
00:28:31
something to the the marketplace of
00:28:33
consumers it also signals something to
00:28:35
people you would attract as human Talent
00:28:37
can you speak on on that definitely I
00:28:39
mean when I joined the company one of
00:28:40
the things I did is I went on a
00:28:42
listening tour and I asked the top 60
00:28:44
people in the company six questions what
00:28:47
are the three things that have to change
00:28:48
you know turnaround what are the three
00:28:50
things that have to change what are the
00:28:51
three things you think we have to keep
00:28:54
what's the one thing you hope I will do
00:28:56
what's the one thing you're afraid I
00:28:57
might do what's the one piece of advice
00:28:59
you have for me and I always forget the
00:29:00
sixth question and those are five pretty
00:29:03
good questions I hope someone's writing
00:29:05
them down five great questions I sent
00:29:07
them to the every same questions to
00:29:09
everybody and then I met with the top 60
00:29:12
for about an hour and I thought it would
00:29:15
take 40 interviews to come up with a
00:29:16
clear picture no it was very very clear
00:29:18
early on but one of the things we had to
00:29:20
keep were our values interesting this
00:29:23
was people joined the company and people
00:29:26
through the worst period of time in the
00:29:28
company's history stay with the company
00:29:31
because of who we are and what we stand
00:29:33
for so the purpose of the company which
00:29:35
we talk about is profits through
00:29:37
principles um you know not being afraid
00:29:40
to take a stand on important social
00:29:42
issues that we exist and this goes all
00:29:43
the way back to Levi Strauss himself the
00:29:46
founder we're in business to do them
00:29:49
more than just make a buck for the
00:29:51
shareholder we are in business to be a
00:29:52
force for good in the world I love
00:29:54
hearing this this is so this fantastic
00:29:57
you do kind of bring tears to our eyes
00:29:59
this kind of thing is great uh so let me
00:30:02
shift gears one more time before we go
00:30:04
to our questions from our audience and
00:30:06
ask you about so you were talking about
00:30:08
2016 you know that was a really
00:30:10
polarizing time a lot of this issues
00:30:12
were coming up and Brands were grappling
00:30:14
with that and you gave us in my mind a
00:30:17
very strong strategy for how to deal
00:30:19
with it and what to what's noise and
00:30:20
what's signal and what your Brand's
00:30:22
going to mean but right after 2016 you
00:30:24
might remember 2020 came and yes kind of
00:30:28
do remember
00:30:29
that so like you know leading a brand
00:30:33
during uncertainty like that and we were
00:30:35
talking about that previously you don't
00:30:37
know from one year to the next how to
00:30:39
deal with that how do you do that from a
00:30:41
leadership position deal with all this
00:30:43
uncertainty that the pandemic help Ed
00:30:46
you so I I will say you know as as a CEO
00:30:49
CEO for 12 and a half years the last
00:30:52
four or five years were so much harder
00:30:56
than the first five or six years years
00:30:58
even you know first five or six years I
00:30:59
was dealing with a broken business and
00:31:01
doing a turnaround but the uncertainty
00:31:03
that the pandemic caused um it changed
00:31:07
me as a leader and I I think leadership
00:31:09
has fundamentally changed as a result of
00:31:11
the pandemic too you know when you're
00:31:13
zooming into somebody's home and they're
00:31:15
sitting at the kitchen table with their
00:31:17
5-year-old pulling on their sleeves
00:31:19
because they can't get on iPad to zoom
00:31:22
into
00:31:23
school I developed a completely
00:31:26
different sense of empathy and and a
00:31:28
sense of responsibility for every single
00:31:31
person in the company and so when the
00:31:34
pandemic happened um you know funny
00:31:38
story uh uh the day before we went into
00:31:41
lockdown we were talking about testing
00:31:44
remote work for three days straight
00:31:47
globally and I was getting push back
00:31:50
from the it organization because they
00:31:51
weren't sure if we would break the it
00:31:53
pipes if everybody stayed home and
00:31:56
worked remotely and the next day we were
00:31:58
all locked down wow wow and um a little
00:32:00
bit of luck and skill well no we had no
00:32:03
idea if it was going to work so better
00:32:05
to be lucky than good is what I would
00:32:07
say but um but uh yeah I mean all of our
00:32:11
stores closed you know I look back um we
00:32:15
went into lockdown I think it was March
00:32:16
20th and uh we thought it would be till
00:32:19
the end of March we thought it was going
00:32:21
to be two weeks and we had stores closed
00:32:24
for 6 weeks 8 weeks 10 weeks 12 weeks
00:32:26
depending on the part of the world but
00:32:29
one we we declared a couple of things
00:32:30
very very early on principle based
00:32:33
number one we're going to put our
00:32:35
employees first the safety of our
00:32:37
employees especially our Frontline
00:32:39
employees we had 3200 stores globally
00:32:42
was going to be first and foremost that
00:32:44
we weren't going to jeopardize health
00:32:46
and in fact we rolled out um health care
00:32:49
benefits to our part-time workers during
00:32:53
here in the US specifically because
00:32:54
around most other parts of the world
00:32:56
they're taking care of but here in the
00:32:58
US hourly workers are not and so we put
00:33:02
a safety net in place um second um we we
00:33:07
did have to lay people off during the
00:33:09
pandemic because the business we
00:33:12
normally did call it one a. half billion
00:33:14
dollar a quarter that first quarter when
00:33:17
we went into lockdown we did 500 less
00:33:20
than $500 million of Revenue and that
00:33:24
was all the two and a half or three
00:33:26
weeks before we before we went into
00:33:28
lockdown we did basically nothing the
00:33:30
rest of the the rest of the quarter a
00:33:31
little bit e-commerce business but that
00:33:33
was it MH and we didn't know if this was
00:33:36
going to last for another two weeks or
00:33:39
another two years and so we had a
00:33:42
billion dollars of cash we went from
00:33:43
being really dead heavy to we had a lot
00:33:46
of cash on our balance sheet and I was
00:33:48
like that's enough for about a year
00:33:51
let's go get another half billion
00:33:53
dollars and we went and got more got
00:33:55
more cash on the balance sheet
00:33:57
immediately cuz we didn't know mhm and
00:34:00
um so it was a terrifying it was the
00:34:02
first time in my career I didn't have a
00:34:04
forecast we had high medium and low
00:34:06
that's all we that's that's how
00:34:08
scenarios that's how we were running the
00:34:10
business through the pandemic but um but
00:34:13
the other thing we did we said um we
00:34:15
wanted to exit the pandemic stronger and
00:34:18
we said we wanted the brands to exit the
00:34:21
pandemic stronger and so the the team
00:34:25
this was not my idea most of the good
00:34:27
successes that we've had by the way were
00:34:28
not my idea um I've been I've been
00:34:33
blessed with a with really a great team
00:34:36
and uh but the team came up with this
00:34:38
idea of doing a 501 concert series
00:34:43
streamed from the living room of
00:34:45
different artists right and at 5:01 p.m.
00:34:51
every day reinforced brand to reinforced
00:34:53
the brand it was the 501 concert series
00:34:56
we were going to do it for 30 days it
00:34:58
was such a success we extended it and I
00:35:00
think we did it for about three months
00:35:02
dur during most of the lockdown really
00:35:05
and some amazing things happened but but
00:35:08
people were connecting with the brand
00:35:10
online with these music series and it
00:35:13
was just it was magic so the creativity
00:35:16
that came out during the pandemic was
00:35:18
something that I just wanted to bottle
00:35:20
up and say let's not lose this well you
00:35:22
know there's theory about that to be
00:35:24
most creative you need
00:35:26
constraint I 100% and in fact in our
00:35:29
Innovation program we use sustainability
00:35:32
as a constraint like all of all of our
00:35:36
all of our Innovation is wrapped around
00:35:38
sustainability how do we reduce the use
00:35:40
of water in manufacturing how do we get
00:35:42
rid of the chem the harsh chemicals in
00:35:44
our supply chain and when we land on
00:35:47
Solutions we then open source them to
00:35:50
our competitors because it's like this
00:35:52
isn't going to be a compe you know we
00:35:53
use less water it's not a competitive
00:35:55
Advantage nobody cares right right but
00:35:57
if we all use a lot less water that's
00:35:59
going to be really good for planet
00:36:00
planet Earth right and so we've open
00:36:03
sourced these things that's that's
00:36:05
that's a great marketing strategy in my
00:36:07
opinion that's very good so we're almost
00:36:10
ready to ask other people questions but
00:36:12
I do want to ask like what do you think
00:36:14
was the highlight of so you talked about
00:36:16
difficult Years starting and then you
00:36:19
know the pandemic if you had to look
00:36:21
back what would you say was some of the
00:36:23
things you're the most proud of or the
00:36:24
highlight of your Reign the first would
00:36:27
probably be my team and even as I've
00:36:30
transitioned the leadership now over to
00:36:32
Michelle most of my team is still in
00:36:33
place and and I think that's speaks to
00:36:36
the quality of the succession with
00:36:37
Michelle and really setting her up for
00:36:40
Success um and and really not just my
00:36:43
executive team but but pretty broadly um
00:36:46
because it is at the end of the day a
00:36:48
CEO you're making the Strategic calls
00:36:51
you're making Capital allocation
00:36:52
decisions and you're making people
00:36:54
decisions and so it really is about the
00:36:57
team and and that's probably the thing
00:36:58
I'm most proud of but you know we took
00:37:00
this company and this brand that was
00:37:02
very very broken the brand today by all
00:37:04
metrics is stronger than it's ever been
00:37:08
um and in fact when we were working on
00:37:09
succession the board was like just go
00:37:11
find another U we're real happy with you
00:37:13
just go find another you and I was like
00:37:15
no we don't need another me we need
00:37:18
somebody with a different skill set the
00:37:19
brand is now broke the the brand that
00:37:22
was broken is now F it's strong it's
00:37:24
strong you know strongest it's ever been
00:37:26
right we're now now becoming a retailer
00:37:29
45% of our revenues roughly is in our
00:37:32
own direct to Consumer business it was
00:37:34
20% when I joined we need somebody who's
00:37:37
got really strong retail and digital
00:37:40
chops and that's what we went out and we
00:37:43
got we hired Michelle Goss who was CEO
00:37:46
of Kohl's she joined the company as
00:37:49
president she kind of took a step
00:37:50
backwards in her career to come and
00:37:52
learn the business learn the company
00:37:54
learn the
00:37:55
brand form her agenda while she's still
00:37:59
not in the chair so that day one when
00:38:01
she got in the chair she's ready to go
00:38:03
and so succession is also something I'm
00:38:05
really proud of and then probably the
00:38:07
third thing is we took the company
00:38:09
public back in 2019 2019 and um why did
00:38:14
you do that yeah there are a lot of
00:38:15
people who were like why would you take
00:38:17
a company public um and actually we went
00:38:21
public is dual class so the family still
00:38:24
has voting controls so in some ways we
00:38:26
have the benefits of being private
00:38:28
but we so why did we go public and it's
00:38:30
a good question number one we're in
00:38:32
fifth and sixth generation and now even
00:38:34
Seventh Generation shareholders in in
00:38:37
the family okay so it's been a long time
00:38:39
since Levi Strauss and when you do the
00:38:42
math every generation owns fewer and
00:38:45
fewer shares because they all have kids
00:38:47
and they're splitting them right so
00:38:49
right today our single largest
00:38:50
shareholder holds about 18 family
00:38:52
shareholder holds about 18% prior to the
00:38:55
IPO and um
00:38:58
you know you play that forward in a in
00:39:01
another generation or two the largest
00:39:02
shareholder will hold 2% so number one
00:39:04
it's a question of how do you govern a
00:39:06
company when the largest shareholder is
00:39:08
2% it's kind of hard right um it's
00:39:11
already difficult because we already
00:39:13
have about 100 family members and then
00:39:14
when you add in their trust and other
00:39:16
legal entities a lot more than that uh
00:39:18
two is uh some family members wanted
00:39:21
liquidity and three I firmly believe
00:39:24
that being a public company we will
00:39:25
never have a 15year stretch of
00:39:27
underperformance because the public
00:39:29
investors won't stand for it it will
00:39:32
make us a better company more strategic
00:39:35
more disciplined and that kind of
00:39:37
underperformance for an extended period
00:39:39
of time would never happen as a public
00:39:40
company it's pretty interesting that's
00:39:42
amazing all right well I guess now we've
00:39:45
gone right up to the time it's to hear
00:39:47
from our wonderful audience um and if
00:39:49
you have any burning questions for chip
00:39:51
as you can hear he's pretty well he
00:39:53
thinks pretty clearly he's a very strong
00:39:55
and and admirable leader I mean I've
00:39:57
been very impressed so drop um your
00:40:00
comments in the comment section below
00:40:02
and we'll do the best we'll do our best
00:40:04
to address them and ask them up chip so
00:40:06
let's start out with the first question
00:40:08
here um given the challenges we're
00:40:10
seeing in the retail industry now today
00:40:13
with big retailers shutting down or
00:40:15
going bankrupt how would you begin to
00:40:18
approach reshaping the industry what do
00:40:20
you think needs to change and what I
00:40:21
thought was pretty interesting just to
00:40:24
put build on this is you said you were
00:40:26
moving from a brand to a retailer I mean
00:40:28
that's that's a pretty interesting
00:40:29
statement the brand is still really
00:40:31
important to be clear but um you know
00:40:33
one of the Strategic choices we made 12
00:40:36
and a half years or yeah 12 and a half
00:40:38
years ago right right after I became CEO
00:40:42
we made three big strategic choices to
00:40:44
turn the company around to drive our
00:40:46
profitable core to expand for more we
00:40:48
were underdeveloped in women's we were
00:40:50
underdeveloped in tops there were lots
00:40:52
of places within our portfolio where we
00:40:54
had meaningful Room to Grow
00:40:55
International was underdeveloped
00:40:57
so that was expand for more and the
00:40:59
third Big Choice was to become a leading
00:41:01
worldclass Omni Channel retailer um and
00:41:04
that was driven by walking through
00:41:08
department stores mostly here in the US
00:41:11
but also around the world where I'd walk
00:41:14
in I won't name names but you walk in
00:41:17
and see the Levis padn it looked like a
00:41:19
nuclear bomb went off there and and like
00:41:22
I'm a brand guy that's our brand are you
00:41:25
kidding me that's how you're treating us
00:41:27
right and in our own store we can
00:41:29
control the consumer experience we can
00:41:32
give them an experience we can give them
00:41:34
a differentiated assortment and we also
00:41:37
get the benefit of having that onetoone
00:41:39
relationship so DTC really became
00:41:42
strategic for us 12 and a half years ago
00:41:44
and we've gone from 20% of revenues to
00:41:46
45% of revenues on a revenue base that's
00:41:49
40% bigger so it's been really Central
00:41:52
to the turnaround and I do think you
00:41:55
know there's a big question what's the
00:41:57
the role of department stores in today's
00:41:58
world right you know Macy's got an
00:42:00
activist in their stock Nordstrom's
00:42:02
trying to go private again I mean right
00:42:05
there is kind of we're not even talking
00:42:06
about JCP and ser we're not yeah and JC
00:42:09
Penney had to go private um you know so
00:42:12
there there's real challenges in
00:42:14
departments and and to be clear they're
00:42:16
all customers and we I I love them all
00:42:18
and they they play a very important role
00:42:20
from a distribution footprint standpoint
00:42:23
for us but um but the the being nibbled
00:42:28
away at from all edges right you've got
00:42:30
Amazon and the you know the online
00:42:33
retailers you've got the off pricers
00:42:35
you've got the club stores and then
00:42:38
you've got vertical retail for a lot of
00:42:41
the brands that they've got in their
00:42:42
stores and if you want to buy Levis
00:42:44
what's the point of going to Le to
00:42:46
Macy's if you can go to a Levi
00:42:48
store well the point is if you're buying
00:42:50
Levis and 10 other things Macy's may be
00:42:53
a good stop right but so that I and I'm
00:42:56
picking on Macy's that's unfair there is
00:42:59
kind of we're hopeful about Tony spring
00:43:00
I I'm very I'm Tony's amazing and I'm
00:43:03
hopeful I'm hopeful for all of these
00:43:05
customers and they do play an important
00:43:07
strategic role for the company and for
00:43:09
we don't reach that many places with 275
00:43:13
stores in the United States we need that
00:43:16
wholesale distribution and we need that
00:43:18
Chopper in wholesale so it is but it is
00:43:22
clearly for us our strategic priority is
00:43:25
you know to continue to double down we
00:43:27
had an investor day almost two years ago
00:43:30
and we said we want to get it to 55% of
00:43:32
our Revenue so that is so let me ask you
00:43:35
uh and then I'll get back to their
00:43:36
questions I just want to build on this
00:43:37
for a second so you're you're believing
00:43:39
in physical retail as well as Omni
00:43:41
Channel retail and what a lot of people
00:43:43
are saying is that physical retail is
00:43:45
changing to experiential um in fact Tony
00:43:49
Springs has said that he's going to
00:43:50
bring retail theater into Macy's so do
00:43:54
you have a a a stance on that on what
00:43:57
that means customer experience I yes I I
00:44:00
and I agree with it um I do think there
00:44:02
has to be a differentiated reason for
00:44:04
why a consumer would walk into a Levi
00:44:06
store versus ordering it online from
00:44:07
Amazon it's a lot easier to just order
00:44:09
it online from Amazon and have it show
00:44:10
up on your doorstep and it is about
00:44:13
things that you can get done in the Levi
00:44:15
store that you can't get done online uh
00:44:17
it's about a differentiated assortment
00:44:19
but we've got tailor shops in almost all
00:44:21
of our Mainline doors where you can buy
00:44:23
a trucker jacket and then you can
00:44:25
personalize it you can customize so that
00:44:27
it is yours and and and that is a little
00:44:30
bit of retail theater but it's also an
00:44:33
experience they'll also by the way bring
00:44:35
in your old jeans and if you've got you
00:44:36
know holes or rips or you want to tailor
00:44:39
it a little bit differently our tailor
00:44:41
are amazing and they will do that you
00:44:42
know what that is to me that's the
00:44:44
Genius Bar in apple it it's our version
00:44:47
of The Genius Bar and we've talked about
00:44:48
it that way it is exactly that and and
00:44:51
it gives the consumer a reason to come
00:44:53
in I mean there have been sororities
00:44:55
that have held parties at the at the the
00:44:57
at the tailor shop I mean there are um
00:45:00
but it it provides that theater and that
00:45:03
that opportunity for personalization and
00:45:05
customization but beyond that you have
00:45:07
to have the service I think the
00:45:09
assortment needs to be somehow
00:45:11
differentiated as well so our Mainline
00:45:13
stores T tend to have higher tier
00:45:15
products than what you would find in
00:45:17
most wholesale customers um more tops
00:45:20
you know a different mix of men's and
00:45:22
women's so all of that you know help
00:45:25
brings people in the store it brings
00:45:27
into the store but it also helps build
00:45:28
the brand I mean it is a big brand
00:45:30
building thing for us too so a question
00:45:33
that we got from our audience is how has
00:45:35
Levi started to leverage emerging
00:45:37
Technologies such as AI virtual reality
00:45:40
augmented reality yeah and um and I
00:45:43
would say we jumped on the AI data
00:45:47
science stuff before gen AI um uh uh
00:45:52
pretty early and um we've we've had hits
00:45:56
and misses I guess is what I would say
00:45:58
we built a pretty decent sized
00:46:00
organization over a relatively short
00:46:02
period of time um and have had some
00:46:04
successes and in using um AI in
00:46:08
particular for um assortment planning uh
00:46:12
uh uh demand and Supply matching things
00:46:15
like that um a lot of back office use as
00:46:18
well and using bots in back office to
00:46:21
kind of speed the processing of a lot of
00:46:23
transactional type data um the Gen AI
00:46:27
stuff we've we've had multiple
00:46:29
experiments going on um some have worked
00:46:33
some haven't it's I I would say it's
00:46:35
still early days um we have we have made
00:46:40
Investments during my time uh some of
00:46:43
which I wish I could kind of take back
00:46:45
honestly because I think we got I think
00:46:47
we got you know we fell in love with the
00:46:49
idea faster than you know and again my
00:46:52
middle name is discipline and we were a
00:46:54
little bit undisciplined I think in
00:46:56
going after chasing a lot of the
00:46:59
potential Big Ideas here we invested a
00:47:01
lot in trying to completely automate our
00:47:05
supply planning and and I would say that
00:47:08
was not successful and we spent a lot of
00:47:10
money on it and um uh so instead of
00:47:14
testing small and kind of scaling as we
00:47:17
should have done uh we we got we fell in
00:47:20
love with the idea faster than the idea
00:47:22
proved itself interesting and and we
00:47:24
wound up you know making some mistakes
00:47:26
along Way live and learn um I do think
00:47:29
you know if if
00:47:31
you're if you're running a business and
00:47:33
you're not experimenting with this stuff
00:47:35
and getting experience right you know
00:47:37
you're missing the boat on something
00:47:38
because this is this is clearly where
00:47:41
the puck is going and and I think the
00:47:43
real challenge is where do you begin
00:47:45
testing it and getting experience with
00:47:48
it and is it with consumer facing
00:47:51
activities supply chain related
00:47:53
activities marketing related you know a
00:47:56
lot of companies are using using it for
00:47:57
media and media planning and things like
00:47:59
that and I I think you have to be really
00:48:01
really thoughtful about where and how
00:48:04
you get started we had we got a few
00:48:06
questions that are kind of pedestrian
00:48:08
I'll say but it's kind of interesting
00:48:10
one of them came in is like what's the
00:48:12
right way to wash jeans oh that's that's
00:48:15
the reason is because I'm going to my
00:48:18
grave I said at a sustainability
00:48:20
conference it was one of the first
00:48:22
conferences I did this was probably like
00:48:23
2012 or
00:48:25
23 and denim heads back to Denim heads
00:48:29
they will tell you never put a pair of
00:48:31
jeans in the washing
00:48:32
machine and we did a life cycle analysis
00:48:35
of a pair of jeans and jeans consume a
00:48:38
lot of water 50% of the water that it
00:48:42
consumes are in your washing machine and
00:48:45
mine um and we here in the United States
00:48:48
tend to wash our jeans almost every
00:48:50
single time we wear them right which is
00:48:53
really wrong and we wash them in the
00:48:54
washing machine which is really wrong
00:48:57
and so I famously said and and this I
00:48:59
still get on my news feed it gets picked
00:49:02
up like every week every week I was
00:49:06
misquoted what I what I said was you you
00:49:10
don't need to wash your jeans in in a
00:49:13
washing machine um I said these what I
00:49:17
actually said was these genes have never
00:49:18
seen the inside of a washing machine the
00:49:21
headline the next day was Levi CEO never
00:49:24
washes his
00:49:25
jeans but seriously the way I wash my
00:49:28
jeans and this is also you know found
00:49:30
its way around the world I I either hand
00:49:33
you know kind of spot clean them if I
00:49:35
spill some spaghetti sauce or something
00:49:37
I I'll spot clean them and if they get
00:49:40
really really gross I'll wash them the
00:49:42
way I did when I used to backpack around
00:49:45
Europe which is hop in the shower oh you
00:49:48
wear them hop in the shower soap them
00:49:50
down rinse them off take them out take
00:49:53
them off now now the headline is going
00:49:54
to be you take show goes into shower
00:49:58
fully dressed trust me trust me there is
00:50:00
a YouTube video on
00:50:03
this there is a YouTube video on this uh
00:50:06
somebody some reporter tested it and and
00:50:09
actually that but all seriousness you
00:50:12
know products made out of cotton um some
00:50:15
some might have some stretch and have a
00:50:17
little bit of polyester or something but
00:50:19
the fibers in Cotton get destroyed in a
00:50:21
washing machine and so if you want to
00:50:23
really especially especially if you buy
00:50:26
quality denim like really good quality
00:50:28
denim you just don't want to throw them
00:50:30
in a washing machine you're going to
00:50:31
destroy them much faster than they would
00:50:33
last otherwise if really took care of
00:50:35
them and by the way it's better for
00:50:37
planet Earth yeah right who knew this is
00:50:40
going to be our best
00:50:42
question really cap I told you I was a
00:50:47
Storyteller well I have one more
00:50:49
question and then we're gonna have to
00:50:50
end this has been just amazing but this
00:50:53
is I'm curious that a lot of things
00:50:55
we'll teach this is my question question
00:50:56
but a lot of things we'll teach in
00:50:58
marketing is new marketing is not about
00:50:59
customer acquisition getting everybody
00:51:01
on the planet to buy a new pair of jeans
00:51:04
but it's to go deeper into your customer
00:51:06
base and send them more which sell them
00:51:08
more which suggests that you move off of
00:51:11
jeans into other kinds of product
00:51:13
categories or rather Services you cross
00:51:15
sell and you build out your portfolio
00:51:17
that way do you have a feeling about
00:51:19
that as a philosophy yeah well last time
00:51:21
I checked we don't have 100% market
00:51:23
share so the first opportunity that
00:51:25
we've got is to continue to build market
00:51:27
share and um you know I do think we live
00:51:30
in a world where there is overc
00:51:31
consumption and I think that is going to
00:51:33
change I think the sustainability thing
00:51:35
and young consumers being really
00:51:37
concerned about planet Earth and they
00:51:40
know when they buy something from Fast
00:51:42
fashion and wear it three times and
00:51:44
throw it in the in the garbage it winds
00:51:46
up in the landfill and this is not good
00:51:48
for planet Earth I think consumers are
00:51:50
going to buy fewer things that are more
00:51:51
versatile that are better quality that
00:51:53
are going to last longer if that plays
00:51:55
right to our sweets spot that's what
00:51:58
we're all about quality never goes out
00:52:00
of style and um so I do think over time
00:52:04
you know our aspiration and Michelle is
00:52:07
taking this to the next level her
00:52:09
ambition is to drive this brand to be a
00:52:11
denim Lifestyle brand and that's a
00:52:13
pretty big house to live under we got to
00:52:16
get it right you know first on men's and
00:52:18
women's bottoms then men's and women's
00:52:20
tops but where it goes from there um you
00:52:22
know remain remains but thinking about
00:52:25
other revenue streams is really really
00:52:26
important um and in today's world you
00:52:29
know we're we're testing uh Levis
00:52:31
secondhand. comom where people can buy
00:52:34
secondhand Levis wow so um you know all
00:52:37
of these could be yeah it's a science
00:52:39
project right now it's really really
00:52:40
small but it could be you know another
00:52:43
Revenue stream down the road for us okay
00:52:45
we got one last question that we got to
00:52:47
hit because people are really interested
00:52:48
in this can you talk about vintage and
00:52:51
resale with regard to Levis there are a
00:52:53
lot of people who are now into thrifting
00:52:56
and second hand what's your take on I
00:52:57
have no data to back this up but we're
00:53:00
the number one brand in thrift stores
00:53:02
because people love the hunt and and and
00:53:05
vintage is something I've got a
00:53:07
15-year-old daughter and she's really
00:53:08
into it and um and vintage is something
00:53:12
that authenticates the value of this
00:53:15
brand oh interesting think about it yeah
00:53:17
you'll pay $250 for a 25-year-old
00:53:20
trucker jacket that you could buy brand
00:53:22
new for $150 you'll pay a premium for
00:53:27
something that's 25 years old it says
00:53:29
the value of this brand and so um we are
00:53:33
really big in th stores and that's why
00:53:35
we started up this secondhand um online
00:53:38
business but it it also it does
00:53:41
authenticate the power of this brand and
00:53:44
the fact that people want to hunt for
00:53:46
something that is 20 or 25 years old
00:53:49
that there's added value in that yeah
00:53:52
yeah well that that's incredible yeah
00:53:54
you got one more question or well I mean
00:53:55
it's a sociological IAL exercise it's
00:53:57
it's your your point chip about the
00:53:58
brand being so nostalgically powerful
00:54:01
and iconic it's just one of these things
00:54:03
in human nature that says you know I
00:54:05
want to seek out those things that that
00:54:07
have this sort of value that's
00:54:08
associated with it and you're willing to
00:54:10
hunt I like the experience piece right
00:54:12
because sociological right I mean
00:54:14
exactly exactly very very cool well that
00:54:16
brings us to the end of today's LIVE
00:54:19
edition of marketing matters thank you
00:54:21
so much for being here chip it's really
00:54:23
been inspirational it's been so much fun
00:54:25
thanks a lot thank you we'd also like to
00:54:28
thank our producers Deion Simkins Dana
00:54:30
cash Aaron Tran and our knowledge at
00:54:32
Wharton team and we thank you to
00:54:34
everyone who tuned in to contribute to
00:54:36
this live engaging conversation be sure
00:54:39
to follow us on LinkedIn And subscribe
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00:54:45
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00:54:51
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00:55:00
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00:55:02
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