got busy learning the nuances of these young consumers' lifestyles and values and the dynamics of their social lives

"The thing that resonates with him is this results orientation," said Jamie Lockard, director of advertising. "You get a sense of urgency from Gordon. Which is good, because it makes every person want to see accomplishments and results."
Accomplishments and results were crucial when an internal segmentation study in 1997 uncovered the sad fact that VF's market share was declining among younger consumers: The plethora of new designer, niche and department store jeans brands were collectively spelling trouble for the two dominant players, Lee and competitor Levi Strauss. While Lee was a desired brand among women in their 30s and known for its fit quality, it was well-populated, fashion-seeking Generation Y who it really needed to reach.
"Our competitive set in jeans had changed," Harton said. "More brands were being sold. We needed to develop subbrands targeted to segments of consumers to better compete with these niche brands."
Harton's team, and Collins specifically, got busy learning the nuances of these young consumers' lifestyles and values and the dynamics of their social lives. One pleasant surprise: Generation Y hadn't formed strong loyalties yet. "They were open to new brands, or older brands offering something new," Collins said. "They thought of us as a brand for older people, but were open to hearing what Lee had to say."
Additionally, they wanted "authenticity, .... durability" and "genuine" traits in their jeans. These clues directed Lee back to the past--to the 110-year-old company's archives, that is--to examine whether its heritage had any equity among the demo. Many focus groups later, Lee chose to leverage three vintage elements that expressed the desired brand personality: the term "dungarees" for its kitschy-yet-cool rebel appeal; the '40s slogan "Can't Bust 'em," which was eventually chosen as durable Dungarees' tagline; and Buddy Lee, a doll used in Lee's promotional displays from the 1920s through the '50s.
But Buddy almost didn't make the first cut. "We thought it was too silly [to test]," Collins said. "We drew out 60 slogans and taglines and campaigns and Buddy Lee. We just laughed every time we saw him." Fortuitously, the doll remained in the test, and the kids went wild. "They liked that we weren't trying to be the sexiest thing out there," Collins said. "That we weren't trying to be a designer jean or something the brand was not."
"We almost didn't show a doll to 18-year-old men," said Lockard, laughing, "and we are really glad we did."
Back in 1997 during the planning stages, Harton headed the brand management team that along with Lockard and Collins included Kent Pech, now vp-consumer marketing, the sales team head who was crucial in convincing retailers why Dungarees was good for the Lee brand and their stores; and Toni Strutz, director of market trends, who's job was taking the research and broader trend material and interpreting it into fashion. On the ad agency side, the account and creative groups at Lee's longtime shop, Fallon McElligott, Minneapolis, worked alongside the company through each step of the process.
Once apparel styles, brand attributes and imagery were selected, the next step was getting the word out. In devising the creative, Lee's challenge was how to stand out among the pack competing for the demo's dollars.
"It wasn't challenging from a brand perspective--we'd done our homework and they were very open to the brand," Lockard said. "But a lot of people wanted them, and the noise level you have to break through is so much greater. Our mantra was, 'Snap their heads back. Get them in a surprising way.' And allow them to discover the brand and invite us into their world, not push something to them."
Eschewing the TV route--that would come later--phase one allowed Gen Y to discover the mysterious Buddy Lee via wild postings in urban environs. In spring 1998, Fallon's shots of the denim-dressed doll were plastered throughout metropolitan construction sites. To pique curiosity, there was no logo, tagline or brand association--just the impish Buddy.
Next, a teaser TV campaign shed more light on this "Man of Action," as he was now billed. Spoofing the action-movie trailer genre to a T--narration was by Don LaFontaine, the deep-voiced theater trailer man--ads previewed The Buddy Lee Story, a "movie" to run graveyard on Comedy Central and other cable channels. A humorous two-part, six-minute recap of Buddy's rise and fall and rise again, the film introduced viewers to the doll's personality traits while serving as right-on satire of formulaic star biographies a la VHl's Behind the Music or the E! True Hollywood Story. Fallon's back-to-school ads were the clincher. Drawing upon Buddy's "genuine" integrity and altruism to solidify the jeans' durability positioning, Lee showed the strong, silent do-gooder braving his way through ridiculously comedic disasters--a mighty twister, an exploding car and an airplane freefall--to help his fellow man. yanzic0619.
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