Levi Strauss India relaunches Dockers

Levi Strauss-India after focussing heavily on its 'Levi' brand for the last three years, is now relaunching its Dockers brand in India. As part of the exercise, the company launched its latest offering 'Never Iron' range of pants in line with its parent US company.

"The innovation is well accepted in the US and through this we were able to perform better. Taking a cue from that, Levi Strauss plans to do the same for Dockers in India," said Shumone Jaya Chatterjee, country manager Levi Strauss India.

Dockers has positioned its range of goods as "comfortable and stylish" causal wear. In 1986, the company came out with khakis, an alternative to jeans and dress pants.

In 2001, it launched Dockers Mobile Pant, an innovative khaki featuring hidden storage pockets for mobile technology devices. And in 2002, the company introduced the Stain Defender technology and this was followed by Sweat Terminator in 2004.

"In 2005, the company is launching 'Never Iron' range. With this launch we plan to aggressively push Dockers brand in India. The company has also initiated a campaign 'Dress to live'. The campaign is backed by television commercials in the US. India is the only market other than the US to see the launch of Dockers's 'Never Iron' range of pants," said Chatterjee.

The launch will also be supported by retail initiatives with seamless experience for the consumers, he added.

The company's technology route to innovative products is being extended to marketing products. For easier marketing, the company is taking technology to its retail outlets. It will highlight the product features and will also display news from Dockers on a monitor placed at the point of display of merchandise.

The company plans to increase its exclusive retail stores' area to 2 lakh sq feet from the current levels of 50,000 sq feet. "Of the 2 lakh sq feet, 25 per cent of the area is being reserved for Dockers," said Jaya Chatterjee.

The company is also making efforts in positioning itself in more multi-brand outlets (MBOs) and national retail chains. "At present, Levi's and Dockers are available in 458 MBOs and 45 retail chains," he added.

Talking about how 'Never Iron' range of pants came into being, Shyam Sukhramani, brand head Dockers, said mens' desire to keep wrinkles off their cotton pants is surpassed only by their distaste for ironing.

"Also, consumer trends indicated that men like the pants they wear to office to be 'crisp and clean'. This gave rise to the current generic 'wrinkle-free cotton pants'. The company holds exclusive rights to 'never iron' cotton technology in pants through 2006 and is priced at Rs 2,199.

For pushing Dockers, the company is also in the process of signing up with new retailers. Presently, the company is selling through standalone stores and retail chains like Shoppers' Stop, Lifestyle and Central.