by Traverse Legal, reviewed by Enrico Schaefer - May 23, 2011 - p. Trademark News
Knowing how to select and register a trademark is tough. Knowing how to turn your trademark in valuable intellectual property is tougher still. While a trademark attorney can help you legally protect your mark, your creative and business team has even harder work. In this Trademark Law Radio interview, John Anderson, President and CEO of Levi Strauss & Co.talks about how the Levi trademarks have evolved and become some of the most powerful brands in the world.
Highlights:
INTA San Francisco Keynote Address by John Anderson, President and CEO of Levi Strauss & Co.
John Anderson: Well, good morning everybody, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to share with you a little bit about the history of Levi Strauss & Co. Last night, I had the opportunity to meet some of you at the Levi store on Union Square. For those of you that couldn’t make it, I can’t think of a better memento that you can bring back from San Francisco from the #1 jean brand from the House of Strauss where Levi’s was invented. So, please take advantage of enjoying our city, and more importantly, take home some of their great products.
Thinking about our brands, how to protect them, elevate and spread them around the world is something that we are vigilant about at Levi Strauss & Company. So, I’d like to start with a frank admission. It’s no easy business maintaining global brands, and it’s even more difficult to keep a brand relevant while staying loyal to its roots. Good brands always benefit from a strong history, of course. But brands are also organic. They live and die based on their relevance to what’s happening now with the culture, competitors, and consumers, and staying relevant is hard, constant work. Add a counterfeiting industry that is growing in strength and sophistication. Throw in fierce competitors, each with their own strengths. Put into the mix a global economic crisis and a planet that needs green sustainable businesses. What you get, when you add it all together, is a tremendous challenge, one that requires more work, integrity, and innovation than ever before. In midst of all of this, I’m pleased to say, the brands of Levi Strauss & Company not only endure but get stronger, especially over the last decade. None of our success on this front has been accidental or pure good luck. Our brand strategy has been a conscience, careful effort played out over our history. That strategy, and what we’ve learned from the process, is my topic today. Specifically, I’d like to talk about three things, three things that have gotten us where we are and that will guide us as we move forward.
First, I want to talk about authenticity and how authenticity is critical to a brand success. The lawyers in the room probably want me to say that a brand is a complex set of laws and trademarks, and they may be right, in part. Yet, as I’ll explain, an inauthentic brand cannot stand the test of time, and it cannot thrive in a global economy. Second, I want to discuss iconography. In an industry filled with imitation and a world where intellectual property is constantly under threat, a brand cannot survive merely as an idea. Rather, it’s a name and a visual aesthetic and a symbol of values and principles. And finally, I want to talk about innovation. People tend to think that brands are fixed ideas. In fact, creative brands have to introduce new ideas constantly. Certainly no American brand can expect to survive globally by resting on its history. The associations of brand names at home may not translate abroad, and brands need to develop in new markets in order to survive. I’ll try to avoid talking too much about the legal details of our trademarks and our brands. I really don’t want you to feel as though you’re at work here this morning. Instead, I’d rather tell you a story that will shed some light on what have made our brands at Levi Strauss & Co. so evocative and how they’re being rediscovered around the world. It’s taken almost a century and a half to get here. And despite some setbacks, we’re thrilled to be where we are today.
Let’s start with authenticity. A company can have a trademark, a logo, a product line, and a marketing plan, but without authenticity, it will not have an honest, enduring brand. For us, authenticity comes down to three simple questions. Do your business practices have the same integrity as your products? Do you conduct your business in a way that clearly reflects a consistent set of values? And do you pursue profit with principles? These questions aren’t a matter of market research or advertising. All of us who work at Levis Strauss & Co. have arrived at a company with a very rich legacy. To be authentic is to live up to that legacy. Ours is more than just being the company that invented the blue jean. It’s that, of course, but also how we’ve done business over the past century and a half. Many of you may be familiar with our history. From the beginning in San Francisco more than 150 years ago, our founder always believed that a company had to act in a way that made a difference to the communities in which we worked. Levi Strauss, himself, made generous donations to a local orphanage and set up a scholarship fund for both men and women. In 1906, an earthquake razed our San Francisco factory and brought business to a standstill. But the company’s employees, each and every one, received their pay while the factory was being rebuilt. This is a vision of how our company ought to behave, and it has been with us ever since. In the era of segregation, we opened our factories to African-American workers, even in the south. In the wake of the HIV AIDS epidemic, we were among the first companies to institute an education program for our workers. In 1992, we were the first Fortune 500 company to offer benefits to same sex partners. And we were the first company to establish a formal terms of engagement for our factories around the world. These standards help ensure that the people that make our product are treated fairly and ethically. In fact, just last week, we celebrated the twentieth anniversary of our terms of engagement by proposing the next evolution of our policies, to raise the bar again to improve workers’ lives around the world. None of these efforts is a special initiative or a once a year charity project. The company introduced a new style of clothing to America, and since then, we’ve always thought of ourselves as pioneers. Pioneers of what we made, pioneers in how we act. It is that legacy and our consistent efforts to build upon it that gives our brand authenticity. Today, when we build a green headquarters or educate consumers about washing their jeans less to save water or introduce HIV prevention programs in our factories, we see these steps as integral parts with what Levis Strauss & Company does. THAT’S what authenticity means. Consumers and business partners see it right away. They understand that we’re a commercial enterprise. But they also recognize that we have a set of principles that guide our business. I think that’s what keeps our brands fresh, relevant and distinct. Unfortunately, however, authenticity is not enough. Every global brand needs not just the social responsibility but the captivating iconography recognized the world over. That leads me to my second part, creating iconography.
Developing it and supporting it has been a conscious and carefully planned component of our strategy. We view our icons, not just as a form of marketing, but as a critical piece of brand protection. In fact, it is a response to a very old problem. Today, denim jeans are the most popular clothing item in the world. We invented the character, popularized it, stylized it and help transition it from work wear to everyday casual clothing. The very first pair was marketed in 1873, and we received a patent shortly thereafter. This gave Levi Strauss & Co. the exclusive right to manufacture what was then called riveted clothing. The patent, however, was only good for seventeen years. When it expired, we anticipated a flood of competition that would mimic our brand and make it difficult for consumers to identify the original Levi’s jeans. To stay ahead, we created the unique back pocket stitching design in 1873, and the two horse logo in 1886. Both the stitching and the logo provided images consumers could associate with the original Levi’s jeans before the market became swamped with imitators, and the shapes and the pictures of those two icons where critically important. With a diverse consumer base, many of whom were illiterate or could speak no English, we wanted icons that would communicate without language. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. By the mid-1930’s, denim jeans of all sorts were flooding the U.S. Market. No matter who made them, people called them Levi’s. We protected the name of our brand to ensure it maintained its status as a trademark and did not become generic. In the 1930’s, we added another piece of iconography to our jeans, the highly contrasting red tab. It set us apart. It not only visually set our brand apart from imitators, it taught us a valuable lesson. Brand protection is not a onetime deal. To protect a brand, you’ve got to constantly tend to it and, when necessary, to update it. In fact, the red tab helped distinguish our products for a few decades, until competitors began to incorporate the same idea into their products. We have diligently protected and enforced our valuable trademarks in court and other enforcement venues throughout the world. As a result of our consistent, ongoing brand efforts, consumers can rely on the tab as one way to identify a Levi’s product. Let me mention one other time when we went the extra mile to protect the distinct features of our brand. Everyone recognizes our signature back-pocket stitching. We call it arcuate stitching. It was introduced, as I mentioned, in the 1870’s. It too was copied by our competitors. And then the company ran into an interesting problem. World War II began and the U.S. Government’s rationing agents started looking for anything they could reign in. Someone in the rationing office, who clearly didn’t appreciate the importance of iconography, let the company know that our distinct stitching was, in their words, wasteful. We were told to stop using it. Fortunately, we also had some creative brand managers back then. They came up with an innovative solution. We started painting the design on the back of each pair of jeans, and we put a new pocket flasher on the jeans to explain the change to our consumers. As you can see here, we marketed for the duration of the war. Protecting our icons was clearly in our blood. Even today, when you think about that our distinct look was beyond imitation, we keep facing challenges, especially as we see rapid growth outside the U.S. We see iconography as one of the best tools to protect and elevate our brand. It increases our visibility, engages consumers and also raises the barriers against imitators. With that in mind, brand iconography has to be ongoing, dynamic activity, even for a company like ours with a rich history. I’d like to share a video that provides a perspective on the changes we’re bringing to our Levi’s global brand iconography and why it is important. It is narrated by Robert Hanson, Global President of the Levi’s Brand. Let’s show the video.
Robert Hanson: Ever since we invented the original riveted jeans for prospectors headed out to search for gold, we have created the definitive jeanswear for successive generations of young people and help give them confidence to break new ground again and again. The truth is, we’ve always been the brand for pioneers. Our goal is for Levi’s to become a truly iconic global brand. And as we thoughtfully craft everything from our products to our marketing, our iconography will come to represent all of our best efforts.
Levi’s has used many logos in its history. We decided to craft a refined set of graphic marks that capture both the heritage of the brand and its new sense of purpose for the future. Everything we needed to create our iconography was right here, on the back of a pair of Levi’s jeans. Our famous red tab provided the ®, a uniquely Levi’s mark of authentication and, of course, the color red. The back pockets stitching in the branding device that we have used most consistently throughout our history. The shape that forms at the top of the pocket is unique to Levi’s and has been used over the years for logo’s and packaging. So, this is our brand icon. We call it the batwing. Our goal is for the batwing to become universally recognized as THE icon for our brand. But before we get there, we need to help people associate the batwing with the Levi’s name. So, we took the lettering from the tab and created a second mark. We call this mark, the house mark, and its purpose is to identify our brand until we have built recognition for the batwing. Levi’s has a rich visual history, but our tendency to reproduce archive imagery has sometimes held us back, giving the impression that the brand was stuck in the past. In our early days, two horses pulling on a pair jeans was a physical demonstration of our products extraordinary strength. Different versions of this image have been associated with Levi’s throughout our history. So, we restored and then updated the image, emphasizing the original idea of strength. We call this mark, TWO HORSE. We believe it perfectly captures our unique heritage, but making it relevant today and for the future. TWO HORSE forms part of the re-crafted artwork for our leather patch on classic Levi’s products. The pocket stitching, the tab, the patch, the buttons, as well as the rivets, are all unique to Levi’s. To preserve their uniqueness as fabrication details, we will no longer use them as logos for profits, but they serve as the inspiration for our iconography. So, these marks form the cornerstones of our visual identity. Through their consistent use, we can build global recognition while opening the door to endless creative opportunities.
John Anderson: As you’ve just seen, we’ve had many logos over the years. While the stitching and the red tab brought us through the last century, this one demands something more. With TV, billboards, magazines, on-line ads and social media, you need consumers, regardless of location, to be able to quickly, easily and unmistakably recognize your brand. Where updating our logo because we believe that to be a globally recognized brand in the 21st century, you need to have an iconography beyond the designs on your clothing. And this brings me to my third part.
For a brand to be globally relevant, it must always be innovative. This is the double-edged work that is necessary in our industry. A brand must be both timeless, yet cutting edge, novel but classic. It must reach for new audiences that stay loyal to its oldest consumers. It must break new grounds with its designs, but never do so without listening to what its consumers are saying. But luckily for us, we have some experience with innovating in a global environment. From its beginning, Levi’s Strauss & Co. has always aspired to be a brand without borders. In the 1920’s, we were publishing advertisements in multiple languages, and our culturally diverse American West, the Levi’s brand was a cultural breach. Hispanic, African-American, European, Asian, it didn’t matter; Levi’s jeans were for everyone. In the 1950’s, we went international, both in business and philanthropically. We donated our jeans to refugees in Korea, and we sold them in Europe, Russia, Australia, and Japan. We created our first international division in 1965, and today we have a tremendous market in Asia. In fact, we can take credit for and see change in Chinese consumers’ attitudes towards clothing. Until the last decade, the Chinese would never think of spending money on casual clothing, denim, and we had lots of imitators there who are seen as something cheap, something template. But our jeans consciously entered the market as a premium brand and effectively invented a new category, premium casual wear. Today, a pair of Levi’s jeans sells for more than $100.00 in China, one of their highest price points in Asia. Even with this name recognition, however, we did not sit still. Our entire conception of brand building outside the United States is to match our unrivaled history with new ideas, new designs, new fabrics and new finishes. In fact, last year we launched a completely new line of clothing called Denizen for the growing young consumer base in emerging markets, like China and India. It’s the first Levi’s brand to launch outside of the United States. It is a fresh, affordable, optimistic style that is engaging a new set of consumers. Based on the consumer response, we’ve expanded Denizen to Singapore, South Korea, Pakistan, and this summer it’s coming to Mexico and the United States. Introducing a new brand outside of your home base can be tricky. But we feel confident that the Denizen brand will succeed. From our past, we’ve learned that significant commercial success follows when a brand is thoroughly protected, well promoted, and run according to company values. Innovation, however, isn’t just about finding new markets. Innovation also means new thinking and rejuvenation, and that’s just what we’re doing with the Docker’s brand. As the brand that invented and defined the khaki category, the way the Levi’s brand invented denim, we’re focused on reinvigorating the category and making khakis appealable to the modern man. With new slimmer fits and a range of washed colors, these are not your boss’s khakis. But it takes more than rejuvenation to stay on the cutting edge. You also need to invent, to introduce, and to put new things in the market that redefine a consumer’s experience with your product. For decades, even the designer jean wars of the 80’s and 90’s, the entire industry measured jeans the same way. You’d size the waist and the inseam, then you’d offer a few different cuts based on those measurements. Jeans were the most popular clothing product in the world, so nobody bothered to re-approach or re-think the ways that jeans were measured except us. While it was only a murmur, we heard our female consumers talking about how they could find jeans that were a good fit and never a great fit. In fact, 80% of women told us that they bought jeans that did not fit. So, we gathered the top talent from around our company, and we studied measurements from over 60,000 women from around the world. What did we learn? We learned that jeans for women should be based on shape not size. Now, with Levi’s Curve ID, women have a new empowering option in denim. They have a line of jeans that have been designed from the ground up just for them. They have an option that fits them like no jeans have ever done before. Levi’s Curve ID doesn’t just offer a new style of jeans for women, it offers an entirely new fit based on new ways of measurement. But while we know our consumers care about fit, they also want to know that products are created in a responsible way. As a company, we have embedded sustainability into everything we do. So we challenged ourselves to try to reduce the amount of water we use in finishing our jeans. This work led to the development of Levi’s waterless jeans. They have great style, great fit and they save a lot of water, 16 million gallons in our spring line alone. This kind of innovative thinking is what brand management requires today. Sometimes, you need to revigorate, as with the Docker’s brand. Sometimes, you need to rethink the fundamental assumptions that create a product, as with Levi’s Curve ID. And sometimes, you need to keep a product exactly as it is, only you need to revolutionize the way you make them. To keep a global brand alive and enduring, you can’t stand pat in any facet of the products life. Innovation is an all encompassing, top to bottom, start to finish perspective. It’s not a philosophy, but an attitude. Not a business plan, but a way of life. I’ve been very privileged to spend much of my career at Levi Strauss & Co. Even through tough times, the experience has taught me how valuable it is to have an iconic brand. There is nothing better than your power of industry than to tell people, anywhere on the planet, that you work for Levi Strauss & Co. But as everyone in this audience knows, the flipside of an enduring brand is the need to keep it strong. It is amazing in business history how many well-being brands can suddenly become also rans after a period of neglect. That’s why we take protecting our brands so seriously. But my message today is that a brand needs protection more than the courts and the lawyers, with all due respect to all of you in the audience. It takes a commitment of leaders to remain authentic. In a visual age, it takes inspired icons that cut across cultural and linguistic barriers, and most of all, it takes visionary designs and product specialists whose enthusiasm for new ideas and innovation allow a company to keep even the oldest brand feeling fresh. That is what made our jobs so invigorating. On the one hand, we are responsible for carrying on a great legacy. On the other, we’re looking at new ways present our products in markets that our founders would only imagine. In a world like this, brand matters more than ever, but the competition to keep brands defended, and relevant, is one of the greatest business challenges managers face. I hope I’ve given you some ideas of the evolving dimensions of this challenge. I hope it will inspire your discussions here in San Francisco. Enjoy our city. As I’ve said, come visit our great stores in Union Square, the Castro or in our Headquarters, and have a wonderful conference. Thank you very much.
As a founding partner of Traverse Legal, PLC, he has more than thirty years of experience as an attorney for both established companies and emerging start-ups. His extensive experience includes navigating technology law matters and complex litigation throughout the United States.
This page has been written, edited, and reviewed by a team of legal writers following our comprehensive editorial guidelines. This page was approved by attorney Enrico Schaefer, who has more than 20 years of legal experience as a practicing Business, IP, and Technology Law litigation attorney.
