Oct 24 2011
We’re selling a new type of good – individualism.
Finding that SPECIAL set of jeans just for you.
Songs: a good always customized
Increased customization of jeans offers a sense of individuality. REFERENCED: "Advertisement." Photograph. Levi's Jeans Go Organic for Fall 2006. Collin Dunn. Portland: Levi's, 2007. Web. 24 Oct 2011.
Walking along Main Mall, every girl’s jeans appear to be generally the same. Blue, check. A brand name, check. Boot cut or flare, check. It seems our assembly-line, mass-producing culture has squeezed out individuality. Think about it – when is the last time you sewed a pair of pants and wore something truly unique?
Levy Jeans has fortunately noticed millions of women’s unfulfilled needs and has begun offering custom jeans. Clothes are a personal canvas – and the importance of being unique makes people willing to pay a higher price; so, customization increases a firm’s pricing power. So what’s the catch? Customization is expensive. Yet, the internet virtually eliminates this cost, offering an inexpensive platform for taking mass orders for customized products. What’s the best part of Levy’s customization strategy? Think about it – jeans share many common components and can thus be created from mix and match modules that all share the same basic inputs – so Levy’s wont have to increase its inventories. By using the same inputs to produce a different product – Levy’s is creating value from nothing, an “illusion of choice” with a higher price. Moreover, as these jeans are “built-to-order” – it reduces the amount of merchandise Levy must hold, thus reducing the risk of not being able to sell stock. It’s kind of ironic, isn’t it. Asking a mass producer for an individualized product.
Referenced from this article: http://www.salon.com/2003/03/05/levis/