Marketing activities Essay

Jeans are just an ordinary piece of clothing to many people. To others, however, they are a powerful means of self-expression. This fact is confirmed by the sheer number of companies that produce jeans, including Levis, Gap, Old Navy, Calvin Klein, Armani, Guess, Miss Sixty, Tommy Hilfiger and many others. Jeans are one of many ways in which a person can send a message to other people concerning various aspects of one’s character, an easy and understandable way at that. Given the large scale of marketing activities of clothing manufacturers nowadays, if jeans did not send a message, the producing companies would invent a message for them. It is just so fascinating to impart a twist of meaning to a couple of pants so that the pubic can identify them with a particular style or trend. This is the age of individualisation and customization, and clothing manufacturers do not want to stay behind. They want to make their product specific and readily recognizable – and they do everything they can to appeal to their target audience with a specific message. For instance, Levis are now seen as a traditional American outfit, something that brings one back to the times of life on the frontier or something that our grandparents wore. Gap, on the contrary, is a more youthful, girlish look, and so is Miss Sixty. This process can be described as branding, a concept familiar to every marketer who knows that if a piece of clothing does not send a message, it is the job of the marketer to invent this message and make sure the potential buyers are able to recognise it. The marketers’ task is to plant in the mind of the consumer the idea that carrying a certain brand is linked to a philosophy, that a company does not stand merely for a set of machines with workers as appendages, that it can develop and sustain an ideology embodied in a simple pair of jeans. What kind of messages can jeans send out? First, a person can opt for a traditional or a modern design, underscoring the level of commitment to modernity and change. It is most often natural for older people to choose traditional fashion, classical fits that will last for many years without violating the norms of fashion. The young, on the contrary, will most often wear the fashions of this very season in order to underscore that they are at the forefront of fashion. When, for instance, an older person may opt for a more modern cut going to a youth venue for some reason. This can send out a message to the younger crowd that this person wants to be in many ways like them and share their experiences in different possible ways. Then there is the question to be solved as to how much sex appeal the jeans should hold. We all remember very well this trend towards super-tight men’s jeans that mostly young guys wore partly because it was fashionable and partly because they wanted to demonstrate their attractions to the opposite sex. Girls can also wear tight jeans or choose those that are very low-cut to emphasize their appeal. As with revealing clothing in general, a person wearing such clothing demonstrates that he or she is very confident of one’s ability to attract other people and happy or at least not shameful of one’s figure. This is not always the case, and those who think their bodies are distasteful are not likely to choose jeans that will reveal a large part of it. Another message linked to wearing sexy jeans is the manifestation of the desire to be liked by the opposite sex. Surely we all or almost all have this desire, but not everybody would dare to reveal it in public, either in words or in clothing. Many people are wary of being too open about this inner drive and try to suppress it as something indecent. The individual who chooses to demonstrate this natural instinct is sending a message to representatives of the opposite sex: â€Å"Look at me, I want you to appreciate me. Am I not good-looking? † Tight jeans will almost surely make guys inspect a girl’s figure more closely than that of her more modest friends even if those look like top models. She will then attract more suitors – but at the same time risks incurring girls’ anger as they recognize that she is out on a hunt and will grab a fair share of what could have been their prey. Thus, wearing provocative jeans can also be a sign of daring, ability to defy social norms and to disregard the opinion of other people. Since in most cultures flirting is reserved for informal surroundings, a person who puts on a sexy-looking pair indicates that he or she believes to be in a setting where flirting is acceptable and one can expect to find a partner. Few people would seriously consider putting on provocative jeans on a corporate outing since this would send the wrong message to the colleagues. Besides, jeans can look either sophisticated or sloppy, and this distinction, too, is meaningful. A person may choose to look sloppy in order to underscore the informality of the situation and to make others feel at ease. This effect can occur when, for instance, an official or top-level executive invents a little outing with subordinates and wants to appear in the image of a simple, down-to-earth man attentive to their needs and feelings. Choice of an upscale-looking, elegant pair of jeans may not be quite the right choice since this will remind the inferiors once again about the difference in the social status between them and their boss. A casual, sloppy pair will be more acceptable.