Let the denim wars begin

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Jul 31, 2001

NEW YORK (AP) -- At a time when apparel sales are anemic, manufacturers and retailers, particularly those catering to teens, are reaching back to the past for fashion's latest fix: denim, particularly jeans.

Two years ago, denim made headlines when designers including Oscar de la Renta played up denim on everything from coats to ballgowns. It also achieved renewed status at Gucci, which showed jeans with adorned hemlines that incited a slew of knockoffs. Now, denim has been redefined for back-to-school, with the focus on low-rise jeans, and a multitude of washes, styles and embellishments. That includes jeans that are sandblasted or bleached, studded or frayed. And there are plenty of mini skirts.

Department store retailers ranging from moderate-priced Kohl's to upscale Saks Fifth Avenue are filling their racks with denim while apparel chains including Gap, Pacific Sunwear of California and J. Crew are increasing their offerings. Even The Limited's Lerner New York, which in the past only offered a few denim styles, has joined its rivals. Denim veterans including Levi Strauss and Diesel have increased their selection, too.

All this activity means consumers will have plenty of choices. But clearly, the industry's zealousness over denim is cause for concern among analysts who fear a denim glut will result in price wars that will only further erode retailers' profits. "We are witnessing a 15 to 20 percent buildup in denim at stores, but only expect a 10 percent increase in denim sales this fall," said Richard Jaffe, an analyst at UBS Warburg. "You are going to see a lot of leftover denim -- at all prices."

Slipping brands

ATLANTA (Cox) -- Coca-Cola is still the most valuable brand in the world, but it's slipping. This is the third year in a row that Interbrand has released its most-valuable brands survey, and Coke has been on top all three times.

Interbrand pegs Coke's brand value at about $69 billion, down 5 percent from last year. Interbrand compiles its figures by looking at financial forecasts, marketing and many other factors.

Coke topped the other best-known brands in the world: Microsoft, IBM, General Electric and Nokia rounded out the top five. Microsoft almost took the top spot from Coke last year, but the software company dropped 7 percent this year. So did every other member of the top 10, with the exception of GE.

The biggest gainer in the top 100 was Starbucks, up 32 percent in value to about $1.8 billion. The coffee company was 88th on the list.

The biggest loser was Xerox, which dropped 38 percent. Not surprisingly, tech companies took big hits in brand value. Cisco Systems was down 14 percent, Compaq declined 15 percent and Amazon.com dropped 31 percent.

The Interbrand survey is published in the Aug. 6 issue of BusinessWeek.

Saved by advertising

NEW YORK (NYT) -- Barely eight years have passed since the campaign first started, but the dairy industry's advertisements, with the "Got milk?" tagline, have made a lasting mark on the American consumer landscape.

A recent study by the California Milk Processor Board indicates that the ads have been instrumental in stemming an erosion in domestic milk sales that seemed pretty much unstoppable back in the early 1990s, when "Got milk?" was first devised by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco, a unit of the Omnicom Group.

Entitled "Milk: Beyond the Glass," the California Milk Consumption Tracking Study, just released, is the 13th in a series conducted by the California board since 1993.

The "Got milk?" ads began running in California in October of that year, and were later used throughout the United States by two national groups: Dairy Management, representing dairy farmers, and the Milk Processor Education Program, which comprises commercial milk processors. Like the California board, these organizations are financed largely by contributions from industry members.

Today, the national organizations use the "Got Milk?" slogan as part of their milk mustache campaign, for which Bozell New York, part of the Interpublic Group, is the creative agency. (Though the mustache is seen in national advertising, California does not use it in its own "Got milk?" ads, which continue to be the work of Goodby, Silverstein). Total marketing budgets are about $24 million in California and approximately $180 million nationwide, according to Jeff Manning, the executive director of the California board.

Though it covers only California, the 600-participant study -- conducted by telephone during January and February -- is equally valid as a barometer of trends nationwide, according to Manning, who noted that California is a highly diverse state with about 11 percent of the nation's population.

Most significantly, the study found that milk consumption in California has stabilized, with 72 percent of those surveyed saying they had used milk within the last 24 hours, and that the average amount they drank during that period was 17.1 ounces. Those numbers are almost the same as the pre-campaign levels in 1993, and they dovetail with figures indicating that roughly 740 million gallons of milk have been sold each year in California since 1993.