Izod Much Press Is Devoted

Izod

Much press is devoted to finding out what is going to be the next big thing in marking. However, Leigh Gallagher's article on "Endangered Species" from 1999 of Forbes Magazine, poses the question of what to do regarding product positioning and pricing when one must market the 'last big thing,' or a tried and true brand like Izod whose custom image has become tainted. Although "there isn't anyone who doesn't remember the crocodile," that can prove a negative marketing factor, forcing one to consider how to position one's logo to consumers in a volatile market like clothing, where loyalty and quality have a different kind of marketing appeal, as opposed to, for instance, durable goods.

With Izod, General Mills learned the hard way that the creating the cheapest price for name brand clothing aimed for status-conscious consumers couldn't always be the main objective. When, "figuring knit shirts weren't much different from toasted oats, the company stopped importing the shirts from France in 1975," hoping to skim off a bit of the input costs, "and began making them in Hong Kong. But "U.S. Consumers started noticing changes. No more 'capped' sleeves with reinforced bands around the ends." And gasp -- polyester entered the Izod's formerly all-cotton weaves! But worst yet, the company attempted to use volume to sell the product, and after flooding the market, "by 1985 the badly overexposed croc had little cachet left." Pricing the product lower for such a luxury good worked against the product, as did penetrating the market with large amounts of the good. A return to quality, the new CEO of the company, Barth determined, was in order. The product life cycle must be, essentially redefined and resurrected in such a situation.