Q1:
A marketing information system is the set of procedures and methods for making the regular planning, collecting, analysing and presenting the information for making it useful for making marketing decisions (Strydom, 2007). The process of marketing information system goes through three stages. At first, the system collates the data which are required for marketing decision. Then the data is used to do market research and finally the data get processed to aid in marketing decision (Kumar & Sharma, 1998).
Levi Strauss is now in a position where they are in urging need to regain or re-establish their brand reputation within the European market or to be more precisely they need to achieve the current market position for their European business. For this reason, they can use marketing information system procedure to develop and implement marketing strategies.
For instance, in relation to their customer satisfaction, they can use the test report generated on 2008, where their product has proved to be inferior to that of other brands like Pepe or Wrangler in terms of quality and yarn. Levi Strauss can use this information to put into their plan so that they can clarify and improve their product quality for satisfying more customers and pass any quality test.
Also, Levi Strauss can use information uprising brand like Armani or Yves St Lauren which are being tagged as “coolest jeans” within the market. Later on, Levi Strauss can put them into their own product range so that the customers could realise that Levi’s lines are also cool.
Finally, Levi Strauss can use cost calculation which they could save by closing down four European factories. They can estimate the savings and can also pass some of them to invest into their marketing projects.
The above all mentioned are linked up with their operational marketing strategies which can be aid of their achieving position of European market.
Q2:
In order to making the strategic marketing decision effective, the organisation needs to understand the changing dimensions of the environment in which they operate and also the impact that it could make to its competitive position (Doole & Lowe, 2007). So to understand the environment, an analysis should be made for Levis Strauss for their market.
Levi Strauss should do SWOT analysis in order to justifying their position to match them with the capabilities needed for the environment. The SWOT analysis would accomplish Levi Strauss objective by exploring the opportunities and strengths, with neutralising the threats and rectifying the weaknesses with strengths (Griffin, 2012).
Levi Strauss’s strength is they have premium position within the market thanks to their successful advertising campaign. They are charging retail premium prices. That is why they are making strong profit by selling their 501 lines.
Levi Strauss’s weakness is they have failed a customer test report. The report produced that the rivals have outperformed Levi in terms of quality and yarn. So this is a point where Levi Strauss needs to work out. They need to ensure that their product match to their rival’s quality and yarn as everyone has the provision of enjoying the same cost competitiveness within the market.
The opportunities for Levi Strauss are that they have opened up their own stores in some locations where they intend to sell their exclusive Levi lines. They can scoop up these opportunities with the exploitation of their strengths to sell their premium products with premium charge at their retail stores.
The threats for Levi Strauss possess mainly within their rivals. The Diesel has narrowed down their market for the premium customers by focusing only niche market. So Levi could miss out on this by losing premium customers. Also, the intense competition is tolling from the rivals like Calvin Klein and Lee jeans which are doing well. Another biggest posing threat is from Armani and Yves St Lauren with “coolest jeans” tag on their products.
Q3:
Strategic