Killer Jeans: Marketing Strategy, Marketing Mix

Killer was launched in 1989. Killer jean was the first international denim brand in India. The brand targeted the customers between age group of 16 to 30 years. Killer is known for redefining corporate fashion in India. Here, has the perfect blend of style and comfort with fresh colors, patterns, and trendy cuts. From semi-formals to polo-tees; from smart trousers to comfortable three-fourths, Killer has gone a long way to impress the man who loves to take life easy.

Killer jeans own a total of 74 stores across Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 cities. Killer brand contributes around 53% of total company sales. It also claims a volume marketing share of 25% in the Denim category. Killer brand has its Brand positioning like: “Denim with an Attitude”.

What exactly a brand is??

The answer is : Everything. Beyond the memorable Logo, good branding increases the value of a business, provides employees with motivation and direction.

Killer Jeans have strong brand presence with over 1600 points of sales in the form of MBO’s with chains like shopper’s stop, Central, Lifestyle and their exclusive brand outlets like K-lounge in all Tier 1 cities.

Diversifications into other products line like: Killer Teas, Innerwear, Footwear, and Eyewear to make it a complete Lifestyle brand.

Innovative ad-campaigns to made a strong connect with the youth, that is their main target audience.

Killer brand has been termed as India’s first international denim wear brand with its exporting denim wear to North-east, USA, Africa, and South-east Asia since 1994.

Self-manufacturing activities are always a great strength of a brand and killer jeans owns 5 units with an annual capacity of over 30 lakh pieces.

Weaknesses of Killer Jeans are:

Though the brand has stretched its portfolio with many diversifications, it still has to heavily depend on denim wear for its revenues.

The brand is facing increasing competition from the other siblings brands like lawman and integrity that too are emerging in Denim wear.

Killer Brand is mainly targeted at customers between the age group of 16 to 30 years. The brand is definitely for someone with a unique sense of style and provides a refreshing new outlook on life. Killer is perfect for the fashion-conscious and trend follower who mainly loves to go out on the weekend to hang out with friends.

Marketing mix mainly refers to the set of tactics or actions that a company uses to promote its product or brand in the market.

The brand marketing budget of Killer Jeans for the year 2018 was around 22cr out of which Digital Media was given priority.

Digitally, Killer Jeans is actively present on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

On Facebook, Killer has 142k followers. For better communication brand uses vibrant colors and bold fonts.

It uses different slogans. The current mantra on the Facebook page is: “This is us, together as one”.

On Instagram, Killer has 3.8k followers. On Instagram, the company mainly used grids as compared to stand-alone creatives.

On Twitter, Killer has 7.3k followers, and grids are used as compared to stand-alone creatives to promote the brand.

Killer Jeans: YouTube Promotion

On YouTube, Killer has 625 subscribers. For Killer, video promotion seems to be a powerful medium of communication with the audience.

Levis and Pepe jeans are the two main competitors of Killer jeans in the market:

Levis mainly targets the upper-class segment and upper-middle-class segment. The Levis brand USP (Unique Selling Point) is that it is the oldest jeans brand, yet modern in its style and fit.

Pepe jeans is the fastest growing brand and carry a different view for selling jeans. The company targets in providing total satisfaction to the customers by giving exceptional attention to the service. Pepe jeans are good for designing menswear, women wear, Kidswear, and themed collection.

People mostly like Lee and Pepe jeans over the Killer Jeans.

According to the survey, customers still prefer to buy jeans from an offline store as they always want to check the quality and the fitting of the clothes physically.

Killer Jeans: Customer Pain points

According to the customers, there are several pain points:

Brand communication always been more of a one way.

Killer has less brand awareness as compared to its competitors.

With the growing competition, Killer Jeans wants a strong media presence to have a larger impact on the audience.

The Killer brand has always believed in connecting the youth and communicating a strong message to them. The brand with its marketing strategy has always tapped into concepts like: “This is one, together as one”.

To make a strong connection with the target audience through constant two-way communication.

To generate more awareness about the brand leading to increase in sales.

To promote the brand’s as “rebellious”.

The campaign was divided into 4 parts with Hashtag #KillerFiller:

This stage was launched by posting creative on different social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for 8 days.

This campaign was mainly based on-ground activities like flash mobs, street plays, and skits. These different activities were performed at various places like malls, railway stations, airports, and movie theatres for 20 days.

The end of this stage would trigger the launch of the third stage i.e.: the #KillerFiller challenge.

This stage was focused on promoting the #KillerFiller which was the viral challenge for the youth. Social media platforms, testimonial videos, OOH, Ambient advertising, YouTube ads were used to showcase this for 15 days.

This stage was focused on the mood of the campaign through a renowned influencer. In this stage, the products were softly promoted for 6 days.

Different offline mediums were used by killer jeans to market the campaign offline.

Hoardings

Newspaper Advertisement

Depending on the profession of the person, content on the hoarding has changed.

Killer jeans used newspaper advertisements to promote the campaign better.

The campaign had been planned to integrate. According to the brand, through this campaign the brand had a strong media presence as compared to its competitors (Levis and pepe jeans).