• by Joan Voight , December 29, 2010

It used to be that when a pair of new jeans didn't fit, a young woman thought there was something wrong with her. Now, when new jeans don't fit, she thinks there is something wrong with the jeans. Levi Strauss, one of the world's largest makers of women's jeans, is trying to adapt to that new reality with its Curve ID products and marketing.

"Since we created our first women's jeans 75 years ago, no one has changed the formula for finding the perfect fit," claims You Nguyen, Levi's senior vice president of women's merchandising. "Our revolutionary approach looks beyond waist size." Now, in addition to offering pants based on waist and length measurements, the brand has added a third measurement - the width of women's derrieres. Picking the right terminology was crucial: Curve ID sizes come in "slight" curve, "demi" curve and "bold" curve. Levi's says that extensive global research showed that 80 percent of women fit within these three body shapes.

"Offering jeans that fit all women is tied to Levi's theme of empowerment and the democracy of jeans in the brand's overall 'Go Forth' campaign," says Doug Sweeny, vice president of brand marketing. "Frankly, we've had various stops and starts with the women's line over the years. With Curve ID we are [creating] a clean slate."

Fitting Start
Initial reaction suggested the curve idea might be too good. Levi's acknowledgment that shopping for jeans frustrated most women clearly hit a nerve. But some women thought the launch marketing and product offering did little to solve the problem, and sometimes made it worse.

For the August launch, ads from Wieden & Kennedy with the giant headline, "All Asses Are Not Created Equal," sprouted in magazines and on billboards throughout the country. The ads drove people to a "global digital fitting room" on levi.com where a woman could identify what her shape was, explore product demos and learn more about the company's "fit science."

Use of the vernacular "asses" got a smattering of local media reaction for being crass, but younger woman generally appreciated that the brand was using the term they used with friends. And at the end of September, Ellen DeGeneres riffed on her talk show about the frustration of finding jeans and lauded the new Curve ID solution.

Customer feedback seemed promising, particularly among the 18-35-year-old target. "Women who used to have to try on 10 pairs of jeans to find a pair that fit, told us they only had to try on one or two Curve ID pairs to find a great fit," says Sweeny. "On the product level, the reaction has been phenomenal."

Butting In
But the promise of inclusion galvanized online critics. The ads were designed to celebrate the diversity of women's curves, but the models pictured were tall, lean, almost all fair-skinned, and hardly "curvy," as bloggers were quick to note. Also, the phrase "not created equal," sounded to many like it meant some curves were better than others. Indeed, in the Declaration of Independence, "created equal" is a phrase of empowerment.

"Whose ass is not equal? Mine, because it's a size 12 instead of a size 4?" posted Shelby Knox, a young sex-education activist and star of an award-winning documentary. "Your very tagline undermines your whole campaign by implying the same trope that you're claiming to subvert." Summing up what others were blogging, she added: "We're not grateful, Levi's, that you're finally making jeans for us non-models. I'm pissed it took you this long to recognize me as worthy of your product."

Jen Phillip, the editorial coordinator at Mother Jones magazine, posted: "Levi's could have used full-figured women or at least a model of color, but instead they chose slender models to demonstrate they understand how to fit American women, who are on average 5'4" and 160 pounds."

The criticism prompted others to give the brand good grades for effort. "I give them the benefit of the doubt ... because I think Levi's is trying. Maybe they don't deserve a pat on the head and a cookie, but they're trying," commented one user.

Levi's says they expected the campaign to be provocative. "We wanted to spark a dialogue," says Sweeny. But the "created equal" phrase was misunderstood, he says. It was intended to mean that asses are not the same - it was not intended to mean that some bodies are better than others, he adds. As for the models, he points out that the Web site includes women of various ethnicities, heights and builds.

In late September, Mary Alderete, Levi's vice president of global women's marketing, addressed critics in an interview on Frisky, a lifestyle site owned by Time Warner. Regarding the "equal" headline, she said, "If you read the rest of the copy in the print ad, the headline is supported by this idea of the democratization of jeans. But had we used the headline without explaining our philosophy, then it would have been a slightly different take," she said. Regarding the slender models in the ads and on the main page of the Curve ID site, she commented, "At first glance, it might look like it's more one-dimensional than what our intention was ... because the print and outdoor ads have more visibility and get more attention [than the Web pages with photos of diverse, real-life women.] We should have paid more attention to the way the media would be consumed by the average reader. In real life, the way consumers read magazines and go online, the message didn't unfold in exactly the way we had hoped."

Back Up
By the end of October, Levi's shifted gears to focus more on real women. Plans were solidified to add the "supreme curve" to the size lineup in spring, to accommodate larger and curvier women. On Levi's Facebook page - with nearly 2 million followers - the company asked real-life women to submit photos of themselves wearing jeans for an upcoming online gallery. The LevisGirl Twitter account, run by twentysomething Brooklyn artist Meghan Ellie Smith, revved up, attracting about 500 followers.

Both Facebook and Twitter led users to a new social community site called "Shape What's to Come," designed to offer women support from other women with shared interests and passions. The community was introduced on Levi's Facebook page with a live concert by indie-darling duo She & Him.

Based on in-house research about the values of women in their 20s, the site features a dozen accomplished female "ambassadors" who lead discussions with members about art, fashion and social change. Video interviews with emerging entertainers and artists are also a regular part of the site. To join, users must register and fill out a detailed profile, providing Levi's with valuable consumer data. In a hint of things to come, one of the weekly questions presented to the community is, "How do you feel about sponsored posts?"

Overall, marketing experts praise Levi's for cutting through the clutter with the hot-button issue of how real-life women find jeans that fit. But they wonder if the brand can live up to its promises. "This campaign has clearly connected with consumers," says Jon Raj, managing partner at digital marketing consultancy Cello Partners. "The challenge is to use that connection to build a conversation and evolve. You can't just throw stuff out there and then react, you need to follow through," he says. The opportunity is huge. "I just hope the brand understands how deeply emotional this issue [of diverse body types] really is."