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Pepe, the UK jeans brand, is attempting to reposition itself as a

cutting-edge youth brand, with a new jeans range and an ’underground’

marketing campaign through youth marketing specialist, 3rd Rail.

3rd Rail was behind the ’guerilla marketing’ campaign to launch London’s

Niketown, using cryptic street posters and flyers in the run-up to the

store’s opening.

The agency will use similar marketing tactics to promote a new Pepe

range called ’Advanced Jeans’. It will also strive to associate the

brand with celebrities who are ’street-style leaders’.

Pepe has designed the range to fit the lifestyle of the modern

consumer.

Features include a mobile phone holder, ’knee tucks’ to stop fabric

becoming baggy and a black rubber tablet, instead of the traditional

leather logo patch. Phil Spurr, marketing director for Pepe, said: ’We

want to say denim is still fantastic, but who needs a coin pocket or

copper rivets?’

Pepe’s decision to reinvent itself comes in the face of falling demand

for traditional five-pocket jeans, as well as Pepe’s own declining

market share. Pepe was the number two jeans brand in the 80s, but last

year ranked just seventh in the UK, according to Taylor Nelson Sofres’

FashionTrak.