Mueller-Lehmkuhl GmbH

Mueller-Lehmkuhl (ML) was a German producer of apparel fasteners. Apparel fasteners are used in the garment industry. ML had been producing apparel fasteners since the late 19th century. In recent years, they had achieved technological superiority which resulted in high margins for their products. ML valued reliability of their products and fast service to their customers. However, competition and domestic market saturation in the 1980s led ML to a crossroads in which they needed to decide how they would maintain domestic market leadership and while expanding to new markets.

Mueller-Lehmkuhl’s Apparel Fastener Products

ML utilized an integrated approach in the apparel fastener industry by marketing their fasteners along with the machines to attach the fasteners to garment. Their strategy was to sell manufactured fasteners that were only compatible with ML’s attaching machines. ML produced five types of fasteners: S-Spring, Ring, Prong (Brass), Prong (SS), and Tack. Each product was designed for a specific application. Of the five major product lines, ML had 700 different varieties. In 1985, ML introduced a specialized line of new fashion snap fasteners and tack buttons. The marketing manager believed that this strategy could provide product differentiation that would allow them to increase their market share. This initiative required significant resources from research and development (R&D). At least 33% of the R&D projects were related to the new fashion fasteners.

As part of the company’s integrated strategy, ML manufactured six models of attaching machines. Three models were manual, and three models were automatic. All of the machines could be modified to attach any of the company’s fasteners. Manual machines were more labor intensive because they required a person to place both parts of the