NEW YORK — The view from Ira Livingston’s corner office in Cotton Inc.’s midtown Manhattan headquarters is dominated by the white marble spires of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which seems appropriate for a man who for 31 years preached the gospel of cotton around the world.
Livingston, who is retiring at yearend as Cotton Inc.’s senior vice president of consumer marketing, is thinking about the subjects he would like to address in his last official meeting with Cotton Inc.’s board.
“In the U.S., WMDs have been a controversial issue,” Livingston said. “Now, I’m thinking about WMPs, weapons of mass production. China is one of those, and the U.S. has taken advantage of that by supplying cotton. I think for the future, we have to look at WMCs, weapons of mass consumption, of which China will be the first.”
Adopting an international outlook has and will be the key to the cotton industry’s future. Livingston’s career working for the organization — and its purpose of increasing the demand and profitability of cotton through research and promotion — traces the changes it has made to survive.
Like many who have worked in the industry, textiles was a family affair for Livingston.
“Some people are born with a silver spoon in their mouth. I was born with a rag in my mouth,” said Livingston, whose father was a salesman for apparel manufacturers.
Livingston graduated in 1965 from what is now Philadelphia University with a degree in textile chemistry. After completing active duty with the National Guard, he ended up at J.P. Stevens & Co., where he spent more than six years as a fabric designer and six months as a salesman.
In 1975, Livingston was hired into Cotton Inc.’s international department, traveling throughout Europe to work with mills on using cotton. The U.S. textile industry was thriving. The cotton industry, however, had been dealt a serious blow by the rise of synthetic fibers.
“The overall textile industry was still extremely strong in the U.S.,” he recalled. “The U.S. industry was consuming 65 percent of the cotton production of the U.S. crop.”
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Still, apparel manufacturers were enthralled with synthetics. They were newer, stronger and of more uniform quality than natural fibers. In addition, they allowed mills to run their machines at higher rates. Garment manufacturers and retailers also didn’t particularly care what fibers their fabrics were made of, Livingston said.
“We had hit our low point in market share of around 34 percent in 1975,” he said.
The solution was to start aggressively targeting consumers with a message that focused on the benefits of cotton. The largest and most influential consumer segment was the Baby Boomers, who were already embracing jeans and T-shirts. Bringing cotton back to prominence was an uphill battle. It wasn’t until the late Eighties that cotton’s U.S. market share crept back into the 60 percent range, Livingston said.
The cotton industry has seen dramatic changes during his career, forcing growers and marketers to adopt an international mind-set. There were about 140,000 U.S. cotton farmers producing between 12 million and 15 million bales a year when Livingston joined Cotton Inc. Now, there are fewer than 25,000 growers producing 18 million to 21 million bales, with 65 percent of the crop exported.
“My history is a good case,” Livingston said. “I was the second person in the international division, and now we have offices in Mexico City, Osaka, Japan, Shanghai and Singapore.”
The size of the Shanghai office is anticipated to increase 60 percent next year.
“Our vision is to keep cotton competitive — you’ll notice I’m not saying U.S. cotton,” Livingston said. “That’s obviously our first choice … but since the U.S. industry is the world’s biggest exporter of cotton, any time that cotton is used, even if it’s from another country, there’s a good chance the next bale they buy will come from the U.S.”
Playing in the international arena, however, has opened the U.S. cotton industry to criticism from developing countries over sizable subsidies paid to U.S. growers. Livingston pointed out that Cotton Inc. doesn’t directly involve itself in these matters. The growing demand for cotton, however, is something in which the U.S. plays a prominent role.
“Sometimes the global cotton producers tend not to credit the U.S. cotton industry for building the market,” he said. “Over a period of 15 years, as we were able to turn the U.S. market around, we increased global consumption of cotton by 10 million bales.”
The challenge now is to fight a battle on multiple fronts. Cotton must maintain its U.S. market share while introducing developing consumer populations in China and India to the benefits of cotton. Marketing in those nations is ramping up, but Livingston said Cotton Inc. can’t necessarily use the U.S. market as a blueprint.
“We never assume what works in the U.S. can work anywhere else,” he said.
Young Chinese consumers, for instance, have grown up during a period of extreme change. Their parents don’t necessarily have a history of experience with certain products or fibers that they can pass on. Determining cotton’s share of the market in developing countries is a more difficult task than in the U.S., but the potential for cotton in China is substantial.
“The Chinese are now using more U.S. cotton than the U.S. mills are, and that just happened last year,” Livingston said.