Once again Nike have come up with a successful route to their consumers through the use of iPhones and mobile technology. By creating a city guide application they are appealing directly to the lifestyle market. It engages the right market on a platform that had proven to be successful.
The iPhone app is aimed at creating a tiered travel or city guide for six different European cities. This app involves users directly by getting them to influence the city guide by using what they feel people should know about their city.
This is an app for the people, by the people.
Here is the short report by WGSN on this new and exciting move from Nike... 'NIKE OFFERS CITY GUIDES WITH NEW IPHONE APP' RACHEL ARTHUR, WGSN 19 JANUARY 2010 'Nike has launched an interactive iPhone app that provides users with an inside guide to six European cities while also allowing them to add their own content in real time. "True City", created by digital agency AKQA, sees Nike Insiders posting regular updates in London, Berlin, Barcelona, Milan, Amsterdam and Paris, while users can then tag places they like, reports New Media Age. The aim is to "Make the Hidden Visible", facilitated by mobile technology like geo-tagging and an embedded QR reader allowing access to locked content like local event listings. There is also information on the latest product releases and users are encouraged to link in to Facebook Connect, adding a social media functionality.'
We decided, for our Opinion Former, that we should choose a connector as this would be most appropriate for this brief as they can help get the brand 'out there' within a consumer group that New Balance wants to appeal to and raise awareness within.
Our Opinion Former is Si Mason, a 20 year old Architecture Student studying at Nottingham Trent University. Currently the president of the Architecture Society he is responsible for organising social meetings for the entire Architecture course. And as well as having to be in University for over 50 hours a week while keeping up with a hectic social life, he also lives with 13 other boys; giving us a good oportunity to get some insights into how similar consumers feel about trainers and the brand of New Balance.
To get a better insight into Si's life we visited his house to deliver his New Balance trainers and diary to fill and to also allow the chance to see where he lives and take pictures and document the kinds of products he has in his room.
SI'S NEW BALANCE TRAINERS AND DIARY TO FILL IN
In this diary Si must enter any comments that are made about his New Balance trainers, or the brand itself, and his own feelings for how he feels about the brand/trainers so it is easy for us to see if his opinion alters from wearing the trainers for three weeks. As well as Si's own entries we have also included a number of questions for him to answer to help us to get a further insight into his lifestyle and how he reacts to other brands.
Below are the images taken while in Si's house, including magazines left on the bathroom floor (he does live with 13 other boys so what can you expect?) which all featured trainers, his DVD collection and how he seems to lay out his clothes and shoes.
SI'S ROOM
SI'S DVD COLLECTION HOSTS A NUMBER OF 'MANLY' FILMS AND TV SERIES
Having the smallest room in the house doesn't really help Si organise his wardrobe. He tries his best, keeping his shirts hung up and keeping a shelf free for any of his shoes.
SI'S CURRENT COLLECTION OF SHOES INCLUDES
COMPETITOR'S SHOES SUCH AS K.SWISS, CONVERSE AND
VANS
THE LIFE OF A STUDENT...LOTS OF COFFEE
(WITH A COUPLE OF HIS MODELS INCLUDED)
EXAMPLES OF SI'S ARCHITECTURE COURSEWORK
Having the chance to look around Si's room helped to gain a small insight into his life; to further this we will conduct a small interview to get some information on what makes him tick, and his habits when buying products.
Today we had the good news that our New Balance trainers had arrived so we finally got to take them to our Opinion former Si.
We surprised him with classic U420BNA in yellow and blue, he had also chosen U410BRY's in red and 410s in black and blue but lucky for us we had received trainers that were
"as yellow as the sun"
as Si said himself.
Hopefully the yellow will help Si to stand out in his New Balance and give him an edge over other consumers wearing competitor trainers. The inclusion of the blue also enables individuals to easily see the large N on the side for New Balance to help raise brand awareness within the UK.
Participants: Tom Warren (20), Chris Tancock (21), George Liversidge (22), Eliot Firth (20), Si Mason (21), Tobi Cieslik (20).
This focus group was carried out as soon as Si was given his trainers, with five of his flatmates. The aim was to see what his peers original opinions were of New Balance, how much they knew about the brand and what they generally look for in adverts in order to try and understand the Tier 2 consumer. The idea is that a second focus group will be carried out at the end of the project to see if Si endorsing the trainers has had any effect on the original thoughts of those that took part.
The focus group has revealed that generally the Tier 2's do not know a lot about New Balance, but have heard of the brand and know that it has been around for a long time. This fact seemed to give the brand credit in the boys eyes, "They're cool because they've been around for years" (Elitot Firth, 20).
From the focus group, it is clear to see that they boys all wear the same brands, with Vans being a heavy influence on them. This seems to suggest that they get their trend inspiration off of each other, and are influenced by what their friends are wearing (even if they do not like to admit it!). It is clear that all the boys are precious of their trainers, with a few being collectors. If one of these boys could collect a New Balance edition then the New Balance craze would be likely to trickle down to the rest of the house and their other friends. "If the lads come home with some really cool stuff from the same shop then it will make me want to go in and see if I can find anything there too." (Chris, 21), "I do tend to follow along with what everyone does" (George, 22)
When they boys were asked their views on the shoes that Si had chosen, there was a mixed opinion. The retro look was something that they said they liked, but the main issue was the style and the bright yellow colour! Judging by what the boys were wearing on their feet for this group, they either liked sleek, slim, sexy styles or chunky more statement making styles, and this New Balance shoe in particular is not really either of these, therefore not really fitting into the trends that they are currently wearing. The boys were asked to present us with their favourite pair of trainers for us to photo and this is the result:
Tom's trainers:
"I will wipe these Supra's clean for hours. I love the whiteness. I love the sleek chunkyness."
Tobi's trainers:
"My Trimm trabs! I watched 'The Firm', that 80's inspired film and it made me realise just how cool 80's trainers are! I went and got these Trimm Trabs, my favourite part is the thicker sole with Adidas written on the side. It's just little details like that that can really make a pair of trainers stand out to me."
George's trainers:
"My Vans. I like them as they just go with everything.I don't really go for bright ones like Tobi."
Chris' trainers:
"They are cheap and go with everything."
As these few shots reveal, the boy's favourite trainers are either slim, small and subtle or high top chunkies. The colours they like are quite dulled, none of them own any bright coloured Nikes. They say that they look for small details in their trainers rather than something too 'loud'.
As the New Balance brief asks us to raise the brand awareness in the UK, it is important to know what adverts the currently like so that we can analyse what would make an effective advert. The boys pointed out:
Reebok, Bellies Guna Get Ya
After pointing this out, I noticed that they were all singing "bellies guna get ya"! Very catchy, even ten years after the advert was launched in 2001!!
Evian Roller Babies
Another humours TV advert was selected by the boys! Not because any of them would spend their precious student loan on bottled water, they just thought that the skating babies was a funny image which stuck in their mind more than the tagline itself.
Heineken Walk In Wardrobe
The boys seemed to love this advert because they could relate to it in a humorous way. They all would love a walk in beer fridge, and described it as their dream house, so by Heineken actually creating a walk in fridge, the boys adore this advert and therefore the brand for creating this illusion.
Skoda Cake Car
Elliot pointed this advert out as he thought it was creatively interesting, and that is the kind of thing he looks out for in advertising. It was interesting that he noticed a Skoda advert, as Skoda launched this advert in order to be a 'cooler' car to have, which seems to have had it's desired impact.
Continental Tyres
I must say I was very surprised that the boys pointed this advert out. I was beginning to think that they only remember humorous adverts, but this simple advert seems to have captured their attention. As it focuses on nothing but the performance of the tyre, making the message very strong and clear.
We noticed that all the boys mentioned TV adverts, none of them even slightly brought up any print advertising they had seen. Later on, we asked Si about this, he said:
"If you really want a boy's attention then TV adverts are the way forward really. It's because we don't really spend a lot of time flicking through magazines and if we do we pay close to no attention to the adverts in them! Ever! If I read a magazine its to read articles, not to look at pictures.The reason we all talk about TV ads is because we all waste so much time slobbing on sofas, watching any old crap that is some funny, clever or sexy advert appears, it will instantly grab our attention. Boys like to see something happen in an advert, we get bored easily, with print advertising, a picture is not really enough to make us go 'Ooh did you see that?' Also, a boy is more likely to talk to his friends about TV ads than magazine ads as it is kind of less geeky to find out about something on TV or YouTube or something like that."
This focus group has therefore flagged up some very interesting and useful points for us to consider when creating our marketing strategy. From this we should:
1. Consider creating a campaign that does not involve print, that is clever, humorous or sexy and that could involve the all important video marketing (as New Balance do not want to pay for TV advertising other options will have to be thought up).
2. Look at limited editions and collaborations that the boys find interesting that New Balance could adopt in order to achieve the trickle down effect of introducing New Balance into this consumer type.
3. Consider creating a new New Balance style from what the boys have outlined that they like in their favourite shoe, and what they like and do not like about Si's shoe.
All of the information is very valuable and will be very helpful when coming up with our idea... I look forward to talking to the boys again in a few weeks time to see what their New Balance opinions are now, and what they think of our campaign.
A collection of Advertising Campaigns that Converse have recently released to help analyse how the competition are using their advertising to its best ability. I felt it was relevant to show what converse are currently doing as they are a very popular brand within the UK market and, although their shoes are very different from New Balance, they are seen as a main competitor because of this popularity.
Here, for their 2011 Campaign, Converse shoes are shown on some kind of adventure told throughout the images of their campaigns. The use of different photo effects such as the use of black and white and giving the images almost a grainy feel go well with the story of the campaign.
New Balance's simple but popular 574s appear here against some very similar Saucony's, where I personally feel that New Balance have come off the best.
Here New Balance are featured in a photoshoot named Wishing On A Star, once again in 'Sneakers: The Upper Society'.
They once again appear alongside competitors including Adidas, Lacoste, Puma, Alife and Nike. New Balance's 1500 trainers are featured in this photoshoot; one of their most popular lifestyle trainers.
As the aim for this project is to help raise awareness for New Balance within the UK I thought it would be interesting to see how the brand is portrayed within photoshoots for magazines. Most of the examples found have been from magazines I picked up while in Berlin but it was interesting to see how New Balance is portrayed against their competitors within these fashion shoots.
This would also help gain inspiration for how we, as a team, could portray New Balance within advertising, as they are clearly portrayed in a better light in countries such as the USA and Berlin.
The images below show New Balance featuring in a trainer photoshoot for Sneakers: The Upper Society magazine, which I picked up while in Berlin.
The photoshoot, named 'Sneak Boutique' features all of New Balance's main competitors such as Nike, Onitsuka Tiger and WESC, with the photos using elements such as smoke, water and paint to create an interesting effect.
CONVERSE AND K1X TRAINERS
ADIDAS AND CHAMPION TRAINERS
SUPRA AND DC ADM TRAINERS
NEW BALANCE 560
ALIFE AND ONITSUKA TIGER TRAINERS
NEW BALANCE 410
WESC AND KAWASAKI TRAINERS
I think that New Balance stand well against their competitors and almost blend in with them; which is something that they haven't been able to achieve in the UK. Although they do not want to become 'mainstream' within the UK, as they will lose the exclusivity of their brand, this photoshoot is a good way to take inspiration from how other countries see the brand (in this example as equal to their competitors).
Current advertising used by New Balance found in …………….
“New Balance Lifestyle combines classic designs from the past with bold ideas from the future. We create shoes that celebrate heritage, craftsmanship, innovation, imagination, and our deeply held belief that grey is beautiful.” The text featured within the advert highlights the main values of New Balance and a black and white campaign with hints of colours on the trainers adds to the feeling of simplicity that they are trying to portray.
The “belief that grey is beautiful” shows the love of simplicity and classic looks that New Balance continuously uses for their trainers, using plain colours such as black, grey, white, blue and burgandy (which can be seen in the advert).
Current advertising used by New Balance found in …………….
This advert seems relevant for the brief, in terms of appealing to our tier 2 Opinion Former, as it is set out in a street style with graffiti in the background and the trainers placed into a street background as though they are rebelling. It is similar to ad campaigns seen from competition such as Addidas and Converse which are seen as more established lifestyle trainer brands than New Balance. Following advertising such as this will help New Balance to establish themselves as popular lifestyle trainers within the more common tier 2 and tier 3 consumers but could also result in New Balance loosing their heritage and main feel of the brand.
The slogan used, “Classic Then. Classic Now” highlights the brands values of heritage and classic and simple designs. Current adverts such as these further highlight how any ideas developed throughout this project must not shadow or hide the brands values.
If possible I must aim to highlight these values further, but in a way that will appeal to similar consumers to my Opinion Former.
I have created a collection of articles found in different Drapers magazines that will help with the New Balance brief and open our eyes to what competitors are currently doing to make their way up the lifestyle market.ONITSUKA TIGER ADVERTORIAL
Firstly a brand that I see as one of New Balance's main competitors, in terms of tone of voice and the product that they are selling, Onitsuka Tiger. This article holds a focus on how the brand use craftsmanship and intricate detailing on their trainers and how this is ultimately used to appeal to consumers. A trend in brands giving a personal feel to consumers has become obvious through research, and what better way than by focusing on the handmade aspect? This will make the consumer feel as though the trainer has been crafted especially for them.
HMV AND STREET FASHION HMV are launchung a fashion range which includes ranges from Boxfresh and Fly53 - two street brands that are very popular within the lifestyle market. As a brand that is already perceived as 'cool' because of their large involvement with music a collaboration with lifestyle brands such as these could only increase their popularity with consumers and bring the popularity of buying CDs and music back into todays culture.
I believe that this is a smart collaboration for all brands involved and is something that New Balance could take inspiration from in terms of any future collaborations they are thinking about producing.
RUNNING IN HEELS
This article shows how Rockport have combined style and comfort within their footwear. This includes the creation of technology that has been incorporated into high heels to make them comortable (BRILLIANT!)
As New Balance are seen as innovators because of the support and comfort that they offer with their products I thought this was relevant to show how other companies are now using the the kind of technology that New Balance came up with, and taking it further into the market.
Just a little video capturing the main aspects of New Balance's life as a brand so far...
New Balance has now been around for over 100 years (one hundred and five years to be exact) creating and designing innovative trainers offering support for the foot. Their innovative ideas allowing them to become the first company in the trainer industry to provide such support for the foot.
They not only offer half sizes in all of their products but also different widths for any sports or running trainers, creating a near perfect fit for feet of all shapes and sizes. By becoming the first trainer brand to realise the potential of offering'perfect fit' shoes, that supported and looked after your feet as you wore them, New Balance immediately positioned themselves as innovators within the market.
New Balance's main focus has always been on their running shoes; as this is where they found success, and seen over and over again within their advertising campaigns. They intend to stick to their heritage through all new products and even when promoting their lifestyle trainers the company is still seen to include running wherever possible within the campaign.
So while they continuously promote the running aspect of their brand it seems that their lifestyle trainers get a bit left behind; especially in the UK where they are still to hit the public full-on.
So our aim for this project is to create a communication strategy that will raise awareness, within the UK, about their lifestyle trainers and help them on their way to reach the popularity and hype that the brand receives in the USA and Japan.
