RESEARCH VIDEO - CONSENT FORMS

RESEARCH VIDEO

We hit the streets to ask 10 Tier 2 New Balance Consumers:

'In a shop, what makes you buy a pair of trainers?'

From this research it was clear that there were two subjects that kept coming up with the different individuals asked. These were personalisation (with the mention of Nike i-D and personalising trainers) and a retro trend (with the mention of chunky 80s and bright coloured soles).

This will help us when creating our concept as it has become clear what is important to many consumers who are similar to our Opinion Former.

ADIDAS: STOP MOTION VIRAL VIDEO

I love this stop motion viral video by Adidas. I think that the stop motion, jumpy feel, is really effective and the different shapes they make such as the waves and clouds are really interesting.

TRAINER SOLES

An interesting fold-out from the Sneaker Freaker magazine I picked up in Berlin featured a collection of trainer soles from different brands and styles. This got me thinking about the New Balance sole which, from what I have experience from our Opinion Former's trainers, are very bland and have hardly any branding on them. Compared to competitor soles shown in the image below New Balance cannot be distinguished and could take inspiration from the interesting and bright soles shown below. These competitor soles have the potential to print logos wherever they walk; something that New Balance could take into account for distinguishing themselves and also as a way of some free advertising...

SNEAKER FREAKER POSTER OF DIFFERENT BRANDED SOLES

A bold design with large, clear shapes and a clear name

A very large brand logo with bold shapes and different colours to help it stand out.

Nike are a good example of a brand who make the most of their shoes...with the brand name or logo always a feature on their soles. It also helps that they have a worldwide known logo with the Nike tick which can be used effectively on the soles of trainers without having to mention the brand name.

Here's a Nike sole that, though more understated, uses an intricate pattern to keep the sole interesting.

A simple, but effective, use of the Nike tick; keeping the sole simple but still distinguished.

Being able to look at all the different things competitors do with the soles of their trainers has got me thinking about ideas for our campaign... New Balance could create a new design for the soles of their trainers that is a lot more branded and features their name or logo a lot more prominently than they currently do.

STICKER TREND

My team mate Caroline found a small article on www.thecoolhunter.net on a guerilla marketing campaign that will be used to help create a buzz. This campaign involves branding people, cars, magazines, surfaces etc with coolhunter by slapping the stickers in different places. 

The stickers say things like "You've been Cool Huntered" and "The contents of this magazine have already been blogged about 3 months ago, save your money and read thecoolhunter.net".

At a time when magazines seem to be struggling to compete against digital media, magazine publishers are now joining together for a comeback campaign stating that "people aren't giving up swimming just because they also enjoy surfing". This basically means that just because consumers surf the internet does not mean that they will stop reading magazines. You don't get the personal feel with online and something as simple as the texture of the paper used in magazines makes them a lot more interesting to look through than online. You just can't get the same experience.

I like the fact that this campaign is intrusive...
Anything can be branded with the cool hunter so  it is more likely that the public will notice these sticker high-jacks and raise awareness while also getting them intrigued and to join in themselves with this campaign.

I think that branding every day objects, and claiming them as your own is an interesting way to communicate brand identity, especially if great thought is to put into the exact locations so that these branded objects are part of the brand itself. This could be something that can be taken into account for our campaign...to help raise awareness for New Balance we could do something about branding the street by putting your identity into it?

CONVIVIALITY CULTURE

A lecture from Chris Sanderson at the Future Laboratory last year highlighted some key trends, one of which we have taken n board as a main trend that could be used for New Balance to hep with this brief and campaign.
I looked into this further to see if I could flag up anything that would help with our New Balance campaign...

‘As mindful consumption starts to unfold, and technology broadens expectations, far more personalised consumer desires emerge. With such an abundance of choice, consumers will continue to be drawn towards options that demonstrate a true sense of understanding such needs, while also still searching for value.’ (Cultural Shifts A-Z 2011, WGSN)

Drawing from the quote above it was felt that a focus on a trend called Conviviality Culture should be focused on. This trend is about personalisation and could really fit in with out New Balance campaign. Below are some JPEGs from the lecture from Chris Sanderson...

‘LIVE AGE’: The most exciting thing today is being offline and engaging with people and brands in the real world.

In ‘Brand Sense’, Martin Lindstrom says that we’re experiencing emptiness – we lack the physical contact which we are hard-wired to desire.

Consumers are moving ‘beyond consumption’ – they are looking for happiness elsewhere.

VR Urban and their SMS Slingshot which can be used to ‘catapult’ texts onto the walls to reclaim the streets/their culture.

CONNOISSEUR TASTES: Consumers are increasingly interested in becoming experts in once-forgotten rituals, behaviours and products. We want to use our choices and expertise to show who we are and to tell someone about our personality. For example, there are 33,000 combinations of drink at Starbucks (e.g. different shots) – what we have says something about us.

‘We want to mark ourselves out. If we become an expert in something it becomes a facet of our personality and our brand identity.’ (Mark Tungate, trends expert & consultant)

We could use these quotes and trends for our campaign. Perhaps personlisation and making the New Balance trainers something unique to the consumer is a good way to take things?

THE URBAN PLAYGROUND: INSPIRATIONAL MOODBOARD

After conducting research into the trend of Urban Playgrounds I have created a moodboard of inspiring images and examples of the city already being used as urban playgrounds.

THE URBAN PLAYGROUND

From finding some reports on personal space and outside entertainemnt I have come up with the trend 'The Urban Playground'. This relates to brands creating their own space within the city / within their market and using it as their own playground to do with what they want. This trend aims to create a large amount of interaction with consumers, allowing them to feel that the brand is talking directly to them, and build strong relationships.

Below is what I have written for our trend document...

Brands today are expected to be innovative and creative as consumers become accustomed to surreal ideas. This has resulted in it becoming increasingly important for brands to “remain experimental and original, in contrast to more conventional or established ideas.” (Melius, L. in WGSN 2011: Online)

With a new trend in urban and outdoor entertainment brands are jumping on the band-wagon to “convert the unexpected into urban playgrounds” (Marshall-Johnson, R. in WGSN 2010: Online). In 2010 artist duo, FriendsWithYou turned the city of Toronto into a magical world of colour and fun with a series of interactive art installations for the Wish Come True Festival to create, what was called, the Rainbow City. (SEE BELOW)

Consumers love the simple but “innovative ideas that come from creating a personal space in the city” (Marshall-Johnson, R. in WGSN 2010: Online) and with an increase in aspects such as rooftop entertainment and events this is set to take off into the marketing world to give brands the opportunity to develop a relationship with their consumers in their own, personal space away from other competitors.


Examples of Urban Playgrounds

O Street designs urban playground for a new exhibition
Glasgow agency, O Street, recently designed 'Our Urban Playground'. This is a new exhibition made out of cardboard at The Lighthouse gallery in Glasgow.
This exhibition examines the theme of designing for sport and leisure in UK cities with the concept featuring seats which double as tables and walls to a basketball hoop that collects scrunched up feedback forms.

I think this is a brilliant idea and, as the image below shows, it looks amazing and really effective. The fact that this exhibition also revolves around sport lifestyle is also really relevant for this project and New Balance themselves and is something that I believe is a good example of a space being turned into an Urban Playground.

Performance artists create human sculptures in urban spaces across London

A performance art group of 24 performers, called 'Bodies in Urban Spaces', performed a choreographed moving event to create human sculptures throughout London. These grabbed pedestrian attention and caused a 'buzz' and hype around the performance art group.

Return of rooftop entertainment

After a small trend in 2006, the act of rooftop entertainment is slowly coming back into the limelight in todays culture. As consumers continuously need to be wowed and entertained in new and exciting ways events such as rooftop theatres and bars have been seen slowly taking their hold. This aspect creates an unexpected space into an entertaining area which is something that New Balance could keep in mind and also that we can take inspiration from for our campaign.

New York - Key to the city

Artist Paul Ramírez Jonas reinvented the idea of the key to the city for the summer of 2010. These keys to the city would unlock more than 20 hidden spaces at sites across five boroughs of New York, sending people on a treasure hunt-like search with their keys. 

The concept of the idea is to exchange your key with other worthy New Yorkers before starting your hunt, with a map included, for the secret spaces over New York.

I love how this idea has been made into some sort of game for individuals by relating it to a treasure hunt, and also by making the spaces hidden and secretive. By appealing to the child within, while also keeping a more serious and grown up aspect to this idea, it was very successdul and many individuals signed up on the day to collect keys for themselves but also to give out to other New Yorkers.