Nike's new approach to marketing: services

Yes, another posting on the brilliance of Nike's approach to marketing.

Similar to our previous posting about Nike & brand identity, we like the fact that while Nike is a shoe and apparel company--a retailer--it has decided to instead sell an experience, a lifestyle to its consumers.  A consumer who joins this lifestyle, the company believes, will develop a deeper connection with the brand which will in turn lead to more shoe sales.

Nike's global director for brand connections, Stefan Olander, explains:

"Much of the company's future advertising spending will take the form of services for consumers, like workout advice, online communities and local sports competitions. We want to find a way to enhance the experience and services, rather than looking for a way to interrupt people from getting to where they want to go. How can we provide a service that the consumer goes, 'Wow, you really made this easier for me'?"

Read more from this NY Times article on Nike's new approach to marketing. 

The article also contains this very interesting graphic of measured versus non-measured ad spending. Here, "Measured" represents dollars spent on traditional media outlets such as TV, radio, print, and magazines. "Non-measured" represents things like events, contests, web search ads, product placement, and in-store ads. 

Looking down the list of companies, Nike jumps out as being a company whose non-measured marketing dollars are nearly double that of their measured ad dollars. Most other companies on the list still prefer the traditional channels, but Nike is clearly focusing on the more interactive, experiential marketing channels to sell their unique experience to consumers.