Adgully Exclusive | Others do not match the snob value associated with Nike, says Dave Cobban, Consumer Mobilization Director, Nike
The company which you now know as Nike didn't start its journey as that. The company was founded on January 25, 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports, and officially became Nike Inc in 1978. Nike, in Greek, means the goddess of victory.
Adgully confabulated with Dave Cobban, Consumer Mobilization Director, Nike, in an effort to understand what really this sportswear brand is planning for Indian market. Dave brings a sea of experience in the domain of media, advertising and marketing with him.
I'm not sure how many of you are aware, but Nike aired its first national television ads back in 1982. It collided with the New York Marathon and established a strong relationship in the process. You see, Nike hired Wieden+Kennedy ' the then newly formed ad agency ' to create ads for the Oregon headquartered company and this collaboration between Nike and Wieden+Kennedy has been going rock solid for years now.
Interestingly, Dave served at Wieden+Kennedy as Planning Director for near about three years.
India is being looked at as an important market for this giant. Nike has always been at the premium end of the market. Though Adidas and Reebok too exist in the market, they just do not manage the sort of snob value associated with Nike as a brand. This is primarily owing to the price bracket Nike has positioned itself in.
Nike has a philosophy of putting consumer first. "Whatever we look at from a product point of view, or if it's a campaign around a big event like the World Cup, we are always looking at, and understanding, what the consumer's passion is, what is the core emotional drive around the consumers and then how can we tuck into that," Dave said.
Dave also said that Nike always employs the idea of innovation in all its functions. I can see that. Just check out the website of Nike and you'll understand what I am talking about. There is a tool called Shoe Finder which helps find the best pair of shoes for you. This is sort of normal, you'd say. No, it isn't. The tool asks you for your gender and requests you to select from three surface types on which you'll be using the shoe most often. It then asks for the arch type of your feet and also the stride of your ankle. So, come to think of it, no longer do you have to be satisfied with whatever is there on the shelves ' whether it suits your feet or not. Now you can choose the shoe you want according to your feet type. That's a cool thing!
Dave says that aggression is something that's synonymous with Nike. "I think we have always been more daring than anyone else. So when you think about some of our athletes ' people like Lebron James from basketball, or sprinters or football players ' they are not only best at what they do but they are also more rebellious, more reverent. So, when you see our communications when we are marketing often it's that we're one step more rebellious than anyone else," Dave said.
Speaking of a marketing campaign through which Nike has always had a high consumer response, Dave shared the experience of World Cup with us.
"Every four years we have the football World Cup and it's out biggest brand moment. The first ever campaign of Nike received incredible consumer response and we grew to number one brand in footwear all in ten years. We became a one billion dollar business from nothing over a course of only about ten years.
Our association with football is very strong and that is reflected by the association with greatest and the best football players in the world.
On May 21st we launched a brand new three minutes TV spot, the biggest and the boldest advertising spot that we have ever done around the European championship final. You will see it now on YouTube, Facebook and all over the place. We should get incredible consumer reaction for that," he said.
Looking at the times gone by, Nike has never been hungry for awards. The brand thrives on growth and innovation. Nike is all about consumer feedback and the passion consumers have for the brand. "What we are most proud of is when we see consumers showing loyalty to the brand and when they speak about it. On our Facebook pages, consumers react with love and passion. Even when a consumer is pissed off, that too shows the passion towards the brand. That's what we are really looking for," Dave explains.
Nike recently divided its operations into seven different categories and each of the categories is similar to being business units in themselves. Nike has launched an effort to run social media activities for each of the seven business categories through Nike Plus Network. "Facebook is obviously a big driver and there are things like YouTube, Renren in China and Orkut etc. So, whatever social media is relevant for the consumers in different geographies, we have great and relevant applications in place," said Dave
India, as a market, is quite unique. While comparing the dynamics of the US market with that of India, Dave explained how, in the US, academics and sports are finely balanced at schools. In the Indian structure however, sports aren't given any importance and by the time kids enter their teenage, they're asked to quit sports and concentrate only on academics. "It's almost like they miss sports," Dave said, with an alarmed expression on his face.
He added, "For us it is a very critical issue because we believe that sports have great benefits. It can help you build leadership skills and communication skills etc. Actually we are working with school districts here in India and asking them to allow us to educate and train the teachers as well. It's not about just playing games but it is about learning life skills. If we can help the school system understand that, then I think it is going to have a massive effect on the young Indian consumer."
A typical Indian consumer is still very price conscious and since Nike is looked at as a premium brand in the already premium sector, its interesting to note what Dave says.
"We are a premium brand and can't compete with Adidas and Reebok as far as price discounting is concerned and we don't want to do that as well. We believe in sustainable value. We don't think about the price but about the value. It's like an education that we are trying to work on. The Indian consumer is advancing and India is becoming much more developed. When we look at the world, we look at China and India as two big drivers of our business. We want to really build a strong brand and a strong retail," he said.
Despite being the biggest brand in the space, Nike was affected adversely by the economic recession that hit the world a couple of years ago. "It did, but we are a cash rich company, and also, we recognized the recession very quickly and cut back on inventory and some creations in order to be lean and underwent reorganization. We recognized that when consumer wants to buy one thing, they want to buy the best so what they were doing is buying less of things but spending more on that one thing. So we were gaining a lot of market share," said Dave, talking about the recession and its effect on Nike as a business.
Now, however, the recession is over and with that, Nike is expecting a double digit growth ' a significant improvement from the low single digits during recession. Dave expects anything over ten percent to be a good growth figure.
Speaking of the latest activities being planned at Nike, Dave said, "Our concentration is on Wimbledon with Serena Williams and Roger Federer, Commonwealth Games and the World Cup Cricket coming up. These are great moments for us. After that it's the Olympics in London in 2012 and European championship football. We are also having amazing product moments coming up."
Having learned a whole bunch of things from this pool of experience, it was time to take leave of Dave. This chat was as informative and enriching as it was entertaining. Adgully hopes for aggressive marketing play from Nike in times to come.
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