RESEARCH VIDEO

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

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

TRAINER SOLES

I stumbled across this poster in Sneaker Freaker and it sprung an idea to mind. The New Balance Sole is quite boring and there is nothing special on it. If you look the ones below it is clear the brand is plastered all over in different colours. If consumers wear these fancy soled trainers then they are effectively printing the logo into where they walk. New balance could maximise on this...It's free marketing after all..

SNEAKER FREAKER POSTER OF DIFFERENT BRANDED SOLES

A pattern across the whole sole with arrows and the name very clearly!

Nike across the middle of the trainer with different textures at the top and the bottom...

A very large brand name and logo with different colors to stand out.

Even this sole, though more understated, has a more intricute pattern and the brand name in the middle.

Just a simple pattern surrounding and complimenting the brand logo can work!

These images have given me inspiration four our campaign. Perhaps tagging on from the Conviviality Culutre (personalisation) trend, a suggestion for New Balance could be to create a more intricute branded sole. A lot could be done with this campaign wise and they could even bring out Limited Edition soles for the Tier 1 consumer?!

Abbie xxx

IDEAS FOR STRATEGY

This is a post with our initial ideas written up for our campaign and marketing idea...


MARKETING IDEAS

- Tailoring for the feet - THE PERSONAL FIT...'fits like a glove',

- Looking after your feet - HOW DO YOU LOOK AFTER YOUR FEET?

- A niche brand/retro...THE HISTORY OF YOUR SHOE, THE LIFE OF YOUR SHOE, heritage, WHAT DO YOU DO WITH YOUR TRAINERS?

- Handmade Shoes

- Outrun Ordinary

- Understated Confidence...how your footwear makes you feel...EMOTIONAL CONNECTION WITH FOOTWEAR/ CONNECTION WITH THE BRAND.

- Relationships...

- Innovation

- Competition

- Support - MOTIVATE AND INSPIRE FOR PERFORMANCE?


CREATIVE IDEAS

Being Different                                                    Be Different

Celebrate Excellence                                          Get Up and Go

Challenge the Conventional                                 No Limits/Limitless

Stepping Out of the Crowd                                 Think Different

Make it Happen                                                 Think Outside the Box

Expect the Unexpected                                       Never Blend In

Dare to be Different                                            Set Yourself Aside

Create Your Own World                                    New Balance: Be On A Different Level


HANNAH

ADVERTS I LIKE

If we're talking about shoe adverts there's a K-Swiss one from a couple of years ago that's a good one, with the man dancing. I'm not really sure why I like it but I think it's because from a photography side the lighting's really good and the shots are really clear and precise.

This Adidas football quest advert in conjunction with the 2010 World Cup is really good in terms of attracting men. It's got football, fast cars, famous people...all stuff that is going to appeal to a lot of men.

I also really like the new Adidas advert which I saw for the first time this week. Again it's got football, celebrities and girls...very good for appealing to men. I also like the fact that it's showing lots of different aspects of Adidas with the football, dancing, biking, skating and just normal wear.

All of these adverts I've seen on the TV, which I think is the best way to reach men, or anyone my kind of age I guess...but obviously if a company cannot afford TV advertising I would say that the next best thing would be online because most students and young people spend a lot of time on the internet.

 

SI

WHERE I WORE MY TRAINERS IN SWITZERLAND

LES BOUISSIER ART GALLERY - "The Vitrum" Exhibition

ZURICH SHOPPING CENTRE

UCHT MOUNTAIN

OUT WITH FRIENDS

- PAPPA JONES RESTAURANT

And Many More...

SI

LET'S MAKE EXCELLENT HAPPEN

New Balance's brand new advertising campaign, 'LET'S MAKE EXCELLENT HAPPEN', is releasing this week so I thought it would be helpful for our research to look into what the brand are currently doing in terms of communication strategies.

Although this campaign concentrates on their running products, as many of their other campaigns also do, I still thought it was useful to see how they portray their brand within the advert as it is being released worldwide into major international markets; including the UK, France, Canada, Russia, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

The campaign introduces New Balance 890s; with RevLite technology and is designed to motivate and inspire active consumers to reach a new level of personal performance and thereforea new level of excellent.

Have a look!

My personal opinion on this new campaign is that, while it is quite clever to attract their more sport and running orientated consumers, it does not really have an appeal to any of their lifestyle consumers, and as a campaign that is going to be released worldwide it would have been good for them to create something that would appeal to all consumers and just generally raise brand awareness, but I guess that is where we come in.

Saying this I think the fact that they have built their own New Balance running track on Pier 54 in New York is such a great idea and fits in with their idea of 'handmade' within the company. Also, as a music fan, the tying in of The Dandelions 'On The 54' is genius.

To see a more detailed post, with examples of their print advertising, have a look on my personal research blog http://hannahnewbalanceblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/lets-make-excellent-happen.html

HANNAH

I'M BACK FROM SWITZERLAND!

I am finally back from my brilliant trip to Switzerland!

I have managed to wear my trainers everyday and gathered a few responses from the locals! The reception recieved wasn't very good i'm afraid to say. The Swiss did not like the New Balance trainer.

Here's a few comments I noted:


- "Your shoes, what are they?"


- "They are not really my style, what would I wear with them?"


- "The colour is so off-putting, I could maybe see myself wearing them."


- "They are ugly!" (Laughing)


SI