crboynton’s blog

Sometimes when you least expect it a brand leaves a lasting impression on you.

My quest for new running shoes started unbeknownst to me when I began a job hunt (with perfectly good running shoes) that lead me to R/GA.  Reading a case study for the Nike+ running community I found my way to the Nike+ site and got distracted by this well designed, but small and humble banner for the new Nike Free 5.0 running shoes.

On the landing page there’s another small but compelling call-out to “Get Naked” and “watch the video”.  Intriguing, right?

Turns out this is a viral video (see ‘bear butte running camp’ below) with world class runners like Lauren Fleshman, Nick Symmonds and Kara & Adam Coucher promoting the new Nike Free 5.0 running shoes by running high altitude and in the buff (except for their Free 5.0 shoes… of course).  Nike uses this shock factor video approach (with minimal camera blurring) to drive home the idea that these shoes provide a near nude running experience for your feet.  Point taken, seed planted.

Although the video amused me, I had zero plans to act.  A few days later (wearing my current pair of running shoes) I stepped in a patch of poison ivy in the yard and made the quick decision to dump the shoes, as they were close to the end of their useful life anyway.  Here’s where it gets interesting…

• I’d recently bored myself silly with running, so I pushed off the inevitable $80-$100 new shoe purchase and broke out the rollerblades for some variety.
• After 3 weeks of blading around the local beach track with lots of other people walking, biking, running, rollerblading…
• …and a conversation with an old runner buddy of mine who insisted all I needed was a running partner to get going again…
• …I came to the conclusion that I would run again.  But only at the beach where I could enjoy some people watching at the same time.
• The thought of my usual neutral gate running shoes made me want to fall asleep so I started looking for some shoe excitement….maybe I’d upgrade to the next level in the $120 price range?
• I spent 2-3 days  mulling this one over when it hit me…I’d get the shoes from the naked runner video!
• A shoe that simulated barefoot running was the perfect way to add more excitement to my beach and people watching, running plans.  It was the tipping point in my purchase consideration
• In fact, I knew before I walked into the shoe store that I wanted these shoes, no matter how they fit or felt.

What the hell just happened?  This was a very powerful moment as a marketer and a very exciting moment as a consumer.  A seemingly random series of events in my life led me to this purchase 30 days later.  Let’s review:

job search–> case study–> video–> poison ivy–> rollerblading–> people watching–> conversation with friend–>shoe excitement–>memory of video–>purchase.  Boom.  Done.

Based on my analysis, here are the lessons for marketers:

1. Your marketing & advertising is important, but probably not in the way you envision.  Consumers aren’t going straight from experience or ad to store, especially with high price point / high consideration products.
2. Your marketing might be best viewed as a seed that is planted in the consumers mind.  A seed that ultimately needs to be watered by the consumer, via their complex thought patterns and numerous internal decisions, to grow into a sale.  Continue to provide the “sunlight” of paid media to encourage the growth.
3. You don’t know where the “front door” to your product is going to be.  Who would have thought that reading a case study on the R/GA site would have led to a shoe purchase?  Certainly not the Nike team.  A smart approach then is to create as many “front doors” as possible using paid media and unpaid (social) media.

I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.  Let me know your thoughts in the comments section!

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