The Death of the Swoosh.
February 25th, 2008 by caseyHoly crap, what did I just say. Yup, you’ve read it correctly. Last week I wrote about the old brand/new brand dichotomy we’re starting to see; I also said I would be adding more layers to the POV that week, had some connectivity issues and the flu, my apologies on the delay.
So I’d be a fool to tell you that Nike is dying, well I sorta just did, but not really. We know that Nike has totally owned the last 20 years in the mind of the athlete. As part of that massive growth however, the brand has become diluted, it’s distributed everywhere from Macy’s to Wal-Mart and has quality issues to boot. They are starting to lose the young athlete and while Lebron James is relevant, he’s only 1 person.
Enter Under Armour. Built for the athlete, by the athlete. You can read their story here, they tell it better than I do. Here’s a few observations on what they’ve done really well:
- They are all about winning. It doesn’t matter how high you jumped if you lost. Winning is everything.
- They’re digitally-focused and are native players in that landscape.
- They changed the rules of sports marketing. They didn’t just chase a celebrity; they focused on the team.
- They created relevant rallying cries for several targets, “we must protect this house”, “click clack”and “boom boom tap” to name a few.
- They created real cultural relevance and are now tip-toeing into all sorts of places — specific to places that attract people who want to win (hunting and sport fishing most notably).
Let’s be interactive, here’s an assignment. Go to any youth or high school sporting event and take a look at the clothing the athletes are wearing. Count the number of Under Armour garments and compare that to Nike. Don’t count the parents in the stands.
Post your answers.
Tags: culture, generation gap, Nike, Under Armour
