Runners are Nike’s original audience … and they’re a peculiar, isolated breed: it’s a bit like fishing, an exclusive and mysterious passion.
Nike and Apple developed and announced their Nike + venture several years ago, bringing together two of the worlds brand icons in one tech-led brand experience initiative.
The Nike + product at its most basic tracks your runs, coaches you, and enables you to upload the details of every run. There are motivational tools too, as well as cute functions like a booster tune. Sadly perhaps, the most popular one is “Eye Of The Tiger”.
Tens of thousands of runners are using the service to form virtual clubs – and to tell the stories of not just their runs, but of building a more sweeping Identity story about the process of “becoming a bigger, better Me”;
The shared data of their runs is alchemised into personal and tribal capital, and this most isolated of hobbies becomes deeply social and powerfully rewarding.
With Nike +, a runner’s Identity is tribalised and legitimised: “I Am A Runner!”
A continuing socialised narrative of struggle, achievement and progress, gives regular, reinforcing Expression to that Identity;
These powerful, transformational experiences – both personal and tribal – grow Consumer Equity. We can see the fresh access and Brand Intimacy with key influencers and consumers that Nike has created – warmth, trust, and willingness to engage.
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