Nike's new marketing mojo. How the legendary brand blew up its single-slogan approach and drafted a new playbook for the digital era.
By Scott Cendrowski, writer-reporter FORTUNE -- Few outsiders have visited the third floor of the Jerry Rice Building at Nike's headquarters. Even most Nike employees know little about just what the staffers working here, on the north side of the company's 192-acre campus in Beaverton, Ore., actually do. A sign on the main entrance reads RESTRICTED AREA: WE HEAR YOU KNOCKING, WE CAN'T LET YOU IN, and it's only partly in jest. Inside, clusters of five or six employees huddle in side conference rooms where equations cover whiteboard walls.
Once upon a time, the hush-hush plans and special-access security clearance would have been about some cutting-edge sneaker technology: the discovery of a new kind of foam-blown polyurethane, say, or some other breakthrough in cushioning science. This hive is the home of Nike Digital Sport, a new division the company launched in 2010. Le nouveau gourou de Twitter est un pizzaiolo. Qui ?
Ramon de Léon, franchisé Dominos Pizza (six magasins à Chicago). Quoi ? Une présentation au M2C, la conférence annuelle de Nils Andres dédiée aux réseaux sociaux. Comment ? Ceux qui pensent que Loic Le Meur est le prototype du cyborg ne connaissent pas encore Ramon. Un camion entre dans sa vitrine? Pour lui, l'important est le fun : « je veux danser avec mon consommateur et le mettre en valeur". IDEO: Five Companies That Mastered Social Media's Branding Potential.
This is the next piece in our PATTERNS series, written by IDEO.
Read more from the series here. Social networks can breathe new life into old brands by enabling companies to build collaborative relationships with consumers like never before. But what's a corporate giant to do when no one wants to follow it on Twitter or be its friend on Facebook? Many firms struggle to answer that question. Yet turning even mundane products like toothpaste or tampons into talking points doesn't have to be difficult. Here's how a few established companies, from Ford to CBS, have used new media to their advantage. Designing for social media 1. 3. Ford "Earned Cred" Online Detroit automakers didn't top anyone's "favorite brand" list during the recession.
Tap in to existing communities, compliment, and contribute. Ford gave 100 indie "agents" a free Fiesta for publicly 'lifecasting' their experiences with the car. TV Network's Turnaround A few years ago, CBS was known as a ? CBS built on fans? It's Official: Companies Don't Understand Why Consumers Use Social Media. I was fascinated to see this chart in Jacob Morgan’s review of IBM’s recent report From Social Media to Social CRM.
On the left you’ve got the answers from consumers (aka “people”) listing the reasons they interact with companies via social media, and on the right you’ve got the reasons that companies think we interact with them. According to companies, the primary reason we interact with them on Facebook, Twitter and forums etc. is to “learn about new products” and to get “general information”. It turns out, however (and this may not come as a shock to anyone who’s been active in Facebook marketing in recent years) that the real reason we interact with companies because we want a “discount” or we want to “purchase” something.
When asked whether they felt people wanted discounts or to buy things, companies apparently ranked these as the very last reasons people would connect with them via social media. Granted, the percentage points are small, but that’s amazing! What’s going on here?