BUSINESS OF BRANDS
Nike – swoosh or no swoosh
Here’s a thought. If Nike decided to remove the swoosh from the outside and engrave it on the inside, would you still buy a pair?
I owe this thought to a friend of mine, who called two days ago. He wanted my take on consumer insights about shoes in the Indian market. Lets take Nike for an example. Quality is, of course the most important criterion. The swoosh, in Nike, is extremely important and has a lot of emotions attached to it. But, here’s something more! A pair of Nike with the swoosh on the outside is 10 times more likely to be purchased than a similar pair, offering equal levels of comfort with the swoosh engraved on the inside. With more than 50 responses, I have listed below a couple of points that became full fledged discussions (Thank you guys!)
Q: If Nike decided to remove the swoosh from the outside and engrave it on the inside, would you still buy a pair?
Respondent 8: Hey! They charge me a lot and Im paying premium for the swoosh. It better be on the outside.
Analysis – During the entire conversation, there was no mention of the product attribute at all. Has the visual identity taken over core characteristics? Also, is the premium paid for the swoosh or for brand promise (which is definitely beyond a coolness quotient). The brand Nike can be associated with world class quality. Now, this seems to be taken for granted. Vanity sure is important. But, at the cost of what?
Respondent 15: This is similar to you paying your one year salary on a Louis Vuitton bag. Would you buy the bag without LV logo?
Analysis – Good point. But I still think Nike and LV are poles apart. I wear my Nike shoes to the gym every morning because they are so comfortable. My size 3 feet dont hurt when I run with them. The main purpose is not for other people to notice. Au contraire, I carry my Louis Vuitton for people to notice and talk about. Vanity is the main purpose here. If I was to use it as a bag, I would carry it everywhere. My LV is reserved only for parties where I want to show off.
Respondent 18: Comfort reduces my dissonance, but the swoosh is for people to see and relate.
Analysis – For all the non-MBA-jargon-folks (respect!) the dissonance referred to here, is called post purchase cognitive dissonance. This is the “have I spent too much?”, “Is it worth it?” syndrome that remains in the head after purchase. Product attributes like comfort (“Of course they are worth it. They are so comfortable, it was a great buy”) help reduce the dissonance. Personally, this response is my favorite. We have now come to the level of looking at the core product attribute as a reason to feel good and not a reason to buy!
Respondent 34: I am buying Nike for the product, not for the swoosh.
Analysis – Very very few people are on this side. One of them replied, “As long as the shoe meets my exacting standards, I dont care. I still know it is a pair of Nike.” This set hunt for brand experience and attributes. They go beyond the face value and brand loyalists can be carved out of this lot.
What about you? If Nike decided to remove the swoosh from the outside and engrave it on the inside, would you still buy a pair?
Tagged BUSINESS OF BRANDS, Consumer insight, experience
Related Posts
10 Comments
Leave a reply
VishalJanuary 13, 2010 at 10:26 pm
I won’t until they reduce the price by 70 %… lol
would you go on a date with a guy who has got his teeth engraved on his eyebrows ??
HeenaJanuary 13, 2010 at 10:40 pm
Wow, good analysis. Just a positioning change brings about such a change in consumer attitude, you explained it quite well with various respondents. Personally, I would go for it without the swoosh! Since I do not believe in ‘Brand Value’ but more in Brand quality and I know Nike shoes are good in quality.
[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.
Tweets that mention Nike – swoosh or no swoosh | Brand Touchpoints -- Topsy.comJanuary 14, 2010 at 1:33 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by abhinaya_ch, Suraj. Suraj said: RT @abhinaya_ch: Brand Touchpoints: Nike – swoosh or no swoosh http://brandtouchpoints.in/2010/01/nike-swoosh-or-no-swoosh/ [...]
[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The comment’s server IP (208.74.66.43) doesn’t match the comment’s URL host IP (74.112.128.10) and so is spam.
Abhinaya ChandrasekharJanuary 15, 2010 at 9:25 amAuthor
lol. I agree they are expensive.
[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.
Abhinaya ChandrasekharJanuary 15, 2010 at 9:38 amAuthor
Hi Heena
Thanks for dropping by. Personally, I belong to the same school of thought as you.
[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The poster sent us ’0 which is not a hashcash value.
Sudhir PaiJanuary 15, 2010 at 10:31 am
Swoosh or no swoosh, I wouldn’t buy Nike anymore. It’s not as alluring as it used to be back in ’98, when it was finally launched in India, and i bought my first pair which lasted 3 years. I bought another two pairs till i had one really bad experience with their floaters. I see their quality has dropped quite a bit since i bought my first pair. my loyalties now are distributed fairly between Puma, Converse, Lotto, Fila and looking forward to buy a pair of Asics running shoes. I dont mind the Nike gear though, but i’m not so kicked about their shoes anymore. I guess good advertising or good branding can only do so much for a not-so-good product.
Piyush AgarwalJanuary 15, 2010 at 2:29 pm
Hii….stumbled upon this post via indivine…
Quite an interesting analysis…though I am not in branding…have been related to consumers and their thinking process for a long time courtesy family busines..
It always amazes me on how a consumer comes to a conclusion of buying a product…the different factors that make him make that purchase.. Some of them so weird that the manufacturer would never looked at the product that way!
I guess you earned yourself a regular at your blog in my form… will check out other posts soon..
Sayed KhadriJanuary 15, 2010 at 3:48 pm
interesting analysis.
it doesn’t matter where they put the SWOOSH. The important thing here is quality, if the quality is same then I can buy shoe, no matter where they put swoosh.
ShyamFebruary 19, 2010 at 2:04 pm
Yes I will buy Nike irrespective of the position of the swoosh. But without swoosh – NO. The brand will remain with me as long as it keeps providing whatever is expected out of it (taken for granted aspects of the brand). Then only things like swoosh and their display on the product would bother me. Agreed that swoosh has got emotions attached to it, but these emotions emanate from the core of the brand – design and comfort. To me, swoosh symbolizes the associations of the brand values and not vice-versa.
One thing that struck me here was the loyalty part. I am loyal to the complete NIKE and not to its parts. Not just swoosh, not just comfort (might opt for lotto) , not just design (might go for Puma then), but all of them together. And as far as the case of engraving the swoosh inside or outside is concerned, I would be least bothered but would not suggest Nike to do that. I won’t mind if swoosh on the outer surface fetches some recognition, I would be happy to earn that instead.
go learn web.March 8, 2012 at 5:25 pm
[...]The information mentioned in the article are some of the best available [...]……
[...]The information mentioned in the article are some of the greatest available [...]……
[WORDPRESS HASHCASH] The comment’s server IP (23.19.136.205) doesn’t match the comment’s URL host IP () and so is spam.