Month: November 2011

After reading fellow classmate Nazanin Mozaffarifar’s blog post entitled, “The Difference Marketing Makes,” I realized that Skechers’ success is a marketer’s dream. Amidst an athletic shoe industry dominated by Nike, Skechers has exemplified clever brand positioning being the first to claim a unique position in the minds of consumers. Nike is viewed as a predominately male brand that sells athlete’s shoes for athletes with emphasis on performance. Sketchers has intelligently positioned itself as fashionable sneaker brand specifically targeting women. By selling fitness shoes for people who are not fitness freaks, they are not committing to an athletic identity but rather one of fashion. Sketchers’ Shape-Ups toning shoes are offered in variety of colors and styles which implies their product can be worn anywhere besides the gym.

In other words, while Nike is a sports brand, Skechers looked at the lives of women who were seeking fitness and produced products that helped them do that while tapping into the fashion conscious nature of the demographic to sell them pairs in different colors and styles. The toning shoe market has no athletic credibility to Nike; therefore, for the sake of the brand, it does not enter. The next challenge for Skechers will be to manage its success. Considering Reebok’s recent release of toning flip-flops, it might not be an easy task. As the toning footwear trend picks up, where Skechers goes from here is anyone’s guess.  

“In the near future, Generation Y will hold sway on what is produced and what is not, and will most likely hold the sway for a long time.”

These bold words from fellow classmate Angelo Panas in his riveting blog post entitled “Generation Y” epitomize Generation Y’s influence on products and marketers. We are the most technologically savvy generation yet.  Our lifestyle is formed by the computers, smartphones, satellite TV, iPods, social media websites (Facebook and Twitter) that fill the world in which we have grown up. Technology has increased our exposure to marketing messages but over time we have adapted to the bombardment. Yet, as Angelo noted, some of us still find it rather annoying. In response, some companies are changing their marketing approaches, refraining from having mass marketing messages pushed at us. Case in point, 7-Eleven capitalizes on the popularity of social media by partnering with Zynga, an online social gaming leader, in an innovative campaign. Consumers can redeem exclusive virtual items within Zynga games with every purchase of the convenience retailer’s products. By co-branding, both 7-Eleven and Zynga create broader consumer appeal and greater brand equity. Since each brand dominates in a different category, co-branding allows a company to expand its existing brand into a category it might otherwise have difficulty entering alone. While the brand Zynga is more exposed to the convenience store patrons, frequent social media users/gamers (Generation Y) have more incentive to visit 7-Eleven.

 “I don’t believe you can do today’s job with yesterday’s methods and be in business tomorrow.” – Nelson Jackson