Sneaker Names: Beisser Considered

music: Silence

I have to write something about the Puma Beisser special edition sneaker and Nike's new Considered line.


First, the Puma Beisser. Us English language speakers are going to walk around calling them BEE-SIRS. When it's really "BYE-SIR," because of the German pronounciation. (When it's spelled "EI" you say "I" and when it's "IE" you say "E", as in my last name, SCHMEE-DER ;-).)

The meaning of the name, "Biter" (from the German "beissen") will get lost on most people even though they are "fanged."

It seems as though the name won't matter because Puma is only making 500 of them. A very smart marketing tactic because there is nothing like limitedness to drive consumers wild. And that is what increases Puma brand cachet and Puma brand awareness.

As for Nike's Considered Line, I am happy to see that a company that was so criticized for their human labor practices is actually starting to create a line of shoes that are environmentally friendly. I didn't read through all of their materials, some of which sounds like it came straight from The Cluetrain Manifesto (specifically, The Conversation as in 'markets are conversations'), but this blog is about naming and the idea of Considered for a shoe brand, or a sub-brand in this case is not a bad one. It's got a certain skateboarder, hipster hipness to it. And if that's part of the demo they're going for - I don't think it is - they'll be in there with Adio, DC, DVS, Dekline, ES, Emerica (a great name and a great brand), Etnies, Fallen, Lakai, Osiris and Vans (the classic!). If however, they're going up against Birkenstock, then things get interesting because they're going head to head against the classic "crunchy" "hippie" shoe and a shoe maker that isn't bragging about the environmental-friendliness of their manufacturing and their materials. PREDICTION: Birkenstock will. [Birkenstock is also having a fire sale on their beautiful Architect line of shoes. Does that mean theyr'e going to discontinue them?]

[Interesting aside, Nike had a difficult time breaking into the skateboard shoe market because skaters didn't see themselves in Nikes, because Nike was too mainstream. Interestingly, in the history of skateboarding, there was a period in the early days, post-Dogtown, that skaters were into Nike basketball shoes. The whole way that Nike penetrated the skateboard shoe arena makes for an interesting case study, but suffice to say, they made a great product and hired some great skaters to sponsor and little by little they have made inroads.]

The Tagline says, "Consider History. Consider the Present. Consider the Future." And maybe the folks at Nike really are taking all of those things into, um, consideration. Or maybe not, perhaps this just a PR tactic. A way of getting post-consumer, enviromentalists and anti-leather vegans into Nikes.

Regardless, it'll work with a certain niche of consumers. And since we live in the age of niche marketing, the niche can never be overlooked.

BTW, I like the Considered Rock.
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Karl on 03.10.05 @ 05:32 PM EST [link] [No Comments]

Should Global Brands Trash Local Favorites?

Nice article by Randall Frost on this week's Brandchannel web site. It discusses the importance and popularity of local brands that sometimes get re-named, re-branded and even lost when a global company takes over.

Cites the loss of Scotland's Creamola Foam - a sweet, fizzy powdered rink that was lost when Brands Partnership, a British company bought the product from NestlÈ. Seems there is a group of die-hard Creamola lovers that want to bring the stuff back.

Also cites, P&G's experience with Dawn. In Germany, they renamed "Fairy" a popular laundry detergent (whose name would probably not fly in the English language world - at least these days). P&G's market share dropped drastically after switching to the new Dawn name.

With the renaming, the bond between consumers and the brand was broken; not even changing the brand's name back to Fairy could restore it.

The article goes on to say:

"One of the most important considerations that has been left off the table in the ongoing discussion of brand deletion is a concept called cultural brand equity. [Some brands] have rich pedigrees, and not only in their home country. While it is possible that the brands may have weak sales and profitability now, their histories are extraordinarily valuable, if dormant, assets. If brands are still lodged in the collective imagination of the country as cultural symbols, there is value on the table for the smart marketer who knows how to restage the brands to make them culturally relevant. No multinational marketing company understands this because they are trapped in what I call the mind share model of brandingóa paradigm that blinds them to the cultural value of the brand, and the way brands move through history."

While we couldn't have said it better ourselves, it boils down to being sensitive to the local culture and their history with existing brands.

Karl on 03.07.05 @ 12:29 PM EST [link] [No Comments]