Sunday, October 27, 2013

Ch. 6- Consumer Decision Making

A lot of factors weigh in as to why a consumer would want to buy a Nike product. As Nike co-founder Bill Bowerman once said, "If you have a body, you are an athlete." Bowerman here made a very big statement in targeting athletes everywhere to sell his products to, and made the Nike product more appealing to a greater consumer base by just that statement. Nike Inc is the most successful and top selling athletic brand in the entire world, and truthfully and clearly stands above the rest of its stiff competition in the athletic apparel and footwear market in the world. Like any other product, consumers of Nike products are faced with the same elements such as cultural, societal and individual needs and factors, but despite that are heavily effected on external information and stimuli such as the ever changing innovations of Nike products and Market controlled and non market controlled information sources. Nike Inc mission stresses heavily the idea and motive of innovation to its consumers, as Nike itself started with Bill Bowerman ripping apart running shoes of his era and finding ways to make them lighter and quicker. Innovation is the sole engine behind Nike's vastly successful approach, and is the largest reason as to how consumers stay attracted and interested in their priduct, as innovation in Nike is always occuring, and makes its brand unique among the rest.


Nike + graphic
Nike innovates its products by using technology and personalization as key factors in effecting the consumers behavior when they are contemplating and deciding whether or not to purchase their products. Nike uses the Nike + technology in their sneakers, which is able to track vital information and play music for you throughout your workout. It is started with an electronic chip, almost SIM card like technology that is made by Apple that you insert into the slot provided in the insole of the sneaker that syncs with your iPod and is able to track your miles traveled and your distance, and even has a voice over command such as a Nav systems in most cars do. Originally Nike was only using this Nike + technology with running sneakers but it has now expanded into their basketball sneakers, such as the Kobe 8 System Elite + basketball sneakers which I as a consumer of Nike happen to own.

Along with the technology, the personalization of sneakers that Nike makes available to consumers is a huge plus to their decision making, as Nike allows you to take the shoe you want, and put in any colorway you want and design the show from top to bottom. This allows you as the consumer the freedom to be the designer of your own signature shoe, and even have them displayed for sale on the Nike website. Nike calls this the Nike iD process, where you as the consumer are able to design the shoe top to bottom from the lace color to the bottom soles and small details like paint drop design in the mid soles, with the colors of your choice for a reasonable $180 per pair. You the consumer are in control of the very critical design process of the given sneaker. Nike makes this available with almost every new basketball shoe that it releases, currently you are able to "iD" the new Kevin Durant sneakers along with the new LeBron James sneakers too.


Nike iD layout
Nike is able to advertise its products through many channels. For the market controlled sources, Nike is able to promote and advertise through elements such as numerous television commercials, print ads, billboards, and social media sites. In the sneaker market especially, the non-market controlled information sources seem to hold the most important in the ability for not only Nike but any sneaker brand to sell to and effect its consumers decisions successfully. Today we have factors such as YouTube, various blogs and review websites and sneaker news sites that help make a sneaker appealing to a consumer and effect their decision to purchase. You have thousands of YouTube accounts dedicated to purchasing and reviewing every single aspect of  Nike and other sneakers on the market where they are posting the reviews for very large audiences to see. The sneaker news and review websites such as Sneaker Files, Sneaker News and Kicks on Fire are very important, as they offer again a vary of different sneaker brands and the information and early photos of these soon to be released and existing shoes for consumers to see and look at before buying. The information from other consumers of sneakers like themselves help convince a consumer to purchase a sneaker, I myself as a consumer went out and saw and read reviews and blogs from these various sources on the Nike Kobe 8 sneakers I purchased before buying them to see how others who had purchased them thought they performed and such. As a consumer of Nike shoes, my expierience with the non-market controlled info sources really made an impact on my purchasing the Nike shoes I had looked at and read up on through the help of these various sources. I feel as if these factors of the blogs and YouTube and websites really help push and drive the purchase decision of the consumer. Above I have  provided the video review that I watched on YouTube to help make the decision for me to purchase the Nike shoes I did.

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