I came across this quote the other day:
We don’t do advertising any more. We just do cool stuff, it sounds a bit wanky, but that’s just the way it is. Advertising is all about achieving awareness, and we no longer need awareness. We need to become part of people’s lives and digital allows us to do that. - Simon Pestridge, Marketing Chief, Nike UK
It really resonated with me. Nike uses digital such that people are able to (willingly) integrate the brand into their lives. Why? Because it creates value for them.
Products = Value = Brands The idea of great products creating brands is not a novel one:
To build brands that mean something to customers, you need to attach them to products that mean something to customers. - Clayton Christensen
This is obvious and fundamental. However, traditional marketing channels and approaches aren’t equipped to make a product better. More desirable, perhaps. But not fundamentally better. I think one of the biggest advantages digital has — especially social and mobile — is that digital can enhance existing products and even create new products that add real value.
1) What is value?
The term value refers to social value, emotional value, and functional value. Things like social status, fun, safety, simplicity, convenience, productivity.
2) What is a product?
A product is something that creates value. Or as defined by Christensen, “a product is a job people need or want to do.” It is an experience, a service, a moment — digital or physical — though, increasingly both. A product is not a feature. A product is not (just) a technology. A product is an ecosystem of features that work together in a purposeful way to create value.
Digital can strengthen the ecosystem and get the job done. Adding new features into the ecosystem can allow for innovative combinations that create new “products” that strengthen the value proposition and/or create value in a novel way. Marketing should be about discovering ways to do this; in ways that connect with core customers in a meaningful way, tapping into shared values, and meeting an unmet needs.
Nike+ is a great example. Say the job people want to get done is ‘running’ which might actually mean several things. Maybe they want to get in shape, they want to be healthy, they want to be part of a community, etc. You can’t get these jobs done with shoes alone. Nor with just an iPod. Nor with just a website. It takes an entire ecosystem working together to create the whole product. Nike realized that by creating Nike+ they could bring all the components of the ecosystem together, allowing for innovation, and thereby strengthening the product — creating a more compelling way to get the job done.
The slides below, taken from Peter Merholz’ presentation, “From the Outside In” illustrate this point. The first slide is the Nike+ ecosystem, and the second is the extended ecosystem, along with the innovations that strengthen the overall product.
Nike isn’t the only brand that gets this. Here are some more examples where digital made the product more valuable: there’s Baker Tweet, MySkyStatus, Food52 Recipes On Stickybits, and Tesco Groceries app.
Creating a strong ecosystem requires a true understanding of 1) the business’ strategy (the system of activities it needs to create value) and the 2) true needs of the customer, which is really an understanding of what job they need or want to get done.
[from an old blog, published on November 12 2010]