Nike

There's an interesting article in Sunday's New York Times: The New Advertising Outlet: Your Life, about a move away from advertising by Nike. Advertising has become less about telling people about a product - information - and more about experiences and constructing aspirational, attractive meanings and associations around products and brands. Nike has long drawn upon language and imagery of aspiration - transcending ones limitations to achieve ones best through the Nike brand and its products - in its advertising. But now, Nike is moving to provide 'aspirational' experiences to people through free services, irrespective of whether or not they already own Nike products. Nike calls its third floor of its New York store the 'Nike Running Club'. There, runners can map out running routes, receive training advice and attend an evening speaker series. All this is for free, even if they aren't even wearing Nike. The company pays five coaches and 17 pacers to lead runs three times a week in Central Park. Nike says all this is part of its efforts to connect with people directly, rather than through advertising and marketing.

Nike isn't alone in doing this kind of thing. Companies like Apple and Sony do it too. Sony has a huge store in Berlin that is especially designed so people can go in and try out most, if not all, Sony's products, get advice and generally have a good time. You don't need to spend anything. Of course, people do this kind of thing in stores anyway. But at Sony, Nike and Apple, people are actively encouraged to do it.

On the surface, this seems new. But when I was talking with Delia about Nike this morning (not the kind of conversation we have every day), she said that it isn't new really. You used to be able to go to your local hardware store and get loads of advice from the owner, from putting up a shelf to putting up a shed, or just pop in to your local corner food store and have a chat. Some of these places still exist (although not in Guildford where we live, which is almost saturated by the standard high street stores). For owners of these kinds of places, providing free advice or just a place to drop into to have a chat, doesn't form part of a general strategy to 'connect with their customers'. They 'just do it'.