Live Uplifted: Meet our ASICS Ambassadors – Source: Live Uplifted: Meet our ASICS Ambassadors | ASICS
Continuing a discussion on the importance of content for brands, I want to add how retailers who have long sought a method of offsetting the direct-to-consumer strategies in every industry, not just sneakers, should be utilizing brand content in retail doors.
Tier Zero is a title Nike/Jordan Brand gives to sneaker boutiques who receive highly coveted footwear and apparel. In the book/bio series from Exclucity owner Trent, he discusses the impact of Tier Zero being given more attention than traditional accounts. As I read Trent’s books, I realized he launched his businesses like many companies launch. He went into business with the idea that brands would want to deliver their best to wholesale partners. Trent assumed doing the right thing and elevating brands would give his business an advantage. The reality is that brands understand high heat products don’t require additional attention to hit their targets; so why should they cut profits in half by distributing these items to more accounts? Keep the goods in-house and maximize profits. Deliver the high heat to boutiques only to create demand. Hence Nike’s announcement that the Jordan 11 Cool Grey was the biggest Direct sneaker launch in history provides evidence that relying on traditional retail isn’t as vital as it once was. Traditional, non-Tier Zero accounts, need to work harder. High heat sells itself, but an inline product from ASICS may require more attention to detail and those type of products most certainly require a deeper breadth of knowledge than many sales leads at wholesale accounts have.
How Does ASICS Live Uplifted Help Retail?
ASICS, like HOKA and Brooks, has done a great job at implementing content creation to drive engagement and education. ASICS’ new Live Uplifted campaign introduces brand ambassadors. The stories of the people using the brand range from ex-military people fighting for disabled athletes to people like Lance Woods (above) who is introducing running to his city via his “WeRun313, the premiere run club of Detroit with over 2,000 participants.” These personal stories of ambassadors are obviously good for the brand and ASICS has made sure to deliver a diverse roster of athletes to convey the message that ASICS is a brand for everyone. But how does this help retail? A wholesale account falls victim to low wages for sales leads and team members. There aren’t any strategies in place at wholesale accounts to educate their teams on the product being carried. In specialty running retail the employees tend to be runners or into fitness. These stores are led by ambassadors. Specialty retail has been at the heart of growth in performance running over the years. These stores are living embodiments of Live Uplifted.
Live Uplifted in Mainstream Retail is a QR Code
I wrote about Foot Locker’s addition of a performance running wall:
Foot Locker Finally Makes an Adjustment, a Quiet Adjustment – ARCH-USA This article was written prior to any announcement of Nike’s adjustment in the allotment of kicks to Foot Locker. I wrote it because I loved the addition of the wall in this store. I recently had a chance to sit with The Athlete’s Foot, a city specialty account much like the stores owned by Trent who I discussed in the first paragraph and a lot like this Foot Locker location. In this speech and Q&A I raised an important issue about how Nike’s adjusting the allotment was a gift to Foot Locker. If Nike adjusts the allotment of a retail account with 3000 stores, no one should think they are above this type of adjustment. Foot Locker being the first such adjustment allows them to begin adjusting now. The question is, do they realize what they have to do? More than likely they are aware, but they are probably like most city specialty accounts, they have relied so heavily on the product selling itself they no longer know how to sell. In this picture from the Foot Locker adjustment article, is an answer.
Scenario time… in the picture above are 4 different performance running brands. When I spoke with The Athlete’s Foot I explained that the stores are allowing the visitor to remain comfortable. When a customer is comfortable, they will default to what they know. If that item isn’t in store, they will leave. In most wholesale accounts, the people working aren’t like specialty retail, they don’t use the gear for training purposes and more than likely they aren’t educated on how the different styles of performance sneakers benefit the individual. Traditional retail assumes that the consumer only wants all-white Forces or Jordans. The reality is that the people in the store are unaware of the benefits or the stories behind these different models. ASICS has taken the time to build an amazing campaign. The store doesn’t have the time and they can’t force sales leads to watch content from Live Uplifted. Wholesale accounts can’t truly afford to shift the design layout of the store, which means that both brands and retailers have to add an additional layer. With four brands in one section there isn’t any differentiation between Brooks, ASICS, New Balance or Puma. You can’t tell where one begins and one ends. Enter the QR code. It took me about a minute to build the QR Code below. If your sales leads can’t explain the difference in a neutral and stability trainer and they can’t explain the benefits of a sneaker, don’t rely on them. Rely on the brand and allow the consumer to scan and search at their own pace. ASICS is doing incredible work with content, wholesale accounts should be displaying video content and merchandising in a way that allows discovery by the visitors to the site. The consumer only looking for a pair of white Forces, isn’t the consumer who can change your fortunes as a wholesale account. It’s the 80% of people just browsing who just might want to live uplifted.