photo via the Twitter feed of New Balance
Early in 2018 I wrote this post:
In the post I explained that New Balance was making amazing strides. The signing of athletes by the brand has been almost Nike like and possibly the most timely of any brand in the business. The recent run by Coco Gauff highlights what has been an incredible year by NB. If you take a quick look through older posts you will find that the brand has made a lot of the right choices:
New Balance Is Solidifying Its Position as One of the Big Three
In the same instance you can find the absence of diversity within their walls as evidence of why there hasn’t been any real marketing around either Kawhi or Coco although they’ve been accomplishing incredible things and shaking up the world. New Balance appears to be resting on the strengths of their athletes. The problem with this is momentum is fleeting, but imagery lasts. Nike understands this and gives us defining moments via campaigns. NB doesn’t quite seem to get it and when they try, it runs horribly awry:
The Fine Line in Marketing | New Balance: Insensitive and Ignorant #UnversityOfRun – Detention ad
As it did in the University of Run ad. It makes sense that the brand is hesitant to dump money into campaigns, but this is one of the things that led Naomi Osaka to leave adidas and Sloane Stephens to leave Under Armour. Nike just seems to understand that momentum is no longer enough to establish a presence in the minds of consumers. Take a scroll through NB’s Twitter feed and there aren’t any marketing campaigns, only acknowledgements:
Here you have a brand that has a goldmine of athletes and entertainers, without any connection to product or visuals. I get that selling isn’t the goal, but isn’t it?
As great as adidas did four years ago today an UltraBOOST in a limited colorway is released and it sits on the shelves. Multiple pairs of adidas are marked down to 29.99 at Foot Locker. The only product that resonates is Yeezy and the marketing around the Three Stripes looks nothing like it did when the team won major ad awards for their campaigns in 2016.
Maybe that’s what New Balance realizes… that a campaign is ultimately short lived. Then again maybe, like adidas was four years ago, New Balance is lucky. NB, like adidas, made the right signings and the stars aligned for its athletes and entertainers. Jaden dropped Erys, Coco beat Venus, and Kawhi shook up the basketball world. Three African-Americans have given New Balance something that it isn’t recognized for, style and winning. But if you browse their LinkedIn People search you get a very similar number in the first 5 pages: 4. Only 2 African Americans (non-designers) show up in the first 5 pages of employees. (feeds vary based on your connections)
That’s also very adidas like and could possibly be a harbinger. Right now New Balance has a chance to create and spend money on ads that could give people a completely different perception of the brand. Like Kawhi, however, the brand is keeping quiet. I’m not sure if that is the right thing to do.
