BBDO's New Campaign for New Balance: Catastrophic

My friends and fellow bloggers Tom Asacker and Michele Miller just ruined my day yesterday. Within an hour or so, each sent me news of a potentially catastrophic personally change in sneaker maker New Balance’s brand.

Imagine walking down the street one day when you suddenly see an old friend named Alex coming toward you. Your heart pounds, a smile covers your face and you quicken your pace to get to Alex as quickly as you can. But something is wrong. He neither quickened his pace to get to you nor sported a smile. There was no sign of friendliness in his face. In fact, Alex showed no sign at all of recognizing you. For a moment you think you have just seen an Alex look-alike. But no, it’s him. He has that unusual crescent-shaped birthmark just below his left ear. What could ever have so changed his personality? A stroke maybe?

You would be shocked to the bottom of your feet to see such a personality change in an old friend.

New Balance is an old friend to many people. It has been a caring (more shoe widths than any other major sneaker maker) and modest (it focuses more on performance than on style) brand. Shoe retailers love NB because it can restock or deliver newly designed stock to their shelves within days. Nike, Adidas and the like require six months or more lead time, meaning retailers have to order in larger lots and guess what customers will want far ahead in the future.

Many shoe customers love NB because it strives to make as many shoes in the U.S. as possible – by last reckoning, about 30 percent of its production. Employees love NB because of management’s generosity and concern for worker welfare. NB has been a much loved brand. I have long been one of its lovers.

Boomers have been the biggest part of NB’s core market for nearly 20 years. As boomers began moving into midlife, NB was there beside them, continuously engineering adjustments in shoe design to accommodate foot and legwork systems that were beginning to show the wear and tear of age.

Now, NB is abandoning the friendships that took it from the 12^th ranked position among sneaker makers in 1990 to number three ranking today. It left its old friends suddenly and without any warning. This breach of good faith began when NB majority owner Jim Davis, who bought NB in the 1970s for about $100,000 and turned it into a major international brand, decided to ease up a bit and bring on a new CEO. Last year, former consumer products (such as Gillette razor blades and Pringle's potato chips) executive Robert T. DeMartini took over as NB’s CEO. DeMartini wants to go young at a time when there is no growth of any significance in young as far ahead as the eye can see.

Jim Davis would do well to study what has been going on at Starbucks and challenge his CEO’s thinking. Starbucks Chairman recently returned to the CEO position to try and get the company back on tract after its progressive departure over the past several years from its original brand essence.

Starbucks' waywardness from its brand essence occurred over a longer period of time and more subtly than has occurred with the NB brand. The latter’s break from its past has been instantaneous, boisterous as well as just plain silly. Check this commercial out to see what I mean. Look in the right hand column to see additional examples of a campaign that is all the more astonishing (in a negative way) because it is the product of the renowned BBDO agency. Have they been filling the ranks of their creatives with high school students in a money-saving gesture?

Perhaps not since the ill-fated “It’s not your father’s Oldsmobile” campaign has there been a more egregious high profile disregard for the laws of branding.

Jim and Ann, please take back control of your lifework’s future while it still has one. Your cherished NB has long been one of the companies I hold up as a marketing and management exemplar in my books, articles, blog postings, speeches and workshops. Please, let us have the old NB back.

Comments

[joared]

What is wrong with those people, don't they read the numbers that the population is aging? I recall how I learned about NB from a friend slightly beyond the Boomer age bracket years ago. Maybe they'll wise up. Is it too much to hope sales will drop off and they'll get the message?

[Baby-son]

you neglected to explain how exactly New Balance has strayed from its traditional, core-customer base. You explain in great detail why doing so would be prove to be ill-fated but you didn't cite anything factual that the company has done creatively or strategically except for one commercial (the link's down btw).

I'm not familiar with how significant these changes in the NB brand strategy are, however, I think that NB could successfully position itself in the Youth Market. Particularly the skate market. I think even young people are going to be increasingly receptive to subtle branding and will respond to a brand that is very well-regarded and performs at the highest level. They (NB) could make it happen. Maybe they haven't done it right so far, but being aggressive and considering new ways to reach this market shouldn't be viewed with such trepidation and distrust.

[David Wolfe]

Thanks for your observation, Joared.

And now for you, Baby-son. I apologize for not being clearer in showing how New Balance strayed from its core market. Since around 1990, NB's marketing has been ageless, but has reflected a strong bias towards values commonly associated with midlife in the annals of adult development. This was intentional according to majority NB owner Jim Davis whom I interviewed for my book Ageless Marketing.

Actually, there were four of five commercials, not one, and they weren't taken down but seven days after posting are available only to subscribers of the Creativity site.

As I said in my posting, NB already has a sizable chunk of the youth market. However by overtly targeting youth -- especially those in high school according to a brief released by NB -- the company abandoned its traditional ageless approach and marked the brand as for "kids." That will alienate many in the 40-plus population who have been NB stalwarts, I believe.

Thanks for your views.

[Mike Buckley]

Say it ain't so, Jim. Being a boomer and a diabetic with wide feet, I buy two brands of shoes: NB athletic shoes and Rockport dress shoes. I've reached the age where comfort is much more important than style or price. Both brands offer a good selection of products in the size I need and the price tag is the last thing I look at.

I sincerely hope that New Balance isn't going to abandon the thing it does best, but it won't surprise me if they do.

[Brandon Matthew]

I am wearing New Balance shoes from a very long time and now I can't walk without them.