Answering Retailers' Call, Nike Plans Segmented Lines for Back-to-School

Brandweek, Feb 15, 1999 by Terry Lefton

Addressing the common complaint of athletic-shoe marketers that every retailer carries the same products, Nike is about to change the rules: for this year's crucial August/September back-to-school selling season, the footwear giant will segment by product concept, offering big retailers like Foot Locker, FootAction, Finish Line and Just for Feet exclusive bundles of shoes and store-specific ads supporting those products. Retailers said they will be segmented by marketing concept, not by exclusive technology.

"Historically, this is something we have been begging and pleading for," said Ralph Parks, president of the 572-store Foot Action chain. Jointly funded marketing campaigns, with retailers spending well beyond their traditional co-op contributions, will support. Nike president/COO Tom Clarke identified basketball, training and a women's initiative as three concepts likely to be used this fall.

"Segmentation is the No. 1 challenge for the industry and we need to get beyond different shoe makeups and into more directed concepts with exclusive product," Clarke said.

The effort addresses an issue that, with the glut of retail space, has created an environment in which merchants are forced to compete on price alone. That has created severe financial distress at Foot Locker parent Venator Group and other retailers, and contributed to last year's $500 million decline in wholesale sales in the $7.5 billion domestic footwear market, the first decline in more than 15 years, per recent figures from Sporting Goods Intelligence.

In other swoosh news, Nike is importing some Weiden & Kennedy spots that have run only in Europe to break on the pay-per-view broadcast of the upcoming Evander Holyfield/Lennox Lewis heavyweight title fight in March. Two spots for the Air Zoom GP shoes pit Holyfield against Seattle Sonic Gary Payton (now wearing the shoes bearing his initials in games) in a boxing match. A 30second version shows Payton mesmerizing Holyfield with speed and footwork. It's the shoes, right? A 15-second rejoinder, slated to play a few spots after the first ad, shows Holyfield in the ring, now wearing the Air Zoom GPs and proceeding to drop Payton with a single punch.

Looking to borrow some equity from the upcoming NCAA March Madness, Visa, Tommy Hilfiger and Foot Locker have signed on as sponsors of the 20-market "Music Madness" tour, in which RCA Records acts will play 20 college venues in the East, Midwest, and South next month. Bands include The Interpreters and Trinket; sponsors' benefits include signage and tabling rights, appearances in ads.

Official donut of NHL? Not quite, but N.Y. regional bakery Freihofer's is joining with the NHL in a cause-related push that will get the league's "Coolest Kids" branding on millions of bakery products during the month of March, with Freihofer's donating a percentage of sales to support the inaugural "Coolest Kids Classic." The hockey tourney for 8to-lO's will be held at the NHL-branded rink in Danbury, Conn., April 10-11, per a deal from NHL new-biz vp Bryant McBride. Freihofer's gets signage and hospitality at the tourney and will leverage mostly with its trade customers, using themed POP.

Miami-based Pm Access is in talks with NFL Properties hoping to add league marks and support to the "Run For the Record" marketing program it is planning around Barry Sanders' expected breaking of the league's all-time rushing yardage mark sometime next season. Pro Access hopes to secure the rights to do hot-market apparel bearing NFL marks. A league source said NFLP hopes to hook up league sponsors in the program as a quid pro quo for letting its marks be used. One corporate sponsorship deal has been secured by Pro Access: Sanders as spokesman for Playoff trading cards next season, appearing in print ads.

Extra Points: Look for Hicks Muse to build a South American version of the regional sports broadcasting empire it has assembled in the Southwest. It announced a strategic alliance with former Reebok head Roberto Muller at the Super Show last week... Veteran NBA licensing exec Bill Marshall is now working with NBA chief marketing officer Rick Welts directing the league's various retail projects. The move follows a reorg of the NBA's Consumer Products Group resulting in a reported eight-person layoff. U