I was recently extremely amused by Pearl Izumi’s ad “We Are Not Joggers.” In says: “At Pearl Izumi, we don’t jog, we run. The thing is running is endangered. You might find this hard to believe. After all, the number of entrants in your local 10K is surely on the rise, and every Saturday the park is packed with people prancing around in brand-new trainers. Unfortunately, few if any of them are running. They’re jogging. And with all this jogging going on out there, runners are losing the soul of their sport. Joggers are prey. Runners are hunters!”
Boy ... now I really understand who you are?? Hey, dude! The only difference between a runner and a jogger is the name on the entry form!
Then we have Reebok’s “Run Easy” campaign, which is just the opposite of Pearl Izumi’s ad. They even have NBA superstar Allen Iverson in full hip hop clothing, running in one of their TV commercials. Yup, we can relate to running easy with Allen.
Asics utilizes “A Sound Mind, In a Sound Body” derived from the Latin phrase Anima Sana In Corpore Sano, which is also an acronym for “ASICS.” Pretty good! Do we trust them? Yup! Sound mind, sound body, sound product!
Nike says “Just Do It!” In technical running, they did it for years! At one point Nike owned more than a 50% market share in the Specialty Running store channel. Over the past six years it’s lost market share in Specialty Running because it lost the trust runner’s had in their technical footwear product. Guess what? Nike’s back and “Just Doing it” again with great products such as the Structure Triax 10 (my vote for shoe of the year) and the Air Vomero.
Mizuno uses “Your Passion Is Our Obsession.” Mizuno’s Serious Performance positioning exemplifies its market communication headline and the product always backs this up with more “Runner’s World” Editor Choice Awards than any other brand in the past 10 years.
Saucony’s “Loyal To The Sport” represents that it is committed to the running community and the product. I believe them and the proof is in rapid market share increases in the past 12 months. They truly get what a running company is all about with the most improved product line in the industry.
Trust, believability and consistency — all trademarks for why we choose products and bond emotionally with the running brands we love. However, just like a marriage, that lost trust and believability can be a reason for divorce.
John Rogers is the owner of Maine Running Company on Forest Ave. in Portland. Send questions or comments to him at jr@mainerunning.com or check out the store’s website at www.mainerunning.com