Did you hear?... Entrepreneur warns about changing brand identity
In a recent story in Entrepreneur magazine about creating and maintaining consumer brand awareness, one of three sidebars focusing on separate companies took a look at Nike -- and didn't like what it saw. "The power of its branding helped Nike sprint past the competition in the 1970s and '80s. But even Ueberbranders can stumble. Nike started losing its brand edge when it changed its focus in the 1990's from traditional athletics to more outdoorsy activities like hiking," the magazine wrote. Entrepreneur's lesson in this story -- which quoted independent business analysts and marketing professors -- is for companies to be careful in trying to change brand identity. SNEWS® View: Nike (actually Nike ACG) is taking another, stronger gander into outdoors, calling it "athletes outside" as one way to bridge the perceived differences between athletics and outdoors. The other maneuver is to separate Nike ACG (outdoors) from Nike (athletics etc.) and into its own independently run business unit. We at SNEWS® don't necessarily see outdoors and athletics/fitness as a total dichotomy or even unauthentic, even within one company, as long as the marketing is clear.
