Running: The Love-Hate Relationship

New Balance has been losing valuable awareness to Nike within the running category. New Balance thinks this is because they have not been spending enough to keep their brand in the mind of their consumers. As a result, they are now planning to triple their ad spending in 2008. Last year, they spent $19.7 million in media. Their goal: to double sales to $3 billion by the year 2012.

The footwear company is targeting casual runners with the strategy of reminding them of how much they can hate running. The campaign is being launched by Onicom Group's BBDO, New York. They will portray the relationship between runners and their sport as one that is hot and cold. The print piece says, "Today you almost broke up with running. Today running shook you out of bed and into the deep, dark cold. Today, once again, around mile 2, lungs full of air, pupils full of sunrise, you remembered, 'Oh yeah, this is why we got together." The pitch is aimed to boost sales among the 18 - 29 year olds.

New Balance has always had the loyalty of hard-core runners. This is why they are trying to appeal their brand to the younger, casual athletes that see running as a chore that they need to complete in order to prepare themselves for their actual, real sport. Through testing, the new TV spots are supposed to be most effective to high-school athletes that view running as a "punishment."

New Balance's main competitor is now Nike which is putting most of their efforts in promoting their new sneakers, Nike Plus. This is a new iPod integrated shoe that allows the runner to play music while providing mileage and timing information, to motivate the runner to run. Nike is basically focusing on showing off the benefits of new high technology.

Meanwhile, New Balance is trying to keep things more simple. They focus on their sneaker's low-tech advantages. Some examples include "Rock Stop Technology" which emphasizes the sneakers ability to reduce discomfort from running over rocks. The ads will play during the NCAA basketball tournament with New Balance's widest advertising push to date.

The ads that New Balance are releasing do have an advantage over Nike's ads. They focus on simplicity and the consumers themselves. Who really neeeds a shoe that can play music? The New Balance ads remind us that although we are initially reluctant and hesitant to run, that after overcoming our laziness we begin to enjoy it and realize why we force ourselves to do it in the first place. I think that the ads will be successful with their target market.