I’m always completely desperate for gift ideas for my husband’s birthday so when a Nike Fuel Band was suggested by a coworker I was primed for purchase. Our anniversary, Christmas, Valentine’s Day & his birthday all fall within the same mess-my-budget-up completely span of a few months each year so price really wasn’t a consideration at that point (thank god I don’t have to do quarterly earnings calls on my household state of affairs or price would have been a consideration).
I have many thoughts about the Nike Fuel Band (I’m sure you are shocked, dear reader). Today I’m going to focus on: 1) How Nike Fuel band is awesome, 2) How Nike could make it more awesome. 3) How Nike doesn’t give a hoot about making it more awesome because they are Nike and they are awesome so they don’t have to.
1) How it is awesome. So we all need our little bits of encouragement. This thing basically take’s Pavlov’s experiment to the human phase and crosses the digital divide. It gives you constant, real time, on-your-wrist-thereby-in-your-face feedback. Millennials love that stuff (Gen Xers do too they just don’t like to admit it). You control your goals (everyone loves control) and you get a little digital guy (Fuelie) to do a jig for you when you achieve. Magnificent. May I have a cookie too please?
2) How Nike could make it more awesome. My husband is a serious swimmer so waterproofing the sucker would make it more awesome. How hard is it? We have waterproof cameras, watches and now smartphones; this isn’t new technology, people. The real juice when I put my marketer hat, er, swim cap, on is in the rewards. That’s what really make people use it and love it. Sure, it helped that Nike stole a page out of Apple’s playbook on the simplicity of the design so the thing doesn’t look like a nerd-alert watch calculator. But I’m talking about rewards people. Bigger than Fuelie’s jig. Think big.
So there are all these faux professional athletes out there who take working out very seriously. We’ve all seen how big marathons and triathlons have gotten over the past five years. There are also all these Nike-lovers out there right. Who isn’t a Nike lover? Never bad to wear a swoosh, is it? My point, dear readers, is that what if Nike gave rewards, big, public badges at an invite-only Annual Summit held in Beaverton for the highest point holders, longest streaks, etc. Public recognition, public badging, people. By. Nike. Nike could give out yellow Post-Its as the actual awards at the Summit and everyone would still want one as if it were a yellow jersey, people. Invites more sought after than to the TED Conference. Suddenly everyone wants to go to Beaverton. What!?!
3) How Nike doesn’t give a hoot about making the fuel band more awesome because they are Nike and they are awesome so they don’t have to. That’s really the point people. Nike is a strong enough brand they don’t have to give away or create anything. But it would be smart if they did. Suddenly you’d want to go to Beaverton, too.
the marketing lunch 