4 Reasons Why Nike Just Does It For Students

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We often ask the question, “Why aren’t students buying my product?” but the question you should be asking is, “Why ARE they buying someone else’s?” This week we’ve decided to take a peek into Nike’s recent strides into creating equality and opportunity for youth and appealing to millennials on multiple fronts. We also found 4 themes in line with key findings of the Student Spend Report 2017, as to why students buy from this diverse brand and why it’s become so capable of winning with its younger audience.

1. Their Game Face Is Always On

Students naturally gravitate towards brands they can relate to, from brand persona and look, to the benefits it offers them. To the other end, brands are often accused of being patronising or even condescending when they try too hard to fit into the youth’s mould. It can be hard to create a brand offering that appeals to every young person, considering their spending patterns and behaviour differ by year of study, race, gender and region according to the latest Student Spend Report.
Nike’s recent Equality campaign stating, “Worth should outshine color”, called on people to take the same respect they have for others on the playing field, into society. The simple phrase spoke up for equality, transcending any barriers that might exist.

In knowing that they are dealing with the most diverse generation to date they identified that if they want to continue to advance their brand outreach, they have to craft marketing strategies that resonate with this unique generation of consumers.

2. Nike Makes Them Feel It

Students are into experiential exploration and want to know what everything feels like or offers before they whip out their wallet for it. Students aren’t afraid to spend however with clothing purchases having almost tripled since the last report and online purchasing still being less popular than in store experiences, it’s clear students aren’t giving up their opportunity to have experiences.

With students focussing more on “Brand Me”, Nike has created various opportunities for students to experience their brand to see if they like it or not. For example, some Nike stores now feature a treadmill where customers can try out their shoe choice for practicality, preference or just feel. One such store can be found at East Gate Mall in Johannesburg. Further to this, the Nike Centre in Soweto also has a mini Astro Turf available for testing soccer boots.

3. They Offer Exclusivity & Accessibility

Owning a pair of Nikes is more of lifestyle than just a pair of sneakers and is associated with everything cool. Nike has a strong celebrity culture that students aspire to, from rappers busting a rhyme about the latest Jays, to the biggest sports stars in the world endorsing the brand. This time, Nike’s campaign featured its athletes, including LeBron James, Serena Williams, Kevin Durant, Megan Rapinoe, Dalilah Muhammad, Gabby Douglas, and Victor Cruz, conveying a further powerful message that “Opportunity should not discriminate.”

In line with this theme, Nike has long championed causes that reflect their values and found ways to make it fit in with their different youth audiences. Knowing that students want the opportunity to create their individual look at an affordable or justifiable cost Nike has created multiple channels for their customers to experience exclusivity but also accessibility with their products. The Student Spend Report found that mass production stores are unappealing to the youth since they might just pitch up on campus looking like someone else, which is of course unacceptable.

With the online Nike ID store students have an opportunity to design the kind of Nike’s they want. Adrian Song, a local aspiring soccer player, got the opportunity to design his own soccer boots on Nike ID as part of his sponsorship. He spoke of his experience with the Nike ID Store saying: “With my experience in motion graphics and graphic design I found it to be interactive with the option of customizing the panel colours and the options of choosing flags and crests. I originally heard about it from my friends and really enjoyed being involved in creating something that was personal to me and my passion for soccer.

Nike has made their offering exclusive but accessible for anyone to create and have delivered to them, wherever they may be. The price point is also suited to varying student budgets and seeing as students save to spend, well worth the investment.

4. Nike Thinks Further

Seeing as students love brands who aren’t just focused on selling their products, Nike is winning with its time investment in developing the youth market. With the Nike Academy running five-aside soccer tournaments for young aspiring players to go into professional football, the brand is not just kitting out the youth with the right tools, but the opportunities that they want to test them out in.

Because students are experiencing a general increase in day to day expenses, they are looking for value everywhere they go. This is not to say that students are thrift shoppers but rather that they will be more attracted to buy from brands who have something more to offer. Loyalty cards have also increased amongst students for this reason.

So Many Boxes To Fit Into

Even though Nike was not a particular focus of the Student Spend Report, it crosses off all students boxes from appealing to young and older millennials to their diverse cultures. The brand is identified as affordable yet premium, and offers functionality – from starting out as a basketball sneaker in the past with high tops, to now being a brand for walking, skating and other activities, its able to be omni-present and suit most occasions.

If you think your brand has the potential to do it like Nike, or needs to make a stride as good as this brand has into the youth market, contact Student Village on 011 885 3918 or email [email protected].