Welcome to the digital age, where marketing is all about focusing on mass customization over mass production and the more personalized a product or experience feels, the better consumers' attitudes are toward it. It’s easy for small businesses to make a customer feel that they are special and have the ability to cater to that person’s specific needs and wants, but up until recently this seemed to be a problem for huge companies that really based their marketing strategy around efficiently producing high quality products to their extremely large customer base. When you introduce the Internet into this mix, the problem is basically solved. Technology gives these corporations easy ways to make the customer’s experience more personalized and customized whether it’s welcoming a returning shopper to the website by name or letting that person customize their product to fit their needs and style. Nike ID and Puma Mongolian BBQ sites go with the latter strategy, letting their customers design their own sneakers on the website and then purchase them if they are happy with the outcome.
Buying sneakers is so overwhelming that if you are not completely loyal to one brand, you won’t even know where to begin. Each sneaker brand (Puma, Nike, Reebok, etc.) has so much to choose from. Sneakers are now commonly used to express style so they way they look can be just as important as they way they function. Instead of Nike and Puma designing a look for your sneaker, you are in charge of the look, giving you control over the customization we crave in this day and age. This option is offered on each company’s online store homepage. Puma’s grabbed my interest because of the quirky “Mongolian Shoe BBQ” title, while Nike’s site basically had you search for their ID option. I think Puma was a lot more effective in directing their customer to the page that enabled them to customize their own shoes. It also took me a while to figure out that you could customize any type of sneakers, not just the ones being featured at the time. Puma’s site gave you a few options to choose from, but not as many. As a picky shopper who is used to the idea of endless choices, I felt this lack of freedom was irattating and began this process with a negative feeling towards Puma. The more choices a consumer is given the better their attitude will be about the experience, especially in today's age of rampant consumption.
I’ve always worn Nikes therefore I was familiar with the concept of the Nike ID, however this was the first time I tried to customize my own sneakers and I was surprised to see how fun and easy it was. I went to try to customize some running shoes. The website lets you change an existing product or if you really want to get creative, start with a completely plain shoe. I will definitely be the only girl on the treadmill with bright green shoes. The site was fast, easy, and very straightforward. There were also videos of professional athletes endorsing the product, giving it more credibility. Nike used technology really well, making it almost impossible for the shopper to NOT watch this video because it was on the same page they were focused on.
Puma’s website is a little different. It’s set up like a Mongolian BBQ restaurant. It was a lot more interactive with sound and “menus” to choose your shoe from. The only thing that struck me as odd was that the site didn't seem to have any relevance to shoes because it was so similar to a website you would find for an actual Mongolian BBQ restaurant. The fun and interactive direction the brand is going for made me smile, but I’m not sure it made me like it better than Nike. Nike had no problem with displaying it's famous "swoosh" logo all over the website as well the brand's name. It made the experience a little more relevant for me. Instead of being at a restaurant, I knew I was at a shoe store and this made me want to design the best shoes for myself, instead of just playing around on the site. Note how it’s interesting that basic graphics and animation threw me off task.
Both sites seemed to use technology to the fullest in order to make the customer experience better. You could even write anything on the shoes you wanted, taking customization to the highest level possible. Unless anyone has my name AND lucky number, I should really have one of a kind shoes.
Whether it was the fact that I got to design my own shoes or the fact that both sites let me write on those shoes to personalize them, something about the whole experience made it a lot better than simply ordering a pre-made shoe online or going into the store, looking for a specific style and coming out disappointed. I was in control of my shopping experience and designed sneakers that fit my personality and style. Check them out and tell me what you think!
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