One Size Fits All
Throughout my time as a Nike
enthusiast, I have seen the multitude of consumer types that have brought into
this company. I can say that this brand is very unique in that it allows for
the creation of very distinctive micro cultures in terms of the brands
user. As we learned, a micro culture is
a group of people who share similar value and tastes that are subsumed within a
larger culture (Babin & Harris pg. 191). However with the Nike Brand, we
see can see micro cultures form based upon activities rather than the typical
dimension that are in the book.
The first type of micro culture
that I found in the Nike Brand is known as the “Sneaker Heads”. The
characteristics of the sneaker head micro culture are that they purchase
excessive amounts of shoes to fulfill a need to have the latest and greatest
shoe. In addition, the Sneaker heads are extreme gaudy as they purchase
expensive clothing brands to match their 200$ shoes. Their sense of self-worth
is developed by how many shoes that they have in their collection. The micro
culture is held together by the Nike brand, and the sneaker heads congregate at
large conventions to see who has the newest “J’s”. Here's a video of a Sneaker Conference
The
second type of micro culture I found with Nike Brand purchasers are fitness
enthusiasts. These people are identified by their need to exercise. These
purchasers by Nike products in order for their utilitarian value ( Babin &
Harris Pg. 29 ) . These customers are obsessed with working out
more than Jen Selter, and purchase these products to associate with their sense
of self concept as a fitness nut ( Babin & Harris 117).
The
last type of micro culture that I found was the casual user. This user really
does not have an emotional nor strong utilitarian tie to the Nike Brand. They
purchase the brand in order to just have the shoes/ clothing. They do not light
up when they have a Nike shoe, they just have a blasé reaction to their Nike purchase.
They also tend to not purchase as much Nike products as the other two
subcultures.
It is interesting to find that there are multiple micro
cultures within just one brand. It proves the impact that Nike has in
influencing multiple micro cultures. Which truly shows that one size fits all
!!!
Sources :
Babin, Barry J., and Eric G. Harris. "Value and the Consumer Behavior Value Framework." Consumer Behavior. N.p.: Cengage, n.d. . Print.
Boone,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this article. What's significant to me, though, is that there are people who fall into multiple microcultures which attract them to the same brand for different reasons (CB ch. 10). My brother, for example, is someone you'd probably refer to as a sneakerhead. He loves collecting sneakers when they come out, which includes a lot of Nikes. However, his girlfriend recently persuaded him to get into running with her so that they could run 5ks together (talk about peer influence by the way, CB ch. 8, he used to be one of the least athletic people I know). Anyhow, now he runs 5ks and wears Nike running shoes as well. Of course the first relates more to his hedonic value and the other to his utilitarian (CB ch. 2), but both attract him to the same brand of shoe. Pretty cool!