Nike Goddess of Victory
retailers as stores within stores. Now it looks like Nike has a chance to reach a crucial objective: double its sales to women by the end of the decade.
How to Sell to Women
Nike Goddess began as a concept for a women-only store, and there’s a reason why. Many of the retail settings in which the company’s products were found were a turnoff to female customers: dark, loud, and harsh – in a word, male. In sharp contrast, the Nike Goddess stores have the comforting feel of a woman’s own home.
How to Design for Women
Designing a new approach to retail was only one element in Nike’s campaign. Another was redesigning the shoes and clothes themselves. Nike’s footwear designers worked on 18-month production cycles – which made it hard to stay in step with the new styles and colors for women. The apparel group, which worked around 12-month cycles, was better at keeping up with fashion trends. But that meant that the clothes weren’t co-ordinated with the shoes – a big turnoff 2 for women.
How to Talk to Women
When Jackie Thomas, Nike’s US brand marketing director for women, first heard the phrase ‘Nike goddess,’ she wasn’t impressed. ‘I don’t like talking to women through gender,’ she says. Nike Goddess had to mean something to women and it was her job to make that happen. ‘Women don’t need anybody’s permission. We are at our best when we are showing women a place where they didn’t think they could be.’ For John Hoke, the real power of Nike Goddess is not about traffic at stores. It’s about changing minds inside the company. ‘I knew that Goddess could galvanise3 us,’ he says, ‘It was an opportunity to redefine and re-energise our entire brand around a market that was taking
How to Sell to Women
Nike Goddess began as a concept for a women-only store, and there’s a reason why. Many of the retail settings in which the company’s products were found were a turnoff to female customers: dark, loud, and harsh – in a word, male. In sharp contrast, the Nike Goddess stores have the comforting feel of a woman’s own home.
How to Design for Women
Designing a new approach to retail was only one element in Nike’s campaign. Another was redesigning the shoes and clothes themselves. Nike’s footwear designers worked on 18-month production cycles – which made it hard to stay in step with the new styles and colors for women. The apparel group, which worked around 12-month cycles, was better at keeping up with fashion trends. But that meant that the clothes weren’t co-ordinated with the shoes – a big turnoff 2 for women.
How to Talk to Women
When Jackie Thomas, Nike’s US brand marketing director for women, first heard the phrase ‘Nike goddess,’ she wasn’t impressed. ‘I don’t like talking to women through gender,’ she says. Nike Goddess had to mean something to women and it was her job to make that happen. ‘Women don’t need anybody’s permission. We are at our best when we are showing women a place where they didn’t think they could be.’ For John Hoke, the real power of Nike Goddess is not about traffic at stores. It’s about changing minds inside the company. ‘I knew that Goddess could galvanise3 us,’ he says, ‘It was an opportunity to redefine and re-energise our entire brand around a market that was taking