NikePlus
Redefining membership for a new era of athletes.
Client
Nike
Agency
The Gild
Project Type
Product Strategy &
Service Innovation
Services Rendered
Brand & Design Research
Brand Strategy (Product Proposition)
Brand Experience Design
Role
Strategy Director; led strategy work & research
A note on creative:
NikePlus Unlocks creative led by Instrument; most recent membership branding led by Gretel
The Challenge
Over the years, "Nike+" had been many things—in-shoe technology, an app, and most recently / when briefed, its membership program. Nike knew that membership was a critical growth driver, but lacked clarity on what Nike+ meant to consumers, and on what membership could mean more broadly. Our task was to get clear on what consumers wanted from membership, evolve its membership proposition, prioritize its most compelling membership benefits, and finally, to land a set of design directives that would augment the membership experience across touchpoints, ultimately driving membership sign-up and maximizing consumer loyalty for years to come.
The Strategic Opportunity
After devising a multifaceted research plan with a broad cross-section of athletes, we learned first and foremost that Nike+ was confusing and intangible, driven by inconsistency in how membership and Nike+ was talked about, an almost non-existent sign-up process where consumers joined without realizing, and a lack of integration of Nike+ in-store and online. But despite this, consumers wanted Nike membership, drawn to the idea of belonging to Nike and that membership could unlock more—more product, inspiration, and access, personalized to each member. Nike had a huge opportunity to go big with Nike+, and to build a member ecosystem that maximized belonging and unlocked the best of Nike for every athlete.
The Execution
We developed a new "NikePlus" proposition, focused on membership and unlocking more, along with recommendations for improving comms and the membership experience overall. This included augmenting the sign-on experience, evolving program nomenclature (from Nike+ to NikePlus), integrating membership more consistently into stores, and prioritizing the program benefits that were most compelling and easily understood.
Results
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"NikePlus Unlocks" campaign launched following strategic work, across channels and in-store
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"Nike membership" language used in comms for the first time ("Nike Membership"has since been adopted as its program name)
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New proposition language and prioritized benefits rolled out throughout consumer journey
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Improvements made to membership on-boarding and to membership integration—in-store, at events, online, and in-app
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At the time of project, NikePlus had ~50 million members—today it has over 100 million
Approach Highlights
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Learn—multi-part qual research: retail and Nike Club House ethnographies, IDIs, focus groups; evaluated current membership experience and new membership propositions and benefits; also analyzed in-and-out-of-category membership models and positioning approaches
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Build—strategic directions for membership proposition developed in collaborative client working sessions; qual and quant research / testing leveraged throughout strategic process
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Deploy—developed recommendations / concepts for improving the membership experience throughout the consumer journey, from sign-up, to member experiences, to advocacy
