Gosh, Running With Purpose is a darned good tale of counter positioning and branding in practice.
Weber describes positioning Brooks against Nike, and what it takes to rebuild a brand from (effectively) scratch.
Conversation
The core idea was that Nike’s brand is built around winning, whereas Brook’s brand is built around “Running Happy” — the idea that running is a gift from you to you.
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This sounds easy, but so much of fulfilling the brand promise turns out to be blocking and tackling on a gajillion operational issues.
Like overhauling their R&D, or retooling their manufacturing to have a 100% on-time fill rate.
Replying to
LOL “Warren (Buffett) admitted to receiving a pair of New Balance shoes some fifteen years earlier that he was still wearing ("I'm that kind of guy"). He let me know that his dress shoe size was 10.5 D in case I wanted to send him a replacement.”
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