New Balance Looks to Make Its Hoop Dreams Come True

Boston -- Beginning this month, New Balance Athletic Shoe Inc. is putting a full-court press behind the introduction of its new line of basketball shoes. The company is planning to support the line with a $50 million marketing campaign over the next five years. Part of that money is being spent on new P-O-P designed to promote the shoes to the serious basketball player by conveying a "serious playground" image.The company, which has introduced basketball shoes in the past, has high hopes for the line, according to Katherine Petrecca, senior marketing promotions associate."We have a very small percentage of the market share in basketball, and here we are vying for the No. 2 position overall in U.S. pairs [of athletic shoes sold], with really no presence in basketball," she says. "To bring us to where we want to be, we really need to have those pairs in basketball. Also, with the emergence and acceptance of our trail shoes, and a younger consumer now being more comfortable with and seeking out New Balance, we felt it was the right time to introduce a new basketball line."To reach consumers, the company felt it needed a new image for the nationwide launch. "We wanted something that supported a very serious basketball tone," says Petrecca. "In the past, with a lot of our P-O-P, we tried to do things that could be tailored to different sports. One piece might have been able to use different components that featured running photos or walking images."With the new basketball P-O-P, New Balance wanted to make a very specific basketball impression and give the materials "a very distinct outdoors, playground feel," she says.The company worked with Flair Industries Inc., Providence, R.I., to design P-O-P with the look New Balance wanted. Flair Industries produced three displays: a four-shoe floor unit, a tabletop graphic holder and a two-shoe wall unit. All feature a chain link fence element, and two of the displays feature a faux asphalt base."To anybody coming into the store, there's an immediate connection with outdoor basketball," Petrecca says. The target consumers for the new shoes, she adds, are primarily 15- to 18-year-old urban males, who are not only high-frequency players but also high-frequency buyers.While the P-O-P is available to large chains nationwide, New Balance is primarily using the campaign as an opportunity to help smaller retailers boost their merchandising efforts."We wanted to use [this P-O-P] to support as many of our independent and smaller regional chains as possible," Petrecca explains, "the ones who don't really have the dollars to create their own displays."Some larger chains, like Sports Authority, will incorporate some of the displays with their own fixtures or merchandising materials, she says.Flair Industries produced 300 floor units, 300 tabletop units and 400 wall units.

New Balance Looks to Make Its Hoop Dreams Come True

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