"I'm just a sneaker pro, I love Puma's and Shelltoes"...- Nelly

Which site is top dog?

    

                                          

Nike and Puma are two companies that have been able to create great market share for themselves through their ability to innovate and cater to their customer’s wants and needs. One very successful way they have been able to do this is through mass customization of the Nike ID shoe and the Mongolian BBQ show respectively. Through a variety of colors, styles, and materials, customers can create a one of a kind shoe that they can truly call their own.

 Both websites do a fairly good job at creating an enjoyable customer experience

on their respective websites. When it comes to navigating the sites, the Puma site is much easier to find what you are looking for. For Nike, you must do a little bit of digging first, which can become frustrating to the customer. The whole concept of the Puma customizable site is intriguing and does an excellent job at capturing a site visitor. What is a “Mongolian shoe BBQ”? It is intriguing enough that it tempts a user to click on it and from there they become hooked as they begin to design their shoe. By designing their site as restaurant, Puma was able to create a more unique experience than Nike. The creativity of the “menu” and the catchy background grasp the attention of the user. Nike could have developed a theme to their site, similar to Puma, possibly with a design lab to play off the different technologies of the sneakers.

Nike does a far superior job in offering more options in terms of shoe type to customize, ranging from basic sneakers to cleats. With Puma, the user is limited to three basic shoe models to customize. Puma does offer the ability to change fabrics and materials, something that is only found with a few pairs of Nike’s. Also, one aspect of Nike’s website that greatly enhances the customer’s experience is the feature that allows you to access a gallery of different designs of the shoe you are viewing. The one potential downfall for the Nike site is the vast number of options available which can be overwhelming as there is a seemingly uncountable number of color combinations that a user can create.

As a consumer I liked to be educated about the product I am planning on purchasing and will go to great lengths to research the product as well as user reviews and consumer reports. Nike makes all of the information a consumer might need in their research stage available on the same page as the shoe you are customizing. Puma on the other hand does not. There is no sign of a user review, shoe technology, or overviews. Nike also provides an entertaining tab about the inspiration of the shoe which allows consumers to connect to the product on multiple different levels. Nike is able to better utilize the technology available to give the customer a complete experience at their website.

Puma offers a more technical website in that they only allow you to select a part of the shoe to customize based on the name of that particular part. This is fine if the consumer knows what a heel cap is or a quarter or an FOT logo, but for those of us who do not, it is a hassle. Nike offers the same feature; however, have expanded on it to include a rollover feature so that when the mouse scrolls over the heel cap, a user can click on it to customize it. It is a much more user friendly interface. Before I make the following comment I would like to note for those of you who do not know me as well, I wear a size fifteen shoe, yes that’s right, I said fifteen, so this is a biased comment and one that the average consumer would not have to worry about. Puma does not carry past size fourteen so no matter how amazing the shoe I create is; I cannot buy it unless I plan on putting it on the mantle in a glass case.

The idea of mass customization came from the boom of the industrial age of the internet, but the difference is that companies figure out how to apply the concepts of mass production and its benefits to customization, a process that was often more costly. Mass customization is just one of the many characteristics of the digital age of the internet, which is something both Nike and Puma are capitalizing on. Both shoe companies practice the concept of on-to-one marketing that allows them to create a connection with the customer as opposed to one blanket method of marketing. They are able to do this by allowing users to create accounts and to save their shoes they create to the “locker” or their “user account”.

Nike and Puma are putting the power to create in the hands of the consumer. Essentially, if you can dream it, they can make it. Both sneaker companies have empowered the individual and in a way let them behind the scenes of the operation. Nike has also been able to incorporate user generated content into their site through their designer’s gallery and user review sections. It is evident by the way in which Nike and Puma have been able to tie in their media content, such as commercials and extra videos, into their sites that they are progressing into the age of Web 2.0, the next generation of the internet.

More and more companies are shifting into mass customization regardless of what industry they are in from shoes to computers to cars. With the rapid advancement in technology, companies can continuously enhance the experience they are providing to their customers by allowing the customer to take charge and act as a catalyst for innovation and the creation of new products, just as Nike and Puma have successfully done. By providing a customizable sneaker, Nike and Puma have created the potential to benefit from greater sales. When it comes to clothes and accessories, every part of the world has a different taste and style. With a traditional business model, satisfying customers around the world becomes extremely costly and difficult. By implementing mass customization and allow the customer to become their own shoe designer, Nike and Puma have been able to cut out the middle man, or designer, and allow customers to be one hundred percent satisfied.

The bottom line is this: whether you like the classic old school look of a Nike or Puma Shoe, or if you want a new, modern look, you can achieve either. The bonus, aside from achieving the look you desire, is that it is unique to the user as they were the ones who generated the design. For both Nike and Puma the advantages of mass customization are paying their dividends. Although it may seem more costly to allow users to customize shoes, these costs are offset not only by the premium for which they charge (most Nike shoes being over $100 a pair) but the demand they have created as consumers are willing to pay a premium for the power to create a unique product that they can call their own.

In order for both Puma and Nike to remain competitive in the customizable sneaker market, they must continue to innovate and change as the technology dictates. The best way to go about this is by allowing customers to take control as it will save them time and money and will also grant them the ability to recognize exactly what it is customers want. The more they are able to customize, the better off they will be. Nike has already begun letting users customize t-shirts and back packs as well. Although there are not very many options, it is a start and a trend I believe will continue to grow. Nike is essentially employing each customer as a fashion designer by allowing them to not only buiold shoes, but entire outfits as well.