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[Music]
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Margo thank you for joining us thanks
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for having me so tell us about yourself
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and the Wharton class you took on
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consumer Behavior so I'm from
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Philadelphia um I actually went to a
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high school called Germantown friend
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School here in Philly and I've lived in
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Philly most of my life I've traveled a
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little bit internationally and studied
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abroad and I'm actually in the Wharton
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and Lauder MBA and master's program in
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international studies so I'm
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particularly interested in marketing and
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marketing across different cultures and
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different consumer groups so I decided
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to take a class with Professor americaus
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Reed on consumer Behavior because I was
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really interested in the cross-section
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between psychology and branding and
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marketing so in this class um in a
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traditional class you might think that
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you would go to class and have different
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lectures about topics and learn things
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by textbooks but in this class we
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actually worked with an outside client
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this was a real professional client it's
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a national running shoe brand and they
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wanted us to take their product which
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was running shoes and find a way to
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Market it more effectively to high
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school students so for the entire
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semester we worked with the professor
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and with this company and actually
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interviewed and worked with a lot of
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high school students to try to figure
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out how to position this marketing shoe
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to I'm sorry how to position this shoe
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brand to appeal to a younger Market to
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the high schoolers great okay so and the
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brand is actually soy the company is s
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right yes and how did you go about
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finding high school students to offer
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feedback about the sakon brand so we
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reached out to students in a number of
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different ways um we try to use some of
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our personal relationships to get in
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touch with parents either of uh Wharton
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parents that were Wharton professors or
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people that we knew and we would reach
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out to high schools that way sometimes
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we would reach out to the athletic
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department um and then Wharton actually
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has a program where they work with high
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schoolers in West Philly and so we were
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actually able to work with some high
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school students here in West
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Philadelphia so overall it was great
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because we were able to get a great
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variety of students from all around
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Philadelphia from both private schools
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and public schools um so did the
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students respond well to your brand
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related questions tell us a little bit
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about how the process went usually we
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would start with a group of students and
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we always offered them pizza and
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Gatorade because we had done a little
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bit of research and we thought that was
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uh the best way to get to students so we
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would offer them pizza and Gatorade and
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um at one point the company made some
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gift certificates available some
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discount cards for their sneaker brand
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so we would bring along with us a bunch
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of different sneakers some were this
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particular company's brand and then we
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brought along some other brands of shoes
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things like Nike ones that that high
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schoolers have definitely heard of so
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usually we would start by addressing the
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high schoolers and just talking to them
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a little bit about the importance of
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what we were doing and we said that when
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a company looks to market a shoe
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directly to a high schooler they want to
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learn from that high schooler so they
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want to learn not just about what kind
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of shoes that high schooler wears but
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what's called a psychographic profile so
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for a high school or Scholastic athlete
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a psychographic profile would be what
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are their interests what kind of music
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do they listen to what kind of rituals
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do they do to get ready for big games
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and what do they do if they win how do
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they celebrate and then what do they do
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if they lose so um the high schoolers
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were definitely animated and interested
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in telling us their own personal stories
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and we found that it was very specific
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there were some things that as a team
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people did together and then there were
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some things that high schoolers had you
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know their favorite song that they would
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listen to to get psyched up or their way
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to sort of focus before the big game so
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there was a combination of things that
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were individual for each individual high
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schooler and things that were more of um
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kind of a group activity so that was
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kind of how we started before we even
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got into specific Brands later we would
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move into asking them questions that
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were associative so what kind of a
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feeling or attitude or type of
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personality do you associate with this
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sneaker so we might give them a Nike
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sneaker and say what you know what does
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this make you think of if you have if
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you have to describe the personality the
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person that wears this shoe what's the
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person and they were often very specific
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answers so Nike was a person who was
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athletic and cool and dominant and you
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know New Balance for example and I'm
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sorry to say this but they were sort of
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the grandfather taking long walks with
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the dog so it was really interesting
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because the high schoolers had really
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specific ideas of what different brands
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kind of meant to them and without
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realizing it they were talking about
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brand personalities and brand identities
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so it was definitely interesting and and
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the high school has had a lot of really
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good
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insights so this basically constitutes a
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focus group right yes can you talk a
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little bit about the use of focus groups
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in consumer awareness and in brand
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identity and brand awareness sure so
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usually when uh when a company is trying
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to either create a brand or understand
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how their brand is received or pictured
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or understood in the marketplace they'll
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pick a particular cross-section of
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people and some cases it's a specific
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group so in this case it was people you
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know within the ages of I don't know 15
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to 18 who were athletes co-ed but it
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could be anything it could be you know
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mothers of children who are between the
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ages of two and four it all depends on
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what the product is and what they want
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to learn about the group so in this case
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um the company wanted to learn about
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what high schoolers thought about their
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product and a focus group is one of
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different ways to do that other ways
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might be doing a survey a written survey
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where you send it out to many different
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people you ask questions and people
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answer those questions according to
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different feelings they have about
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Brands but what makes a focus group
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special is that sometimes there are
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insights or ideas that come out of
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people talking to each other so an
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interview a one-on-one interview is a
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great way to get you know an expert's
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opinion maybe if you were marketing a
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drug you would ask a doctor on his
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opinion of the drug and maybe if you
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wanted to know if people preferred Diet
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Coke or Diet Pepsi you could send a
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survey out to thousands of people but in
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this case when you want to get a little
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bit deeper insights and you want to
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understand how people function as a
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group then you can do a focus group
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which is usually around you know maybe
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six to 10 people and in this case it was
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often around that number and there are
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certain ideas or opinions that sometimes
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came from people bouncing ideas off of
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each other so we would hold a sneaker up
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and we would say what do you guys think
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of this and one person would say well
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this color is cool I like this and
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another person would say yeah but look
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you know the treads on the bottom of
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that sneaker are too big and this isn't
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a legitimate running shoe so you you
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learn that way how people's ideas about
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brands are not just individual but are
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influenced by each other so what did you
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learn about the the appeal of the salony
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brand to high school students what were
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some of their key insights honestly high
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schoolers didn't know a whole lot about
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the running shoe which is was not a
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surprise because what we understood
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about it when we began the project is
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that this is a shoe that's very popular
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and very well respected among Elite and
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fitness Runners so an elite Runner would
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be somebody that competes regularly as a
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runner and a fitness Runner would be
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somebody that's out there you know three
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four times a week running regularly
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cares about what kind of gear they use
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it you know pays attention to different
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brands in terms of their functionality
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so Sak is already a well-respected shoe
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and very popular in that segment but we
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found that a lot of the high schoolers
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we talked to didn't really have a very
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specific idea about it they didn't
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necessarily have um specific
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associations about you know who is the
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brand personality that sakon is mostly
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because they weren't entirely
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familiar keep in mind though that we
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talked to high school athletes that
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represented a cross-section of athletes
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so football players soccer players
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basketball players the runners that we
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talked to if there was a group usually
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the person or two people in the group
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that were Runners they had heard of Sak
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maybe they had run with it and they had
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kind of a quiet respect for
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understanding it was a good running shoe
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but there definitely wasn't any sort of
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enthusiasm or excitement about the shoe
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so what do high school students want
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most from their brand messages what did
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you take away from this well that's a
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really interesting question it wasn't
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necessarily what we expected um when we
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first talked to the high school students
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about Brands and what brands were
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popular we we got a lot of response
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about Nike and under arour and they were
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two very different appeals so Nike was
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an appeal that was Nike was popular
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because it's cool the advertisements are
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really cool and uh the high schoolers
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were really specific about Nike ads so
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they could quote or imitate an ad that
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they had recently seen and they really
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responded positively to that so they
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thought it was cool they also would go
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into Stores um a Modell's or a Dick
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Sporting goods and would talk about the
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experience of walking into that store
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and saying yeah you know there's a tiny
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little section over here for you know a
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smaller brand and then the whole wall is
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Nike and there's so much variety so
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variety was a really big deal to them
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too being able to have lots of different
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options for colors and styles was
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something that captured their attention
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so what surprised us was that we thought
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that maybe high schoolers would be a
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little suspicious of a Big Brand like
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Nike you know Nike is a huge company um
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we thought that these same high
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schoolers who sort of have their own
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individual ways of relating to sports
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and athletes in fact and really care
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about sort of the personalization about
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sports but then when it came to Nike
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they were impressed by its sort of
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largess and popularity and being big and
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powerful was actually positive so that
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was really interesting um under arour
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was perhaps one of the most interesting
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in insights was that high schoolers felt
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like if somebody was wearing Under
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Armour it made them and they use this
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word legit so there was something about
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the importance of authenticity in
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athletes that if you showed up to a
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basketball game and the posing team
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walked on and they're all wearing suits
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that's another form of okay these people
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mean business you know they're here to
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play they're serious they're legit and
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it was kind of the same thing with Under
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Armour people who wore Under Armour you
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know athletes who wore it were
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considered legit and that was something
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that really resonated with high school
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students and that was actually something
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that we took back to saky and we said
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look you're a company that isn't super
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well known among high schoolers and
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you're not going to be a Nike and you
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don't necessarily want to be a Nike
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because if you were then all of your
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Elite Runners that respect you because
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you're this authentic running shoe
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company are going to start thinking that
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you're just one of these sort of
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mass-produced brands so why not take the
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message of legitimacy and try to work
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with that work with what you already are
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so sakon is a legit running shoe we knew
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that high schoolers really responded to
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this idea of legitimacy and authenticity
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and we thought try to create a brand
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message around what it means to be an
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athlete who's legit and if you really
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want kids to start paying attention to
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running shoes then maybe the way to do
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that is to create a message and a brand
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around how run running is a legitimate
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part of being an athlete or being in
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physical running condition is somehow
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makes you more legit as an athlete so
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all this knowledge you're gaining about
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Brands and consumerism as a student
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where do you hope to take this in your
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own future well the thing that was the
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best part of this project for me
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honestly was talking to the students I
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really enjoyed it and I liked that their
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opinions were different than mine I
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liked that they surprised me I liked
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that I didn't always know what they were
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going to say one of the things that
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really surprised me for example was um I
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talked about this a little bit with
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students personalizing things but you
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sort of look at these top athletes that
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are really popular and they're the ones
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that are in commercials and they're the
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ones with sponsorship and you assume
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that you know particularly a high school
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age male is going to really respond to
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those athletes it's going to really sort
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of idolize them but one of the questions
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we asked in the focus groups was what
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athletes inspire you and who are the
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athl states that really motivate you and
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and when you aspire to be like someone
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who is it and um more than one focus
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group so these were two completely
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different focus groups kids that did not
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know each other mentioned the same
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baseball player and they mentioned it in
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the same exact context which was this is
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a baseball player that I look up to
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because he's this particular position
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and he's kind of of short stature and
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you know I don't think I'm necessarily
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going to be the next Babe Ruth
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I don't think I'm necessarily going to
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be the next you know famous basketball
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player but here's an athlete that I kind
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of relate to and I think you know maybe
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if I worked really hard I might be able
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to Aspire to that so that was this
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really exciting thing that was so cool
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because you had two completely different
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kids that didn't know each other saying
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the same thing about an athlete who's
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definitely popular but somewhat of an
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underdog they were so excited about this
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that it made me excited and it made me
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particularly excited because it was so
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cool to see that these high schoolers
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had really done their research they were
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really knowledgeable about these Sports
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and they were relating to people because
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they felt a personal connection and the
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same question came up with another
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answer that was even more kind of
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heartwarming which was that a lot of
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them mentioned fellow athletes teammates
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you know they said if if I have a
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teammate who plays basketball and I play
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soccer but he's really good at
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basketball I go watch his games you know
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or just my friends who play really well
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they inspire me and this was an answer
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we got from kids all across the board so
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kids at different schools with different
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backgrounds you know playing different
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sports they all said the same thing and
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I thought that was really interesting
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that here's a group of people that yes
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they respond to big companies like Nike
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yes advertising is effective on them if
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if Nike advertises a really cool sneaker
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they're going to be excited about that
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sneaker but that doesn't mean that all
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they care about is branding and
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marketing and messaging they also care
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about their friends and there's a level
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of integrity and authenticity among high
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school students I think is really
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impressive that at such a young age all
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of these athletes were really focused on
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what's real to them not just this sort
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of picture of what's in the
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media very interesting thank you for
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joining us Margo thank
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you for
