Author: Marina

Nike Made Your Way

Posted on by Marina

Nike is a large company that has been pretty successful with providing the ability to customize footwear but still being able to produce large quantities. For 10 years now, Nike has given customers the ability to customize footwear to their specific liking including options for color, material, fit and performance. Nike has gotten the mass customization of footwear down and is able to provide this luxury to consumers in the US, China, Japan and 21 other European markets. Being able to deisgn footwear exactly how you want it will attract more customers and customers typically are willing to spend more money on something that is exactly what they want, giving Nike the ability to charge more for these products.

The Nike ID products have a wide variety of options but these options are still limited giving them more control of the production making it easier to produce these custom items at a cheaper cost. Nike has been able to be successful with this option because consumers are attracted to originality of their product. Consumer’s want things that not everyone is going to have and the ID products are all unique so you won’t run into everyone else at the gym wearing the same shoes as you.

I have personally been able to use the Nike ID function for a gift for someone. I was able to customize the product very easily with a large variety of choices, but I was not completely able to design the shoe my own way. There were enough design options and colors to satisfy what I was looking for and it made it very easy to follow along step by step in the creation of the shoes. The colors and design of the shoe were exactly what I had expected them to be and I was very pleased with what I got. Typically there are problems with coloring when ordering things offline, but Nike seemed to have their colors true to what you saw.

Nike has been successful with their program of Nike ID and they are able to maintain low costs while producing a high quality item. I was also impressed by how quickly I received my item because I expected a long delay with the customization. After Nike’s program came out, I started to notice more companies doing the same with phones and tablets.

What do you think about being able to customize products? What problems have you seen with your experience, if any, with mass customization?

Apple’s Product Cycle

Posted on by Marina

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Apple Corporation seems to always have something new to keep their name a popular topic. Even though the adjustments they made to their software are very minimal and there are already systems very similar out, every new launch from Apple a huge hype and gets attention from majority of people.

Every time a new software or phone is released by Apple, they have a huge Keynote that has viewers from all over the world. Apple does not spend money on the advertising for the Keynote but they are still able to have millions of viewers. The Keynote goes through the details of the new product, shows the product to the public for the first time, and finally gives the release date for the item. With the release date being in the near future, customers gain anticipation to get their hands on the product when it first goes public.

Apple now has a cycle for each one of its’ products so they are constantly introducing the next big thing. With this stable cycle, Apple is always able to keep their company on the surface and continue to be a popular brand. Although some may think Apple is making their previous products go out of date very quickly, the purpose of Apple’s constant cycle of upgrades is to make their product irresistible to the millions of people that have yet to buy the product. The cycle also manages to keep the competitors on their toes; when they come out with their first of a product similar to Apple’s, Apple is already ready to release the next generation of the product.

Apple is making their product cycles long enough to have customers with the past model upgrade at the time of release while maintaining the newest products constantly. Some people are ready for the upgrade when it comes out but even the people that are not will be intrigued by the newest release and pay the price to keep up with the latest and greatest from Apple. For example, Apple is at the 8th generation of iPhones, but when the six came out there were still lines for hours the day of the release, even after some people participated in the online preorder that Apple offers.

Thus far the Apple product cycle has been able to keep the company pretty successful and at the top of the market. Apple is able to release the newest products without spending much on advertising and having a good turn out.

 

http://recode.net/2014/09/01/the-apple-product-cycle-comic/

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com