airthompson
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Great interview, and thanks for sharing.
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Erin Patton & Michael Jordan receiving the American Marketing Association "Best New Product" Award
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Then of course, within product - the design and development and pricing. It really was a holistic day-to-day experience that I was very fortunate to have,because Nike is a brand, but most people at Nike were working in specific silos and functional areas. I had an understanding at a very young age, and you haveto remember I was very young and I made a lot of mistakes, but I learned so much about branding and brand management by making those mistakes that have servedme well throughout.
I was in my mid-20's when all of this was happening and if you think about what that means for that type of business with everything that goes with it, Iwas constantly learning and soaking up from the leadership within the organization.
And obviously the other piece is I was working with Michael a lot, in terms of catching up to him on the road, on the phone, in the hotel after the game, onthe golf course, or wherever. He also came up to Portland a lot, and just getting his feedback, input, and direction on product or advertising, and oncampaigns, and just making sure that he was understanding what we were doing. I was spending time with Michael getting his insights into what he thought weshould be doing and then carrying that forward within the organization.
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PBF: What was your favorite aspect of the footwear design process when you were at Jordan Brand?
EP: It was always just going by Tinker's office. You know, Tinker is an amazing person, and obviously as acreative person in architecture and design. He looks at things in a very unique way and articulates things in a very unique way. He's just a very goodindividual. So I enjoyed just going by his office and talking, learning, absorbing, and seeing Tinker sketching and sort of trying to get him to lift the hoodup. My visits to Tinker were sort of like, "Ok, Erin, go see how he's coming on the [Air Jordan] XIII…let's see how that's coming." Andthat one in particular I think was probably one of my favorites - the Air Jordan XIII, the hologram, the Black Cat shoe. I remember going over intoTinker's office and he had sort of this sketch of the outsole and it looked like a little paw print and of course Michael's nickname was "BlackCat".
PBF: In Michael Jordan's book Drivenfrom Within,Tinker says he came up with that whole Black Cat backstory for the sneaker design but didn't even know it was Jordan's nickname until he presented theshoe to him…
EP: Exactly. Yeah, that's one of those things that I loved. Just having a conversation with Tinker about what inspiredhim. When you think about product creation and you think about product design - the abstract nature of it, the personal nature of it, the process of where adesigner goes for inspiration, that's just fascinating to me. So to hear him describe and talk about, well you know, "Michael, he's like a cat,and he prances…" and then he found this picture of Michael I think when he was D-ing up Magic Johnson, if I'm not mistaken, there's a classic shotof Michael and his eyes were just locked in on Magic, like, "I'm about to just put you on lock, it's a wrap, you're not going anywhere."And so he took that and superimposed it with a picture of a panther, you know the eyes, and that's where the hologram came from on the side of the shoes.It was like, if you'd catch a panther's eye with certain light, you'd get that kind of hologram look. You'd see those kinds of little images onthe desk and I'm trying to put all these pieces together and so he gives you a little bit, and you come back and you start to see it play out.
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So yeah, that's probably the thing that I'll always takeaway and one of my favorite things to do because we were obviously focused on timelines andplans and strategies and allocations, and all these other things. Then you go into Tinker's office and it's like: You know what? This is really thetail wagging the dog, because nothing happens until this man gets inspired and goes into the lab and chef's it all up.
And so it was a good departure for me, and actually because I was so fascinated with it, it created challenges for me becauseeveryone else in the U.S. was like, "Erin, you got delayed on your timelines," and that was because Tinker and I were just in there vibing in thelab, so to speak, but yeah, that was one of my favorite things to do.
PBF: You've got the flagship Air Jordan product coming out every year, and then all of a sudden you've got this wholebrand thing going - as far as marketing it to the consumer, to the public, what was the strategy for that?
EP: Grassroots was a big part of it. We wanted to make this - you know, before viral marketing was an operative term inmarketing - everything we did we wanted to keep it very authentic and connecting the brand and the products at the right touch points in terms of where theconsumer was. I detail in thebookwhat we did with the barber shops for example, before those products came out.
PBF: Right, that was an important part of the book, where early on you got the idea of "seeding" limited and unreleasedAir Jordan product on barbers in Los Angeles.
EP: Yeah, making sure that we seeded the product first on the barbers and recognized that they were key influencers. Thosewere impressions, as far as I was concerned. And there was frequency there with folks coming in saying, "Wow, that's what's coming!" Youdon't need to spend a whole lot on the TV commercial when you're doing things like that. It keeps it authentic, it keeps it viral, it keeps the productwithin the laboratory of the consumer experience. We were very much focused on that.
Erin Patton & Eve
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There was also a strong entertainment tier to it, so we would make sure that all the artists and celebs that wanted the Jordan product got it for movies, andtelevision, and videos, and everything else, so that was kind of a halo that we tapped into. I believe that we can rightfully claim ownership to being one ofthe first brands to really focus on product seeding, which is something that became ritual much later but we really got product seeding down to a science at anearly age. We worked closely on making sure we got the product on the right people, you know, that they sneeze and everybody else catches a cold.
Then obviously from a sports marketing standpoint, get the product visible on the court from the elite amateur level to collegiate to professional, and makingsure the brand was well represented in those particular sports marketing channels. And of course with the television advertising, we were able to articulatesome of the brand positioning as I was mentioned through commercials such as the "Jordan CEO" commercial, and later the Mos Def "Umi Says"commercials, that demonstrated the intersection that the brand had and enjoyed within the hip-hop community. I did sneaker launch parties which were kind oflike record music releases.
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PBF: You see that's so common these days, with the launch of a new shoe debuted at a party event, like with the launch of anew Carmelo Anthony shoe or what have you.
EP: Yeah, so we kind of innovated in that area and said, "let's turn this sneaker into a release." Let'scelebrate it just as a new artist does with a CD that comes out, so we'd link up with Vibe and do an event. We had a couple of really cool ones and justtried to create the right level of excitement and anticipation. And then for me, too, it was looking within hip-hop and recognizing the unique position thatJordan had within the culture.
You know, I heard all the lyrics on our product from the hip-hop generation and I understood the place that it held. But at the same time, I didn't want tojust do hip-hop for hip-hop's sake. I wanted to attach Jordan to the right currency in hip-hop and the right artists.
Representative artists like what Michael represented in sports, and guys that were moving the culture to the highest expression. People like Common, who cameout to [Nike] Campus a lot; The Roots, we took care of them and brought them into the fold; A Tribe Called Quest, which was at the original Jordan Brand launchevent. So we were also looking at those artists who were positive and could uplift the brand in the sense of attaching it to the most positive, highestexpression of the music just as Michael did for the game.
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PBF: Going back to the whole concept of seeding Air Jordan product on the barbers - in your book, you say that the notion oflimited edition product and influencer seeding is the single most important aspect that a lot of brands overlook when targeting the urban market.
The footwear industry right now is so much about limited product, it almost seems saturated to a point, where everything becomeslimited. Does that nullify the entire point of being a 1-of-1 product, or are developments like Nike iD where every piece of product is kind of like anoriginal piece, is that where this is all going to? Is that the endgame?
EP: That's a great question. You know, we were operating in a different environment at that point where basketball andNBA athletes were the aspirational values of the shoes and products they represented.
We're now in a digital age where a kid is choosing between a $150 pair of sneakers or an iPhone. So I think in terms of where the industry is now, inmaking everything look and feel limited, at a certain point it does become saturated - you lose some of the special-ness and the authenticity. That'sprobably an area where the footwear industry needs to take a step back and really focus on what the consumer is really looking for.
You can go and create a bunch of different technologies or you can create a bunch of different stories that you think are relevant, but if in the mind of theconsumer there's no extra reason to believe and it's not something that they value, then it's not going to be special to them.
So what we were trying to do was to bring that consumer into the process of product design and development with taking the shoes out early, before they managedto glean input, not just sitting in the focus group room with two-way mirrors or whatever, but being out in the places where the consumer was. Where they wereliving, where they were breathing, becoming a part of the culture and becoming a part of the currency. That to me is R&D. Being in that laboratory of theconsumer's experience where you can identify what is special to them and making that part of the equation. I think in many cases that's oftenoverlooked, not just in the footwear industry but also across the board.
When you think about products, those that are kind of user-generated, should begin with the consumer in mind. If you begin with the end user in mind, thenyou're going to be in much better shape when that product reaches the marketplace. And that's one of reasons why, for example, Starbury becameimportant. It's wasn't just the aspirational aspect, it was the inspirational aspect and recognizing that there was a need and desire for price valueproposition and someone who was authentic to carry the message.
So whatever that next movement is, to the extent that it can become kind of user-generated, I mean, we're just in a user-generated paradigm rightnow and there's a lot of power that the consumer has to create and innovate. This particular market, culture, sneaker culture, it's real-time andit's about brand creation and connecting your brand and product with those that have the ability to create your brand so give them a paint brush and acanvas and let them go at it. That's really how I look at it.
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PBF: Tinker Hatfield gave a speech where he said the secret to getting resources and doing special things is to wield clout fromthe company you keep. Within the footwear industry and especially within Nike which is so competitive internally, would you say that getting things done withina big company, a big brand, you need to basically make friends and get things done through the people that you know?
EP: Definitely. And that's one of those lessons I learned, and probably one of the mistakes that I made at a youngage, or at a young point in my career I should say. You can only accomplish things through people, and building consensus is so critical.
Clearly, for me coming into a meeting as the head of the Jordan Brand at that time, you know, people were listening. Because of the clout of Michael, the haloof Michael, people like Tinker, people like Peter Ruppe, David Bond, Mark Parker, Keith Houlemard, a lot of these guys that were my colleagues and my supportand peers and superiors and everything else. And ultimately, people knowing that I did have a very good relationship with Michael and that helped me a lotbecause I had his trust and so that allowed me to sit a lot taller in meetings and allowed me to get a lot of things done.
But at the same time, as Tinker is saying, it's so critical to build your internal resource - or mastermind group, if you will - with folks that you knowyou can go to and they have your back when you're not in that meeting, who are going to say what you want them to say, who are going to get people to movein a direction you want to move. To me, that's the greatest sign of leadership - when you're not around, what are people doing? Are peoplebehaving and acting in the way that you would have them if you were there? And the only way to really affect that is to establish those very closerelationships to have people that you know are clear in terms of what your vision is, they're clear in terms of what they are empowered to do, and the roleand importance of their contributions and having the trust and loyalty to be able to carry forth that in your presence or in your absence. That'sabsolutely true.
So I was able to achieve that to a large extent, but I also probably didn't do that enough or build a strong enough - you know, when you're in anenvironment like that, some people are just going to want to be difficult because you're doing what they want to do. There's just going to be certainthings like that, or people who don't want to support something because it wasn't their idea, or their guy or gal, or whatever, so you gotta be able towork through that and still get people to move toward a consensus and you can only influence to the degree that you're able to influence others to carryout your influence, if that makes sense. It has to be that kind of dynamic to really be successful.
[The Mastermind - Erin Patton Interview PART 3 comingMonday...]
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Get Erin Patton's just-released book: Underthe Influence: Tracing the Hip-Hop Generation's Impact on Brands, Sports, & Pop Culture
Official Under The Influence website: www.undertheinfluence2009.com
babyJs23 wrote:
Great history and Great find.
Originally Posted by jordanpheen
good stuff
will be tuning back in for part three
will we see more past part three???
THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 2009
Project Bluefoot Blog Interview
You never know how an interview is going to turn out when you sit down with a writer, especially when you're in the space that I'm in. I recently sat down with Blogger and sneaker aficionado Steez for an in-depth interview on the book and my experience at Nike and Jordan Brand. In this case, he killed it. This article is, by far, one of the best written about me or on me. I urge you to read this blog and share with your network, especially those with an interest in sneaker culture. For sneakerologists, it's a must! We drop some real science here and exclusive insight into Nike and the making of the Jordan Brand. Here's the link to the blog and Steez' new site, Project Bluefoot which is a forum for thoes who live, eat, breathe and design kicks! Without a doubt, Project Bluefoot will change the game. Good looking out, Steez!!!
http://www.projectbluefoot.com/blog/2009/06/15/the-mastermind-erin-patton-interview-part-1/
POSTED BY ERIN PATTON AT 1:10 PM
Patton has some book excerpts on his blog too: undertheinfluence2009.blogspot.com
btw, it's coming in 5 parts, every day this week.
Wow, good stuff! Definitely a good quality read.
Originally Posted by Steez
Originally Posted by jordanpheen
good stuff
will be tuning back in for part three
will we see more past part three???
Yes, definitely.
I planned it as a 5 part interview piece. Part 3 deals even more with the early workings of the Jordan Brand along with discussion on retro product and business and marketing strategies. All fresh info on how he built the brand from the ground up. And then we go into Patton's work on the marketing and launch of the Starbury campaign in Part 4. I even threw in a bunch more photos to break up the text visually for you all in Part 2, as this one is a bit lengthy. As I mentioned before, it may be easier to read on the source site as the margins are pretty splayed out in this thread for text this long: http://www.projectbluefoot.com/blog/2009/06/19/the-mastermind-erin-patton-interview-part-2/
We will also be having a live, real-time chat with Patton coming soon, so get your questions ready...