We would like you to meet our opinion former

Si Mason, a connector was chosen as our opinion former. Michael from New Balance described him as the perfect New Balance consumer.  We thought that a connector would be most appropriate for this task, as they will really get the brand 'out there' with their naturally social personality.

'You can't be gloomy in these bad boys can you!' Laughs Si

Si is a second year Architecture student at Nottingham Trent University. He is currently President of the Architecture society, spends over 50 hours in University every week and has a hectic social life, living with 13 other boys. He is a definite social butterfly, and seems to always be a mutual friend of whoever I come across...It will be interesting to see how he handles this task! We have even made him a New Balance diary to record all the info we need!

As you can see, Si's house are messy, but Mavern Tobi Cieslik keep (admittedly in a very strange manner) cut outs of trainer magazines, this helps spread awareness of brands and products within the house, and ultimately their group of friends too. 'Connectors spread ideas simply through the amount of people they know' (Gladwell, The Tipping Point)

Si's Room

The products shown in these pictures say a lot about Si. The brands in the picture below are well known, well stocked in the UK, but interestingly they are not the cheapest available to a student. This shows that he values brand quality and acceptability within his demographic. He only uses established brands that he can rely on to do what he needs them to do.

Si has the smallest room in the house so it is very unorganised! He is used to a cluttered environment, so for an advert to stand out to him it needs to be something really different.

New Balance Photo shoot in Sneaker Freaker

The following images are taken from Sneaker Freaker Issue 1. It is useful to look at how New Balance is being communicated to the Tier 1 'Sneaker Freak' in order to pick up on trends within this marketing to trickle down to the Tier 2 high street consumer.

From this shoot it is clear that the British/American heritage is important to the Tier 1 consumer, with the use of the Union Jack as the backdrop of the first image. 

The trainers which were chosen are the classic, retro designs, with splashes of colour. The dip dying of the second trainer into yellow paint suggests that brighter colours are needed, or even that customisation is a trend.

The third image reinforces the customisation theme with the scissors and thread scattered around the trainer. However this could also be interpreted as the hand made theme- as New Balance trainers are all produced domestically.

The final image is simple, it hints at the busy life of the consumer, but as the consumer is stood away from the night time traffic, it could suggest that New Balance can be worn as an escape from a crowded world of mainstream.

New Balance: Classic Then. Classic Now.

This poster released by New Balance comes with the tagline 'Classic Then. Classic Now.' This reflects the brand's heritage, retro identity as well as simplicity. New Balance prides itself on being understated, and these shoes and print adverts are definitely that.

Looking at New Balance print adverts, they are all very simple and very understated, so it is important that the campaign we design is simple and understated as these are key qualities that the brand possesses.

Potential Opinion Formers

Below are the mood boards that we created that outline our 3 potential opinion formers. We selected Jorge Dainton, a Connector, Sarah Combe a Mavern, and Si Mason another Connector. The boards outline the reasons as to why we thought each person was suitable for the role as our Opinion Former. 

Sarah Combe was originally selected, but unfortunately she broke her leg so was no longer in a position to work with us. We then had to wait for more trainers to be sent our way, until we discovered that Si Mason, the Connector was New Balance's preference and an 'ideal New Balance consumer' (Michael Clarke).

It is interesting to note the trainer choices made by each opinion former- the two connectors have both chosen bright, bold, statement making designs, whereas the mavern has chosen plain, functional options; reflecting their personalities further.

Jorge Dainton- The Connector 

 Sarah Combe- The Mavern

Si Mason, The Connector 

Initial Typologies Research: Diffusion, The Innovators and Opinion Leaders

It was relevant to look into typologies as initial research for this brief to help define what type of Opinion Former would be best for New Balance.

Firstly we looked into the book, 'Diffusion of Innovations' by Everett M. Rogers to get a better insight into what Diffusion is.

What is Diffusion?

"Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the members of a social system. It is a special type of communication, in that the messages are concerns with new ideas.""An innovation is an idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption. It matters little, so far as human behaviour is concerns, whether or not an idea is objectively new as measured by the lapse of time since its first use or discovery. The perceived newness of the idea for the individual determines his or her reaction to it. If the idea seems new to the individual, it is an innovation.

Newness in an innovation need not just involve new knowledge. Someone may have known about an innovation for some time but not yet developed a favourable or unfavourable attitude toward it, nor have adopted or rejected it. ‘Newness’ of an innovation may be expressed in terms of knowledge, persuasion, or a decision to adopt."

The Innovators

Opinion Leaders

"Rogers showed that a diffusion process in a social system follows an S-Curve in which the adoption of a technology begins with slow change, is followed by rapid change and ends in slow change as the product matures or new technologies emerge. He also held that people adopt new technological innovations at different times and at different rates. He then used the varying rates of adoption to distinguish different phases in the diffusion process allowing practitioners to assess such things as the life of a new product or service and the application of the correct set of marketing activities at the appropriate time." (Proven Models.com)

The Innovators and Opinion Leaders will be the two stages that we will focus on when choosing a suitable Opinion Former. We felt that these were the most fitting stages because they would result in a social and interesting Opinion Former who would help raise awareness for New Balance and hopefully get people who they interact with to adopt the brand themselves.

How To Pick an Opinion Former

In order to find our opinion former we asked ourselves a few questions...

...Looking at the descriptions of Malcolm Gladwell's Key Personas and Roger's Diffusion of Innovation Curve, we wondered whether there was anyone we knew that stood out as embodying one of these personality traits.

As it so happened, there were a number of people who stood out and would equally be suited for this project. In order to ensure they were 100% right, we created a tick-list to highlight the 3 best options.

Below features a copy of the tick list we created and filled out after having a brief chat with all 7 of the candidates:

Two males, both Connectors, and one female, who fitted the Maven description, were chosen as the best options and subsequently communications began to gather information and pictures of their lives to create moodboards to submit.

Typologies Research

Whilst trying to decide on which three Opinion Former candidates to pick, we used Malcolm Gladwell's 'The Tipping Point' to help us come to the best conclusion. After some analysis, we decided that the Connector and the Mavern would be best to focus on for this project brief. Below features an explanation of the book and a description of the three key types of person that Gladwell believes are the solution to creating a tipping point...

(Taken from Wiki Summaries)

By offering readers a groundbreaking analysis of how trends are sparked and take hold, Malcolm Gladwell’s book The Tipping Point became an exemplification of the very processes he was describing. Upon its 2000 release, the book became a national bestseller whose influence would help to initiate paradigm shifts in fields ranging from marketing to public health.

Gladwell’s central argument is that there are actually a number of patterns and factors that are at play in virtually every influential trend. The nature of modern culture is such that many new ideas are constantly being introduced from a wide variety of sources, ranging from trend-setting teens and twenty-something’s in the nation’s metropolitan centers to new product offerings from established corporations. Some of these achieve a measure of steady, consistent success, some fail, and some take off on an upward trajectory of exponential popularity and influence.

The Law of the Few contends that before widespread popularity can be attained, a few key types of people must champion an idea, concept, or product before it can reach the tipping point. Gladwell describes these key types as Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen. If individuals representing all three of these groups endorse and advocate a new idea, it is much more likely that it will tip into exponential success.

The three key types in more detail: (taken from catwchang.com)
Connector

Connectors are the people who know everyone. We are all linked to each other by 6 degrees of separation, but not all degrees are equal. A small number of people are linked to a large number of people within a few steps, while everyone else is linked to the world through these special people. While the rest of us might prefer to keep acquaintances at arm’s length, Connectors try to keep up with them. They like to cultivate weak ties, people who are outside of their usual social networks, and they manage to occupy different niches and subcultures fluidly. In sum, connectors spread ideas and bring about change simply through the sheer number of people they know.

Maven

Mavens are obsessive information collectors who are socially motivated and have a strong desire to be of service and influence. They love to initiate discussions to gather information on different products, prices, places, etc., and they genuinely enjoy sharing this wealth of information with other people. They are the type of people who know where the bathroom is in a given retail store or which hotel to stay at when you are vacationing in Barcelona. While a connector might tell 20 people about the fabulous hotel they stayed at, probably only half will take their suggestion. On the other hand, while a maven might only tell 5 people about the hotel, all five of those people will very likely take his advice. In sum, mavens spread ideas and bring about change by giving expert advice.

Salesman

Salesmen are those people who somehow convinced you to bring home that $450 blender that you pull out to make orange juice once every 6 months to ease your guilty conscience. They are extremely energetic, enthusiastic, charming and happy. They are the masters of non-verbal cues, and they intuitively tune in to the phyisical and conversational harmony of others. They are the ones who conduct the conversations and have plenty of quality answers to combat objections commonly raised by their listeners or potential clients. In sum, salesmen spread ideas and bring about change through their ability to persuade other people.