• by Kevin Ransom , May 8, 2008

The athletic-footwear market has been a competitive and overcrowded one for years, with so many different styles, colors and types of shoes on the market that shoppers can sometimes be paralyzed by too many options. So, companies are always looking for "a leg up," as it were, when it comes to personalizing their marketing strategy to reach a specific demographic group.

Nike Inc. and The Finish Line Inc. think they have come up with just such a personalized approach by joining forces to create a concept store" dubbed Finish Line Ltd., where the product line and approach to customer service will be customized to meet the needs of young running and training athletes. The store is located at the Chandler Fashion Center near Phoenix.

To target specific types of customers, Finish Line Ltd. will be divided into three sections: running, sport style and training. Running shoes and equipment will have the strongest presence, with the "Nike+ running story" right up front, says Craig Cheek, vice president and general manager of Nike USA. Nike+ is a nifty high-tech advancement "that consists of a computer chip in the shoe," says Cheek. It tracks information from the athlete's training run, like mileage, calories burned, etc.--"and then they can take it home and sync it up to the Web, and check the results--and which also allows them to be part of a whole social community of runners. We think of it as a digital motivational tool."

The Nike+ can also be linked with the Apple iPod Nano, which allows the runner to choose his or her own "power songs--the ones that may motivate the runner even more--and then they can check later to see if their performance improved while that song was playing," says Cheek. This package can also be purchased at the Arizona store.

Finish Line Ltd also plans to carry other leading running, training and sport style brands that appeal to 'the young active consumer," he says.

In an ambitious effort to target the local market, the Finish Line Ltd. also features an assortment of Nike performance and "sports culture" footwear decked out with the colors of local high schools in the greater Phoenix area. The same colors will also be used in Nike Pro apparel offerings--which can be customized by adding lettering reflecting their sport, their name and their uniform numbers.

Finish Line Ltd. will also offer an enhanced level of customer service, says Cheek--including in-store demonstrations of its products by trained running sales associates. Customers also will be able to test-run various Nike products, he says. Other training tools, such as selecting the best shoe or finding the right local running route, will also be accessible at the store.

At present, there are no plans to open another Finish Line Ltd. store in another market, but that doesn't mean that won't happen in the future, says Cheek. "This is a concept store, and we're treating it as a laboratory," he says. "We'll monitor its success over the coming months and see how it does."