Case 1: Nike vs. Puma

In this day and age, the way companies do business is rapidly changing, due mostly to the continued growth of the Internet. Consumers are able to go online and compare prices and products instantly and are no longer willing to settle for anything less than exactly what they want. Many companies, including Nike and Puma, are taking a new approach to their sales and online experience. Both of these companies have recently updated their websites to include mass customization sections, where everybody can get exactly what they want.
Mass customization is using flexible computer-aided manufacturing systems to produce custom output. Those systems combine the low unit costs of mass production processes with the flexibility of individual customization. Mass customization is considered the new frontier of manufacturing and service industries and can provide a strategic and economic advantage for a company that uses it correctly. Nike and Puma have realized this and have gotten a head start on the competition with their new additions to their websites, NikeID and Puma Mongolian BBQ.


Both companies do offer mass customization they go about it in very different ways. The Puma Mongolian BBQ is trying to reach a more hip crowd with its "everyone has a different taste" philosophy. On the Mongolian BBQ website it explains that the Mongolian BBQ started long ago with Genghis Khan’s Mongolian army, where each soldier would gather their own ingredients and make their own personalized meal, using their shields as pans. They claim to understand that everyone, like the Mongolian soldiers, has different tastes, so they have plenty of precut materials so everyone can make their ideal shoe.
While this is essentially the mass customization idea, it is presented in a more fun and stylish way then just logging on and picking exactly what you want. At the same there can also be some downsides to this, such as it immediately excludes some potential markets. Many people who log on will view this campaign as weird and will think things like the crazy chef are just too far out there, rather than funny and entertaining. Another major flaw in Puma’s Mongolian BBQ is the lack of options. Once you choose a shoe to customize there are plenty of different color combinations and options, but they only offer three shoes to customize. If a person is looking for a new pair of shoes but does not want one of their classic 70s and 80s athletic shoes then they are out of luck.
The Mongolian BBQ does have some very good attributes as well. It is extremely user friendly. You are initially presented with a choice of what type of shoe you want to begin with. Next you have the option of looking at pre-designed shoes and using one of them as a template, or starting from scratch. Finally you get to choose exactly what colors and patterns you want on your shoe, customizing everything from the sole to the inner lining. There are plenty of options for colors and patterns, but they generally shy away from solid colors and try to make the shoe appear trendy. The Mongolian BBQ seems like it is really targeting young, urban, people who like to appear trendy.


NikeID is more my type of web site focusing on athletes and “customizing your performance.” Right off the bat it is obvious that while Nike is trying to be trendy, showing you some “cool” customized shoes, it is still the same athletic based Nike. Its customize your look section tells you to show your colors on the field and show your style on the street while the customize your performance section tells you enhance your athletic skill with the perfect fit.
Nike’s real competitive advantage here is its vast number of customizable items. Not only do they offer 153 different customizable pairs of shoes, it also offers customizable clothing and athletic gear. A person can go to NikeID and essentially get whatever they want in any color or design they want. Another great feature of NikeID is that it offers wide and narrow sizes and independent left and right sizes, so you can really get exactly what you need. There is a very good selection of colors, but it could be larger, and there are pretty much all-solid colors and no unique patters that are offered. I feel that Nike’s are generally viewed as performance shoes and the colors will most likely be customized to match a person’s team colors so this is all right. Another unique piece of customization is that you can add you personal id, name and number, to any pair of shoes you create.
The downsides to Nike’s customizable shoes is that if you don’t know exactly what you want it can get overwhelming. There are over 150 pairs of shoes that you can get and it can be intimidating trying to pick the right ones. The website is fairly user friendly, with plenty of pictures to help direct you where to go, in case you don’t know what Nike Air Pegasus, Nike Air Max, or Mike Shox Turbo are, but it is not quite as simple to use as the Puma Mongolian BBQ.
When I went onto the websites my choices were fairly limited with the Puma Mongolian BBQ so I decided to make a pair of casual shoes that I can wear walking around every day. My genius creating can be viewed here. While on the Nike site I had many more options and decided to go with a basketball shoe, seen above. Once you got down to it, both sites used extremely similar methods to allow you to make the perfect shoe. When you finally picked a shoe it was displayed for you on both sites and you could look at it from all angles. On NikeID you actually clicked the part of the shoe you wanted to change, while on Puma’s Mongolian BBQ all of the shoe parts were listed on the side and you clicked on the one you wanted to change. I found when actually designing the shoe both of them were very simple and easy to use, and they both had sections where I could show off my shoe and send it to my friends.
Despite the lack of options on the Puma Mongolian BBQ it had many web 2.0 characteristics. A large amount of the customized shoes are user generated and are available to view in the gallery. Anyone can pick a shoe they like that is there and purchase it, or they can use that shoe as a starting point and edit it to their liking. This allows for a lot of remixing of content and collaboration.
Another Web 2.0 characteristic that both companies share is that they are relatively open. Anybody, customer or competitor, can go onto NikeID, or Puma Mongolian BBQ and look at all the products they offer, the ways in which they are customizable, and the prices. At the same time both of these companies have very traditional business models, with an established hierarchy and thousands of employees.
Both companies are using modern technology efficiently to create a good customer experience but all in all Puma is creating a better customer experience. Puma is using all aspects of technology to create a unique user experience on their website. Unlike Nike, which is very businesslike and professional looking, despite the mass customization, Puma’s Mongolian BBQ is something that you won’t find anywhere else on the web. While it may not appeal to some targets, many will enjoy the interactive experience and like it better then a traditional business model.