
Maybe I’m just feeling extra bitchy this week, but for some reason this article really annoyed me.
For the love of God, read this quote by Trevor Edwards, Nike’s corporate vice president for global brand and category management:
“We’re not in the business of keeping the media companies alive. We’re in the business of connecting with consumers.”
I’m sorry, what?
If there’s any hack out there who finds this statement enlightening they need to pack it up and go home. Here’s the thing, I don’t think anyone found this profound except for (ironically) the media itself. It’s probably safe to say the media should concentrate on keeping itself alive. I’d probably start by 1) not publishing articles like this and 2) aggressively exploring some new revenue models.
I don’t mean to pick on Nike. They’re no doubt doing things the way any smart marketer would if they had tens of millions of dollars at their disposal. In fact, the only advice I would give to them is that they should try to keep this Trevor Edwards guy from stating the obvious when he gets in front of reporters.