JKR

On

Launch a high-end leisure product during a currency crisis. Are they insane?

On the contrary, On-running teach us to seek opportunity wherever a handful of mature brands come to smother a market.

Such organisations tend to suffer a diseconomy of scale – they struggle to truly stay close to their customers. It’s the first responsibility of Marketing, but their voice will be unheard if profit becomes the dominant aim. By definition, the peak of success is a point of inflexion, from whence follows decline.

To the casual buyer, Nike, Asics and Adidas have running shoes sewn up. But in their apparent strength lies their weakness. Ubiquity is a positive deterrent to a performance user and by combining technology and style On is stamping out an aspirational niche.

While they cannot compete with the advertising of the leisurewear leaders, design makes their proposition clear. The confident logo and bright coloured soles celebrate their difference while specialist distributors introduce them to a discerning audience.

It’s an inspirational story of finding riches in niches that’s relevant to the current trend for markets to polarise between discount and premium. And if the Swiss, with the highest labour costs on earth can profit from design-driven manufacturing, On proudly refutes the notion that Europe’s prowess as a manufacturing base lies buried in its past.