Demographic

Before I dive into designing I want to be sure about my demographic. This will strongly influence how I want to present my brand.

I think a good start is to look at festivals as their demographic is relatively similar to mine.

and of course the demographics of other sportswear companies that Donnay will be competing with. such as Nike, Addidas, Puma etc.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamdanziger/2017/06/19/nike-to-stay-out-in-front-with-biggest-data-of-all-demographics/#1c8ea942432c

Nike To Stay Out In Front With Biggest Data Of All: Demographics

Nike has gotten off to a slow start in 2017. Now three-quarters under, in March the company reported total global revenues up 6% year-over-year, but slowing to 5% in the third quarter. Further North America, its largest global market, grew by only 4% YoY, a pace the company can’t be satisfied with.

At the time Mark Parker, Chairman and CEO, announced its “Triple Double” strategy – 2X Innovation; 2X Speed; and 2X Direct —  focused on doubling down on innovation in performance and style, speed to market, and direct connections with customers through digital, membership and personalization.

Then this past week, Nike followed with an announcement of its “Consumer Direct Offense,” to accelerate product innovation, move closer to the consumer through a Key Cities initiative and to deepen the company’s one-to-one connections with customers. It also plans to unload 2% of its nearly 71,000-strong workforce to create a leaner, meaner corporate profile.

 

Digital strategies will fuel much of the company’s “Triple Double” execution, under a new Nike Direct organization led by Heidi O’Neill, President of Nike Direct, and Adam Sussman, Chief Digital Officer. That, of course, means more reliance on “Big Data” to quantitatively plan product demand, allocate resources and target the right customers with the best offers.

But “Big Data” has an Achilles heel: it relies on past consumer behavior to predict future behavior. And that can prove faulty in today’s consumer marketplace characterized by rapidly changing consumer preferences and shopping behaviors.

That’s why I am intrigued by Nike’s plan to focus on 12 Key Cities in its Consumer Direct Offense:  New York, London, Shanghai, Beijing, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Paris, Berlin, Mexico City, Barcelona, Seoul, and Milan.These are the places the company predicts will generate over 80% of Nike’s projected growth through 2020. Why? Because the company is tapping the biggest, baddest, but old-fashioned data of all: Consumer Demographics.

Demographics is the statistical study of populations. It predicts the composition, size, structure, and distribution of where people live. While the recent refugee crisis in Europe disrupted the normal demographic shifts there, it remains a powerful tool for marketers searching for their best customer prospects today and tomorrow.

I started sketching typography and iconography for the logo, I felt that having some resemblance to the original Donnay Logo would be nice but I tried to get as creative as possible to explore all the possible ideas I could venture with.

Out of nowhere, I thought about Nike’s recent advert, celebrating the life of a Londoner. The budget was probably massive, and it Includes loads of Londons top artists and sportsmen/sportswomen.  

The visuals on this ad are top notch, using zoom effect’s and transitions like the A$AP Rocky style effect’s I spoke about in a previous blog post, some really cool X ray and post-production effects too.

With music from artists such as Skepta and Ocean Wisdom, the whole thing has a really fast-paced and upbeat tone. 

 This is a great example of how I can advertise Donnay, except I’ll be looking all over the country for artists and maybe even sports personalities to collaborate with. 

Wikipedia Article Donnay

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donnay_(sports)

 Although I know from past experience not to put my full trust into Wikipedia for 100% factual information. There are surprisingly few places to look for information on Donnay. 

This article is about the sporting goods company. For the French district, see Donnay, Calvados.

 

Donnay Sports is a sporting goods brand owned by the British retailer Sports Direct International. The company was founded in 1910 by Emile Donnay and was based in Couvin, Belgium. Donnay manufactured wooden tennis rackets from 1934, and by the 1970s was the largest manufacturer of tennis rackets in the world. However, the company failed to adapt to the new market for graphite rackets, and entered administration in 1988. After a succession of owners, the brand was eventually sold to Sports Direct, who continue to license the use of the brand worldwide.

Donnay rackets were used professionally in Europe by Björn Borg from 1975 until his retirement in 1983. Other professionals included Andre Agassi, Rod Laver and Greg Rusedski.

 

 

History Of Donnay

(according to Wikipedia) 

The company was founded in 1910 by Emile Donnay (1885 – 1972) as a wooden tool handle manufacturing co-operative with six employees.

[1] Emile Donnay had little education and a modest background.[2]The company began to diversify into other wooden products, including a bow for archers, which continues to be reflected in the Donnay bow-shaped logo.[3] In 1924 Donnay built premises in Couvin.[4]

The company manufactured its first tennis rackets in 1934.[5] In the early 1950s the company won a valuable contract to produce tennis rackets for Wilson.[6]

By 1969 Donnay was the world’s largest manufacturer of tennis rackets. By the early 1970s, Donnay was producing 2 million rackets a year, 1.3 million of which were shipped to Wilson for distribution.[6] Production suffered in 1973, when Wilson relocated its tennis racket production to Taiwan.[6]

In 1981 Donnay produced 1.8 million rackets, almost all made from ash.[7] The company failed to adapt to the changing market for the new lightweight graphite rackets.[6] The company produced only 3,000 graphite rackets in 1980, instead concentrating on wood and aluminium rackets.[6] The company continued to manufacture wooden rackets until 1984, by which time they were obsolete.[8]

Buoyed by the success of signing up Björn Borg as a Donnay user, the company employed 600 people and manufactured around 1.5 million tennis rackets a year.[1] In 1981 Donnay reported a turnover of 2.1 billion Belgian francs. Donnay’s fortunes began to fade when Borg retired in 1983.[6] Its success had been too closely aligned with Borg’s success, and the company lost money for four years before entering administration in 1988 after amassing debts of $35 million.[6][9] 

The company had apparently lacked the negotiation skills to attract another player of Borg’s standing as a figurehead.[1]

The Donnay family still controlled 55 percent of the company when it went bankrupt in 1988.[1] The Walloon and Belgian governments held the remaining shares.[1] The company was acquired by a group of investors, led by Bernard Tapie with a 51 percent stake, the Walloon government with 29 percent and Albert Frere with 20 percent.[9] In 1991 Tapie sold his 58 percent stake in the company to the Walloon government for $16.2 million in order to finance the acquisition of Adidas shares.[10] 

The government sold the factory to an Italian sports equipment manufacturer, Carbon Valley, and retained the brand rights.[10] In December 1992 the Walloon government took ownership of the company in order to prevent it from entering administration again.[11]

In 1996 SportsDirect acquired the worldwide rights to the Donnay brand from the Walloon government for $3.9 million.[12] At the time of the acquisition, production was based in Portugal, while 23 people remained employed at a distribution center in Couvin.[12] SportsDirect sells Donnay products as an in-house brand and licenses its production of Donnay branded products overseas.

[13] SportsDirect also separately licenses the brand to independent manufacturers and sellers of Donnay branded products, including tennis racquet production in the United States. [14]

Quite an interesting advert my boss showed me a while ago about the famous brand DIESEL Selling real clothes disguised as knock-offs.  The actors are actually pretty funny and the whole things a pretty interesting statement on the industry.