What is fascinating to me is the amount of time, money and energy that running footwear companies spend on causes. Why? The consumer today believes that corporations are living, breathing entities. They want, in my opinion, to work with companies that contribute to their community, support causes, take stands.
The fact that American consumers give brownie points (my term) to corporations that support such events as the Olympics, is a case in point. When Visa’s John Bennett, in 1990, supported the VISA Decathlon program, they had a pleasant surprise. Not only did the bank employees love the visits from the decathletes, the American consumer supported VISA in a quantifiable percentage increase of business, due to VISA’s support of the Olympic movement.
ASICS support here of Breast Cancer Awareness Month is part of ASICS outreach into the women’s market, and of course, the company’s desire to support significant cause related groups.
This is not new, but it is positive to see so much growing support of causes in running businesses even with an economy that gets scared of it’s own shadow.
Nice job, ASICS. Nice job, running community.
