On Wed, 27 Sep 2000, Doug Henwood wrote:
> Dunno about actual retail prices, but I got that cost of production
> from Jeff Ballinger, who's been harassing Nike for years. But that's
> just cost of production; marketing costs are a lot higher (Klein
> argues that it's those high costs that forces Nike and the rest to
> minimize labor costs), and it'd cost a fortune to build a brand that
> competes with Nike.
But that's just my point: sneaker brands like Brooks and Mizuno, which don't spend anything on marketing, sell for as much. When compared to other high-tech sneakers, Nike seems to be getting no returns in price to its investment in brand. In which case, how could marketing costs explain the purported difference between production cost and sales cost?
Michael
__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com