Brand Identity
Nike was founded at the University of Oregon by Bill Bowerman. The company was originally called Blue-Ribbon sports. Bowerman was a Track coach who wanted to find new ways to help his athletes. He tried to develop a running shoe but was rejected by many companies he pitched his idea too. The next step for Bowerman was to experiment more closely with the runners instead of a company.
Phil Knight was a talented runner on Oregon’s team. Knight graduated with an MBA in finance. He wrote a paper about outsourcing manufacturing of quality footwear to Japan. Knight decided that he would take the process into his own hands.
Knight called Onitsuka Company in Japan and was made a distributer of Tiger running shoes in America. Knight received sample shoes that he showed to Bowerman. Bowerman decided to offer Knight a partnership.
The two men decided to create the company, Blue-Ribbon Sports. They each paid $5,000 and ordered 300 pairs of shoes to start off their duo. They first sold their shoes out of a truck.
Bowerman would rip apart the shoes in order to experiment how to make them more versatile. This was the start of present day Nike.
Jeff Johnson was brought in to handle finances while at the same time managing another company, Blue-Ribbon Sports. Johnson was also a runner and was the first employee of the company. Knight and Bowerman both had full-time jobs aside from Nike.

Johnson created the first marketing strategy for the company. He created the brochures, print- ads, and photos. Johnson created the name NIKE in the year 1971. They chose the
‘swoosh’ design to be their trademark. It was created by a graphic design student at Portland
State.
The first shoes were worn at the U.S. Track and Field Finals. The trials were held in
Nike’s home city of Eugene, Oregon. The runners were very interested in trying the new shoes.
Bowerman created the design after seeing his wife’s waffle iron. The shoes were worn for competition by many runners at the event.
The first athlete to endorse Nike was Steve Prefontaine. He was a popular Oregon runner who was a local hero. He was on covers of magazines such as Sports Illustrated. This opened the company to a great deal of exposure in the press. Nike was quickly gaining popularity.
In the 1980s Nike’s success continued to develop rapidly. Nike was now a publicly traded company. Phil Knight moved on to other projects and stepped down. Nike’s market share fell in the mid 1980s because they let competitors have an open market. The competition for shoes had increased tenfold. In 1984 Nike signed their most important endorser, Michael Jordan.
Michael Jordan’s first signature shoe, the Air Jordan was banned from the NBA at first, this caused great controversy and gave Nike a lot of publicity. Today, the Jordan brand remains one of Nike’s biggest sellers.
In the 1990s, Nike saw success from product launches and marketing campaigns.
Portland became the new home of NIKE Athletics. It was a new retail experience titled, Nike

Town. In 1994, Nike endorsed a number of players from the World Cup winning team. In 1995, they went on to sign the entire Brazil team.
Tiger Woods was signed in 1996. They gave him $5 million dollars per year for his service. Critics laughed at Nike, but Tiger went on to win the 1997 Masters. The U.S. men’s and woman’s soccer teams were also signed by NIKE during that year.
The 2000s showed much innovation from the company. Shoes like NIKE Shocks were released. Nike Shocks took 15 years to develop. Nike’s advertising was taking a revitalized approach. New events were created in order to promote products. NIKE became the official NFL sponsor in 2012. In 2011, Nike stated that in 2015 their revenue target will be $30 billion dollars.
The company is moving at a faster rate than previously imagined.
Marketing Strategy
Nike’s mission is to bring inspiration and improvement to every athlete in the world. It is a brand that top athletes use along with “hip” people (10 Step Marketing for Nike). Nike’s marketers analyze psychographics and demographics to find correlations. Their findings are used as a market-segmentation tool as well as to develop their marketing mix. Results indicated that personal values are far more instrumental than demographic characteristics in consumer decision-making and buying behavior.
Nike’s main goal is to reach out to 40 % of its target audience at least 4 times a month for
4 months through mobile, digital, T.V. and Internet campaigns.
Nike’s target demographic is between the ages of 18 and 40 years old. Its largest PTM
(primary target market) is teens. It targets males and females who are single or married. Teens are their largest target audience because they need to feel like they belong, are recognized, and

know they are important and self-fulfilled. Teens choose Nike for quality, durability, style, good reputation, breakthrough design and technology of products. They expect to feel cool, confident, stylish, and have a positive attitude when they are being active. Teens are at a vulnerable state in their life cycle. Nike attempts to break down its PTM and understand them to the best of their ability.
Abraham Maslow’s Theory explains more in depth how Nike covers their customers closely. He said buyers want to feel important and fully recognized by others. This is selfactualization behavior. Nike likes to reference itself as “the best”. It looks to help their consumers achieve self-esteem and status. Also, its customers have social needs like being loved and accepted. Especially Nike’s PTM because teens have the greatest need to belong and fit in.
Safety needs, like security and protection, and physiological needs for water, food, and shelter are also targeted.
The people who spend the most on shoes are 17 year-old males just outside. They spend
20 % more than the average adult does on shoes. Nike even thinks they can go without major
T.V. ads. When the ads are released, they will usually be on the internet, focusing on consumer interaction (Cendrowski, 81).
The success rate that Nike has seen throughout the years depended on the corporation’s ability to reach their PTM by appealing to their values and systems of belief. Although this may very well be true, it does not mean that outside audiences are unaffected.
Nike pays close attention to the behavior of its consumers and PTM. The lifestyles of their demographics are active teens and sporty individuals with a multi-purpose shoe craze (10
Step Marketing for Nike).

Nike Inc. has three main marketing strategies. First, the sponsorship of products by proathletes, celebrities and college athletes. This attracts its PTM because the consumers want to be like their role models. Second, Nike carefully designs the product destination which associates the products with success. Finally, the targeted consumers, who are likely to develop productintimacy, also care more about utility and quality rather than price. So Nike products remain high-quality with prices that reflect it (Hopkins).
Women generated less than 20% of Nike’s overall sales in 2002. It looked to double that percentage in the years following. It was hard for Nike at first to reach this demographic. It dove into a multi-purpose effort to sell footwear and apparel to the women. For example, the yoga market attracted women quickly. This was successful. Men and women reached close to 13.8 billion. In a 2002 study, women spent a little more than half of what men spent on running shoes, but still made up $4.4 billion of the market. They made up 80% of the sports apparel market though (Buss 2002). Nike saw sales increase after finding positive ways to reach out to a demographic that wasn’t as loyal to the brand before.
Marketing Messages
Nike wants to reach out to everybody. It came up with the catch phrase, “Here I am!” It targets women and passes on the message that there is more to sports than just getting fit and competing. Its main focus is to make women feel powerful even if they aren’t in the “athletic” group (Inci).
Nike was faced a challenge in the ‘90s. Younger consumers started favoring hiking boots and more casual wear. Nike was known for their sporty appearance, so when the behaviors of its consumers altered, they made alterations of their own. Nike responded by manufacturing ACG
(all-condition-gear).

Nike’s focus is on people who are dedicated and who strive for success. When consumers see success, they crave more, which leads to Nike having the upper hand over its demographics
(Nike Case Presentation). Nike targets consumers with comfortable and simple lifestyles. Nike tries to make exercise look easy in order to attract those consumers who don’t exercise but might want to.
Nike believes sports help the next generation of youth develop teamwork, confidence, emotional, physical, and determination skills. In parts of Los Angeles, high school graduation rates are very low. Inactivity and mentoring isn’t highly accessible. Nike came in and became a part of “Students Run LA”. This organization started and has kept going as a program providing unlimited support.
These kids were easy targets because they were in need of help. Nike took advantage of the opportunity to gain more attention and to build relationships. Once again, Nike has related itself to success because ever since Students Run LA became available, results show a lot of improvement. In 2011, 2,800 consumers were in a marathon that helped them gain confidence and see Nike as a protagonist (Nike Inc.).
According to nikeinc.com, Nike wants to expand even more to consumers outside its typical PTM and engage them in becoming and staying active. The Nike Foundation also wants to invest time and space into teen girls (Nike Inc.).
Steve McKee, President of McKee-Wallwork Cleveland Advertising explains, a large part of Nike’s success in advertising is that "Nike ... rarely overtly asks people to buy anything.
They simply develop appealing, interesting, often thought-provoking advertising that involves consumers in the message and invites them to draw their own conclusions.”

This has held true for the majority of Nike’s brand history and advertising strategy. Nike generally shifts their focus onto the consumer themselves and what kind of person uses Nike products, creating a unique and effective marketing strategy.
The staple of every advertising effort put on by Nike has been the inclusion of their globally recognizable “Swoosh” logo. When looking for a brand logo for their brand new Nike brand, Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman commissioned Carolyn Davidson, a graphic design student at Portland State University. With a production deadline, Knight chose Davidson’s
“Swoosh” design, stating "I don't love it, but it will grow on me” (Nike, Inc.). Davidson was paid just $35, and continued to work with the company in their early marketing plans, but when
Nike’s success started becoming apparent, they parted ways as Nike decided to take their business to a full-service advertisement agency. Although their professional relationship was over, Davidson was called to a company lunch in 1983, where she was presented with a golden swoosh diamond ring and an undisclosed amount of stock in the company.
The first large-scale advertisement campaign that Nike ran was a collaboration with John
Brown and Partners, an advertising firm located in Washington, known as “There Is No Finish
Line.” Debuting in 1977, the campaign was run as a series of magazine advertisements and posters and depicted people running by themselves in a variety of settings, from empty wilderness to major cities, suggesting Nike was a brand for anyone who thought of themselves as a serious competitor. The focus was not on winning any races or beating anyone else, but instead focused on people who wanted to compete with themselves for self-improvement. The
“There Is No Finish Line” campaign was a huge success, setting the stage for Nike’s arrival in the athletic shoe industry and the tone for their advertising future as well.

After a strong debut in the late 70’s, Nike took the first steps towards unparalleled growth and success in the 1980’s due to a number of factors. One, was a pairing with the young ad agency Wieden & Kennedy. Together, Nike and Wieden & Kennedy created some of Nike’s most memorable and successful campaigns for a number of Nike’s products over the years.
Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman had always been keen to the fact that in order for Nike to be successful, they needed serious athletes to promote them. Even before their partnership with
Wieden & Kennedy, Knight and Bowerman secured a promising endorsement relationship with up and coming track star Steve Prefontaine. Prefontaine was a college track and field star who was training for the 1976 Summer Olympics and gaining national exposure for his success, even appearing on a cover of Sports Illustrated. While Nike did have success with the endorsement from Prefontaine, he tragically died in 1975 at the age of just 24.
Fortunately for Nike, they found another young athlete to endorse their product in 1985 who would go on to become one of the most marketable and popular athletes of all time; a young rookie in the NBA by the name of Michael Jordan and his new Nike signature line, Air Jordan.
The signing of Michael Jordan and his subsequent superstardom changed the game for Nike.
Jordan, along with other pro athlete superstars such as the NFL and MLB star Bo Jackson, and professional tennis star John McEnroe, allowed Nike to be the new star in the athletic shoe world.
Not only did Nike capture the general public’s attention by using the faces of many people’s current hero’s and pop culture icons, but they also garnered success in the professional sports world as well by having their product used by the biggest and best names in almost every popular sport around the world, showcasing first hand their quality and dependability.

However, superstar power and appeal alone did not grant Nike the industry giant status it maintains today. One of the most successful and long-lasting campaigns for Nike with Wieden
& Kennedy was also one of their earliest. In 1988, at a meeting between Dan Wieden, David
Kennedy, and Nike representatives, Wieden, speaking of Nike’s attitude, stated “You Nike guys, you just do it.” Marketing history was made that day, and Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign is still going on to this day. The phrase is recognized worldwide.
After setting up pro-athlete endorsements and rolling out the “Just Do It” slogan at the end of the 1980’s, Nike was set to finally overcome their competition with Reebok, which they had been losing. Riding on the success of the “Just Do It” campaign and the strong responses to their product, Nike “rose about as high and fast in the ‘90s as any company can,” as Jolie
Soloman wrote in a 1998 issue of Newsweek (Soloman). In the 10 years following the conception of the “Just Do It” campaign, Nike’s market share among sports shoe companies increased from a mere 18% to a staggering 43%. Their worldwide sales numbers increased from
$877 million to $9.2 billion thanks to the $300 million spent on overseas advertising, again mostly focused on the “Just Do It” campaign.
Entering the new millennium, Nike, as well as most other major companies in the world, was faced with a new problem: how to keep up with the technological advances of the time and stay relevant in a continuously evolving world. Nike, as expected, answered the problem in a highly successful fashion.
In 2002, Nike started their biggest-ever global marketing campaign via the World Cup.
Although Adidas was the official FIFA sponsor of the tournament, Nike found ways to get their message heard via a technique called ambush marketing. In order to accomplish this, Nike became the official sponsor of the US National Men’s Team, and many top tier individual

players around the world and embarked on a new campaign, known as the Nike Secret
Tournament, a fictional tournament between small teams of the world’s best soccer players in a series of Nike ads. The campaign was a major success, reaching 47 different countries worldwide, prompting Nike President Mark Parker to say that Nike’s “…integrated football marketing initiative was the most comprehensive and successful global campaign ever executed by Nike.”
Nike would again employ ambush marketing tactics in a successful manner during the
2012 Summer Olympics in London. Nike was not the official sponsor of the actual Olympics themselves, but instead made sure to personally sponsor high profile individual athletes and countries in order to get their products seen. Nike made headlines during the summer with this tactic by dressing track athletes with their new “Flyknit” shoes in their “Volt” color--essentially a bright neon green that was sure to stand out--along with the Nike swoosh adorned on them. By having the products, they associated with the Olympic athletes and countries available in stores as soon as the public saw them on the world’s biggest athletic stage, Nike was able to immediately cash in on the effect of their marketing campaign.
As of late 2012, not much has changed for Nike in terms of their status as the world’s uncontested leader in sporting equipment and apparel, and they remain visible in almost every facet of pop culture that they can. Beginning with the 2012 season, Nike has been the official equipment supplier for the NFL, and now is the sole maker of official NFL jerseys, shoes, equipment, clothing, and more for all 32 NFL franchises, promoting them with a new “Fast is
Faster” campaign that utilizes the NFL’s best athletes from every team and highlights new features they have added to equipment for enhanced performance.
Media Analysis

In the past, Nike’s marketing mix relied heavily on TV and print advertising campaigns and the success of the high-profile athletes who they sponsored like Michael Jordan and Bo
Jackson; the “Bo Knows” ad campaign in the late 80’s catapulted Nike’s sales. The “Just Do It” slogan is recognized worldwide. However today, Nike’s approach has shifted from hero worship of star athletes to direct interaction with consumers. According to Fortune Magazine, TV and print advertising has dropped 40% in the past four years while advertising expenditures have increased to a record $2.4 billion in 2011.
A number of new marketing strategies have now been implemented with a focus on social media and customer interaction. Wieden & Kennedy now splits handling of campaigns and billings with various other agencies that are more specialized in social media and digital advertising like Mindshare, R/GA and AKQA. The idea is that through collaboration, Nike’s market strategy will stay up to date with the ever-changing digital market. Nike has been focusing on social media like Twitter and Facebook; the majority of their expenditures going towards ‘non-traditional media’-- Social Media and digital interaction.
In 2010 Nike spent almost $800 million on ‘non-traditional’ advertising, according to
Advertising Age estimates, far surpassing any other top 100 brand. Their methods for increasing internet following are clever; a 30-story billboard in Johannesburg that displays quotes from
Twitter followers, as of January 2012, Nike has the most Twitter followers out of any sports brands with 192,000. Facebook promotions have been innovative as well.

Rather than heavily advertising year-round on television, Nike marketers now focus advertising campaigns around large sporting-events such as the Olympics and the World Cup. In
2006 Nike teamed up with Google to create a World Cup-related social media. In the months leading up to the 2010 World Cup, Nike teased Facebook users with the announcement of a special commercial. The spot, entitled “Write the Future” would feature soccer-superstars
Christano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney and would be directed by Oscar-nominated director,
Alejandro Gonzales Innaritu. The Commercial never aired on television once, it was released on
Facebook and YouTube only, and within a week the ad went viral and accrued over 8 million views. Nike’s Facebook fan-base has grown as a result to 11,448,550 fans. The Nike fan page gains 93,346 fans a week according to socialbakers.com.
Nike’s latest marketing focus has been on creating its own online community for consumers. In 2005 Nike launched its “ID” program where customers could design and order their own custom shoe on the company website. Four years later ID reached annual sales of $100 million, much to the surprise of Nike officials. Realizing the potential for the interactive market,
Nike collaborated with Apple to create Nike+. Nike+ shoes have sensors that gather jogger data and synchronize it with the user’s iPod. The data is then used to track performance, progress, and

provide digital coaching. A voice tells joggers how far they have gone and motivates them. In the end, the data is stored on Nikeplus.com where users can analyze data, get tips, and share with friends. In doing this Nike has cut out the middle man, interacting directly with the consumer.
Also Nikeplus.com provides valuable information on consumers and allows for interaction.
Today more than 5 million people log onto Nikeplus.com and share data.
From Nike+ the Digital Sport division was born, producing other data-collecting products like the “Fuelband”, a bracelet that keeps track of energy output. “ Connecting used to be, 'here's some product, and here's some advertising. We hope you like it," says Nike CEO, Mark Parker,
"Connecting today is a dialogue." The company has hired engineers and scientists to work in the
Nike Digital Sport division, analyzing data in order to understand consumer behaviors and patterns and also to develop new technologies. The idea is to increase interaction between Nike and the consumer. Since its inception, the top-secret Nike Digital Sport division has grown to over 200 employees and remains the cornerstone of the brand’s marketing strategy. Nike will not offer much information on Digital Sport but analysts say that a 55% increase in online membership in 2011 led to a 30% increase in running division sales.
Nike’s efforts towards sponsorships, philanthropies, and endorsements have been instrumental in building a positive image. Two of the most prominent philanthropies Nike has helped out are Livestrong and RED. They have helped raise over $100 million for Livestrong and over $150 million for the Nike RED campaign (Nikebiz.com). Livestrong raises money to help fight cancer and the Nike RED campaign is a fight against HIV and Aids in Africa.
Another philanthropy Nike has under its belt is their “Back Your Block” grant program. The program awards grants to non-profit groups which encourage youth to pursue excellence in sports. Other non-profit organizations Nike has donated to include the Boys &

Girls Club, the Beaverton school district of Oregon, Friends of Baseball, the Northeast
Community center of Portland, the Northwest Association for Blind Athletes, Girls Inc. of
Northwest Oregon, Kukatonon Children’s African Dance Troupe, Portland Institute for
Contemporary Art, the Gladstone school district, Chess for Success, Northwest Children’s
Outreach, Friends of the Children, Care to Share, Playworks Education Energized, Morrison
Child and Family Services, the list goes on and on (nikebiz.com).
A popular way to improve brand-image is through endorsements. Nike is famous for their professional athlete endorsements. Some of these celebrities include Tiger Woods, Michael
Vick, Lance Armstrong, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Bo Jackson, Andre Agassi, Ronaldinho,
Deion Sanders, Pete Sampras, Carmelo Anthony, Kobe Bryant, Wayne Gretzky, Christiano
Ronaldo, and Serena Williams. A celebrity endorsement is a risky business when it comes to advertising. It can be successful and have the brand become more popular than it already is, or it can be a huge loss for the company. After the celebrity signs the contract with the company, from then on anything he or she does can reflect on the brand. An example of this would be
Tiger Woods and a more recent case, Lance Armstrong.
Nike has been very successful in using non-media connectors to reach the public and promote their brand. Although, on their website they clearly state that they separate their philanthropy from their marketing efforts. With their usage of traditional media to advertise getting smaller, it is safe to say that Nike will continue to establish their brand through various of non-media connectors.

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