New Media Ecology Spring 2017: Why Nike Can Be The King of Branding?

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Why Nike Can Be The King of Branding?

Zhang Xiaoyi 1155081679

Compelling logo and slogan

The two biggest branding weapons of Nike are its “swoosh” logo and “Just Do It” slogan. The compelling logo and slogan portray the image and concepts of Nike brand successfully.

The “swoosh” logo is the signature of Nike. Whether or not the word Nike has been put below it, the general population see the “swoosh”, they can associate it with Nike automatically. Despite the “swoosh” logo is a very simple image, it represents the core of Nike’s image and makes the brand identity higher. The “swoosh” represents the wing of goddess Nike, who is the represent of victory. Also, “swoosh” is similar to the check mark in American culture, which is the representation of work well done and success. This recognizable and meaningful trademark delivers the victory, competition and athleticism image of Nike.

Associated with the Nike logo is the tagline “Just Do It”. This fundamentally simple tagline implies just doing for your decisions without thinking, asking and regretting and being confident to overcome obstacles, physical and psychological inhibitions and limitations. This concept of Nike brand is meaningful to not only professional athletes but also general population in daily life. That’s one of the reasons why Nike is more than professional shoes for sportsmen.

Communications strategy

Heavily focus on digital marketing

The most conscious decision of Nike’s communication strategy is to move away from traditional to digital marketing with a big investment in social media including Twitter and Facebook, and its own social network Nike+.

- social media

As one of the world’s biggest sports brands, Nike leverages the power of social media to spread its corporate image and improve its brand awareness.

Except for the general Nike pages, Nike also creates different pages for different sports on single social media platform including Facebook and Twitter. The value of doing this is that communities have been formed surrounding mutual interests and content can be tailored specifically for its customer segments so that the followers of different pages can see exactly what they are really interested in. The statistics from Data Geeks shows the higher social engagement of Nike’s social media accounts comparing to the other competitors. Nike also has the most followers and subscribers on all social channels.

- Nike+

Except for different social media channels, Nike also established Nike+ to allow customers to track their activities throughout the day either generally or with activity specific applications. Nike has realized that the purchase of a Nike product isn’t the end of the marketing cycle, but the beginning when they can offer a consumer a wide variety of products and services tailored to their individuals’ needs. That is exactly how Nike+ increases customers’ brand loyalty by owning the data and providing services.

Emotional branding strategy of ads

The emotional branding strategy can be seen clearly in Nike’s advertising. To be more specific, Nike is good at using the universal stories of celebrity athletes in its advertising to arouse sympathy of the general population. These stories follow a five-step formula in one way or another. The stories tend to begin with someone being the first to the challenge, first to the plate, the first up. Then the stories show the person in the zone, working hard at whatever it is they're doing, and then comes the doubt and suffering. It's at this point in Nike ads that we are unsure if the main character is going to make it through, but then Nike marketing strategy kicks back in with rededication. The character rededicates herself to the goal and attains victory. The five step formula in Nike’s advertising is how they show the various stages that the hero must go through in order to fulfill his quest. For most people including those heroes, whom they have to battle with are their internal foes. This is exactly how Nike has chosen to use emotional branding to inspire loyalty in its customers. Nike’s emotional branding strategy is successful because Nike catches the emotions that each viewer is eager to become the hero of his own life story and take advantages of it to promote its brand.

Sponsoring college teams

Sponsoring college teams is another important communication strategy of Nike. “Sponsoring college teams is as much a marketing play as a merchandizing one,” said Matt Powell, a sports-industry analyst with The NPD Group. “Brands want to get their logos seen in social media.” Exactly, sponsoring college sport games especially football and basketball enables Nike to catch more eyeballs and increase brand awareness, which are clearly the merchandising opportunities for Nike. Also, partnering with winning team gives the brand authenticity. It’s a kind of free but convincing promotion for Nike to enhance its brand credibility.