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Nike: Just Do It

The Growth, the Vision, and the Result.


Author: Thomas Nelson Class: COMA 101 Professor: Amanda Feller

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Abstract During the 36 years of existence, scholars have ventured to test the communicative efforts put forth by Nike. Based on Literary Periodicals, Scholarly Journals, and several University studies, it has been concluded that the efforts attempted by the firm as well as the role of the media has created a combined insight for the perceiver. The research concludes that semantics that has created a positive image of the company has also been its downfall in reaching out to its constituencies. This paper will also include the role of the media in Nikes image as well as its ability to tarnish its image. Applying mass communication and nonverbal communication, the paper concludes that Nike has made several successful choices such as endorsing some of the worlds best athletes such as Michael Jordan as well as their

Nike: Just Do It 3 advertising campaign of Just Do It.

"You Nike guys, you Just do it, were the famous words of Dan Weiden that sparked a publicity boom in a company that initially never believed in advertising (Center). An examination of the communicative power of the Nike advertising campaigns over the last two decades reveals that the tactics they used worked. Controlling over fifty percent of the market in countries on almost every continent, this shoe making giant has increased its ability to appeal to customers through the means of communication. Through branding, non-verbal communication in advertising and mass communication, Nike marketing campaigns have transcended the borders to become a 3

Nike: Just Do It 4 cultural icon and have risen to become one of the most prominent companies of the late twentieth century.

Branding It started out with a waffle iron. Co-founder Phil Knight used this simple household device to make the spongy shoes that he considered had the power to improve the performance of his athletes when running on the track. In 1962, Nike got its start as Blue Ribbon Sports, when shoes were being sold out of the back of Phil Knights car (Porter 2008). Considered a grassroot organization, Knight was able to sell his shoes at track meets by convincing athletes that performance would improve with equipment. In 1966 the first outlet store was established and three years later, he quit his job as a professor at Portland State University and committed his time completely to Nike shoes. That year Nike made a mere three hundred thousand dollars in profit. In 1973, Nike sponsored its first athlete and in 1980 it controlled over fifty percent of the US market share of tennis shoes. Ironically, Knight never believed in advertising and considered it a betrayal to the athlete, but in 1987 they ran their first TV ad (Porter 2008).

Early Name Recognition and Endorsements

Nike: Just Do It 5 It was not until 1986 that Nike had its first major commercial breakthrough. Michael Jordan, considered the best basketball player of his time, was endorsed by Nike. A whole new line of Nike apparel coined, Air Jordan ran amongst retail stores and right behind Jordans success, came Nike ready to reap the benefits. The shoes were taken as performance enhancers; if you used his shoes, you would be a better athlete. In 1988 the Just Do It, Campaign was started, thus the advertising and marketing age of Nike that shaped their image for the years to come (Porter 2008). Nike became a brand and thus had an image. What is unique about the image of Nike is that it became a self-fulfilling prophecy; if you want to be hip Nike is for you; if you are hip, you are probably wearing Nike. Customers were able to portray that because of the success of the athletes that used Nike, if they followed suit, then they would also be successful (Center). Their product placement played a key role in shaping the image they wanted to perceive to the public. Endorsements as well as popular TV ads displaying dominant sports teams at their finest using Nikes equipment made evident the image that Nike was trying to convey.

Brand Logo According to Levin, the ubiquity of Nikes Swoosh and the Just Do It attests to the companys success in creating one of the worlds

Nike: Just Do It 6 strongest brand identities. The famous slogan is syntactically imperative, yet connotes both an ease of execution and an easygoing relationship with the audience through the word, Just (Levin). By analyzing the words in the slogan, we see how it relates to its audiences and ultimately its customers. It seems to be so down to earth and so humanized that everyone can relate to it. Also according to Levin. you are in the loop if you can understand this shorthand. You know what IT is in the slogan (Levin 2003). Even though the slogan was just stumbled upon by an off topic comment during an advertising meeting, it brought the company closer to the customer as far as image is concerned. Bernstein theorizes that close-knit communities use a shorthand code, where indirectness and implicitness are key elements. These taglines address such a community of amateur and professional athletes (Bernstein, 1970).

Brand to Recover Image In the mid nineties Nike made their first slip and were tried before the law for human rights violations in South East Asia. After violating these laws as late as 1996, the firm faced a new daunting challenge; keeping their image up to the expectations that they wanted (Collijnsa 2004). According to Bell, once Nike was accused of labor violations, the press diverged from positive images and used the same linguistic device to create negative company images; employees, consumers,

Nike: Just Do It 7 and shareholders saw another image in Nike, and the audience had to decided which one was the real image (Bell 01-1984). According to Armstrong and Kotler, the company-created image may be at odds with the media-created image, among consumers. Brand Equity, the value of the brand, based on the extent to which it has high brand loyalty, name awareness, perceived quality, strong brand associations, and other assets such as patents, trademarks, logos, and slogans is also at stake (Armstrong 2004). Since company image and brand equity were thus modified by the company screw-ups, it is evident to say that measures were taken by the company to fix it for the cause. According to Bell, Nikes image as a spirited upstart has been tarnished by its very success, because it has been so successful in branding the company and its products; everyone knows who owns the swoosh. Therefore, Nikes Swoosh and Just Do It slogan have been linguistically degraded through the companys negative actions (Bell). Basically the same things that have shaped the positive image such as the endorsed athletes and complex television ads have also been the downfall of its own image.

The Invisible Brand Nike has gotten to a point in their existence where it is rare to actually see the words Nike or even hear the words spoken in any advertisement (Porter 2002). The Nike Swoosh has become so

Nike: Just Do It 8 prominent in our culture that it is obvious how expansive and well known the corporation is. Non-verbal communication is in almost every industry involving sports as seen by the swoosh, the famous logo attached to Nike sports apparel and equipment. The semantic association between the Greek goddess Nike and the company reinforces consumers belief that if they buy Nike products, victory will be theirs (Bell 01-1984). Nike endorses more than three thousand athletes at the present time, including 72 percent of the players in the National Basketball Association, 60 percent in Major League Baseball and half the players in the National Football League. More than 200 universities fly the flag of swoosh (Levin 2003). But notice, they are not flying the Nike motto, they are flying the swoosh. According to the Center for applied research, by focusing on the aura and image conveyed by the fitness culture, Nike was able to attract those who wanted the image without incurring the pain (Center). We can gather from this information that a lot of the nonverbal communication associated with Nike comes from their endorsements. The Just Do It campaign seemed to capture the corporate philosophy of grit, determination and passion, but also infused it with something hitherto unknown in Nike ads humor. Nike had always been known for its detached, determined, unsentimental attitude. In a word, [Nike is] cool. (Center). Over the last twenty years the advertising campaign Nike has been based around the motto, Just Do It. Many others have been 8

Nike: Just Do It 9 applied, some have even helped, but it is widely accepted that their original is by far the most famous. The well-known slogan is syntactically imperative, yet connotes both an ease of execution and an easygoing relationship with the audience through the word, Just (Levin). By analyzing the words in the slogan we see how it relates to its audiences and ultimately its consumers.

Mass Communication Efforts Nike has successfully utilized mass communication on their choice to go global back in the 1980s. It is rare to find a sports function in the United States that doesnt promote this baron of a corporation. Bursting the bubble in the mid eighties, right around the time of digital communication and the maturity of the electronic epoch, Nike has been able to appeal to audiences far and wide. Advertisements have become so prominent in media, that it is rare to even see the words Nike in the commercials or broadcasts. It is estimated that 97% of American citizens have some conception of the Nike brand. If you were to spread the consumption across the whole population of the United States, every man woman and child in the United States would sped an average of $20 a year on the company's products. (Levin 2003). With the rise of Nike against its competition, the company has 9

Nike: Just Do It 10 been a standard in advertising. While originally, being a company based around track and field, endorsing athletes in these fields was quite common in its early years (Porter 2002). The idea behind this was to show how the success of athletes could have a lot to do with their equipment. It wasnt until they hit gold that the company grew exponentially.

The Power of Endorsements In 1985 Michael Jordan was endorsed by Nike and thus created a whole new sub category of shoes and apparel, Air Jordan. It was in the next decade to come that Jordans success had a direct correlation with the success of Nike. In their TV advertisements with the basketball star, there were several instances where at the end of the ad, they concluded, It must be the shoes that makes his success. Along with Jordans rise to fame, Nike was able to tap into the spot light. Where ever Jordan succeeded, Nike was close behind offering the swoosh and the healthy saying of Just do it. The massive growth of Nike Inc, during the 1980s, indicated by the inescapable presence of its emblems, its permeation of diverse spaces, and its fiscal success, cannot be separated from its most famous and pervasive embodiment, Michael Jordan (Andrews, 2001)

Gender also plays a huge role in the advertising campaigns of 10

Nike: Just Do It 11 Nike. Especially in the last decade, the firm has made a big push to open up their market and to appeal to female athletes, sometimes actually changing the perception of athletes that are female. Nikes ideal of excellence for serious female athletes and athletics in combination with themes of emancipation within the most recent advertising efforts directed to women. Nike, through its association of knowledge, power, and truth, has and continues to publicize and authorize a particular notion of who or what counts as a female athlete (Helstein 2003). This is not the first time where they have manipulated the market in order to gain more of the market share for shoes. The Nike Website is a good example of manipulation in which the corporate speaker turns a potentially negative reaction from its audience into a positive image of the company (Levin 2003). The company also has a great insight on how many other companies use role models to sell their products and appeal to their market. Nike executives figure that if Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren, neither of whom ever did anything dramatic on a basketball court, can sell billions of dollars worth of clothing, the world's best-known athlete can do the same, or much better (Levin 2003). Conclusion In conclusion, Nike has had quite an interesting journey thus far

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Nike: Just Do It 12 and by no means in any position to drop out of the industry. They are constantly innovating not only their products but also their marketing campaigns to create more demand. According to Rovell, desire is constructed through political and cultural conditions, but it also invested with the power to authorize and normalize those conditions. Therefore, desire must be an object of analysis within critical readings of Nike (Rovell 02-2003).

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Reference Cited:

Andrews, David (2001). Michael Jordan Inc. State University of New York Press Armstrong, G., & Kotler, P. (2000). Marketing: An introduction. New Jersey: New Jersey. Bell, A. (January 1984). Language style as audience design. Language in Society, (13), 145- 204. Bernstein, B. (1970). Social class, language and socialization. In P.P. Giglioli (Ed.). Language and social context (pp. 157-78). London: Penguin. Center For Applied Research (n.d.) Nikes Just Do It Advertising Campaign. Retrieved on 10/2/08. From, www.cfar.com/Documents/nikecmp.pdf Collijnsa, E. L., Zochb, L., Mcdonalda, C. S., (2004) When worlds collide: implications of Kasky v. Nike for corporate reputation management. Public Relations Review, (30). 411-417.

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Nike: Just Do It 14 Helstein, M. T. (2003). Thats who I want to be: the politics and Production of Desire within Nike and women. Journal of Sport and Social Issues. (27). 276-292 Levin, L. A., & Beherns, S. J. (2003) From Swoosh to Swoon. Business Communication Quarterly. 66. 52-65 Porter, J., Harris, M., Yeung, G., (2002) Nike Origins. Retrieved on 10/2/08, from, www.cs.ucla.edu/~gavin/pub/IntlBusMgmtNike.pdf Rovell, Darren. "Jordan's 10 greatest commercials ever", espn.com, February 17, 2003, Retrieved on Oct 28th 2008.

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