Nike is an American Sporting brand that manufactures and sells shoes, apparel, equipment, and accessories. It is a wellknown brand and is influential enough to be ranked for number one in the “Most Valuable Apparel Brand 50 of 2019” as announced by the Brand Finance; the world’s leading independent brand valuation and strategy consultancy. The reporter will deal with the various factors that have allowed Nike to become the world’s top brand.

SWOOSH LOGO

Nike’s original company name was Blue Ribbon Sports, and it changed its name to Nike in 1971. Nike was named after a goddess of victory in Greek mythology Nike [nǐːkɛː]. Nike [ni-key] is the pronunciation of Nike [nǐːkɛː] in English. Nike founder Phil Knight asked Carolyn Davidson, a graphic designer best known for the Nike Swoosh logo, to design it. He wanted a completely different logo from Adidas, and one which gave a simple, smooth, and dynamic impression. Carolyn Davidson created the Swoosh logo inspired by the corner of a track. Surprisingly, the cost for the design of this logo was only 35 dollars.

JUST DO IT

Since 1988, Nike has become a global brand with the marketing slogan “JUST DO IT”. In fact, this phrase was inspired by Gary Gilmore, a serial killer in the U.S.A. He was sentenced to death for murdering two people without any reason and said “Let’s Do It” before he was executed. This penalty became an issue throughout the U.S.A., and his last words became famous as well. Even T-shirts with the words were made. Nike’s “JUST DO IT” slogan is a slight change from his original words. This slogan was created to emphasize the physical and mental motivation that everyone could enjoy sports whatever their age, gender, and health.

AIR JORDAN

The Michael Jordan and Air Jordan series are key elements in the development of Nike today. Promoting their products using sporting stars as models is extremely common for most sporting brands. For example, Adidas provided shoes to athletes participating in the Melbourne Olympics for free. After that, Adidas has raised its awareness and has become a top sports brand. Nike also implemented similar marketing strategies to Adidas. However, it was not enough to catch up with Adidas. At that time, Nike hired Michael Jordan as a representative model. He is a basketball player and is known as the greatest player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). According to US Polling agency Harris Poll, Jordan always ranked first in “My favorite athlete” question from 1993 to 2005. It was very fortunate for Nike to hire such a famous role model. In addition to using Jordan as a model, Nike has expanded its own brand to include Air Jordan. Since smartphones and the Internet were not developed at that time, people used to buy clothes that their favorite actors or athletes wore. Following this situation, Nike developed a new brand “Air Jordan”, so many teenagers believed that they could be like Jordan if they wore Air Jordan products. The new launch of Air Jordan was an important element that allowed Nike to become a top global brand.

TV ADVERTISING

Although many brands have hired celebrities as models, they did not use them for TV commercials. However, Nike used famous athletes such as Tiger Woods. The notable thing of the advertisement is that it does not emphasize the product itself, but rather does storytelling so that people can emphasize the slogan, JUST DO IT. Nike usually made advertisements that showed passionate challenges. This is the reason why people can focus on the slogan.

In recent years, in addition to advertising through celebrities, Nike has collaborated with various brands such as Supreme, Off-white, Sacai, and Comme des garcons, as well as the tech company, Apple. Collaborated products are so popular that people called them “Products that cannot be bought even if they have money.”

People’s enthusiasm for Nike can also be found in the “Nike Run1)”. This competition, held in 14 countries around the world, has become a culture, not just a marketing promotion. In Korea, the Nike Run is so popular that tens of thousands of entries are filled in just a few seconds.

1) A marathon event sponsored by Nike.

저작권자 © 건국불레틴 무단전재 및 재배포 금지