Brand Story OF NIKE - Mandatory PDF

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NIKE BRAND STORY

Submitted By: Kenez Peter Abraham b2463

I. History

Nike was initially known as Blue Ribbon Sports and was found on 25th January 1964. The brand was found by Phil Knight who was a track athlete at the university of Oregon and his coach Billy Bower man. They started off as the distributors for the brand Onitsuka Tiger which is located in Japan and at the early stages they sold shoes out phils car at athletic events in the town of Eugene. Eugene is a small city in The United States. By 1971 the relationship between BRS (Blue Ribbon Sports) and Onitsuka Tiger had come to an end, BRS had decided to launch their own line of products under the name Nike and they also came up with their famous logo “The Swoosh”. The name Nike comes from the name of the Greek goddess of victory. Weden and Kennedy was Nike's primary advertising agency and the co-founder of this agency had coined the only tag line in 1988 which is associated with the brand (i.e.) “Just do it”. By 1980 Nike had attained 50% of the athletic shoe market, furthermore the company went public in December that year. Throughout the 1980’s Nike diversified and expanded with new products into manyu sports and many geographical locations, later on in 1990 Nike moved into its 8 storied headquarters in Oregon. It was in the same year that Nike had opened up its first retail store which was called the Nike-town in Downtown Portland. Phil Knight had announced his retirement in mid 2015 and he officially stepped from the CEO position and on June 30th, 2016. Mark Parker became the CEO after Phil Knight. John Danahoe is the current CEO of Nike, he succeeded Parker in January 13th 2020. The company decided to stop selling its product through Amazon from November 2019, in order to focus more on Direct selling in order to improve its customer relationship.

II. Major Events in the Life of Brand ● 1964: Nike founded as Blue Ribbon Sports. In other words Nike signed a contract with the Onitsuka Tiger to be their distributors in the USA, they distributed the Japanese shoes under the name Blue Ribbon Sports. ● 1971: The company officially becomes Nike. The Contract with Onitsuka Tiger expires and the company decides to further produce and sell their own line of products. ● 1971: Graphic design student Carolyn Davidson designs the logo “The Swoosh” for $35. ● 1972: Illie Nastase becomes the first athlete to sign an endorsement contract with Nike. Illie Nastase was a Romanian tennis player. ● 1974: The Nike waffle shoe is patented. Waffle shoes were the first running shoes ever made by Nike.

● 1980: Nike designs the shoes which can be used on graf as well as turf, these shoes were called the Nike shark. ● 1984: Nike signs the Basketball superstar Michael Jordan to endorse its products. ● 1988: Nike famous tag line or the slogan “Just Do It” is coined. This tag line was inspired from the last words of Bary Gilmore. ● 1988: The first “Just Do It” campaign is launched with the running icon Walt Stack. ● 1987: Nike's advertisement for its Airmax line of products is sound tracked by the band “The Beatles”. ● 1990: Nike opens its first retail store in Portland. This retail store is called Niketown. ● 1992: Nike published the code of conduct for its employees. ● 1993: Nike launches its first program focused on being eco-friendly or to shift the perception of the brand among its customers to that of an environment friendly image. This program is called the Nike Reuse. ● 1994: Nike signs the basketball superstar Lebron James. ● 1995: Nike signs an apparel contract with the NFL (National Football League). Initially they just made the outfits for a few teams. ● 1996: Nike named as the marketer of the year by the magazine Advertising Age (Ad Age now). ● 1996: Nike signs Tiger Woods, an American professional golfer who has won 82 official PGA tour events. ● 2002: Nike buys the surf apparel company, Hurler international. ● 2002: Nike invents a more eco-friendly rubber to be used in their shoes which comparatively has around 96% fewer toxins. ● 2003: Nike acquires the brand Converse for $309 million dollars. ● 2008: Nike introduces the Air Jordan xx3, a high performance basketball shoe which is designed to be eco-friendly. ● 2012: Nike employs more than 44,000 people across the globe. ● 2014: Nike is valued at $19 billion, making it the most valued brand in the sports industry. ● 2015: Nike signs a deal with the NBA to become the official apparel supplier. ● 2016: Nike signs a unique lifetime contract with Cristiano Ronaldo. This contract is unique because this contract will continue even after Cristiano Ronaldo retires from football. ● 2016: Phil Knight, the founder steps down from the CEO position and Mark Parker becomes the CEO. Further, John Danahoe succeeds Parker as the CEO.

● 2019: Nike decides to stop selling its products through the online giants Amazon and focus more on direct selling in order to improve the customer relationship.

III. Brand Elements of Nike ● Brand name and logo Nike has a very powerful brand name and a very simple logo which contributed a lot to their success. Two very well known facts about Nike is that the name of the brand comes from that of Greek goddess of victory, furthermore, the famous logo “The Swoosh” was designed for just $35 by a graphic design student. Moreover, the name and the logo are very easy to remember and due to this fact the extent of brand awareness is great in the mind of the customers. The “Swoosh” is always related to speed and elegance, in other words it's always related to athletics. ● Brand slogans The brand is well known for its slogan as well. “Just do it” is the most famous slogan of the brand and it's the most associated slogan with the brand hence this is often called as the tag-line of the brand. The message that brand conveys with the help of this slogan is that sports is for everybody and you just have to do it. However, this is not the only slogan that Nike has used to advertise its products. There are other tag-lines like, “If you have a Body, you are an Athlete” and “If you can control the Cage, control the Pitch”. Customers relate to these slogans on an emotional level as it generally motivates them.

● Brand ambassadors Nike contracts with a lot of elite athletes for the endorsement of their products. In their advertisement, they usually show how the growth of these athletes into the successful people they are today. These associations help customers to choose Nike as the product when they decide to buy sports products. Nike picks the brand ambassadors from different sports so that they have an appeal when an individual thinks about any sport. Examples of Nike brand ambassadors: Roger Federrer, Cristiano Ronaldo and Deepika Padukone. ● Packaging

Nike uses its logo on almost all of its packages. The logo is used on all the products as well. The combination of white and orange is used on all of its packages.

IV. Brand Extensions Of Nike Nike has made lot of brand extension throughout its life cycle however few of the significant brand extensions made by Nike are as follows ● Footwear: Initially the brand sold footwear and the brand known for its footwear during the 1970’s. Nike started as the distributors of the Japanese company Onitsuka Tiger and their core product was footwear, specifically athletic shoes. However, it was in 1972 that the contract with Onitsuka Tiger terminated and the brand incorporated as Nike with its core business being manufacturing and distributing footwear. ● Apparel: In 1979, Nike entered into the sports apparel industry and they soon became the apparel partners for the NFL. As the business grew Nike became the apparel partners for a lot of other sports and it is in the apparel section that they used the celebrity endorsement effectively. ● Nike+ : Nike+ was an initiative undertaken by the brand in order to improve its customer relationship. Nike collaborated with the Apple company in order to bring out the Nike+ products. Basically these products helped a customer to measure their performance. This product line was launched in 2006. ● Women’s sports apparel and equipment: In 2014 Nike began to focus on the woman segment, thus developing a separate product which was entirely for women. They added a separate section as women under the already existing product lines....