Nike’s Controversial marketing campaigns is a good business decision
In today’s market, the Nike brand plays a major role in sports and athletic apparel and equipment industry. Nike has established their brand and logo through extensive marketing investment. To capture greater market share, Nike provides a wide variety of products to a large number of sports. Nike’s target audience has majorly been the youthful especially the males who are key purchasers of the brand’s sportswear. The sports brand focuses on selling the emotional benefits of their products and embracing new technologies. The company utilizes emotional branding while maximizing marketing money with sports endorsements.
The company has been growing tremendously and has achieved the highest market share in the global market through its aggressive marketing strategies and tactics. Nike has been introducing new innovative products for their consumer base, resulting in consistent growth of the company’s turnover and therefore generating a lot of revenue. The sports company spent $3.031 billion dollars on marketing last year. Nike’s marketing plan focuses majorly on sponsorships, email and internet marketing, and utilized multimedia marketing campaigns.
Nike’s history of supporting social causes through their marketing strategies dates back to February 1988. The first time the world heard of the ‘Just Do It’ campaign was in a television commercial featuring an eighty year old running icon. Nike was struggling with a mid-decade decline during 1980s, during which the brand lost its position as America’s top-selling shoe brand. The Just Do It campaign came to Nike at a pivotal time. Needless to say, the campaign was a step taken by Nike in the right direction.
Despite Nike’s controversial ad campaigns being politically charged, they financially benefit Nike and their social and economic status in the global market.
The original Just Do It campaign was not polarizing, it was inclusive, unifying and celebratory in tone. The original campaign was designed around the idea of celebrating the joy of participating in sports. Everyone related to it- no one was excluded. Nike continued endorsing social issues through its campaigns and also addressing the apprehensions of the consumer base that didn’t support the campaign.
Nike has a long history of courting controversies thorough their marketing ad campaigns. The sports brand has clearly never been afraid to take a few chances or to weigh in on topics while being completely aware of the fact that it would surely upset certain constituents.
The year 2017 was a big one for the designers at sporting brand Nike. The brand became the first sportswear brand to change the face of sporting for Muslim women by unveiling its new product, the Pro Hijab — the product allowed Muslim women to participate in their favorite sport while minimizing the practical challenges of wearing a religious item of clothing. For the Pro Hijab campaign, Nike collaborated with female Muslim athletes including Egyptian marathon runner Manal A. Rostom, and weightlifting athlete Amna Al Haddad, both residents of UAE. Both the athletes ensured the Pro Hijab’s performance credentials and added credibility to the new products by being the face of the brands Just Do It promotional campaign.
The 2017 marketing campaign involving the new Pro-Hijab product did make it to the news headlines post a few controversies. The launch of the head gear product received scrutiny for a couple of reasons. Some accused Nike for normalizing and supporting female oppression with the launch of Pro-Hijab. The brand was also criticized for sidling up to social justice to essentially rebrand itself on the cheap.
Nike has never shied away from taking risks, be it fashion or endorsement risks. Last year the brand was under fire for featuring the then-unsigned NFL quarterback as the fresh face of their campaign to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Nike’s motto “Just Do It”. Nike launched an image of Colin Kaepernick along with the words “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” Nike’s 2018 marketing campaign addressed racial discrimination, a topic of national concern. The story gained immense media coverage, both positive and negative. The ad campaign drew ire and criticism from those against the NFL protests that the quarterback had been a leader of. The people who were against the campaign were some of the countrymen and their families who had suffered real consequences in the face of racism. Within a few days the controversial ad campaign had converted into over $43 million in media exposure and despite the conflict surrounding Colin Kaepernick in the last year or so, the sales of his jerseys and apparel remained strong. There had been, however, some negative effects. Post the campaign Nike’s stock prices dropped by nearly 4%. Hashtags like #NikeBoycott had more than 710 million impressions on social media channels. Few people showed their disdain for the new Nike ad by desecrating their Nike apparel and posting it on their social media profiles.
Some marketing pundits suggested that the brand could have picked a frontman who appealed to conservatives or both sides of the aisle, resulting in not polarizing their consumer base.
Nike has been supporting causes that encourage diversity, women empowerment and equality for more than two decades now. Even though these controversial ad campaigns impacted the profits initially, but over the long term the company did bounce back even stronger than before.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Nike’s long history of courting controversy through advertising | CBC News. (2018, September 05). Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/nike-ads-social-justice-kaepernick-1.4810102
Dawling, E. (2018, January 10). Culture – The sports hijab dividing opinions. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180110-the-sports-hijab-dividing-opinions
Fortin, J., & Haag, M. (2018, September 04). After Colin Kaepernick’s Nike Deal, Some Salute Swoosh, Others Boycott It. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/04/sports/nike-protests-kaepernick-nfl-.html
Tyler, J. (2018, September 07). Nike’s Colin Kaepernick ad isn’t the first time the brand’s commercials have made a social statement. See some of the most memorable campaigns in its history. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/nike-ads-make-social-statements-2018-9