NIKE Individual Work
NIKE
Alexandra B.
"“Brands are used to create meaning, identity and certain styles. This is used in
different context, by literature, movies, and by us as individuals, not the least
different sub-cultures.”
The brand Nike began its history in 1964 in Oregon with the shoes retailing
company Blue Ribbon Sports created by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight
(Nike Official Website). In 1965, Jeff Johnson enters the company. He will
come up in 1971 with a name for a brand: Nike, the goddess of victory in
ancient Greece. During the same year, Bowerman and Knight decided to
create their own brand of athletic shoes. The step through production
decided, the name of the brand founded, just a logo was needed; the
“Swoosh” was born few time later thanks to Carolyn Davidson. In 1972,
the first line of Nike Shoes was launched and signed the beginning of the
Nike Story. Then, Bowerman and Knight wanted an athlete to represent the
brand, so they choose Steve Prefontaine. And they did right, from 1969 to
1973 he did not lose any race and finished 4 th in a running race in Munich
in 1972, expositing him, and the Swoosh on magazines such as Sport.
Steve Prefontaine died in 1975, he was 24, as many of early upcoming
dead person, he became a myth, and remained in the minds as the
essence of “Nike Spirit”. With the 80’s Nike became a global brand:
becoming a publicly traded company, by bringing the brand at the edge of
the public sportswear innovations. The 80’s are a milestone in the Nike
brand building, especially the second half of the decade through major
advertising campaigns (Revolution), and thanks to the tagline “Just Do It”.
In 1989, the company came back to its position of leader of the industry
(after the slump o the beginning of the 80’s). The Niketown concept was
born in 1990; this flagship store was then developed internationally. The
1990’s represent also the decade of sponsorship: football teams, Tiger
Woods, Lance Armstrong, one can see that it was a decade of aggressive
marketing: visible, international, innovative, using media, … This effort in
marketing did not slow down, it even grown, as the technologies of Nike.
Nike was among the first to realize a global and integrated marketing
campaign (the Secret Tournament for example).
But what is this Nike Spirit? First of all, it concerns innovation, always
doing better with what we have. One can notice from the main statement
of Nike: “If you have a body, you are an athlete”. Through this statement,
this description of the soul of Nike, everyone can be appealed, everyone
can be concerned, no matter the gender, the age or the relation with the
sport. Nike, through its marketing became more a lifestyle brand than just
a sportswear brand solely.
But what is Nike today? What does Nike represent? Nike being aimed to
everyone, does it represent a special meaning, an identity, a style and a
special subculture? How Nike is communicated through movies, books,
TV, people and subcultures? And how Nike wants to communicate through
these communication channels?
As explained previously, Nike has an aggressive and edgy marketing
strategy. Putting aside the usual channels of marketing such as
NIKE
Alexandra B.
advertisement in magazines, TV spots for instance, we will study here how
Nike is interacting with the society in terms of “cultural” placement: in
movies, books and in people’s minds.
Movies, books, sub cultures are the reflection of our everyday life, our
expectations and dreams. Using those channels to represent the brand is a
way of defining a brand through its style and identity. Today, we talk about
a “branded entertainment”(JM Lehu, 2007, p.2), in which the branded
marketing is present through product placement. JM Lehu distinguishes 4
types of product placement (classic, institutional, evocative, stealth). Nike
does product placement. The main example is from 1985, for the Back to
the Future trilogy produced by S. Spielberg, who by the way, was a pioneer
in the sense of he thinks the brand placement is a way to make his movies
more realistic (N. Morris, 2007). In his trilogy, we can see the shoes worn
by Mac Fly are Nike, with the brand really visible (1 and 2). But, why this
product placement is so important for a brand, especially Nike? Firstly,
because it makes the brand more visible on others channels, on new
screens, the cinema for instance has viewers who pay more attention of
what they see, the awareness is more important (J.M Lehu, 2005).
Secondly, the cost is relatively small if we compare with TV spots for
instance because of the return on investment (ROI) is way more important.
Why? Because the targeting is sharper: depending on the actors, on the
scenario and on the type of movie. The more the target audience is
interested in the movie, the more it is sensitive (Karrh, 1998) because first
because the brand has access to the implicit memory of the audience,
when a product placement (repeated) can be memorized by the audience
without being conscious of it (Auty et Lewis, 2004; Fontaine, 2001;
Pridham et Craig-Lees, 2004). Finally, placing products in movies
generates an important potential exposition for the audience through DVD,
downloads (legal/illegal), TV diffusion, Pay-Tv, … and give the occasion to
the audience to watch the movie more than once and so to be more aware
about the brand, making the product placement effective.
As developed previously, Nike strongly developed its marketing in the mid
80’s and became interested in branded entertainment in 1985 for the
movie Back to the future from Steven Spielberg. The participation of Nike
in this movie was lead through the creation of special sneakers for the
main character: Mc Fly in the 2 first movies of the trilogy. The first one
begins with a long plan of Mc Fly’s Nike, red and white, the second one,
starring the new concept Nike with auto-lacing. At this time, in 1985,this
product was targeting young people (10-18 y.o), especially men,
adventurous, rebellious, seductive and fun. In fact, looking back at the
strategy of Nike, we can see that this product placement in Back to the
Future is a milestone in Nike marketing. Until this time, Nike was meant to
attract sports people, athletes. Making Martin Mc Fly, a young boy in high
school wearing those shoes is a new direction in terms of targeting and in
Nike image building: the shoes is represented by everyone, not only by the
myth of Steve Prefontaine. In the Back To the Future trilogy the product is
NIKE
Alexandra B.
introduced on different ways: in the first, Nike presents a shoe that already
exists (Cf. Picture 1). In the second movie, Nike presents a conceptual pair
of shoes. There comes the buzz, Back to the future I succeeded in
gathering a community of fans, male teenagers, interested in sciencefiction and having the ideal of becoming a kind of Mc Fly. With this pair of
shoes, Nike came back on the front of the scene, with its new identity:
young, modern, innovative (Nike Value) and fun. Something interesting, is
that Nike, through the Second Back in the Future Movie, did not only
heavily communicated about the brand, but also created a product (see
picture 3), created the desire of the Back to the future community to get
those shoes. Then came the other movies, such as Hitch (story of a
“loving” consultant played by Will Smith), as Mean Girls (talking about the
“need” of beauty in High School, main character: Lyndsay Lohan), as
Charlie’s Angel (perhaps the James Bond girl in one way, starring Cameron
Diaz). Through all of those movies, an image of Nike was developed, all
the time in accordance to Nike values, all the time to a broad audience
women, men, adventurous, seductive, strong, fun and modern. After the
new direction taken by Nike through Back in the Future, product placement
continued on this way, product placement in movies became a marketing
channel as another for Nike. What was needed was innovation in this field,
to change the habit taken by Nike, and to attract again Nike consumers
and potential consumers in the 2000’s. Innovating in product placement
came with the targeting of subcultures, such as Hip-Hop for instance. What
is interesting in this subculture is the fact that this subculture is
considered as non-brand focused (P. Henry, 2006). In this subculture,
individuals gather as a community through similar consumption in terms
of music, fashion and entertainment. If they have to choose a brand, it has
to be authentic. There, Nike has some work to achieve. Then, entering TV
series is a way to enter a community (target even more selected), as
Entourage or How To Make It in America. Here can be asked the question
who chooses the other? Does the show choose the brand or the brand
chooses the show?
In Entourage we can clearly see the Turtle Nike (Turtle is passionate with
sneakers, especially Nike and the brand created a pair of shoes for him, it
was the same buzz than the Back to the future II sneakers, see pictures 4
and 5). Nike has driven authenticity in identity for subcultures, especially
in Hip Hop, and this through TV shows, and music. In How to Make it in
America, we can clearly see and understand that Nike is part of the
scenario, is part of the identity of the character. Ben is part of the culture
hip hop from New York, a little bit artsy, interested in Fashion, Art,
Photography, … Nike Sneakers (Dunk), were the symbol of the culture of
Hip Hop thanks first to Basketball, now, the whole culture took those shoes
as a symbol of casualty, modernity, coolness and trend. There is a Hip Hop
song in France “Kick avec mes Nike”, from the Hip Hop singer Busta Flex.
Nike strategy in term of placement in media evolved with Nike position
and Nike targeting. Nike built several positions especially between sports,
urban culture and Hip Hop. By almost not investing money on movies to
NIKE
Alexandra B.
place the brand Nike succeeded in the second half of the 80’s and in the
90’s to build a lifestyle around its brand and to be more than a brand of
sportswear, making today Nike chosen in some movies and TV series
because the brand represents the characters and match with the identity
of the movie.
NIKE
Alexandra B.
References.
- Brand placement: A review, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising
20, Karrh, CtCPress, pp. 31-49.
- Branded entertainment: product placement & brand strategy in the
Entertainment Business, Jean-Marc Lehu, Kogan Page Limited, 2007, pp 2, .
- Consumption, culture and consumer life-choices in Australia Qualitative Market
Research Vol 9, Number 2, Paul Henry, Emerald Insight, p142.
- LE PLACEMENT DE MARQUES AU CINÉMA: Proposition de la localisation du
placement à l’écran comme nouveau facteur d’efficacité potentielle , Jean Marc
Lehu, Décisions Stratégiques N° 37, Janvier Février 2005.
- La Publicité est dans le film , Jean-Marc Lehu, Editions d’Organisation, 2006, pp.
20-25.
- The cinema of Steven Spielberg: Empire of light , Nigel Morris, Wallflower Press,
2007, p203.
- www.nikebiz.com
Portfolio.
1. Back to the Future I.
NIKE
Alexandra B.
2. Back To the Future II. Nike shoes in 2015.
3.
Back To the Future II Versus. 2009 Back to the Future real
Nike.
4.
Turtle, character of Entourage TV series, passionate about
Nike sneakers.
NIKE
5.
Alexandra B.
Turtle Sneakers, real edition.
6.
On the left, Ben, main character of How to Make it in
America with Nike Sneakers.
NIKE
Alexandra B.
7.
On the right, Ben from How to Make it In America with his
Nike Sneakers, in the middle, Jordan Shoes (Nike).
APPENDIX
http://www.sneakerhunt.com/nike-air-mcfly-to-be-released
Passion for Back to the Future II shoes.
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20070607/ENTERTAIN/70607035/-1/ENTERTAIN24
Turtle Shoes, Limited Edition
Alexandra B.
"“Brands are used to create meaning, identity and certain styles. This is used in
different context, by literature, movies, and by us as individuals, not the least
different sub-cultures.”
The brand Nike began its history in 1964 in Oregon with the shoes retailing
company Blue Ribbon Sports created by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight
(Nike Official Website). In 1965, Jeff Johnson enters the company. He will
come up in 1971 with a name for a brand: Nike, the goddess of victory in
ancient Greece. During the same year, Bowerman and Knight decided to
create their own brand of athletic shoes. The step through production
decided, the name of the brand founded, just a logo was needed; the
“Swoosh” was born few time later thanks to Carolyn Davidson. In 1972,
the first line of Nike Shoes was launched and signed the beginning of the
Nike Story. Then, Bowerman and Knight wanted an athlete to represent the
brand, so they choose Steve Prefontaine. And they did right, from 1969 to
1973 he did not lose any race and finished 4 th in a running race in Munich
in 1972, expositing him, and the Swoosh on magazines such as Sport.
Steve Prefontaine died in 1975, he was 24, as many of early upcoming
dead person, he became a myth, and remained in the minds as the
essence of “Nike Spirit”. With the 80’s Nike became a global brand:
becoming a publicly traded company, by bringing the brand at the edge of
the public sportswear innovations. The 80’s are a milestone in the Nike
brand building, especially the second half of the decade through major
advertising campaigns (Revolution), and thanks to the tagline “Just Do It”.
In 1989, the company came back to its position of leader of the industry
(after the slump o the beginning of the 80’s). The Niketown concept was
born in 1990; this flagship store was then developed internationally. The
1990’s represent also the decade of sponsorship: football teams, Tiger
Woods, Lance Armstrong, one can see that it was a decade of aggressive
marketing: visible, international, innovative, using media, … This effort in
marketing did not slow down, it even grown, as the technologies of Nike.
Nike was among the first to realize a global and integrated marketing
campaign (the Secret Tournament for example).
But what is this Nike Spirit? First of all, it concerns innovation, always
doing better with what we have. One can notice from the main statement
of Nike: “If you have a body, you are an athlete”. Through this statement,
this description of the soul of Nike, everyone can be appealed, everyone
can be concerned, no matter the gender, the age or the relation with the
sport. Nike, through its marketing became more a lifestyle brand than just
a sportswear brand solely.
But what is Nike today? What does Nike represent? Nike being aimed to
everyone, does it represent a special meaning, an identity, a style and a
special subculture? How Nike is communicated through movies, books,
TV, people and subcultures? And how Nike wants to communicate through
these communication channels?
As explained previously, Nike has an aggressive and edgy marketing
strategy. Putting aside the usual channels of marketing such as
NIKE
Alexandra B.
advertisement in magazines, TV spots for instance, we will study here how
Nike is interacting with the society in terms of “cultural” placement: in
movies, books and in people’s minds.
Movies, books, sub cultures are the reflection of our everyday life, our
expectations and dreams. Using those channels to represent the brand is a
way of defining a brand through its style and identity. Today, we talk about
a “branded entertainment”(JM Lehu, 2007, p.2), in which the branded
marketing is present through product placement. JM Lehu distinguishes 4
types of product placement (classic, institutional, evocative, stealth). Nike
does product placement. The main example is from 1985, for the Back to
the Future trilogy produced by S. Spielberg, who by the way, was a pioneer
in the sense of he thinks the brand placement is a way to make his movies
more realistic (N. Morris, 2007). In his trilogy, we can see the shoes worn
by Mac Fly are Nike, with the brand really visible (1 and 2). But, why this
product placement is so important for a brand, especially Nike? Firstly,
because it makes the brand more visible on others channels, on new
screens, the cinema for instance has viewers who pay more attention of
what they see, the awareness is more important (J.M Lehu, 2005).
Secondly, the cost is relatively small if we compare with TV spots for
instance because of the return on investment (ROI) is way more important.
Why? Because the targeting is sharper: depending on the actors, on the
scenario and on the type of movie. The more the target audience is
interested in the movie, the more it is sensitive (Karrh, 1998) because first
because the brand has access to the implicit memory of the audience,
when a product placement (repeated) can be memorized by the audience
without being conscious of it (Auty et Lewis, 2004; Fontaine, 2001;
Pridham et Craig-Lees, 2004). Finally, placing products in movies
generates an important potential exposition for the audience through DVD,
downloads (legal/illegal), TV diffusion, Pay-Tv, … and give the occasion to
the audience to watch the movie more than once and so to be more aware
about the brand, making the product placement effective.
As developed previously, Nike strongly developed its marketing in the mid
80’s and became interested in branded entertainment in 1985 for the
movie Back to the future from Steven Spielberg. The participation of Nike
in this movie was lead through the creation of special sneakers for the
main character: Mc Fly in the 2 first movies of the trilogy. The first one
begins with a long plan of Mc Fly’s Nike, red and white, the second one,
starring the new concept Nike with auto-lacing. At this time, in 1985,this
product was targeting young people (10-18 y.o), especially men,
adventurous, rebellious, seductive and fun. In fact, looking back at the
strategy of Nike, we can see that this product placement in Back to the
Future is a milestone in Nike marketing. Until this time, Nike was meant to
attract sports people, athletes. Making Martin Mc Fly, a young boy in high
school wearing those shoes is a new direction in terms of targeting and in
Nike image building: the shoes is represented by everyone, not only by the
myth of Steve Prefontaine. In the Back To the Future trilogy the product is
NIKE
Alexandra B.
introduced on different ways: in the first, Nike presents a shoe that already
exists (Cf. Picture 1). In the second movie, Nike presents a conceptual pair
of shoes. There comes the buzz, Back to the future I succeeded in
gathering a community of fans, male teenagers, interested in sciencefiction and having the ideal of becoming a kind of Mc Fly. With this pair of
shoes, Nike came back on the front of the scene, with its new identity:
young, modern, innovative (Nike Value) and fun. Something interesting, is
that Nike, through the Second Back in the Future Movie, did not only
heavily communicated about the brand, but also created a product (see
picture 3), created the desire of the Back to the future community to get
those shoes. Then came the other movies, such as Hitch (story of a
“loving” consultant played by Will Smith), as Mean Girls (talking about the
“need” of beauty in High School, main character: Lyndsay Lohan), as
Charlie’s Angel (perhaps the James Bond girl in one way, starring Cameron
Diaz). Through all of those movies, an image of Nike was developed, all
the time in accordance to Nike values, all the time to a broad audience
women, men, adventurous, seductive, strong, fun and modern. After the
new direction taken by Nike through Back in the Future, product placement
continued on this way, product placement in movies became a marketing
channel as another for Nike. What was needed was innovation in this field,
to change the habit taken by Nike, and to attract again Nike consumers
and potential consumers in the 2000’s. Innovating in product placement
came with the targeting of subcultures, such as Hip-Hop for instance. What
is interesting in this subculture is the fact that this subculture is
considered as non-brand focused (P. Henry, 2006). In this subculture,
individuals gather as a community through similar consumption in terms
of music, fashion and entertainment. If they have to choose a brand, it has
to be authentic. There, Nike has some work to achieve. Then, entering TV
series is a way to enter a community (target even more selected), as
Entourage or How To Make It in America. Here can be asked the question
who chooses the other? Does the show choose the brand or the brand
chooses the show?
In Entourage we can clearly see the Turtle Nike (Turtle is passionate with
sneakers, especially Nike and the brand created a pair of shoes for him, it
was the same buzz than the Back to the future II sneakers, see pictures 4
and 5). Nike has driven authenticity in identity for subcultures, especially
in Hip Hop, and this through TV shows, and music. In How to Make it in
America, we can clearly see and understand that Nike is part of the
scenario, is part of the identity of the character. Ben is part of the culture
hip hop from New York, a little bit artsy, interested in Fashion, Art,
Photography, … Nike Sneakers (Dunk), were the symbol of the culture of
Hip Hop thanks first to Basketball, now, the whole culture took those shoes
as a symbol of casualty, modernity, coolness and trend. There is a Hip Hop
song in France “Kick avec mes Nike”, from the Hip Hop singer Busta Flex.
Nike strategy in term of placement in media evolved with Nike position
and Nike targeting. Nike built several positions especially between sports,
urban culture and Hip Hop. By almost not investing money on movies to
NIKE
Alexandra B.
place the brand Nike succeeded in the second half of the 80’s and in the
90’s to build a lifestyle around its brand and to be more than a brand of
sportswear, making today Nike chosen in some movies and TV series
because the brand represents the characters and match with the identity
of the movie.
NIKE
Alexandra B.
References.
- Brand placement: A review, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising
20, Karrh, CtCPress, pp. 31-49.
- Branded entertainment: product placement & brand strategy in the
Entertainment Business, Jean-Marc Lehu, Kogan Page Limited, 2007, pp 2, .
- Consumption, culture and consumer life-choices in Australia Qualitative Market
Research Vol 9, Number 2, Paul Henry, Emerald Insight, p142.
- LE PLACEMENT DE MARQUES AU CINÉMA: Proposition de la localisation du
placement à l’écran comme nouveau facteur d’efficacité potentielle , Jean Marc
Lehu, Décisions Stratégiques N° 37, Janvier Février 2005.
- La Publicité est dans le film , Jean-Marc Lehu, Editions d’Organisation, 2006, pp.
20-25.
- The cinema of Steven Spielberg: Empire of light , Nigel Morris, Wallflower Press,
2007, p203.
- www.nikebiz.com
Portfolio.
1. Back to the Future I.
NIKE
Alexandra B.
2. Back To the Future II. Nike shoes in 2015.
3.
Back To the Future II Versus. 2009 Back to the Future real
Nike.
4.
Turtle, character of Entourage TV series, passionate about
Nike sneakers.
NIKE
5.
Alexandra B.
Turtle Sneakers, real edition.
6.
On the left, Ben, main character of How to Make it in
America with Nike Sneakers.
NIKE
Alexandra B.
7.
On the right, Ben from How to Make it In America with his
Nike Sneakers, in the middle, Jordan Shoes (Nike).
APPENDIX
http://www.sneakerhunt.com/nike-air-mcfly-to-be-released
Passion for Back to the Future II shoes.
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20070607/ENTERTAIN/70607035/-1/ENTERTAIN24
Turtle Shoes, Limited Edition