Week 6 - MBA 6101 - Guerrilla Marketing with Nike

For this week's reading in Guerrilla Marketing, identifying and choosing the best marketing methods fit for your ad campaign was discussed. To expand on this, I will be going through the history of marketing decisions and outcomes made by the most profitable and successful sports brand - Nike. 

Founded by Philip Knight and Bill Bowerman back in 1964, Nike was initially known as Blue Ribbons Sports (BRS). BRS eventually became what we now know as Nike in 1973, named after the Greek goddess of victory. The signature "swoosh" logo was created by a student for a mere $35 (Moore, 2022). Little did they know, that logo would later become the calling sign for a multi-billion dollar sports brand. 

This logo creation was one of the first major marketing strategy for Nike as it created a visual brand for the consumer market (Levinson, 2004). As for their product, one of their first major revenue increase came when Bill wrote a book on jogging and its benefits. This book was released before the release of their first "Waffle trainer" shoe and supported its successful sales outcome. Today, this form of marketing would be known as content marketing. 

Nike's method of releasing a book was also successful because physical and printed marketing strategies were the most common marketing method. Although televised and radio commercials were used, they were not yet as accessible as they would become, especially when advertising agencies were controlled by trade unions (Douglas, 2018). 

Nike's marketing was not always continually successful though. They became too focused on the innovation of their product without a focus on marketing that their revenue took a big hit in the late 1980s. Realizing the importance of marketing research and proper marketing, Nike emphasized marketing and centered customers in their brand (Moore, 2022). These efforts resulted in their endorsement of the Michael Jordan, Air Max release and commercial featuring a Beatles song, and a campaign featuring Bo Jackson. 

When technology became more accessible, Nike partnered with tech companies like Apple, and even released their own sports tech such as a sport watch and in-shoe chip to track progress. These product innovation and marketing strategies demonstrates how Nike followed the marketing and consumer trends. Maintaining these efforts are partly why Nike remains as successful as they are today.

References

Douglas, T. (2018, July 6). Marketing through the ages: The 1970s heralded a new era for media. Marketing Week. https://www.marketingweek.com/1970s-era-change/

Levinson, J. C., Levinson, J., & Levinson, A. (2007). Guerilla Marketing: Easy and Inexpensive Strategies for Making Big Profits from Your Small Business (Updated,Expanded). Houghton Mifflin.

Moore, K. (2022, June 28). Nike’s approach to marketing: Then and now. BANKNOTES. https://hashtagpaid.com/banknotes/nikes-approach-to-marketing-then-and-now