Game Changer The Untold Story of Nike Air Jordan And Its Successful Marketing

By Davis Truman

Discover the untold secrets behind one of history's most successful marketing campaigns - the Nike Air Jordan and Michael Jordan partnership. In this captivating book, Game Changer: The Untold Story of Nike Air Jordan And Its Successful Marketing, you'll gain invaluable insights into effective marketing and brand storytelling. Reading this book will give you the competitive edge to create successful marketing campaigns. 

The benefits of reading this book include the following: 

• Harness the power of effective brand storytelling to boost your marketing efforts 
• Understand the inspiring journey of Nike Air Jordan and the challenges and triumphs it faced 
• Master the strategies behind one of the most successful marketing campaigns in history 
• Gain a deeper understanding of the impact of sports and popular culture 

Inside the book, you'll find: 

• A detailed exploration of the rise of the Air Jordan brand 
• In-depth analysis of the transformative partnership between Nike and Michael Jordan 
• Insightful case studies and stories 
• Valuable lessons and marketing tips 

Don't miss out - buy now before the price changes! Unlock the secrets behind Nike Air Jordan and its incredibly successful marketing campaign with Game Changer: The Untold Story of Nike Air Jordan And Its Successful Marketing.

• Language: English
• Publisher: vincenzo nappi
• Release date: May 26, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223782025

Book preview

Chapter One

The story of Nike

It all began when Phil Knight, a student at Oregon University's School of Economics, understood through analysis that there had been a boom in the U.S. market for sports products coming mostly from the Japanese market. For this reason, Phil, also cultivating his passion for travel, decides to go to Japan to try to convince Onitsuka executives to enter the market in America. After a long negotiation full of hostility, he gets the mandate to sell Onitsuka's items. Phil, however, was a novice and therefore talked to his athletics professor, Bill Bowerman, about embarking on this journey together and finding a new company: the Blue Ribbon Distributio (1964), whose purpose would only be to resell sportswear from the Japanese territory. Early profits were very low; with those, Phil and Bill began creating their first line of shoes privately. They were trying to be as innovative as possible, and the first idea was to use the waffle maker to design the first rubbers to be put under the shoes, which were used as a suspension to cushion the athletes' running and their weight. After several years in which the brand failed to achieve its goals, Onitsuka wanted to change distributor, and that is how, in a crisis, the idea was born to go out on his own and found the company that today is Nike.

The story goes that on the same night of that fateful crisis between Onitsuka and Blue Ribbon Distribution, in a dream, it appeared to Phil Knight, the goddess Nike to enlighten him. Another peculiarity concerns the name since Phil was not convinced the name was right. Still, Jeff Johnson, one of his most trusted collaborators, managed to condition him positively by pointing out that, in his opinion, all great companies have a character distinguishable. In this case, it would have been K. In addition to this more legendary view, there is a more plausible one handed down in which Phil, after looking at several names, decided on Nike because it was the one that convinced him the most. While as for the logo, Phil Knight put himself in the hands of Carolyn Davidson, a Stanford student and, simultaneously, a graphic designer by passion. The design of the logo took place within almost a day's work, and the cost of making the logo was only $35. Today this seems absurd, as the same logo is worth $14 billion. At the moment, the logo has become one of the most important symbols that have ever existed in the market. The attributes it expresses are different: movement, speed, and dynamism that best represent the brand in both sports and the target market (streetwear-sportswear). Added to this is another value that can be grasped from a symbolic point of view: freedom. The logo is presented with a line that is not closed, and this, in the customer's mind, stands for openness, physical and psychic, that an individual can have, but also nonconformity and a sense of freedom. Over time, the importance of such a logo has developed exponentially, to the point that from an abstract symbol, it has become the company's image. Indeed, not only is it applied to all of the brand's products and various billboard advertisements, but now the company can put only the Swoosh without the name. This symbolizes the importance and knowledge that consumers have of the logo. The swoosh alone, in fact, contains all the meanings necessary to bring the idea of the company back to the consumer's mind.

Following the logo and name, the company immediately began to be known within the sports of the American territory. Nevertheless, there was a great hunger on the part of the employees to expand and continue to break into the international sports market as they had done in the state sports market. For this reason, the most trusted employees advised Phil Knight to hire a consulting firm to promote the company. Initially, he was against it but then allowed himself to be convinced and from there on, together with the Wieden+Kennedy Advertising Agency, an era of adrenaline-pumping, controversial, sympathetic, interesting, and sometimes overwhelming that helped Nike to always have eyes on it in good and bad, and that made it the best company in customer communications because it was not only able to communicate values such as likeability, fun, sociability, and transgression in a simple way, but at the same time in the process of buying a particular product, it was able to create emotions because of the stories it embroidered around it. From that moment on, sales and domestic market share began to soar very quickly, while n Europe and Asia, there were still difficulties. In 1988, the brand launched a shoe that could be used for any sport (tennis, soccer, basketball, baseball...). The commercial that was created around this launch wrote the pages of Nike's history forever since this emerged in the end phrase that would only later become the brand's slogan, namely Just do it. (Just do it). This phrase caused such a stir that many people, including non-Nike fans and non-athletes, sent messages to Nike, complimenting how much positive energy it had sparked in them.

The origin of this phrase was explained by creator Dan Wieden of the Wieden+Kennedy advertising