Nike Advertising and Social Diversity

Introduction

Nike's input in its brand promotion, since the 1980s, is translated in a form of advertising which aims to attract the consumer by leveraging on a storytelling that insists in the issue of overcoming social, racial, gender differences by the mean of sports. The social effort of the company is aimed to construct a competitive advantage by re-writing the American dream in such a way that it could readdress the "new americans": immigrants, people belonging to sub-cultural groups, people with social or phisycal handicap. The appearance of this advertising approach begun in the late 1980s, when Nike was striving to find a way to propose its brand image to consumers prevailing on its competitors. The company aired the largely famous "Just Do It" campaign, which ended up to become the company's trademark. The creative's idea was the one of presenting sport as a general equaliser: the advertising had to reflect the idea that the world of sports is a plain field where discrepancies are called off. Scholars defined the aim of the campaign to be the act of showing that transcendence of societal discrimination is not only possible, it is literally "out there to be called for". As mentioned up above, the Just Do It campaign was launched in order to redefine the company's approach on the market against its main competitors in sportswear sales. At the beginning, the main target of the campaign were female - teen consumers to whom sneakers were proposed as a fashion statement. Later on, "Just Do It" became a myth which interested all Americans regardless of their origins. The creative department started to address issues which were not strictly related to the world of sport: Nike deploys the social issue imaginery for a business scope, in order to construct a different interaction with consumers. It is a demonstration of how ideologies can be used to build a brand imaginery.

Looking attentively  at the different advertising campaigns analyzed below, it is possible to understand how the choice to catch the attention on social issues is enployed as a marketing strategy to attract consumers. While Nike’s competitors paid more attention on the technical features of their sportive items, Nike aimed at nudging the social behaviour of its fan. The commercial strategy, indeed, can be said to have extrapolated the symbols of societal discrimination from their contexts with the scope of referring them to the Nike brand.

Subcultures: African-American; Latinos; Brazilians

Considering sport as the great equalizer in a society where diversity was negatively stigmatized, the “Just Do It” campaign offered a self empowerment ideology that went beyond the boundaries of sport. The intent was to motivate American people, through the model of athletes, to improve their life conditions, to face the difficulties and differences the society emphasized. Starting from the Afro-American ghettos, the Latin-American ones and, finally, the Brazilian favelas, Nike showed sketches of real life in which people, especially young guys, could succeed in their life despite the difficulties of a societal discrimination. The sportive shoes designed by the brand functioned as a fundamental but not the only element that led these guys to realize their desires: the combative solo will power that characterised athletes’ performance should be a must in people’s minds. With a first advertising showing a guy playing football in a Brazilian ghetto, and becoming, at the end of the spot, the famous soccer player Ronaldo Luìs Nazàrio de Lima[1], Nike started the history of the “Just Do It” campaign. The strategy aimed at showing shirtless children climbing the scale of differences and discrimination that the society can attach to them, and winning the challenge becoming famous sportive heroes. A strategy that still today emotionally catches the attention of people that, in turn, feel themselves able to overcome any problems, any social differences. In this way Nike stimulated, and we can say stimulate, the combative solo will power in all the Americans, and not only, following the evolution of the “Just Do It” campaign.

Handicap condition

In 2012 Nike started to expand its business to customers who suffer from physical disability after one of them made a complaint about the lack in the products’ offer.

This was a huge step to improve the image of the firm and to start a successful advertising campaign that extended the meaning of the “Just do it” slogan. Nike wants to show that its offer is extended to any kind of athlete, no matter what. In this ad[2] we can see Matt Scott[3], a wheelchair basketball player in a series of close-up shots. From the point of view of an average customer who, we suppose, is not an expert of the disability-sport field, the first impression is that we are seeing an able-bodied athlete playing basketball. The camera starts to slowly avert, to expand the sight of the viewer, while Scott is listing out loud a lot of excuses that everyone has said at least once in his life to avoid the fatigue of working out. The rhythm in which he talks is fast, and for the viewer it becomes more and more difficult to distinguish the sentences. At the end of the spot there is the final revelation, that gives to all the advertisement a specific sense: the camera shows a full-body image of the athlete, and silence falls over the scene. In this moment the viewer understands how little the excuses pronounced are in comparison to the situation of the athlete, and the claim “No Excuses” compares on the screen in capital letter, meaning that there is no reason that can stop anyone to do everything, if he really wants to do it.

Gender: Women discrimination

For the last 40 years Nike have been empowering women to achieve their dreams, realising the most successful marketing campaigns ever. Everything started in 1972 when the United States Congress passed the Title IX in the Education Amendments that enforced gender equity in high school and college sports once and for all. Since then, Nike started making trainers specifically for female athletes, considering women as a hugely important part of its customer base. In 1995, when Nike realized one of the most important campaign ever named “If you let me play”, with the aim of encouraging girls into sport and promoting the benefits of competitive sport for women. Nike released a 30-second TV spot[4] that introduced a new approach to inspire female athletes, emphasizing how sports benefit the lives of girls. The campaign was chosen as one of the best ads of 1995. Twenty years later, “If You Let Me Play” still maintains cultural relevance and remains one of the top references in examination of women’s sports media. In 2015 Nike designed the #betterforit campaign to inspire women to be active, take on new challenges and conquer personal goals. At the heart of the campaign are the #betterforit hashtag and a series of short films in which women reveal their inner thoughts and how they push themselves further. The #betterforit movement includes insights from top female athletes, encouraging them to share their personal #betterforit mission.

Sexual orientation

In 2012, Nike employees gave an effort to connect with the LGBT community: during the Pride months they created a few styles to add to their products, to celebrate and supporting the LGBTQ pride. The aim of this social activity is about to offer a equal access to sport, this event was the beginning of the BETRUE collection, and it arouse the interest of the Nike followers. In the same year, they created an annual Summit to have better communication along the LGBT sports activities, and soon it became the annual meeting of LGBT sport Coalition. This collaboration is making the communication more efficient and getting insight of the LGBT athletes.

On February 2017, Nike celebrated the  BETRUE  collection with the LGBT community. Nike believes that Equality is the common pattern that all the athletes should have, the passion that they share and the true spirit of the sport. As the words of the LGBT network leader of Nike, Robert Goman, say “The key for us was to create something that people could unite around to show their support for LGBTQ athletes. Sporting your rainbow in the gym or on a run became a way to feel like you belonged to something larger – you were connected to being ‘out’ or being an ally. The rainbow has and always will be incorporated into the BETRUE product in some way.”

Furthermore, the brand launched a video commercial[5] starring Leiomy Maldonado[6], a transgender athlete, to sensibilize the audience on the topic, and to stress out the point that every kind of men and women can “fly”, despite of their native condition.

Religious orientation

In 2016 Nike decided to implement its strategy and to expand into Middle Eastern markets through the launch of its “Nike Pro Hijab”, a head covering made of lightweight, stretchy, opaque polyester designed for Muslim female athletes. The product has been tested and adjusted several times taking into consideration all feedbacks received from different athletes.

The first advertisement appeared in April 2016, showing the Olympic weight lifter Amna Al Haddad[7] wearing a hijab without a logo; this has been added later. The brand announced that it would release the Pro Hijab in spring 2018 and it is expected to cost $35. Nike declared that this innovative creation came up from “Nike’s founding mission, to serve athletes, with the signature addendum: If you have a body, you’re an athlete”; the main aim is to make sport experience more comfortable for this segment. Within the overall Nike’s strategy, this specific one gave the chance to explore and exploit an emerging and growing new market.

References

• Anonymous, “Nike has empowered women for 40 years: here the most inspirational campaigns” on http://emgn.com/entertainment[8]

• Andrews D. L., with the Department of H.M.S.E. at The University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152. Deconstructing Michael Jordan: Reconstructing Postindustrial America. Volume: 13  Issue: 4  Pages: 315-318.

• Carlson S., “Nike LGBT Sports Summit tackles bullying and bias”, published on 20th June 2012.[9]

• Chi-Yue Chiu, Shirley Y. Y. Cheng. "Toward a Social Psychology of Culture and Globalization: Some Social Cognitive Consequences of Activating Two Cultures Simultaneously". 11 October 2007

• Cohan J.A., "Towards a New Paradigm in the Ethics of Women's Advertising, Journal of Business Ethics", October 2001.

• Einstein M., "Advertising: What Everyone Needs to Know". New York: Oxford University Press, 2017, Chapter 4 “Creative.”

• Heasley S., "Nike improves shoe accessibility", in “DisabiliyScoop”, online blog, March 22, 2017.[10]

• Holt, Douglas, and Cameron, Douglas, Cultural Strategy: Using Innovative Ideologies to Build Breakthrough Brands. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010, “2. Nike: Reinventing the American Dream.”

• Ladau E., "Nike Commercial Makes Eliminating Stigma of Disability Simple – Just Do It!", in “WordsIWheelBy”, online blog, September 8, 2013.[11]

• McGlone C.; Martin N., University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA. "Nike's corporate interest lives strong: a case of cause-related marketing and leveraging". 2006 Vol.15 No.3 pp.184-188 ref.23

• Tinti M.V., "Nike, Diesel e l’Advertising Culture per fare la differenza", published on 23rd February 2017.[12]

• Wren C., “The brand brief behind Nike Just Do It Campaign”, published in, 6th August 2015.[13]

See Also

NIKE website[14]

NIKE (Wikipedia) [15]

Social Issues (Wikipedia) [16]

Discrimination (Wikipedia)[17]