Nike'S Marketing Strategy

"Who dares to fight for all dignity, who dares to start from the top, even if nothing will be achieved; who dares to rush, who dares to fall, great dare." On August 7, after Liu Xiang fell in the 110 meter hurdles of the London Olympic Games, less than 15 minutes later, Nike The official microblog Just Do It released this message. In the following 24 hours, this message was spontaneously forwarded nearly 130000 times by netizens, and more than 26000 comments were received.

For Nike, the signing image spokesperson Liu Xiang 's unexpected withdrawal from the competition was not conducive to its brand communication, but this clever micro blog message has the effect of turning corruption into magic in brand marketing.

In fact, this is not Nike's first time at the London Olympics Weibo marketing 。 After the ring race on August 6, Nike released a microblog that "There is no absolute fairness, but there is absolute greatness", which was forwarded 20000 times within 25 minutes. "Greatness is to let the world record catch up with you" after the men's 1500m freestyle race, and "Greatness is on both sides of the court" after the men's singles final of badminton. These "Live Your Greatness" series microblogs are very popular among netizens. People even formed the habit of paying attention to what Nike said when watching a wonderful event.

Nike's activity on Weibo has won many eyeballs, and its "ambush marketing" has achieved remarkable results. The so-called "ambush marketing" means that in major events (usually large-scale sports events, such as the Olympic Games, the World Cup, etc.), those unofficial sponsors who cannot directly use the event resources connect their brands with the event through various unexpected marketing means, so as to achieve the purpose of brand communication. As they did not pay the sponsorship fee and were usually competitors of official sponsors, the event organizing committee always took measures to avoid "ambush marketing".

At the just concluded London Olympic Games, Nike's biggest competitor, Adidas, a German sporting goods supplier, became one of the largest sponsors of the London Olympic Games with an accumulated investment of 100 million pounds. This means that Nike's marketing behavior during the London Olympic Games will be monitored all the time. Once its behavior is judged by the London Olympic Organizing Committee to be "out of bounds", the amount of compensation Nike needs to pay will be sky high.

According to the regulations, Nike cannot directly use the Olympic words and the five ring logo in its advertisements, but this does not mean that Nike will give up the marketing opportunity that only happens once in four years.

On July 27, Nike began to warm up on the Internet in the globally unified advertising film "Live Your Greatness". Then, on the day of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, this TVC advertisement was officially launched on TV stations in 25 countries around the world. Nike never explained that it was an Olympic advertisement, but Nike skillfully chose the place where the word "London" was used in the place names around the world - and specially gave several close-up shots, such as "London Hotel", "London Square", etc., and developed a series of social network marketing about "living your greatness". This design has a strong hint, so that the audience will naturally connect it with the ongoing London Olympics. However, as Nike's practice does not violate the regulations, the London Olympic Organizing Committee cannot interfere.

Nike believes that the global economy is still shrouded in the haze of the "European debt crisis". At this time, it is likely that the "shopping" with Adidas for Olympic sponsorship will not pay off. And Adidas' "failure" in the Beijing Olympic Games has brought a warning to Nike - spending heavily to sponsor large-scale sports events may not be the best marketing method anymore.

Before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Adidas was extremely optimistic about the prospects of the market. It spared no effort to become a major sponsor, and made the heroic statement that it would surpass Nike: in 2008, Adidas would become the largest sports brand in China; By 2010, Adidas will become the largest sports brand in Asia. But unexpectedly, the financial crisis suddenly broke its dream. In 2008, although Adidas' annual total sales increased by 9% and its annual gross profit rate reached a record 48.7%, it still failed to shake Nike's position as the No. 1 player in China's sporting goods market.

Nike, which has "failed" to be an official sponsor in major sports events such as the Olympic Games, the World Cup and the European Cup for many years, seems to be used to "wrestling" with Adidas, which holds the rights and interests of partners, and "ambush marketing" is its strong point. At the Beijing Olympic Games, Nike launched the "Golden Generation" series. Inspired by the stories of Xu Haifeng, Lang Ping and Zhu Jianhua, three veteran athletes at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, Nike designed the 1984 retro cultural sports series. What makes many people feel more cordial is that, clothing The style design basically copied the clothes of the Chinese track and field team in 1984, with bright national flag red, imperial gold and sports blue as the main colors. The bright yellow word "China" on the chest is like the brand of history.

"When there is no social network, this kind of creative design of taking the edge is just trying hard, and there is not much advantage in the face of competitors with strong resources." said an employee of Nike PR project partner Wanbo Xuanwei. Now, with the help of social networks, this kind of "ambush" creative design has more imagination space. Moreover, Nike, which has been away from its official sponsor status for years, is also more likely to accept new things such as social networks.

Nike's micro blog marketing effect is very good this time. In contrast, Adidas has paid a lot of money for sponsorship, but its communication effect is not necessarily better than Nike's. According to a foreign online survey, 37% of the 1034 American consumers interviewed believe that Nike is the sponsor of the Olympic Games, but in fact Nike is not, while the legitimate sponsor Adidas is only correctly "identified" by 24% of the respondents.

However, although the cost of microblog marketing is not high, it is not easy to play well. In order to do well in the micro blog marketing of the Olympic Games, Nike actively prepared and deployed an implementation team of more than 60 people in advance. This team is composed of Nike's digital marketing and brand communication departments, as well as several external companies. Its members include creative personnel, production personnel and media experts.

As the result of the sports competition is unpredictable, the executive team has to work hard for every marketing plan. Despite the careful deployment, Liu Xiang's unexpected withdrawal from the competition still brought trouble to the team's work. It is conceivable how difficult it is to respond to this emergency in a short time (5 to 10 minutes) and ensure the communication effect. "We made adequate preparations for Liu Xiang's defending or losing the championship, but we didn't expect that Liu Xiang would withdraw again," recalled Huang Xiangyan, Nike's director of communication in Greater China. In fact, even if Liu Xiang did not withdraw from the competition, it is difficult to imagine the specific situation of his success or failure. Therefore, on-the-spot adaptability is the key to such micro blog marketing - the marketing team must come up with the most touching plan in the shortest time.

Fortunately, Nike has been cooperating with Liu Xiang since 2002 and has a deep understanding of Liu Xiang. They believe that as long as the understanding of Liu Xiang is expressed in a plain way. Nike set the final plan within a few minutes - the message that was forwarded more than 100000 times was generated.

Although it is a temporary team, Nike requires them to have a deep understanding of the spirit of "living your greatness" when recruiting members, and also requires them to be very familiar with and passionate about every sport event. During the Olympic Games, team members pay close attention to London events 24 hours a day, and any hot spots, whether winning or losing, will become creative materials. Nike puts forward high requirements for team members - to find the most critical points in the shortest time, and use the most refined words and appropriate pictures to spread the voice of the public.

This success has made Nike confident in social network marketing. Therefore, Nike is ready to continue this practice in the post Olympic era. "Nike Sports Forum" is one of the important plans that Nike will launch - this activity will try to spread with the increasingly popular WeChat. "Although it is just a simple message with a picture, as long as it is sincere and moving, it can achieve good communication effect," said Huang Xiangyan.