Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman officially created Nike in the late 1970’s. However, under the name Blue Ribbon Sports, those two men begun to sell running shoes in the early 1960’s. In fact, Nike’s swoosh logo was created in 1971 by Caroline Davidson but the first shoe with this logo did not appear until the next year. The Swoosh represents “the wing of the Greek Goddess NIKE” (Nike History and Time

With the three examples explained above, we have seen three different advertising strategies used by Nike’s soccer division. The first one, a fully localized campaign with Mia Hamm. The second, a standardized campaign with the Brazilian national soccer team. The third being a mix of both: a standard ad for all the countries and local soccer players.

When we talk about the relationship between Nike and Basketball, who does people think about? Of course, it is Michael Jordan. This incredible basketball player, better known as Air Jordan has been Nike’s image since the early 1990’s. In fact, when Jordan began to show up as the most talented player in the basketball courts, Phil Knight saw a big marketing strategy possibility. Jordan was at American children eyes an example to follow. He was a very competitive player that enjoyed the game and a very well educated hansom man outside the courts. This was Michael Jordan’s image in the USA but during those first years of partnership with Nike the NBA was not enough popular in Europe and Asia in order to open a new market. However, in the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona (Spain), the US basketball team with Jordan’s leadership obtained the gold medal with a very spectacular game. The “Dream Team” as they were called begun to be the idols of all the basketball fans around the world. Nike used this event to export the image of Michael Jordan around the globe and young basketball fans begun purchasing Jordan’s sneakers. Nike Air Jordan shoe’s sales grew amazingly, and in Spain for example almost one out of two young basketball players had one pair of their idol’s shoes. Nike’s global marketing strategy for basketball apparels was based on Michael Jordan and when he decided to leave the game for the first time the company faced a big problem. However, the brand loyalty that the consumers show at this time made the company fears decrease. Moreover Jordan came back to the game with such power that he helped the Chicago Bulls win another title. The problem was then to know how long was he going to play. In order to prepare was consider Jordan’s true retirement, Nike chose to diversify its strategies. First, with Michael’s help, Nike created in 1997 the Jordan Brand. Second, the company became involved in some national championships in Europe. In fact, Nike is sponsoring some of the best European teams, like Barcelona (Spain), Kinder (Italy), Pau-Orthez (France), and is also the official sponsor of the balls that are used in the Spanish Basketball Championship (ACB). However this has been a very successful strategy for the company, today’s success of Nike’s basketball division remains on the effects of Michael Jordan’s new return to the NBA. In fact, Brand Jordan’s sales were still growing while he was out of the game, and with this year’s return, Nike can only be very positive about their sales. In summary, Nike’s basketball division’s economic results are and will remain very closely related to Michael Jordan even if the diversification of their marketing strategies will help and more knowing that Jordan will not last forever.

Nike has a huge presence in the tennis industry. The company produces all kinds of tennis apparel from cloths to rackets, even if the rackets are almost unknown. Since the late 1980’s with Andre Agassi, Nike’s strategy has been sponsoring the best players in the world. In the case of Agassi, Nike decided to sponsor him because of his rebel image. In the tennis court, he was a real showman. He could appear with such bright colours that he was rejected once from Wimbledon. The next year he went to the tournament wearing immaculate white clothes and he won the tournament. He had a wild personality like John McEnroe. In fact, Nike sponsored both players. Nike’s ads were the same around the world. They showed pictures of those two geniuses. However, when Pete Sampras appeared in the ATP tour, Nike saw in him a future numb

Some topics in this essay:
Michael Jordan, History Timeline, Japan Nike, Kong Korea, Canada Nike, Pete Sampras, America Africa, Korea Taiwan, Olympics Reebok, Mia Hamm, marketing strategies, michael jordan, players world, nike’s image, europe asia, advertising campaign, running shoes, footwear apparel industry, nike’s strategy, footwear apparel, summary nike’s, sports footwear apparel, hong kong korea, nike history timeline, dominant sport activity,