NIKE: Building Customer Value through Brand Engagement and Community

Synopsis

Over the past $55$ years, Nike has used innovative marketing and product innovation to revolutionize sports marketing. Nike outspent competitors on big$-$name endorsements, splashy promotional events, and big budget ads to build image and market share.

Nike's mission is to "bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world." Nike ranks at or near the top of almost every list of innovative users of digital marketing, and it uses its social media presence to engage customers deeply, to get customers to talk to each other about the brand, and weave the brand into their daily lives. It recently featured controversial and long$-$time Nike athlete Colin Kaepernick, the NFL player who started the movement of taking a knee instead of standing during the pregame National Anthem in protest of police brutality against people of color, which resulted in a dramatic social media response. Nike mentions spiked $1,400$ percent to $2\mathrm{.}7$ million in the $24$ hours after the ad aired, an estimated $$43$ million worth of media exposure. Online sales grew $31\%$ in the $24$ hour period following the release of the Kaepernick ad$.$

Go online with students to explore Nike's website $($

www$.$nike.com$).$

Direct the discussion using the following questions. As always, keep the discussion moving with plenty of student input.

Discussion Questions

What is Nike really selling? What are customers really buying? How and how deeply do customers relate to $|$ the Nike brand? The end of the vignette points out Nike has a purpose and a soul. Ask students what the Nike brand experience, across touchpoints, means to them.