"“Brands are used to create meaning, identity and certain styles. This is used in different context, by literature, movies, and by us as individuals, not the least
different sub-cultures.”
The brand Nike began its history in 1964 in Oregon with the shoes retailing company Blue Ribbon Sports created by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight (Nike Official Website). In 1965, Jeff Johnson enters the company. He will come up in 1971 with a name for a brand: Nike, the goddess of victory in ancient Greece. During the same year, Bowerman and Knight decided to create their own brand of athletic shoes. The step through production decided, the name of the brand founded, just a logo was needed; the “Swoosh” was born few time later thanks to Carolyn Davidson. In 1972, the first line of Nike Shoes was launched and signed the beginning of the Nike Story. Then, Bowerman and Knight wanted an athlete to represent the brand, so they choose Steve Prefontaine. And they did right, from 1969 to 1973 he did not lose any race and finished 4th in a running race in Munich in 1972, expositing him, and the Swoosh on magazines such as Sport. Steve Prefontaine died in 1975, he was 24, as many of early upcoming dead person, he became a myth, and remained in the minds as the essence of “Nike Spirit”. With the 80’s Nike became a global brand: becoming a publicly traded company, by bringing the brand at the edge of the public sportswear innovations. The 80’s are a milestone in the Nike brand building, especially the second half of the decade through major advertising campaigns (Revolution), and thanks to the tagline “Just Do It”. In 1989, the company came back to its position of leader of the industry (after the slump o the beginning of the 80’s). The Niketown concept was born in 1990; this flagship store was then developed internationally. The 1990’s represent also the decade of sponsorship: football teams, Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong, one can see that it was a decade of aggressive marketing: visible, international, innovative, using media, … This effort in marketing did not slow down, it even grown, as the technologies of Nike. Nike was among the first to realize a global and integrated marketing campaign (the Secret Tournament for example).
But what is this Nike Spirit? First of all, it concerns innovation, always doing better with what we have. One can notice from the main statement of Nike: “If you have a body, you are an athlete”. Through this statement, this description of the soul of Nike, everyone can be appealed, everyone can be concerned, no matter the gender, the age or the relation with the sport. Nike, through its marketing became more a lifestyle brand than just a sportswear brand solely.
But what is Nike today? What does Nike represent? Nike being aimed to everyone, does it represent a special meaning, an identity, a style and a special subculture? How Nike is communicated through movies, books, TV, people and subcultures? And how Nike wants to communicate through these communication channels?
advertisement in magazines, TV spots for instance, we will study here how Nike is interacting with the society in terms of “cultural” placement: in movies, books and in people’s minds.
Movies, books, sub cultures are the reflection of our everyday life, our expectations and dreams. Using those channels to represent the brand is a way of defining a brand through its style and identity. Today, we talk about a “branded entertainment”(JM Lehu, 2007, p.2), in which the branded marketing is present through product placement. JM Lehu distinguishes 4 types of product placement (classic, institutional, evocative, stealth). Nike does product placement. The main example is from 1985, for the Back to the Future trilogy produced by S. Spielberg, who by the way, was a pioneer in the sense of he thinks the brand placement is a way to make his movies more realistic (N. Morris, 2007). In his trilogy, we can see the shoes worn by Mac Fly are Nike, with the brand really visible (1 and 2). But, why this product placement is so important for a brand, especially Nike? Firstly, because it makes the brand more visible on others channels, on new screens, the cinema for instance has viewers who pay more attention of what they see, the awareness is more important (J.M Lehu, 2005). Secondly, the cost is relatively small if we compare with TV spots for instance because of the return on investment (ROI) is way more important. Why? Because the targeting is sharper: depending on the actors, on the scenario and on the type of movie. The more the target audience is interested in the movie, the more it is sensitive (Karrh, 1998) because first because the brand has access to the implicit memory of the audience, when a product placement (repeated) can be memorized by the audience without being conscious of it (Auty et Lewis, 2004; Fontaine, 2001; Pridham et Craig-Lees, 2004). Finally, placing products in movies generates an important potential exposition for the audience through DVD, downloads (legal/illegal), TV diffusion, Pay-Tv, … and give the occasion to the audience to watch the movie more than once and so to be more aware about the brand, making the product placement effective.
introduced on different ways: in the first, Nike presents a shoe that already exists (Cf. Picture 1). In the second movie, Nike presents a conceptual pair of shoes. There comes the buzz, Back to the future I succeeded in gathering a community of fans, male teenagers, interested in science-fiction and having the ideal of becoming a kind of Mc Fly. With this pair of shoes, Nike came back on the front of the scene, with its new identity: young, modern, innovative (Nike Value) and fun. Something interesting, is that Nike, through the Second Back in the Future Movie, did not only heavily communicated about the brand, but also created a product (see picture 3), created the desire of the Back to the future community to get those shoes. Then came the other movies, such as Hitch (story of a “loving” consultant played by Will Smith), as Mean Girls (talking about the “need” of beauty in High School, main character: Lyndsay Lohan), as Charlie’s Angel (perhaps the James Bond girl in one way, starring Cameron Diaz). Through all of those movies, an image of Nike was developed, all the time in accordance to Nike values, all the time to a broad audience women, men, adventurous, seductive, strong, fun and modern. After the new direction taken by Nike through Back in the Future, product placement continued on this way, product placement in movies became a marketing channel as another for Nike. What was needed was innovation in this field, to change the habit taken by Nike, and to attract again Nike consumers and potential consumers in the 2000’s. Innovating in product placement came with the targeting of subcultures, such as Hip-Hop for instance. What is interesting in this subculture is the fact that this subculture is considered as non-brand focused (P. Henry, 2006). In this subculture, individuals gather as a community through similar consumption in terms of music, fashion and entertainment. If they have to choose a brand, it has to be authentic. There, Nike has some work to achieve. Then, entering TV series is a way to enter a community (target even more selected), as Entourage or How To Make It in America. Here can be asked the question who chooses the other? Does the show choose the brand or the brand chooses the show?
References.
- Brand placement: A review, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising 20, Karrh, CtCPress, pp. 31-49.
- Branded entertainment: product placement & brand strategy in the Entertainment Business, Jean-Marc Lehu, Kogan Page Limited, 2007, pp 2, .
- Consumption, culture and consumer life-choices in Australia Qualitative Market Research Vol 9, Number 2, Paul Henry, Emerald Insight, p142.
- LE PLACEMENT DE MARQUES AU CINÉMA: Proposition de la localisation du placement à l’écran comme nouveau facteur d’efficacité potentielle, Jean Marc Lehu, Décisions Stratégiques N° 37, Janvier Février 2005.
- La Publicité est dans le film, Jean-Marc Lehu, Editions d’Organisation, 2006, pp. 20-25.
- The cinema of Steven Spielberg: Empire of light, Nigel Morris, Wallflower Press, 2007, p203.
- www.nikebiz.com
Portfolio.
2. Back To the Future II. Nike shoes in 2015.
3. Back To the Future II Versus. 2009 Back to the Future real Nike.
5. Turtle Sneakers, real edition.
7. On the right, Ben from How to Make it In America with his Nike Sneakers, in the middle, Jordan Shoes (Nike).
APPENDIX
http://www.sneakerhunt.com/nike-air-mcfly-to-be-released
Passion for Back to the Future II shoes.
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article? AID=/20070607/ENTERTAIN/70607035/-1/ENTERTAIN24
