Nike Branding

1.0 Introduction

Nike's philosophy has been to encourage sports and athletics all over the world. Nike Corporation is named after the Greek winged goddess of victory. The company produces the best and the most Innovative athletic footwear and equipment. The company prides itself in claiming that Nike represents athletes all over the world. Nike has created many strong and powerful sub brands like the Jordan brand. The company has always been associated with top sportsmen like Tiger Wood and Pete Sampras. Nike has positioned its products in the sporting and athletics segments and now is extending its clothing and shoes as essential fashion gear for the younger segment of the market. The company maintains a lot of dominance in the market it operates in, Nike products today can be found anywhere in the world today (www.nike.com).

The Nike brand is powerful and a product extension into clothing retail has given company a boost in sales and product diversification. Nike has used the ideology of promoting sports in their retail outlets and now in their website. The Nike Company has been very innovative and responsive to the needs of the athletes that have made it a respected sporting brand. The Nike philosophy has been to encourage sports all over the world and encourage ordinary people to take up sports. The company has been associated with the top names in sports and has earned a respect among professional athletes. The Nike brand is famous all over the world and their sales have been steady in the past years.

2.0 Brand Identity

According to Aaker (1996) a brand has to have a distinct identity, which is lined to the concept of the marketers want their brand to be associated by others in the market. There are many psychological factors, which the potential consumer related to the brand (Aaker & Joachimsthaler, 2000). A brand must be able to develop an identity that can appeal to the customers. At the product level the core benefit Nike offers is the high performing sports shoes and a fashionable high quality sports apparel. The Nike brand has been associated with high quality and reliability and this is the image the company has always used to sell its products. The augmented product of Nike is the various designs of its shoes that include air pockets and styling. Now customers can customise these features and design their own shoes. The core identity of the Nike brand is sports and fitness and it is used by top athletes in various sports who also endorse the brand. Nike is also targeting a normal person to associate themselves with sports and fitness which is now the mainstream appeal of the Nike brand (Newman, 2004).

The personality of the brand is young and exciting, the advertising of the company now also try to associate the Nike brand with fashion and a sense of "cool". The customers benefit from the feeling of participating in sports and a sense of health. The functional benefits of this brand include high performance and comfort. The Nike brand offers the consumers to use a product that is associated with top athletes in the world.

3.0 Sub Brands

The branding principles Nike has used have focused on constant re invention and innovative product positioning. Over the years the company has changed its appeal from professional athletes to the wider consumer market. This can be seen in their "Everyday Athletes" that encourages people to engage in a sporting activity this new advertising strategy that encourages people to adopt a healthier lifestyle (www.ciadvertising.org).

To appeal to a wider market Nike developed sub brands for the market while maintaining its professional gear. The Air Jordan brand was the first sub brand by Nike that was a huge success. This brand included shoes apparel and accessories that were targeted to a specific segment in the market. The Nike's collection under this brand includes Force, Flight, Jordan, Air Raid, Challenge Court and Supreme Court. Each collection was designed separately and had a different marketing mix that included a separate advertising strategy that was linked with the overall brand values of Nike. Some of the sub brands created by Nike failed like the fashionable apparel and products for young girls and women. Since the failure of these lines Nike now incorporates women's fitness and all relating marketing under the main Nike Brand (www.ciadvertising.org).

4.0 Relationship with Customers

The brand must generate trust by the consumer. The consumer can base this trust upon perceived status. The consumer must believe that the brand is a badge of attitude, or a badge of exclusivity, or a badge of recognition and approval by the wearers peer group and reference groups (De Chernatony et al, 1998)

.

The brand must also posses a personality trait. Consumers are able to form a relationship with other people, but will find it difficult to form a relationship with something inanimate (De Chernatony et al, 1998). Nike has developed various intangible benefits for its brand that include a sense of style, sports, freedom and youth. All these perceived benefits evoke a positive emotional response in the customers. This is one reason why the company has been able to develop a close relationship with its customers (Newman, 2004).

The intangible and generic products give benefits to the consumer. Kotler(1996) refers to this as the 'bundle of benefits', recognising that consumers do not buy a product for the same benefits, nor are benefits of equal importance to the consumer, and therefore benefits are thought of as being a loose bundle. This bundle of benefits can be further considered in detail by reference to the psychogenic of the product - the social, psychological, and aesthetic benefits. The Nike brand offers these benefits in terms of psychologically satisfying the need to engage in sports and the aesthetics benefit are offered in the design of the shoe and sportswear. In recent years brands have become symbols of an individual's beliefs, status and social position. The Nike brand such benefits as it gives it consumer a unique social status and presence.

Nike offers many emotional benefits to its customers that relevant to sports and fitness. The Nike brand characterizes emotional and physical rewards of sports and fitness. The company successfully exploited the emotional appeal in customers by offering them a brand that epitomised fitness and sport (www.ciadvertising.org). In recent year Nike has been expanding this appeal to