"Work It, Make It, Do It, Makes Us, Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger"

A sports shoe, a kit, a culture, a performance, a GLOBAL sponsor and collaborator; Nike TICK boxes. Their aggressive advertising strategy teamed with product differentiation and contracts with winning athletes position them well in the race for world’s leading sports and fitness company. (Flex muscle!!) But heads up because competitors Adidas, Puma and Reebok are certainly not far behind.

Martin Lindstrom author of Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy, argues that there is a significant correlation between brands and religion. For Lindstrom they both share three traits: rituals, mystery, and an enemy. Amen to that! Look at Nike closely; they have a mass following, competitors on their tail, grand temples and profound storytellers; all of whom are chanting and championing the same three words 'Just do it'.


Brands have become a lifestyle, a platform offering our professional, social, habitual lives choice. They are the music we listen to, the people we look up to, the way we dress, the food we eat and the games we play. Celebrities and sports players have become human sandwich boards fashioning the latest sports gear in an all assuming glory (see my previous post on Ellie Goulding!)

 What we must question is this matter of choice and design. Is it all an illusion? Are we actually being conditioned to run in that shoe, wearing those joggers teamed with that Nike+ Sportband (for those who don’t know this collaboration with Apple tracks distance, pace, time and calories burned ( YIKES!))  to make that team...and that destination?

 Intrusive, suggestive or just making a million bucks by giving the world some nifty sports gear, which ever way you look at it the result is a merchandising machine pumping out some genius results.Working in online video advertising gives me a great insight into the marketing minds of giant brands. What has been apparent with Nike from the start is that its universal language speaks to and reaches people: 

“If you have a body, you’re an athlete” 

Their latest Better World campaign is amazing, a film of recycled ads that voices the aspirations of a company, consumer and competitor:

Their prominence is indicative of the way they stay on top of the trends and changes of their consumers, growing with them and for them reaching a whole new level of high top!! As a business they are incredibly sustainable and this is down to three HUGE factors: the first is brand recognition and loyalty, second the science behind the research and development and third is quality which evolves with every new product. Check out the way they roll, its a virtuous circle...

Of course they have not got to the top without stamping out and on obstacles along the way. You don't have to look far to find a document revealing cases of misconduct or descriminative behaviour.

What I would say is that this they appear to acknowledge...although there's no hiding from it... But this video narrated by Nike chairman and co-founder Phil Knight, speaks of the philosophy behind the Better World campaign does gives me hope.