What interests me jane

Summer Brief 2013 What Interests Me?

How are brands created and brought to market?

My specific research: • The history of Nike and within this the creation of the brand.

• The semiotics behind the brand name and creation of the logo.

• Promotional acitivities - posters, campaigns, in store POS.

Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight

Bill Bowerman

Phil Knight

Experimented with innovations in running shoes.Constantly looking for ways to improve his runners ability to improve.

Competed for Bowerman’s track programme.

A Track and Field Coach at the Univerisity of Oregon.

Started making he owns shoes for runners as he was ignored by well established shoe makers.

Offered Phil Knight partnership instead of buying his shoes.

A talented middle distance runner from Portland who enrolled at Oregon.

Proposed that quality running shoes could be produced in Japan and compete with European manufacturers.

Became distributor of ‘Tiger’ running shoes in the United States for Onitsuka,Japan.

Posted samples to Bill Bowerman hoping he would buy.

Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight founded Blue Ribbon Sports

1971: The Birth Of The Brand Nike

Phil Knight chose the name Nike Named after the Greek Goddess Nike Chosen because of its association with victory

Carolyn Davidson, Graphic Design Student at Portland Designer of the Nike Logo

Swoosh

The Beginning of

“

I’m Phil Knight, and I don’t believe in advertising.

Phil Knight

Top Athlete Endorsements

Tiger Woods Steve Prefontaine

John McEnroe

Michael Jordan

Bo Jackson

Famous Campaigns

Launched in 1988

“It was a simple thing. We had about 6-8 ideas for commercial but I didn’t think it summed up anything. The night before the presentation I got worried. I took me about 20 minutes. I wrote down 4 or 5 lines. For some reason I started to think about Gary Gillmore’s last words before he was sentenced to death; ‘Let’s do it!’

I didn’t like the ‘Let’s’ so I just changed it to ‘Just’.”

Dan Wieden

“The Secret Tournaments”

Launched for 2002 World Cup The commercial features a secret three-on-three, first goal wins tournament held on a container ship boasting 24 of the world best football players with former Manchester United legend Eric Cantona as referee. Eight mini teams play in a cage with the catch remixed version of Elvis Presley’s “A Little Less Conversation” playing in the back ground. Director Terry Williams.

”Make It Count”

A campaign launched in 2012 suggesting we all step up and “Make It Count” created

by Wieden + Kennedy, London and AKQA and photographed by Adam Hinton.

Posters That Have Made A Difference Nike “Paper Battlefield” 2009 McCann Worldgroup, Hong Kong won the Grand Prix for Design at Cannes for “PaperBattlefield”.

A call-for-entry poster for the most prestigious and competitive Basketball League in Hong Kong.

350 posters were handmade by the players. Images of the top 10 players, each representing a unique skill, were turned into printing templates.

Players were invited to a screen print workshop to print their image on top of each other.

The posters became their battlefield.

Random cross printing became their battles.

The printing process became the message

Point Of Sale

When asking my 7 year old son and four of his friends which sports brand they liked. They all answered Nike.

“It’s just a really cool swoosh and it’s like a tick, that means it’s good. You just know what it is when you see it, you don’t need to read anything”

What makes the Nike Story interesting for me?

• Inspiring example of how powerful and recognisable a brand/logo can become even without any use of words.

• Clever, engaging campaigns through endorsements.

• Interactive approach to the audiences through encouraging people to take part and join in and report their own victories and goals.

• Their latest campaign which is redefining ‘Just Do It’ encourages people to push their limits and strive to reach new goals via a series of ‘Nike Challenges’.

• A perfect example of semiotics behind the brand identity works really well.