#JustDoIt, a marketing masterstroke
After releasing a very successful advertisement supporting Serena Williams’ catsuit a couple of weeks back, Nike has taken a clear stance in a polarizing issue by leading a campaign with Colin Kaepernick. On my twitter feed, the catsuit ad got multiple RTs and likes while the Colin Kaepernick ad got nothing. If my twitter feed is any evidence, Taking a knee is one of those topics that people consider very political and tend to distance themselves from.
This marketing campaign is clearly a risk; and a risk of magnitude which Nike may have anticipated. As a company with fiduciary responsibilities, Nike has taken a necessary calculated risk. At a time when Nike started losing its market share to Adidas and other niche players, this campaign puts Nike right in the middle of an important conversation stressing the brand “Just Do It” through action.
In reality, Nike’s brand has stood against police shootings for quite sometime by sponsoring most vocal players such as Lebron James, Serena Williams already. So it is not really a new stance. If it was not clear to its target consumers before, it is clear now. This ad is a message to Nike’s target consumers who are between 15 and 35 of all races, who largely oppose police shootings.
The median age of people that play Basketball in the US is 19 (source: wsj.com). Median age of almost all popular sports is in 20s. Based on the last presidential poll analysis, this is demographic mostly voted for Hillary Clinton. 60% of runners in America are women and a many of them sympathize with taking the knee.
Clearly, this ad(out of many similar ads that Nike will follow up with) will grab attention for a significant time and will emphasize that Nike practices what it preaches (Just Do It).
The tumbling stock price will settle itself in a long term when the chatter in the market dies down. And Nike will be left with the credit of leveraging a great branding opportunity and taking the right stance.
