Nike Brand Analysis, Essay Example

Nike is a household name that has grown to be associated with a positive brand image. The relevance of Nike is significant as a staple of the athletic industry. Nike has established itself among some of the strongest brands such as Starbucks, Mercedes, Apple Inc., and Coca-Cola. In such a highly competitive and transparent world market, Nike has built a powerful connection with their consumers that is reflected in their continual financial growth. The success of Nike has been strongly contingent upon their brand positioning and companies vision for continual growth and brand expansion.

Nike was built on creativity, challenges, and aggressive innovation for brand achievers. Early on, they turned to professional athletes who perform at the highest level of their industry, which established the love, trust, and admiration of their consumers. Nike has been around for around 40 years and expanded into the worldwide market with a value in excess of 10.7 billion dollars. The company is the most valuable brand in the sports shoe industry, and clearly one of the most notable.

The company’s success has not happened by chance, their history reflects how much their vision has evolved. The co-founder of Nike, Phil Knight, was a distance runner and had a vision for high quality running shoes. He worked as a sports reporter in his early years and transformed his passions and experiences into the Nike brand. Knight’s interest and hobbies showed how they could be transformed into building a global company. Brands start with an idea; they are created, and their futures are hanging on the commitment for that brand development. Success and failure of any brand are dependent upon the vision and the implementation of that image. In an interview, Phil Knight said, “we were very ambitious, and we had to choose what we are staying for…” Nike put their focus on the top athletes that attracted the consumers who were interest in fitness and sports as well.

The David A. Aaker model provides a strong analysis of the Nike brand. Nike has built a strong association with famous athletes who are known as being winners, they are controversial achievers, and are aggressive in their desire to win. The most famous collaboration still to date that Nike has established is their relationship with Michel Jordan. He changed basketball and is still considered to be the greatest player of all times. They also contracted other great athletes such as sprinter, Michael Jonson, tennis player, McEnroe, and golfer Tiger Woods. These athletes also target the consumers, especially the youth, for following in their hero’s footsteps.

Nike’s success has not been without its challenges. The company has faced issues with critics of globalization. The efforts to expand the Nike products around the world has created significant issues for the company to maintain their reputability. The cost of operation has tremendously increased, and Nike has had to find new ways to cut these costs. They have found that subcontracting and outsourcing for cheaper labor from places such as China and Indonesia has provided some relief in the cost. However, is has created other issues for Nike to address such as quality issues and labor relations for countries who do not hold the same labor laws as the United States. Nike has worked hard to build their brand name and the trust of their consumers. Their commitment to quality and credibility has not only aided in establishing Nike, but expanding their brand name as well.