BYOMSPM

The following is some basics about branding along with highlights of the branding strategies of a few companies with a focus on Nike.

Grade I gave myself for this assignment: 90/100 (I wrote this quickly, so there might be a few typos)

Basics of Branding

What is branding?

“In creating a brand, or ‘branding,’ a business is managing the effect that the product or service is having on the customer.”

Beattie, 2023

Moreover, the implication is that the effect a product or service has on a customer directly correlates with a customer’s perception of that product or service, as well as their inclination to seek it out again.

Key things to pay attention to when branding include consistency, differentiation, creativity, and establishing an emotional connection (Beattie). One company that comes to mind who embodies all of these strategies is Redbull. Keywords I would use to describe its brand image: extreme adventure, excellence, and sports. Redbull consistently aligns themselves with extreme athletes and has differentiated themself by sponsoring athletes from a wide variety of sports. They aim to create an emotional connection with customers by tapping into the human yearning for adventure, thrill, exhilaration, and inspiration. Their imaging, logos, colors, editing, and style are all consistent across most campaigns.

The element that stands out to me most of the four that Beattie lists is emotional connection: the article advises that a company can aim to associate themselves with positive emotions, but they can also serve as a warning or source of protection against negative emotions.

Another key point from the article is that it’s important for a company to monitor their brand in order to stay in control of it; this includes employees and the customer service experience.

Mini Analysis of Companies with Great Branding

The following are some companies that come to mind as having a really strong brands, and a few points on what sets them apart.

Apple – has created a brand that is synonymous with innovation, elegance, and accessibility. It has very consistent messaging centered around user-friendliness and simple, high quality product designs (Mohd Hammad, 2023).

Airbnb -“The goal of this rebranding was to portray the company as a more sophisticated and upmarket alternative to standard hotels, while simultaneously emphasizing its distinctive community-driven culture.” Over time, they adapted to changing market demands by positioning their properties as more unique and authentic alternatives (Shayo, 2023).

Coca Cola – has created a multi-sensory brand identity, focusing on how it makes people feel (joyful, family-focused). Coca Cola has also adapted to changing user needs over time while still creating memorable marketing campaigns (Kolvitz, 2021).

Starbucks – offers a highly consistent customer experience across locations that is pleasant, relaxing, and high quality (Roll, 2021). For me what stands out about Starbucks versus any other coffee shop is just how uniform the store experience is, including aesthetics, product quality, and atmosphere. Frankly, it almost rivals the consistency of In-N-Out locations.

Disney – has created a brand that is highly emotional, includes memorable characters, and evokes a sense of wonder and enchantment while building a strong sense of trust (Urrutia, 2024).

Deep Dive: The Nike Brand

I am particularly interested in the Nike brand because to me it’s in a different category of a athletic retailer company than competitors, yet I think it is largely because of its branding. What has differentiated Nike marketing so dramatically from its competitors? Is it just that they’ve picked really strong athletes to sponsor and consistently made cohesive, aesthetically pleasing ads? Or is there more?

At the time of Nike’s creation, Adidas and Puma were both popular athletic shoe companies in the U.S., and Nike founder Phil Knight had developed a vision to overthrow them with superior, Japanese-made shoes (Dyck).

Jordan Rogers, former Nike marketing director, explains that from a marketing standpoint Nike was originally built on 60-second TV ads and billboards. Moreover, Nike helped popularize the concept of a celebrity title sponsor athlete with a signature shoe (Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, etc). Additionally, Nike coined their famous slogan “Just Do It” and their swoosh logo and have continued to used the two with higher consistency than most other 50-year old companies.

But what truly sets them apart? First, Nike started investing in marketing early in their growth, and they have continued to invest big in marketing (in 2015, Nike spent around as much on marketing as Under Armour made in sales (Profitworks)). As the article says, “No company in the world spends as much money on sports sponsorships as Nike..” Part of their marketing strategy is creating a distinctly strong emotional connection with viewers; in other words, Nike doesn’t just sell a pair of shoes or a pair of shorts — it sells a lifestyle (Profitworks). On top of that, Nike has consistently focused on producing high quality products, using new technology, and producing apparel for a wide range of sports (Profitworks).

More recently, the era of the signature shoe athlete seems to be dying, and Rogers argues that it would be really hard for a budding star to become a signature athlete or get a signature shoe these days. Still, Nike continues to put a heavy emphasis on choosing athletes who actually align with the values and mission of the company, which according to Rogers means focusing on athletes who have a little bit of a “psycho” quality to them.

Fun fact: a company can seek a trademark for their brand.

Thanks for reading.

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Works Cited

Beattie, Andrew. “How a Company Creates a Brand.” Investopedia. 17 January 2023. https://www.investopedia.com/articles/professionaleducation/11/how-companies-create-brands.asp.

Dyck, Jeremy. “The Rise of Nike: How One Man Built a Billion-Dollar Brand.” Medium. 17 October 2019. https://medium.com/bc-digest/the-rise-of-nike-how-one-man-built-a-billion-dollar-brand-586cb1039e7d#:~:text=From%20then%20on%2C%20the%20story,become%20famous%20across%20the%20world.

“How Nike Became Successful and the Leader in the Sports Product Market.” Profitworks. 2024. https://profitworks.ca/blog/marketing-strategy/545-nike-strategy-how-nike-became-successful-and-the-leader-in-the-sports-product-market.html.

Kolvitz, Emily. “The secrets of Coca-cola’s branding and marketing strategies.” Bynder. 23 September 2021. https://www.bynder.com/en/blog/secrets-of-coca-colas-branding-and-marketing-strategies/.

Roll, Martin. “The Secret to Starbucks’ Brand Success.” Martin Roll Business Brand & Leadership. February 2021. https://martinroll.com/resources/articles/strategy/secret-starbucks-brand-success/.

Shayo, Robert. “Rebranding Done Right: Airbnb, from Startup to Iconic.” LinkedIn. 1 May 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rebranding-done-right-airbnb-from-startup-iconic-robert-shayo/.

Sweat Equity. “014 – Ex-Nike Marketing Director Reveals Billion Dollar Brand Secrets.” Sweat Equity. 6 February 2024. Spotify.

Urrutia, Kevin. “Walt Disney Marketing Strategy: Driving the Magic of Brand Success.” Vot. 9 February 2024. https://voymedia.com/walt-disney-marketing-strategy/.

Yousuf, Mohd Hammad. “Is Apple’s Brand Identity a Blueprint for Modern Marketing Success?” Medium. 10 September 2023. https://medium.com/@hmmd.yousuf/is-apples-brand-identity-a-blueprint-for-modern-marketing-success-cb6c5c5f1d47.