CM1011 – Team Assignment 2 30-4-2011 1

A literature report on Nike’s advertising strategies Pip Cloo (), Koen Glotzbach (345346), Giulia Meyer (), Renate Rocha () & Milou van der Zwan

(304042)

Lecturer: Brandellero, words: xxx, online version:

The intention of advertising is to capture attention and to persuade the audience to consume

by creating an emotional desire for the product. People do not really need Nike shoes, but in a

way, they are made to believe that they do. The better the advertising strategy of a company,

the more popular its product or, in the case of Nike, the brand as a whole. Nike as a brand

name is associated with certain qualities and if these are positive in the minds of consumers,

they will put their trust in the brand and prefer buying products of this particular brand over

that of other brands. Because an effective advertising strategy is of so much importance, there

are many scholars examining what strategy fits best for a product to sell and what factors

influence consumer’s behavior.

In a cross-national comparative research, we want to examine the differences between

advertisements of Nike in the US and in China – both having large consumer markets but

totally different cultures. Hence, our research question: To what extent do the advertisements

of Nike as used in the US and China between 2000 and 2010 differ from each other regarding

to their adaptation to cultural aspects? But before conducting a research, a literature review

has to be done. Therefore, we will here elaborate on Nike’s advertising strategies as described

in literature and on the web. We will focus on four main areas which are the most relevant for

answering our research question: The company Nike, Globalization and glocalization, China

and America and Nike its campaigns and strategies.

Nike Nike corporation’s advertising strategy has proved to be successful internationally. The

company was founded in the United States in 1962 – then called Blue Ribbon Sports, but then

became Nike Inc. in 1980 – and markets products in clothing and sports equipment, which can

be recognized by the ‘Swoosh’ logo (Harvey, 1996). In the 1970s and 1980s, Nike treated the

international marketplace as a single entity. Most of their US-focused advertising was the

same in all nations in which they were selling products. This approach proved to be financially

limiting. Therefore, as some other companies, Nike’s strategy changed in the 1990s. Since the

mid-1990s, it was realized that to secure global presence while still earning profit, a

multinational company has to operate within local practices and sensibilities. Nike made a

“country-by-country plan” and thereby the company adopted a ‘glocalizing’ approach.

CM1011 – Team Assignment 2 30-4-2011 2

International Nike thus developed into transnational Nike, which takes local differences into

account when promoting its products (Andrews, 2008).

One of the reasons for Nike’s success is that it is a sports brand. To engage local

consumers and markets, transnational companies use something recognizable for that

culture in its advertising strategy. Celebrities are often successfully used to attract

consumers and to inspire confidence, but sports can clearly engage large groups of

people. Sports unite people and can represent a nation. By focusing on local sporting

cultures, Nike as a sports brand can represent the sporting culture of a nation (Andrews,

2008). But it can also represent a whole world region, as with globalization, international

sports organizations promote certain sports by organizing international tournaments

(Harvey, 1996). European football for instance, engages a large group of people in

Europe, or even worldwide. This strategy of making the brand popular is not only used

by sport brands: also Coca Cola seems to have found a way to integrate sports in its

advertising.

Globalization & glocalization According to Harvey (1996), globalization has reality of its own, which can be independent

from individual countries. However, these nations are necessary to produce laws which guide

the global market and cannot disappear. Globalization leads to nationalism, which can be a

reason why companies decide to glocalize their products. On global level many companies

have lost their national identity, this is caused by the absence of a global government. These

companies have thus political power in the global world. With regard to the sport industry this

is an issue, because there is not an official policy maker. One of the developments in

globalization is that companies do not focus on one country anymore; they spread themselves

to other countries. Nike started producing its products in countries where the costs were low

and they expanded their production with new products. The strategy Nike uses is the

“multitier partner strategy” (Harvey, 1996); developed partners produce the most expensive

products in small amounts; the developing partners produce only for Nike the large amounts

of products. Nike uses strategies as “acquisitions, strategic alliances and delocalization of

products”. (Harvey, 1996) Another consequence of globalization is the interconnection and

homogenization of cultures; moreover they copy each other’s values and norms. Movements

are, as a reaction on this homogenization, developed. In sports this can be for example

women, who also want to be involved. Globalization is the reason for homogenization of

sports to Western forms of sports, social movements do cause change in socialization of sports

CM1011 – Team Assignment 2 30-4-2011 3

and movements try to oppose the dominant forms of sports. The global market is contributing

to a global mass consumption culture. (Harvey, 1996)

Factors of comparison When pursuing glocalisation (as described above), great sensitivity to local cultures is needed.

The need for this sensitivity makes glocalisation difficult, especially when countries differ so

much as China and the USA. Comparing these two countries, we can identify two originally

political systems: As McKenzie (2006) describes, China has a communist government, whereas

the USA has a libertarian government. Strongly related to this political area are some social

and cultural practices, which may be divided into two areas: culture and economy.

Looking at the first category, politics, we should denote McKenzie’s (2006) statement

that the Chinese government exercises a great deal of power to control public opinion and

social unrests through tough regulation, although it is increasingly allowing libertarian features

as a free market economy in special zones. This is in contrast with the US, where a libertarian

approach to politics is present and market instead of government regulation is favoured.

The second category, culture, constitutes of personal and societal factors. Some obvious

but important factors are described by Sinclair (2008) as “natural barriers” (p. 81). Firstly

language: Although in China English is being pushed as the second language, Mandarin still is

the most widely-known language of China (McKenzie, 2006). Secondly, he mentions physical

and demographic issues as the amount, differentiation and spread of the population. We could

add religion to this list of cultural aspects, but also Johnston & Gao (2009) expend it: They

describe that a great barrier in communication between the two countries is that China has a

low and the US a high-context culture, which means that Chinese use more implicit clues (both

in spoken as in body language) when communicating, while Americans are more direct. The

authors also describe that Chinese are collectivistic, while Americans are more individually

oriented. Lastly, they also describe that China has a high and the US a low-power distance

culture, which means that Chinese accept authority more easily than Americans.

For the last category, business, an important factor mentioned by Sinclair (2008) is the

absence of consumerism in China: Only a very small part of the population associates brands

with certain benefits and emotions, while most inhabitants focus on price and quality when

choosing products. This means that advertisements should focus on quality and price and that,

consequently, companies in the US are rule-setting (steering the market), while in China they

are not.

Nike its campaigns & strategies

CM1011 – Team Assignment 2 30-4-2011 4

Resources Andrews, D.L. (2008). Nike Nations. Brown Journal of World Affairs, 14, 41 – 53.

Cfar, Inc. (n.d.). Nike's 'Just Do It' Advertising Campaign. Retrieved April 23, 2011, from Centre

for Applied Research http://cfar.com

Dayal-Gulati, A., Lee, A.Y. (2004). Kellogg on China: Strategies for success. Northwestern

University Press.

Deng, T. (2009). "Just Done It“: Nike's New Advertising Plan Facing Global Economic Crisis.

International Journal of Business and Management, 4, 3, 102 – 105.

Harvey, J., Rail, G. & Thibault, L. (1996). Globalization and sport: sketching a theoretical model.

Journal of sport and social issues, 20, 258 – 277.

Johnston, L. M., Gao, H. (2009). Resolving conflict in Chinese & US realms for global business

entities. China Media Research, 5, 104 – 117.

Kierzkowski, H., Chen, L. (2010). Outsourcing and trade imbalances: the United States – China

case. Pacific Economic Review, 15, 56 – 70.

McKenzie, R. (2006). Comparing media from around the world. Boston, USA: Pearson

Education.

Sinclair, J. (2008). Globalization and the advertising industry in China. Chinese Journal of

Communication, 1, 77 – 90.