Assignment Description: 

Suppose you are working for an advertisement agency.  A client has approached your agency to 1) introduce an innovative project in their market; 2) run an advertisement campaign for their current market. Your manager gathered teams and you were part on one of the teams. Your team were asked to submit a research proposal for either 1 OR 2. A research proposal is a simply a structured, formal document that explains what you plan to research (i.e. your research topic), why it’s worth researching (i.e. your justification), and how you plan to investigate it (i.e. your practical approach).

In this assignment, your team required to write the introduction and literature review for your research proposal.  You need to introduce your topic and the client.  This would include the research question/s, aim and objectives as well as writing about the main theories or arguments related to your topic.  Your topic MUST be aligned with your major.  The word limits for this essay is 1000 per student in the team. 10% plus/minus is allowed.

 

Nike, Inc. Advertising Campaign

Nike, Inc. is the largest sporting brand globally and holds the largest market share in the United States across many different sports. Since its founding in 1964, the company has experienced record growth as it has developed into a globally recognized brand that sells goods across many different categories. The assignment aims to design an advertising campaign for the Nike sporting shoes to be applied within the United States. The research question is which methods can most effectively help sell the Nike brand to the target market while remaining economical for the company? This research aims to identify which forms of advertising have been used before by Nike to advertise their products. It also brands and checks the effectiveness of the various methods when applied across the United States. The following section is the literature review, where I will look at works done on the topic and the findings that the researchers found.

Literature Review

Nike is known to have unique and controversial forms of advertising to convey various messages to its target consumers effectively. In the study “Just Do It? An Examination of Race on Attitudes Associated with Nike’s Advertisement Featuring Colin Kaepernick” Jonathan Intravia, among other authors, assesses the relationship between activism and Nikes camping with Colin Kaepernick. Their findings indicate that some people are happy with Nike for addressing social issues in their adverts while others are very unhappy, and race has a major impact on that decision (Intravia, J. et al., 2020, 1225). The research will give me insights into how different segments of society perceive activism in Nike’s advertising and check just how effective it is in increasing publicity and sales.

In an article named “Nike unveils Muslim women athletes,” the authors, Lamiyah Bahrainwala and Erin O'Connor, assess a Nike Pro Hijab marketing campaign undertaken in 2018 and the messaging behind the advertisement. The authors offer details while evaluating the marketing campaign and exploring the various themes, including race and religion (Bahrainwala, L. et al., 2019, 11). The article offers insight into the thinking behind some of the most notable advertising and the different levels of understanding that the target market gets from the adverts. I will learn how to market products to Muslims and how other people view the marketing practice.

Simge K?rteke is an independent researcher that authored research named “Orientalist Approaches in Advertising: Sample Advertising With Nike’s “What Will They Say About You?” Slogan.” The study looks into how Nike markets its products to people in diverse geographies and from differing demographics (K?rteke, S., 2021, 982). The considerations are effective in helping explain the efforts that Nike makes in advertising to various groups and explaining how these differences can impact the advertising process within the United States. From the book, I will get clear insights into how to develop adverts for people from diverse social groups and different parts of the world. This information can then create adverts for people within the United States despite their different backgrounds.

In the article “How Phil Knight made Nike a leader in the sport industry: examining the success factors,” the author assesses the success factors that led to the development of Nike into the company that it is today. Authored by Minhong Kim, the article considers the impact that various factors had on the company's growth and marketing as well highlighted. The controversial marketing and the ability to highlight social issues need better consideration (Kim, M., 2020, 1518). The information offered in the article will help me understand how advertising happened in the last couple of decades and how successful it was, depending on a case-by-case basis.

In an article titled “Strategy of Sports Brand Network Marketing on the Basis of Brand Image Promotion,” Jiabin Zhang examines how Nike uses networking marketing. The use of high levels of brand recognition helps Nike increase the level of following that it has across many different markets (Zhang, J., 2018, 39). The process occurs through satisfied customers recommending the product to other people. From his study, I will gain important insight into the things that impact the effectiveness of Nike’s marketing and the strategies that increase its effectiveness.

In “Case 13 Any publicity is good publicity? Nike’s controversial campaigns and management of celebrities.” The author gives information relating to how Nike uses all types of publicity for marketing its brand and company. Many people think that any kind of publicity is good for the company as it directly allows it to gain massive marketing at the lowest possible cost. The publicity is often controversial, and this raises questions as to whether it has a net positive or net negative effect (Castle, S. et al., 2017, 115) when considering the long-term impact on the customers. Information in the case will help me understand the limits that need to get observed for long-term well-being.

Saara Merikanto Authored an article titled “Controversial Marketing-A Successful strategy to grow a brand or risky approach? Case study: Nike Inc.” She looks into the strategy of undertaking controversial marketing campaigns that attract a lot of debate as a means of getting more publicity. Nike is a company that has successfully used the plan for a long time and can effectively gain more market share through such methods of marketing (Merikanto, S., 2019, 7). From this paper, I can gain clear information about how Nike has exploited various social issues and the limits they consider before releasing an advertisement to the public.

Conclusion

This assignment aims to develop an advertising campaign that can effectively market Nike in the North American market in the best possible way. The goals are to advertise Nike’s sporting shoes within the United States in the best possible manner to meet the market's current needs effectively. The process will be achieved by first learning what other research papers have found effective and what is not. I will then apply the most effective strategy to help increase the chances of capturing the attention of as many people as possible and encourage them to make a purchase. From the studies reviewed, it is evident that Nike uses controversial social topics in their marketing to gain more attention, and the strategy has been effective in increasing its current market share.