Nike Background

Background information Iconography Explanation Nike Heritage NIKE, articulate NI-KEY, is the winged goddess of victory according to Greek mythology. He sat side by side(p) to Zeus, king of the Olympian pantheon, in Olympus. A mystical presence, symbolizing triumphal encounters, NIKE presided first battle in autobiography. A Greek saying When we go to battle and win, we say it is NIKE. Synonymous with honored conquest, NIKE is the twentieth century footgear that lifts the worlds greatest athletes to new levels of mastery and success. go The NIKE embodies the spirit of the winged goddess who inspired the most(prenominal)(prenominal) courageous and chivalrous warriors at the dawn of civilization. (From Nike Consumer Affairs packet, 1996) The Swoosh The Swoosh logotype is a graphic design created by Caroline Davidson in 1971. Represents the wing of the Greek goddess Nike. Caroline Davidson was a student at Portland fix University in advertising. She met Phil buck while he was t eaching accounting classes and she scoop uped doing many freelance work for his company.Phil Knight Caroline asked to design a logo which could be placed on the side of a shoe. He hand the swoosh, gave $ 35. 00. In the spring of 1972, the first shoe with the Nike logo was introduced .. the rest is history (De Nike Consumer Affairs packet, 1996) A Brief History of Nike The Nike athletic machine began as a small set of distribution located in the system of Phil Knights car. From these principles and non unfavorable, the brainchild of Knight became the athletic shoe company that would get under iodins skin to define many aspects of popular culture and myriad varieties of cool.Nike emanated from two sources rouse Bowermans struggle lighter, more durable racing berth for his Oregon runners, and Knights try for a way to earn a living without having to give up his love of athletics. Bowerman track coach at the University of Oregon where Phil Knight ran in 1959. Bowerman desire fo r better quality shoes clearly influenced Knight operating(a) in their search for a marketing strategy. Between them, the seed of the most influential merrimenting company grew.The story is this to get his MBA at Stanford in the 60s, Knight took classes with Frank Shallenberger. The semester-long project was to create a small job, including a marketing plan. Synthesis of attention to quality shoes Bowerman and growing catch that cost high-quality/low products could be posed in Japan and shipped to the U. S. for distribution, Knight embed his niche. Shallenberger thought the idea interesting but certainly no business jackpot. Nothing became Knight project. Cut to 1963.Phil Knight traveled to Japan on a world tour, filled with the wanderlust of young people flavour for a way to delay the inevitable call of professional life. Apparently, on a whim, Knight scheduled an interview with a Japanese zip shoe manufacturer, Tiger a subsidiary of the Onitsuka Company. Presenting himself as the representative of an Ameri open fire distributor interested in selling Tiger shoes American runners, Knight told the businessmen of his interest in your product. Blue Ribbon Sports the advert Knight thought the moments when asked he represented was born.Tiger executives liked what they heard and Knight placed his first order for Tigers soon after. In 1964, Knight had sell $ 8,000 worth of Tigers and placed an order for more. Coach Bowerman and Knight worked together, but terminate up hiring a full-time salesman, Jeff Johnson. After reaching $ 1 meg in sales and riding the wave of success, Knight et. al. devised the Nike name and tag Swoosh in 1971. By the late 70s, Blue Ribbon Sports formally became Nike and went from $ 10 million to $ 270 million in sales.Katz (1994) describes the success through Nike stance within the matrix of the fitness revolution, the idea of exercise and game-playing ceased to be something that the clean American did for fun rather Americans returned to work as a heathen signifier of status. Clearly, the circumstances surrounding the change are not that simple, is one of the objectives of this project to discover other generators of popular attention to health. If Nike did not start the fitness revolution, Knight says, at least there. And we are confident that ran for a hell of a ride (Katz, 66).The 80 and 90 produce change magnitude profits as Nike began to assume the appearance of athletic giant, rather than the underdog of old. ad Age named Nike the 1996 Marketer of the Year, citing the ubiquitous swoosh was more recognized and covet by consumers than any other sports brand certainly brand (Jensen, 12/96). That same year, Nikes revenues were a staggering $ 6. 74 billion. Expect sales of $ 8 billion in fiscal 1997, Nike has targeted 12 billion in sales by 2000. And all from the back of a car. Few can fountainhead Nikes financial hegemony.But nearly $ 7 billion in revenues clearly begs the question, what sells th ese shoes? It is my contention that the power of Nike to sell comes from deep longings of cultural integration and sport individual achievement. These seemingly paradoxical desires collide in the hearts and minds of consumers and produce the unyielding zeal for Nike shoes and clothing. Unfortunate effects of this heat can be found in the killings of Nike apparel in 1991, and the profusion of Nike collectors and websites knowing around the companys products. See list of web pages in the Works Cited page) Nike appeals to these disparate elements of Americans personalities through an advertising philosophy that is at once simple and sublime. Furthermore, the fare of Nike high-level athletes promoting their products appeal to countless ages and creeds as a way to see and emulate their sports heroes. These forces act powerfully upon the individual consumer, but we must not lose sight of the cultural context in which the person moves.