Brand Insights: Nike

Every year they try. Every year they fail. Reebok International has been aggressively trying to push Nike from the image throne for three years. Its goal was to be number one by 1995. Nike spent $250 million to remain the legend, while Reebok took a big jump to $100 million and third-place Adidas spent $210 million. Nike was still the reigning king.
As is obvious, the spending-versus-revenue ratios indicate no direct relationship between advertising spending and stature. Adidas almost matched Nike's spending but remained below both Nike and Reebok in revenues. In 1995, Nike's sales rose to $3.87 billion. Reebok and Adidas enjoyed $2.8 and $2.13 billion in sales. While Adidas's spending almost equals that of Nike, its revenues are only 60 percent those of the image giant. If spending were all it takes, we would expect Adidas to be at least in second place and climbing.

Nike is the image athletic shoe. In the beginning, Nike was not an international giant. When it was still an unknown company, its famous "swoosh" logo was created by a design student for a token fee. The famous logo has become so valuable to Nike that the happy student received shares in the now giant company for her image-contribution – years after she created the symbol. And TV spots now feature the Nike swoosh without even the name to identify it. This example demonstrates the true power of Persona. Nike has been able to create this brand image with thougthful execution…….example to the fact that brands are not built overnight!!