After the release of Nike's new campaign with Colin Kaepernick, many
decided to boycott the global brand. Numerous videos were uploaded
online of people burning their Nike shoes and cutting up their Nike
apparel.
Kaepernick’s “Just Do It” ad, which bears the slogan “Believe in
Something. Even if it means sacrificing everything,” seems, on its face,
to be more politically divisive than any campaign in Nike’s
history—praised from the left for giving Kaepernick a platform to
continue speaking out against police brutality and racial injustice, and
vilified from the right by the likes of Sean Hannity, who remains
determined to cast Kaepernick as unpatriotic and disrespectful. In
reality, however, Nike’s standing with Kaepernick has nothing to do with
politics and everything to do with the fact that he has transformed
himself into an icon. For Nike, Kaepernick’s cause is simply good
business—if it were anything other than a cynical branding exercise, the
company would surely not be simultaneously doing business with the NFL,
which has done its best to stifle Kaepernick’s protest movement.
President Donald Trump has made his name from sales of everything
from suits to steak, but this is his first time selling sneakers — even
though that probably wasn’t his intention.
Nike sales jumped by 31
percent after debuting quarterback-turned-activist Colin Kaepernick as a
new company spokesman — and market observers say the president’s public
displays of anger may have backfired by drawing more attention to Nike.
“Controversial
endorsements tend to generate a lot of hype,” said Marshal Cohen, chief
industry analyst for retail at The NPD Group, a market research firm.
“These kinds of statements and brand partnerships make for a big impact
on brand selling.”
According to data from Edison Trends, online
sales of Nike products jumped 31 percent between the Sunday before and
the Tuesday after Labor Day, nearly double last year’s 17 percent
increase over the same time period. Kaepernick is part of Nike’s 30th
anniversary of its “Just Do It” tagline. A TV ad narrated by Kaepernick debuted Thursday on the opening night of the regular NFL season.
“Nike is a company that is focused on younger generations and
expanding their market. This ad did that for them,” said Hetal Pandya,
co-founder of Edison Trends.
But if Trump is no stranger to
controversy, neither is Nike. The company’s decision to use Kaepernick,
who is currently claiming the league colluded against his employment in a
lawsuit, isn’t the first time the athletic apparel company has used its brand platform to advocate for a cause or push for social change. Previous ad campaigns have taken on AIDS, gender inequality, disabilities, religion, and other cultural flashpoints.
“The
brand has a rich history of positioning itself as a progressive company
that connects with its customers through conflict constructive
conflict,” Pandya told NBC News.
Experts say that by continuing to insert himself into the ongoing
debate regarding NFL players kneeling during the national anthem, Trump
may have inadvertently helped out Nike by criticizing the brand on
Twitter.
“Nike is getting absolutely killed with anger and
boycotts,” Trump wrote last week, and video clips of people destroying
Nike products quickly went viral. But contrary to Trump’s assertion,
while calls for a boycott across social media dragged down the company’s
stock immediately after the news broke, share prices have since
recovered.
Drafting Kaepernick as a spokesman has more upside than downside risk
for Nike, analysts say, because the company knows its customer base
well. Market research from YouGov Plan and Track shows that 46 percent
of Nike customers have a positive view of Kaepernick, compared to 34
percent of all Americans. YouGov also found a 10 percentage point
increase in the number of Nike customers versus the general public who
say a company should take a stand on social issues and have a “moral
message.”
“The
company understands societal trends and its customer demographics
better than most,” Edison Trends’ Pandya said. “It’s a calculated risk,
but one that our data shows has had a positive impact so far in terms of
online sales.”
“In this case, controversy is a good thing to
their target market,” NPD’s Cohen said. “Consumers who are most likely
to shop online, and shop athletic apparel and footwear, are very much in
tune with the movement and the willingness for a mega-brand to stand up
against the establishment.”
Written by Martha C. White and Joshua Hunt