Book Review: Shoe Dog

Just finished reading Shoe Dog, a memoir of Phil Knight, the man behind Nike. It's quite a fascinating read, and Phil has opened his heart and his life to the readers and shared in complete honesty all his mistakes, his fears, his vulnerabilities. This makes you be a part of Phil’s journey rather than reading from a distance about an accomplished person. 

Some interesting facts that you will read in this book are: 

• Phil Knight’s travel to Japan as well as his climb to Mount Fuji.
• How Phil had a shoe selling business for many years before the #Nike brand came into existence. 
• How the name Nike got formed and who was the person behind this name. 
• How the Nike Swoosh logo got made and why Phil decided to go forward with it, despite not liking it much. 
• The way Nike worked on #innovation and how it overtook Adidas and Puma who were giants when Nike was starting out. 
• Phil’s personal life, how he met his wife, his relationship with his parents and his own love for sports. I must say that the last 40 pages of the book are just brilliant and come as the perfect icing on the cake.

GONG XI FA CAI

Today, #China celebrates its Chinese New Year and it is a tradition and custom in China for elders to hand over red envelopes filled with money (known as "hongbao") to children for good luck. 

Taking this consumer insight, #Nike has come up with an amusing twist to this tradition in their new ad, which shows a funny chase between an aunt trying to give her niece the red envelope and the niece trying to avoid it as much as possible.

This film by the ad agency Wieden+Kennedy has been shot quite well, covering various places like fields, rooftops, festivals to show the chase and has been built on a strong consumer insight.

The role and integration of the product into the tradition and #culture is seamless, without showing any disrespect. It just reminds the audience to celebrate, while having fun and staying active.

What really brings a smile to the face is the surprise at the end. Enjoy this wonderful film.

NIKE - SUBSCRIPTION BUSINESS MODEL

#Nike has launched a subscription model for children between the ages of two to 10, where kids can get anywhere between four pairs to 12 pairs of sneakers every year, depending on the subscription model that the parents take.

I think this is a brilliant #marketing strategy and business model because I see the following benefits:

1. Nike makes lives easier for parents as they don't have to go to shop for sneakers regularly for their growing kids. 

2. Once subscribed for a year, kids stay only with Nike, thereby blocking the entry of any other brand in their lives.

3. By giving exposure and experience to kids with Nike at a young age, they are trying to convert them into #brand loyalists at a young age so that even when they grow up, they only think of Nike as their brand of choice.

4. Parents who are not wearing Nike today may convert or shift to Nike when they see their kids comfortable and happy in their sneakers.

5. Once Nike tests and learns from this #business model, it can easily replicate it across other age groups - teenagers, adults and scale it up across geographies. This will open a new business frontier for Nike.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/08/12/business/nike-sneaker-subscription/index.html?__twitter_impression=true

WORLD'S 100 MOST VALUABLE BRANDS

The infographic below shows the brand value of the 100 most valuable brands in 2019 as released by #Forbes. 

As is evident, it is the tech companies that are ruling the roost in 2019, combining for a total of a mammoth $957 billion in brand value. Other than #Facebook, each of them have grown at a healthy double-digit since the year before. hashtag

#Financial services and #automotive sector are at a distant second and third ranking after #technology, and the traditional and reliable consumer goods sector comes in at the fourth rank.

hashtag

#brand #brandvalue #CPG #tech #valuation #billion

WHEN YOU ARE BORN TO DO IT, JUST DO IT!

What powerful lines to end an ad like this! 

Of course, it has to be #Nike, but here are the details that make it more important: This ad from South Africa features athtlete Caster Semenya, who is a 2016 Olympic gold medallist at the 800m events. In 2009, when she won the World Championships, questions were raised about her sex, resulting in her having to stay out of competition for eight months till everything got cleared. It was not easy after that as there were more controversies hampering her training quite regularly. But, she did not give up and she came back with a bang! On 16 April, 2016 Semenya became the first person to win all three of the 400 m, 800 m, and 1500 m titles at the South African National Championships, setting world leading marks. On 20 August, 2016, she won the gold medal in the women's 800 metres at the Rio Olympics with a time of 1:55.28.

This ad won a #CannesLions Bronze this year for the agency Wieden Kennedy Amsterdam and there is no surprise why.