Consumers live and breathe the Nike "Lifestyle" approach

The previous blogs have focused on the social media marketing strategies of middle-range to smaller brands and their presence on social media. So, how should an already established billion-dollar brand approach social media? Nike is one of the most followed brands across all social media platforms and is the brand strategy that we will be discussing today.

Everyone knows about the brand Nike, its catchy tagline, what they sell, and what its swoosh logo looks like. With all this established awareness, what are they trying to get out of their social media presence? Increasing engagement is not needed nor is the company goal; Nike’s social media is used to build more connections with its audience and enforce the idea that Nike is not just a sportswear company, but a lifestyle. They encompass this lifestyle and community building through the 300+ social media platforms that they run, the celebrities they use to endorse their brand and the inspirational content in which they post. The Nike “lifestyle” can be described as passionate, active, determined, genuine, successful go-getters of the world and they look good wearing Nike while doing it.

Nike has different social accounts for different types of products they sell, like shoes, and different sports which they endorse like football, basketball, skateboarding, and more. They use these different platforms to create niche communities surrounding their brand and the specific products they target for each community. Within each community, Nike posts individuals that fit their “lifestyle” and that people would look up to as role models. For example, on the Nike Women’s Instagram, they posted Serena Williams and the back story and inspiration behind her entrance outfit into the U.S Open made by Nike designers. Part of Nike’s marketing strategy and reinforcing their “lifestyle” is by sharing vulnerable or empowering stories of usually well-known athletic figures like Cameron champ, Christiano Ronaldo, and Alex Morgan.

Nike uses this inspirational strategy to bring emotions and life into their content with hopes that this feeling transfers into the consumer’s view of the brand and its products. Creating emotional attachments and perspectives of the brand will in turn create loyal customers and a bigger advantage over its numerous competitors like under armor, Adidas, and more. All of their competitor brands use celebrities as endorsements as well, but Nike uses the emotional edge of their “lifestyle” personal brand to gain a marketing edge. This type of strategy is used not only with well-known figures but also within campaigns like the recent Nike M campaign showcasing the strength of Mothers and the identity struggle that comes with being a mother.

Since Nike has already established a large and loyal fan base, most of its social media is used to segment its target audience into digestible communities for deeper connections and rapport building with its customers but is also used to help sift through what products it should market to people within their different communities. Nike uses dark posts for a majority of its individual product marketing on social media. Dark posts are advertisements that showcase individual products that each consumer might be interested in buying. Which Nike social media platforms you follow or what communities you are a part of can determine which ads are targeted to you. This is a good way of showcasing how a brand can recycle the data from their social media interactions with consumers for target product use and advertisement.

As a brand with an already established loyal fan base, Nike started social media marketing with an advantage. The company only needs to transfer its content, image, and message to social media and the loyal customer would follow. The main goal was adapting their content to social media, creating communities within their brand, and establishing a unique edge on their competition through emotional and inspirational content and encompassing the Nike “lifestyle”.

Have you been subject to the emotional appeal strategy of Nike? What is your consumer perspective of Nike? What Nike communities are you a part of and how do you think it affects your targeted ads? Start this discussion in the discussion tab above!

Source: How Nike became a Leader on Social Media (unmetric.com).