Despite Cutting Discounts, Nike Sells More Products After Colin Kaepernick Ad


09/21/2018



The very controversial decision by sport equipment maker Nike to make use of controversial sports personality of Colin Kaepernick in an ad campaign recently, that drew very sharp criticisms form people – which also included United States President Donald Trump, apparently appears to have been very successful.
 
The free publicity, all be it in the form of negative publicity, came to be of advantage of the company resulting in a quick boost in its online sale following the campaign. The share price of the company also hit a record high last week.
 
The success of the ad campaign has been supported by a research by Thomson Reuters. Based on the data of online sale of Nike, the report claimed that there was a 61 per cent increase in the amount of sold-out merchandise in the 10 days after the campaign was launched compared to which the company was selling before the launch of the campaign.
 
According to the report, the company managed to reduce the number if items that it was selling on its e-commerce platform by almost a third soon after it launched the controversial ad campaign. And yet the company has done well.
 
“Although the initial ad might have caused negative reaction among investors, Nike maintained its product pricing structure, offered less discounting and sold out of 61% more merchandise since the ad began running,” the researchers wrote.
 
The face of the campaign, Kaepernick has become well known in the US and abroad because he is amongst the first of the NFL players to kneel down during the playing of the American national anthem to protest against the racial injustice prevalent in the U.S. This form of protest has been considered to be very controversial and has been viewed to be a protest against the U.S. military and police by many conservatives.
 
Nike’s decision to make Kaepernick the face of the new campaign was severely criticised by President Donald Trump which has also been a long time critic of the act of Kaepernick. The ad campaign was launched on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the famous slogan “ “Just Do It” which has become synonymous with Nike.
 
“Nike is getting absolutely killed with anger and boycotts,” Trump had tweeted a couple weeks ago.
 
Following the announcement of the Kaepernick ad campaign, there was a fall of 3 per cent initially in the shares of Nike. But since then, it has been predicted that the value of the brand exposure given to the company through media coverage was at $163.5 million.
 
 “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything” were the words that were placed over the face of Kaepernick had become very popular in the US. 
 
But the initial reaction to the ad campaign by Nike consumers was not encouraging at all as they cut Nike logos from their clothing and burned down the company shoes. There were several universities who refused to allow Nike to sell their apparel on their campus while the purchasing of Nike products by clubs that use public recreation facilities were banned by local politicians.
 
(Source:www.fortune.com & www.theglobepost.com)