Social Listening via Nike

    The brand that I selected was Nike. When it comes to Nike and social media, most people talk about Nike when they are posting things about shoes or about other athletes. In addition, when going through and reading some of the comments on both Instagram and TikTok, it seems as though people have a pretty positive attitude toward Nike. There were a couple posts here and there in which Nike received some hate comments, but overall people were positive in terms of commenting on posts. However, what interested me most about Nike was that they are an athletic brand, and I love sports. Nike does sports and they have great sports equipment and gear that I have used throughout my athletic career.

    When trying to discover Nike’s value proposition, I stumbled upon a website called Cleverism which described Nike’s four primary value propositions as accessibility across the world and across many different types of footwear and apparel, strong innovation in attempt to continue to design cutting-edge products, customization to personalize aspects of their various types of apparel, and finally a strong brand/status. I would say I have to agree that this is Nike’s value proposition because when buying Nike apparel, it comes with the status, the customization, and the accessibility because they reach so many parts of the world.

To look at what people are saying, we will start on Instagram. Nike created a post about mothers and pregnant mothers being active, and had a caption that stated “To every mother, everywhere: you are the toughest athlete.” There were both some positive and negative comments, but one comment said “Frankly, this video is disturbing. MOST of the pregnant women are naturally fatigued all the time from carrying extra water and a baby inside their bodies, it’s temporary and it’s okay. They don’t need to feel guilty or lazy.” I don’t know too much about pregnant women and if it’s healthy to workout or not, but I think Nike is trying to reach all types of people and they want to empower all people to workout and be active so I do not see anything wrong with them supporting pregnant women and mothers. For the next post, Nike shows a video of some of its sponsored athletes working out and captions it with “Knowing what to do is one thing, knowing why you do it is everything.” One person commented on this post saying “My childhood has been, and always will be, my why.” This comment shows how Nike really is connecting with its fans and showing how athletes who complete at a high level are driven by similar things as every day people. The final post I will reference is one of Naomi Osaka and how she won another major title in tennis, and the caption is a quote of Osaka’s that says “One of the greatest things a person can do is inspire others . One women commented, “This quote is beyond true as well. May we all find the magic within us to inspire others.” I think this comment shows that many of Nike fans not only connect with Nike, but they connect with many of Nike’s sponsored athletes. This gives Nike an edge over many apparel company’s because they have the best athletes in the world.

Now we will take a look at what Nike is trying to sell or promote. To begin with, they are trying to sell all of their apparel, such as shoes, shirts, hats, athletic gear, and all the other things they sell. In addition to the physical products they are selling, they are trying to promote all the activist movements of today’s day and age. They aim to promote those who are overweight, all women, black lives matter, combatting Asian hate, and many others. Nike aims to promote movements to help connect with those around the world, people of all shapes and size, and people with any disabilities.

To promote all of their products and messages, they use storytelling more than anything, usually with the use of sponsored athletes. They also use social media as a major tool to market to the world. They have many sponsored athletes such as Kevin Durant, Serena Williams, and Tiger Woods, and they tell their stories of how they cam to stardom and use that to tell everyone else anyone can become a star and anything is possible. They truly attempt to instill an impression of inspiration and innovation in everyone that hears of their brand. They also use people of a certain race, gender, disability, or some kind of genre to support a movement or message. For example they used an overweight roller skater to show anyone can go out and get exercise doing whatever it is that makes them feel comfortable and confident. While using regular people to help support big movements and messages, they send a message of empowerment and togetherness that also pushed their brand to be the best. Finally, they utilize their social media platforms well by posting the right kind of content on the right social media platforms similar to what Gary V talks about in his book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook. This help give consumers on these social media platforms the content they are looking for, and they don’t feel pressured to buy anything that Nike is selling, but rather they connect with Nike’s message and it carries much farther than a regular advertisement.

In my opinion, the marketing challenge facing Nike is that of politics. Nike has to always be on their toes and be ready for shifts in movements and politics to keep their customers happy. When overweight women start to feel like they are not respected, Nike needs to make statements about and create products surrounding this movement or else they will be criticized. If Nike did not stand up and support the BLM movement, they would have been heavily criticized. If they did not support the recent Asian hate movement, they would have been criticized one again and would have lost customers.

When looking back on their social media efforts, they do not respond often to customers. On one post, one person had a complaint about a package and Nike suggested they go to their website and constant them in their area, but other than that I did not see Nike respond to anyone’s comments. I do not think Nike needs to respond nor should they respond because of how politics are these days and how on edge people seem to be. Nike could make one comment on a comment that could have one intention, but everyone else could take it a whole other way and Nike could be heavily criticized. Nike has built such a large brand that responding to comments and customers will typically hurt them more than it would help them.

If I were the brand manager, I would respond to a few comments, but only positive ones. I would want to show the world that our brand supports positivity but is also not too big to respond to every day people on social media. I wouldn’t respond in any certain way, but just responding to a few people every post will show them the brand I have created cares about all people, and is not just about the money.

In doing this assignment, I have learned that if you want to make an impact and reach people via social media, no matter the size of you brand, you have to be making content and posting almost every day, and you have to keep up with all the trends and the world news. It is not easy using social media to market, but when done right, it can be the best kind of marketing.