A Protest Cancelled The Sale Plan, And Nike Had Already Tied Up With Capet Nick.

"What we buy is closely related to our self cognition and identity cognition." This is the theory that Americus Reid (Americus Reed) of the Walton School of business of University of Pennsylvania is studying. He believes Nike is once again involved in the "stand up war" and is well versed in this way.

Less than a year ago, Nike used Colin Capenik (Colin Kaepernick) as the Advertising Spokesperson of the 30th anniversary series of the company. The young people were more willing to endorse Capet Nick's protest against the American police brutality and racism mentality, which allowed the company to add a certain amount of publicity and marketing. This year, Nike cancelled the sale of Air Max 1 Quick Strike Fourth of July special edition shoes because of Capet Nick protest, and continued to choose the same line with Capet Nick. This time, Nike's behavior once again triggered a heated debate.

This shoe is Nike's preparation for celebrating the independence day of the United States, originally scheduled for sale in the United States on July 4th, at a price of $140. But according to the Wall Street journal, when the photos of the shoes began to spread online, Capet Nick contacted Nike and thought the image of the first American flag was printed on the heel of the shoe. It was a product of the slavery era. It was offensive and hoped that Nike could cancel the sale.

Nike then chose to cancel the sale of this shoe on various channels, including its official website, official apps and offline retail outlets. Nike also asked dealers to send the shoes they had received back to their headquarters, without much explanation. According to Nike's later statement, they recall shoes as a commercial activity. "Nike decided to recall Air Max 1 Quick Strike Fourth of July, worried that this shoe may unintentionally destroy the atmosphere of the National Day holiday."

The product of slavery, by Capet Nick, refers to the Betsy Ross Flag.

In 1870, William Canby (William Canby) submitted a paper to the Pennsylvania State Historical Association, saying that in June 1776, George Washington (George Washington) and others asked her grandmother Betsy Ross (Betsy Ross) to make the first American flag. There are 13 white stars on the flag, symbolizing 13 colonies in the United States when it was founded.

But the story was handed down through oral dictation. Scholars did not find enough historical documents to prove that Becky was the producer of the first American flag. Nevertheless, this story is still widely spread, and we habitually call the first American flag "Bei Ge Ross banner".

In that era, slavery was not abolished in the United States, and slave trade expanded rapidly. Legislators at that time even declared that slaves' children were lifelong slaves. Therefore, as a product of that era, some people will associate the flag with white supremacism, or even be used by some extremist organizations.

According to news website Mlive.com, in 2016, students in the Michigan school district waved "Betsy Ross flag" in a high school rugby match. The head of the school district later apologized publicly, saying the banner was a symbol of white supremacism for some people.

In fact, the flag has not been included in the list of hate marks of the Anti-Defamation League. Mark Picavich, director of the survey and Research Department of the United States, said in an interview with the Washington Post that "it is not a sign of hatred". (Mark Pitcavage) From this point of view, it is not reasonable to equate the flag completely with the white supremacy.

Therefore, most conservatives in the United States disagree with the recall action of Nike, which is considered to be too politically correct. The African American clergy alliance even sent a letter to Nike expressing its disappointment and opposition to the recall and hoped that Nike would break all ties with Capet Nick.

In addition, the recall, Nike not only had to bear the economic losses caused by the sale of tickets and the recall of shoes, but also had to face some negative effects of the follow-up.

Arizona governor Doug Dusi (Doug Ducey) issued a local time on July 2nd that Arizona would no longer provide any financial incentives to Nike. According to previous plans, Nike will spend $184 million 500 thousand to build an industrial park in Goodyear, a suburb of Feinikesi, and will create more than 500 jobs. Considering that the park can promote local economic development and create high paid jobs, the Arizona Commerce Bureau originally planned to give us $1 million from the Arizona competition fund as a reward. In addition, the town also promised that Nike could save nearly 1 million dollars in access fees.

But all of this went to pieces with Nike's recall. "Even without Nike, Arizona's economy is fine, and we don't have to curry favor with those companies that deliberately slander American history." Duxi said on his personal twitter.

In addition, although the shoe was not officially available, some of the shoes had already entered the secondary market before the recall of Nike. According to the data of Stock X, there are dozens of pairs of shoes sold on the platform, and the price is over $2000, much higher than its selling price. But not long after, Stock X CEO Scott Cutler (Scott Cutler) announced that the shoe should be on the whole platform, because that shoe does not match the company's values.

But public opinion is not one-sided, and others support Nike's action. California government official Gavin Newson (Gavin Newsom) issued a push, saying, "thank you (Nike) for doing a right thing. California welcomes those companies that best represent American values to do business here."

The position and attitude towards social and political issues such as racial discrimination have a great bearing on the parties of the speaker. Take the above remarks as an example, the strong objection to Nike's recall is Republican, while Nike's new president is a Democrat.

From the perspective of Party composition, the members of the Democratic Party are generally younger, and the races involved are more diversified, which is in line with the characteristics of Nike's core consumer groups. Therefore, Nike chooses to recall shoes, and also caters to the political inclination of its core consumer groups. In addition, to demonstrate their position on social and political issues can win a great deal of attention for brands. If handled properly, there will be a huge increase in brand marketing and publicity.

In addition, as a company with many star players, Nike also understands the importance of supporting its spokesmen. Since 1980s, sports brands have joined hands with their spokesmen. Sports brands such as Nike, Adidas, Reebok and CONVERSE are all important components of black culture. And young African Americans also like to imitate the stars at that time, such as Michael Jordan (Michael Jordan), Run-DMC band and the stars who are related to hip-hop culture. This connection is a valuable asset of these sports brands.

Therefore, keeping consistent with the stars of their own stars is an important part of marketing and product sales.

In addition to Capet Nick, LeBron James, Nike's spokesperson, often makes public noises about racial discrimination and so on. Shoes are one of his ways to show his attitude. (James) In the opening ceremony of the 2017-18 season, James wore a pair of all black James 15 generation to play. The "EQUALITY (equal)" character with golden embroidery on the heel attracted many media attention. Subsequently, Nike released 200 pairs of black matching and 200 full white matching "EQUALITY" special edition shoes. Taking into account the "confrontation history" between James and Trump, the marketing that Nike did with James's action was also ingenious.

Ever since Trump came to power, he has been playing the game with the stars. At the same time, consumers are reluctant to see the brands they support remain silent. DoSomething, a consulting firm, has published an article entitled "the young people regard the brand as its spokesman for social change". From March 2018, researchers surveyed 2461 young people aged between 13 and 25. Data show that over 76% of the Z generation will choose to buy or purchase the brand's product in order to support a brand's position. In addition, more than 67% of people will choose to stop buying or considering not buying the brand because of their brand stand and their values.

Therefore, by taking advantage of the company's 30th anniversary celebration of this time node, Nike chose Capet Nick as the Advertising Spokesperson of the 30th anniversary series and openly challenged Trump. Despite the strong rebound in the early days, some netizens launched a boycott of Nike's activities and even burned Nike's shoes and clothing products. But according to Fortune magazine, Nike's online sales increased by 31% in the two days after the advertisement was released. In addition, Thomson Reuters, a research firm, said Nike's merchandise sales increased by 61% during the Capet Nick's advertising campaign. These data also show that when Nike is doing marketing through social events, it grasps the core consumer tendency and has a positive addition to its product sales.

Perhaps it is because of this precedent that Nike resolutely chose to abandon the original sale plan because of the protest of Capet Nick, even if he suffered losses.