For Tiger Woods's Sponsors, It's Wait and See†

If Scandal Looks Likely to Create Long-Term Fallout, Deals Could Be Allowed to Lapse

Wall Street Journal, December 10, 2009 — As the din over Tiger Woods's car accident and alleged extramarital affairs grows louder, most of the golfer's corporate sponsors appear to be taking a page from the sports-marketing playbook: Wait to gauge any long-term fallout from the scandal and consider letting contracts lapse when they come up for renewal.

Getting Kicks by Designing Your Own†

Keds and Other Brands Ask Regular Folk to Create Products—and Market Them

Wall Street Journal, December 10, 2009 — EmailPrinter

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. Text .Facebook, Twitter, and other social media are helping clothing brands reach out and touch us right where it counts: in our hungry little egos.

Increasingly, brands are inviting consumers inside the design studio for a "D.Y.O.", or design-your-own, fashion experience. Regular people can create unique Nike and Converse shoes, for instance, and display them in the brand's galleries, alerting their friends on Twitter or Facebook

Now Keds is taking things a step further—allowing consumers to design their own Keds shoes and then set up stores and sell them—at both retail and wholesale.

CEO Mark Parker works on keeping Nike cool

USA Today, December 7, 2009 — Nike is finally learning a move that comes naturally to most athletes but has eluded The Swoosh for decades: the pivot.

Nike is changing directions to go places it's never gone.

Marketing Evolution: Once More With Meaning

CMO Magazine, November 13, 2009 — There is no question that the chief marketing officer (CMO) role has been a crucible of corporate pressure since the job was first spawned in the mid-1990s. Marketing is the most visible expression of company strategy, customer satisfaction and corporate spending. With the accelerating changes in consumers’ media and buying habits, each of these areas is in flux. As a result, many CMOs are hired in or promoted up into the role and immediately assigned as “change agents.” The question is—Change what?

Why It's Time to Do Away With the Brand Manager†

P&G, Unilever Among Those Embracing New Roles in Social Media Age

Advertising Age, October 12, 2009 — Managing a brand has always been a slightly odd concept, given that consumers are the real arbiters of brand meaning, and it's become increasingly outmoded in today's two-way world. That's why a new report is going to recommend changing the name "brand manager" to "brand advocate," and fundamentally changing marketer organizations in response to the onset of the digital age.

Gatorade Quietly Aims to Revive Brand†

Wall Street Journal, January 7, 2009 — Gatorade is looking to jump-start sales by keeping its mouth shut.

For about a week, the PepsiCo sports drink has been running teaser television, print and online ads that ask: "What's G?"

The ads are part of a big rebranding effort for the Gatorade brand that includes a redesigned package and, according to a person familiar with the matter, a Super Bowl commercial. PepsiCo is trying to reach consumers beyond sports nuts to help reverse the brand's weak sales performance.

For One Production Company, It’s All About the Power of Storytelling

New York Times, November 17, 2008 — “TELL to sell,” once a mantra on Madison Avenue, is making a comeback as marketers seek to engage consumers with compelling stories rather than peddle products in hit-and-run fashion with interruptive advertising like 30-second commercials. A newcomer to the ranks of what are called brand storytellers, which include agencies like 42 Entertainment and Story Worldwide, is being formed by Epoch Films, a company that produces commercials for advertisers like Apple, Nike and Procter & Gamble as well as films like the quirky 2005 comedy “Junebug.”

Nike's Penney Deal Is Budget-Retail Bid†

Wall Street Journal, November 11, 2008 — Nike Inc. said it has entered a deal with retailer J.C. Penney Co. to sell a new line of shoes from its Converse brand, a move that will puts the maker of high-end sportswear more deeply into the budget retail market.

How Nike's Social Network Sells to Runners

The Nike+ site is drawing hordes of runners, and its success may hold lessons for brand building on the Web

BusinessWeek, November 6, 2008 — Next Issue

After joining nikeplus.com, Seattle's Winters was inspired to run 50-mile races John Keatley

Nike's Olander at first didn't foresee the marketing power of Nike+ Lee Emmert

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Nike (NKE) is winning a new game that other corporations, from Coca-Cola (KO) to Verizon (VZ) to General Motors (GM), have tried unsuccessfully to play: building brand loyalty via online social networking.

In the two years since it launched Nike+, a technology that tracks data of every run and connects runners around the world at a Web site, nikeplus.com, Nike has built a legion of fans. In August,... continue reading