I spent last Friday night like most girls in their 20′s do, sitting on the couch, watching CNBC, and taking notes. (Joking- I do realize that most girls in their 20′s are not spending their Friday nights watching CNBC!)  Anyway, I stumbled across a show called Swoosh! Inside Nike .  This peaked my interest for many reasons.  First, is that I love anything Nike.  When I was in college our athletic teams were sponsored by Nike.  After about the third day of triple sessions we would walk off the soccer field and into the locker room only to find bags and boxes of Nike stuff for each of us.  Uniforms, t-shirts, warm up suits, cleats, running sneakers…you name it, we got it.  It was like Christmas in August and definitely the only good thing about preseason.  Second, I have always been interested in successful businesses and how they market themselves.  Being an undergrad major in business marketing, it is always interesting to hear the history of how these now mega-companies got their start and their early marketing strategies.  Third, since I am now starting my own business it is clear how important branding is on so many levels.  So, why not learn from a company that has just about mastered their branding, marketing and advertising.  Here are some of the strongest points from the show:

1.  Logo.  The most iconic part of Nike is their logo.  The swoosh.  The swoosh is identifiable around the world.  The best part is that Nike paid $35 dollars for this logo.  So it isn’t necessarily how expensive it was to create your logo, or even what it looks like, but rather your placement of it and how identifiable it is. 

2.  Advertising.  Nike has also mastered what they call “iconic advertising”.  Using strong words and messages to get their point across and evoke emotion.  We all know “Just do it” and can all relate to that slogan.  The “Just do it” makes us think that us regular people can be just like those athletes we see on TV.  By being part of Nike we can be empowered like the athletes that endorse the Nike product. 

3.  “The Deep Dive”  Nike employs a three part system to stay ahead in the industry.  This Deep Dive can be used in any industry, including photography.  The Deep Dive is:

1. Research the playing field;
2. Create a strategy; and
3. Fiercely throw resources at it.

This seems simple enough but has been the master plan behind everything that Nike does.  When any new idea or issue comes up, using the Deep Dive, Nike formulates and executes a plan.  I believe that if this Deep Dive works for them, it can work for me too.

So, by focusing on logo placement and identification, evoking emotion through advertising (by using our  images), and formulating a plan and executing, our small businesses can too achieve greater things without necessarily needing lots of money or incredible resources.  With a little hard work and perserverence we too can be branding geniuses like Nike.  So what are we waiting for?