Mallory Meiners mrmeiner@go.olemiss.edu 03/01/13
Group Assignment 2 Nike is well known for their excellent sneakers and sport apparel, however they have been linked to a series of scandals due to their choices of athletic endorsers. Over the past decade they have promoted their products via high-profile athletes who have inspirational stories. The video reflects on Nike’s decisions with endorsing athletes who have ended up not being the upstanding citizens the world perceived them to be. Tiger Woods, Oscar Pistorious, and Lance Armstrong are just a few of the people mentioned who have “fallen from grace,” as the video, stated. It is an unfortunate situation for Nike because they could not have predicted that these athletes were going to mislead everyone. The world has come to relate their brand to these athletes and now their scandals as well. In the video, the Matthew mentions how Nike is going to have to worry about who the next athlete they choose to endorse and what could possibly happen in the future with that person. It is not known if Nike has made bad choices or if they just have had bad luck. Unfortunately for them, it is a little bit of both because they have selected these athletes due to their fame and glory. The attitudes of the public are indifferent. Nike has chose to use this marketing scheme for over a decade now and have made a large amount of money selling their products to the consumers and also selling the belief that wearing their sneakers is the best choice, because of the athletes they have chosen. Certain people may look down upon Nike due to these scandals and their choices of people they chose to model and promote their brand. These once known role models have put a damper on Nikes overall impact on society because it is making their company seem like a lie. Consumer attitude is based upon people, products, services, and brands. The people they have chosen to endorse have associated their brand, products, and services with them; therefore, people will always remember and associate these people with them. The consumers may have these attitudes towards Nike because they feel like they have been mislead and cheated. The world has put these people on a pedestal due to Nike’s advertising. After Tiger Wood’s dishonorable acts, many companies unsponsored him to show they too are offended, however, Nike chose to hold on to him. This can cause consumers to believe that Nike is not taking his actions seriously.
Not all of Nike’s consumers will be affected by these scandals because they believe in their products. Nike is known for their great sneakers and clothing, so the consumer’s who choose not to correlate these events with Nike will continue to enjoy their products. Attitude resistance is another reason why consumers will continue shopping at Nike because it is very hard to change the attitude of a person towards a product that they have grown to love and use frequently. The consumers who can simply look at the situation as a mere-exposure effect will most likely become bored of the media pairing Nike and the scandals together and continue to shop at Nike. The consumers may have developed “thin slice judgments” and have based their opinions off of what the media says rather than how they feel about their products. These consumers feel too strongly about the lies and wrongful sponsoring and will choose to avoid Nike. Because of classical conditioning, people have been have been associating the scandals with Nike. The repeated pairing of athletes and Nike has become so overused that it can be difficult to not associate these things together. If this were Nike’s first time endorsing an athlete who committed any wrong act, perhaps then these
