Celebrity Endorsements and Nike's Brand: A Comprehensive Analysis

This case study investigates the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements in enhancing Nike's product branding. It examines the requirements for securing celebrity endorsements within Nike and analyzes the impact of these endorsements on brand recognition, credibility, and profitability. The research utilizes secondary data and qualitative analysis to explore how celebrity endorsements, particularly through long-term contracts with athletes like Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James, and Michael Jordan, contribute to increased brand awareness and sales. The study concludes that celebrity endorsements are a valuable strategy for Nike to connect with customers, increase brand visibility, and ultimately drive financial success.

Case study of Nike To
what extent does celebrity
endorsement enhance
product brandings

Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................3
Overview of the project...............................................................................................................3
Project Aim, objectives and questions........................................................................................3
Rationale of the project...............................................................................................................3
2. LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................................................4
What are the specific requirements to have celebrity endorsements within Nike in one month?
.....................................................................................................................................................4
What is the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements in enhancing the product branding of
Nike within 6 months?................................................................................................................5
3. RESEARCH METHODS............................................................................................................6
4. MAIN FINDINGS.......................................................................................................................7
5. CONCLUSION, EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATION...............................................9
CONCLUSION...........................................................................................................................9
EVALUATION...........................................................................................................................9
RECOMMENDATIONS............................................................................................................9
Gantt Chart..................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

1. INTRODUCTION
Overview of the project
Celebrity endorsement is also known as the celebrity branding as it is a type of marketing
strategy and advertising campaign which considers the fame of celebrity and social status for
promoting service, product and brand to increase awareness about any issue (Singh and
Banerjee, 2018). In simpler language, it is a type of advertising that involves well known person
for helping to promote a product and service (Carrillat and Ilicic, 2019). The chosen organisation
for the current project is Nike. Nike is known as an American multinational corporation and it is
mainly engaged in designing, developing, sales and marketing accessories, footwear and
apparel.
Project Aim, objectives and questions
Aim of the project:
“To identify the importance of celebrity endorsements in enhancing the product
branding”: A study on Nike
Objectives of the project:
 To discern the specific requirements to have celebrity endorsements within Nike in one
month
 To identify the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements in enhancing the product branding
of Nike within 6 months
Questions of the project:
 What are the specific requirements to have celebrity endorsements within Nike in one
month?
 What is the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements in enhancing the product branding of
Nike within 6 months?
Rationale of the project
The main motive of conducting the current research it to take out the effectiveness of
celebrity endorsements in increasing the product branding. The main reason of choosing this
particular topic that is celebrity endorsements because it is increasing in this modern world.
Customers get more connected and attracted towards brands when companies use celebrity
endorsements.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review is known as the scholarly paper that holds great piece of information
about the whole research. The different types of secondary sources are: books, articles,
newspapers, journals etc.
What are the specific requirements to have celebrity endorsements within Nike in one month?
According to Zakari, Dogbe and Asante (2019), celebrity endorsements is the process of
advertising products and services in an organisation. So, Nike also uses celebrity endorsement to
advertise their products to the potential as well as their existing customers. Some of the
requirements to have celebrity endorsements within Nike include:
People like to see familiar faces on products: Celebrities are the people who are very
famous and are known by everyone. Nike uses celebrity endorsements to catch the attention of
viewers and their customers. Nike has signed Cristiano Ronaldo for advertising their different
products and mainly shoes of Nike are promoted through Cristiano Ronaldo. The fame of
football player attract large number of customers whether they are interested in sports or not.
Customers want to be like the celebrities: The success and fame stories of stars are
generally inspirations for the majority of their fans. It is an attempt for people to live the
lifestyles of celebrities. Cristiano Ronaldo posts image of the products on the social media pages
and company that is Nike take advantage of it by reaching more number of customers.
More number of people remember the advertisements after seeing it: Nike has
identified that when more number of people scroll through Youtube, magazines or watching TV
and see celebrities in the advertisement of Nike, they get attracted towards the product. In
simpler words, when they see celebrities they feel certain emotions. They then plan to purchase
products from the brand Nike and ultimately help in increasing the sales.
Hence, Nike could easily use celebrity endorsements to reach large number of customers
in a short period of time that is one month. The more number of advertisements continuously
advertised through popular celebrities, customers would get to know about the products of the
brand Nike. This would definitely facilitate in increasing the sale of different products of brand.

What is the effectiveness of celebrity endorsements in enhancing the product branding of Nike
within 6 months?
According to Ladkoo and Ismael (2018), Nike has been using famous and rich celebrities
for promoting the products. Great celebrity branding could help Nike to reap great number of
rewards. There are various benefits of celebrity endorsements while enhancing the product
branding.
Increases recognition of the brand: With the assistance of celebrity endorsements, Nike
could easily increase recognition of the brand and enhance the product branding because now
there are many platforms of social media. On these platforms fans make different fan pages
because this attracts large number of customers. It has been found out that people recall
advertisements that feature celebrities from sports or television industry. With the help of
celebrity endorsements, Nike can increase the level of promotion as people are always interested
to purchase those products that are generally used by their favourite celebrities. So, Nike could
easily increase the brand recognition within 6 months of period through celebrity endorsement.
Builds brand credibility and personality: With the current modern time, the attributes of
a celebrity endorsements have become affiliated with the products of Nike, they are planning to
endorse. The Real Madrid soccer star that is Cristiano Ronaldo signed a lifetime deal with Nike.
This lifetime endorsements could help Nike to enhance the product branding within 6 months.
Boosts profits of the company: Nike can have well-known celebrity for endorsing their
products because it is directly linked to the increasing financial income of the company. Nike
could easily increase the profits of the company within 6 months by promoting their products
through the face of famous celebrities. Apart from Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James and
Michael Jordan have lifetime deal with Nike. Customers feel more connected to the products of
company when it is promoted by their favourite stars.

3. RESEARCH METHODS
Research method is known as one of the important method to carry out appropriate and
reliable information. The research methodologies also assist in accumulating valid, authentic and
reliable information. Some of the methods that are used in the present project are explained
below with proper justification (Kalu, Unachukwu and Ibiam, 2019).
Primary and secondary data collection: An investigator has two kinds of methods for
accumulating information that are: primary and secondary data collection. Primary methods aim
at collecting first hand data on the other hand secondary methods focus on gathering published
piece of information (Nayak and Singh, 2021). Researcher has selected secondary method
because this type of information is easily available and could be easily gathered from sources
such as journals, articles, books, newspapers, publications etc.
Qualitative and quantitative choice: When research investigates an investigation, there
are two kind of choices to gather information with the choices such as qualitative and
quantitative. Quantitative research choice assists in gathering information that is in numerical
and statistical formats. On the other hand, qualitative research choice is about collecting
theoretical and text data in shorter time period. Researcher has chosen qualitative research choice
because it assists information that is not present in numerical manner (Trinh, 2018).
Data analysis: The current research is based upon qualitative so researcher has chosen
thematic analysis to analyse the accuracy and validity of qualitative and secondary information
in shorter span of time.

4. MAIN FINDINGS
Specific requirements to have celebrity endorsements
According to the gathered piece of information in the section of literature review it is
being identified that celebrity endorsements are known as procedure through which company
approaches famous start with the motive of advertising their different products and services.
Companies have determined that when they approach famous celebrities then this help them in
getting more number of customers as well as retaining their existing customers. There are certain
requirements that make Nike to use celebrity endorsements for the purpose of branding. One of
the biggest requirements related to celebrity endorsements is that people always like to see
famous people using the product of company so it is the best opportunity that Nike utilises to
reach large number of customers. Nike has contract with Cristiano Ronaldo and this star helps
company in product branding in the presence of different competitors (Huang, 2021).
It has been recorded in the section of literature review that general public always
remember the advertisements that have familiar faces or famous celebrities. Nike is utilising this
opportunity for their product branding and for this they are celebrity endorsements. Now, Nike
not only do product branding through television or print media through celebrities but they also
approaches the different media handles of celebrities for promoting the products. The different
social media channels could be YouTube, Instagram, Facebook etc. The company Nike has
lifetime contract with sports player like Cristiano Ronaldo and this works at higher scale but the
brand has also approached different fashion bloggers, influencers and vloggers for their product
branding. Another requirement that make Nike to use celebrity endorsement is that customers are
the people who always want to be like the celebrities and by promoting products through
celebrities, Nike could easily help customers live life like their favourite celebrities. It is
identified that Nike pay large amount of money to celebrities for promoting their products on the
social media handles of chosen celebrity. When celebrity post products they get large number of
likes and comments and this ultimately help Nike to increase their sales of different products.
Effectiveness of celebrity endorsements in enhancing the product branding of Nike
As per the gathered data in the chapter of literature review that Nike uses rich and famous
celebrities for product branding. Nike has been identified that celebrity branding helps in reaping
great number of returns as well as rewards. Nike has noticed that there is positive impact of
celebrity endorsements on the product branding of the company. Celebrity endorsements help

company to attract large number of customers because people always want to live their life like
their favourite celebrities. One of the greatest effectiveness of celebrity endorsements in Nike is
it helps in increasing the recognition of the brand because there are many fan pages of celebrities
that indirectly help company to increase the number of customers. With the popularity of famous
stars and celebrities company reaches more number of customers in shorter period of time. Nike
has made life time contract with Cristiano Ronaldo with the motive of product branding because
people get more attracted towards the company when some sports players or actors are
approached to advertise products (Fondevila i Gascón and et. al., 2018).
Another biggest benefit for the Nike is celebrity endorsement helps in product branding
and it is directly linked to the profits of company. The more celebrities are approached by
company the more Nike gets return. Michael Jordan and LeBron James are the famous
celebrities that have also signed life time contract with Nike because company is well aware
about the popularity of these people. When these people advertise the new range of shoes by
Nike, it creates great positive impact on the sales of that particular range of the shoe.

5. CONCLUSION, EVALUATION AND RECOMMENDATION
CONCLUSION
From the above gathered piece of information, it is summarised that celebrity
endorsement is one of the effective ways for company for accomplishing the objective of product
branding. In this the report, it has identified that company uses celebrity endorsements for
promoting products because people get attracted towards the products when they see their
favourite stars with the product. Hence, celebrity endorsements is the great way to promote
products and services.
EVALUATION
In this project it has been evaluated that Nike uses celebrity endorsements for the product
branding. The theory used by Nike is Schema Theory because it describes cognitive structure
that assists in representing one's expectations and beliefs about situations, persons and objects
(KWAJAFFA, BALAMI and DAUDA, 2021). The models related to celebrity endorsement is
source attractiveness because it is identified that company's use attractive celebrities because it
helps company to eliminate the unattractive counterparts.
RECOMMENDATIONS
From the above accumulated data it is recommended to Nike that should give more
importance to celebrity endorsements for product branding (Munyoro and Nhevere, 2019). They
should also assign different fashion bloggers and influencers at large scale for promoting
products because in this modern time these influencers have great power to influence people in
shorter period of time.
Gantt Chart
Gantt chart is known as the chart that assists in scheduling different activities of the
project with appropriate time period. It considers activities as well as time duration so that
researcher could easily attain defined aim and objectives (De Block and Vis, 2019).

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