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Hi there - Jen here :)

If you’re like me, you stayed up too late watching the Super Bowl on Sunday (it ended at 4am here in the UK - I almost cried when it went into overtime lol).

Even if your favorite team wasn’t playing (go Bears) you probably saw a few commercials on LinkedIn and some pics of Taylor Swift celebrating.

(I’ll spare you any Super Bowl commercial hot takes, but this one was my favorite and one of the most talked about.)

In keeping with this week’s sports theme, today I’m unpacking how Nike used psychology to conquer the world of sports.

Founded in 1964, Nike started as a tiny distributor for Onitsuka Tiger running shoes with only $1200 in the bank.

Now it’s worth more than $165B.

Nike’s success is down to deeply understanding customers and  applying behavioral science and psychology to its experience - consciously or not.

Today you’ll learn:

• How Nike cracked sports communities with authenticity and trust

• How Parasocial Relationships and the Halo Effect grew the brand

• Why their “no products” marketing works so well

🧠 How Nike cracked sports communities with authenticity and trust

The story of Nike is really the story of two men — Phil Knight, its CEO, and Bill Bowerman, a legendary Olympic track coach.

Way before Nike existed, Bowerman was Phil Knight’s coach at the University of Oregon.

Obsessed with incremental improvements in running time, Bill Bowerman constantly experimented with the track team’s shoes.

And because Phil Knight was a mediocre runner, his feet became Bowerman’s testing ground.

The two men - united by a passion for running - founded Blue Ribbon Sports (later renamed Nike).

At first, Bowerman and Knight thought it would be easy to convince runners to use their shoes.

But it turned out to be much harder than either man anticipated because runners viewed them as sterotypical “dishonest salesmen.”

They knew they needed an authentic voice to help them build trust in the running community.

So using Bill Bowerman’s connections, Nike reached out to track stars - people like long distance Olympian and running legend Steve Prefontaine - who could authentically build trust in the brand just by wearing its shoes.

The strategy was so successful that it became the launch blueprint for Nike in every sport - basketball, golf, football, tennis, and even streaming.

Even if they didn’t know it, Nike built its strategy on something called Authority Bias.

What is Authority Bias?

This principle says that people tend to trust and be persuaded by authority figures and experts.

When professional runners wore Nikes , Knight and Bowerman knew it would make their shoes must-haves for amateurs and hobbyists. 

Because amateurs would look at pros as authorities on what brands to trust.

CEO Phil Knight told Harvard Business Review that Nike’s first marketing strategy was dead-simple:

 🧠 How Parasocial Relationships and the Halo Effect Grew the Brand

In 1984, basketball legend Michael Jordan partnered with Nike to create his signature shoe, the Air Jordan.

Looking back now, Nike seems like an obvious choice for a shoe sponsorship.

But in the early 80s, when Jordan was shopping for a shoe partner, Nike was the underdog.

Fighting for marketshare and bleeding cash, they were an objectively worse choice compared to industry giants like Converse and Adidas.

Nike was Jordan’s last choice for a shoe partner, one that he had to be convinced by his mother to even consider.

Nike - to be frank - got lucky.

They bet the farm on Michael Jordan becoming a successful player that got more eyes on their shoes.

But they had no idea that Jordan and the Bulls would become a cultural phenomenon (much like the Kansas City Chiefs did this year).

But why did this work in the first place?

As with any celebrity-brand partnership, there are two psychological principles at play:

• Parasocial Relationships

• The Halo Effect

What is a Parasocial Relationship?

Parasocial Relationships are one-sided bonds that form between an audience and media personalities, celebrities, or fictional characters (even brand mascots) despite no actual interaction.

And when they’re used to endorse products and brands, they’re powerful levers for influence, persuasion, and sales:

• Celebrity endorsements can influence purchase intent and brand trust: A 2020 study found that the stronger the bond a person felt with an influencer, the more likely they were to purchase promoted products and trust brands the influencer endorsed.

• Celebrities can influence opinions about products: Research shows that how people feel about certain products often matches how their favorite TV or movie characters feel about those same products.

• Endorsements can even influence risky behaviors: Another study found that Parasocial Relationships made women more likely to indulge in unhealthy or risky behaviors (like buying alcohol) when an influencer they trusted endorsed the brand.

When people watched Michael Jordan play, they began developing a parasocial relationship with the star. That made them much more likely to buy anything he endorsed, including his Nike shoes.

(It’s also why so many Super Bowl ads rely on well-known faces.)

What is the Halo Effect?

The Halo Effect says that one feature of a person, product, or business can be so appealing that it makes us believe its flaws aren’t really so bad.

In the case of people, studies have shown that thinking someone is attractive can make you believe that they’re more honest, more intelligent, or more kind.

Even just being taller than average can make people think you’re more skilled than you are.

It’s not to say that tall or attractive people can’t be smart, funny, and honest. It’s just that the Halo Effect of their looks forces people to give them the benefit of the doubt.

In his book, The Undoing Project, author Michael Lewis, described the “Halo Effect” just talking to a professional basketball player (average height 6’7” or 200cm) had on NBA scouts.

He wrote:

In the case of Michael Jordan and his Nike’s, Jordan’s talent, charm, and celebrity gave him an extremely powerful aura that sold lots and lots of shoes -

The Jordan brand is currently worth more than $10B.

🧠 Why Nike’s “no products” marketing works so well

From the earliest days of “Just Do It” Nike has created marketing that appeals to our emotions - not product specs.

This approach sets them apart from most other athletic companies.

While many other brands focus on product features or new technology, Nike bonds customers to its brand through the emotion of sport.

There’s science behind this approach  - a principle called Emotional Salience. 

What’s Emotional Salience?

When something is emotionally salient, it stirs our emotions. And when marketing is emotionally salient studies show we’re more likely to:

• Remember an ad

• Choose a product over a competitors’

• Pay attention to an ad and act on it

CEO Phil Knight put it this way: 

That’s why Steve Jobs once said you could sum up Nike’s entire marketing strategy in only two words: “No products.”

🧠 How to Market Like Nike

To use behavioral science and marketing psychology like Nike, start by asking yourself:

• Are we leveraging our customers’ communities in an authentic and trustworthy way? (Or are we using influencers to “spray and pray” TikTok and Instagram?)

• Are we using parasocial relationships to our advantage (ethically, of course)? Are we consciously building these relationships through partnerships or mascots?

• Is our marketing focused on product attributes, rational arguments, or trying to convince people that we’re the best? Or are we using emotion to connect with customers?

Read, Watch, Listen

• The psychology framework that makes the Rapha Cycling Club one of the world’s most effective loyalty programs [Read]

• The untold story behind why BLOCKBUSTER failed [Watch]

• Did That Online Sneaker Ad Entice You to Buy? It’s Hard for Marketers to Tell, via Kellogg Insight (Northwestern University) [Listen]

Until next time,
Jen

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