The Importance of Risk Taking in Marketing

The Commercial
The commercial that was released is meant to be an inspirational message telling the
audience to follow their dreams, promoting Nike’s “Just Do It” slogan.  It conveys the idea
that anyone can find success if they follow their dreams, whether they face disability, have
had a rough upbringing, or simply are reaching for a seemingly unattainable goal.  The
advertisement features former NFL player, Colin Kaepernick, voicing over the commercial,
and at the end the camera zooms in on him and he states, “believe in something, even if it
means sacrificing everything”.  The reason why this ad sparked so much controversy is
because of Kaepernick’s 2016 protest during the playing of the national anthem at the start
of an NFL game. Rather than stand for the flag, Kaepernick kneeled during the performance
to protest racial inequality in the United States.  While many in the left wing praised
Kaepernick for his bravery and heroism, plenty conservatives also responded by calling him
out as being unpatriotic, a traitor to America, and Trump even called the act the same as
“spitting on the flag”. The release of this commercial effectively reintroduced the outrage and
debate across the United States, and coming from a huge company such as Nike made it
huge news and talked about all over social media and the internet.

The Response
As expected, the commercial faced huge amounts of backlash upon its release to the
public.  While many thought that Nike was making a profound and progressive statement,
others were in outrage that the company would support Kaepernick and his previous
decisions.  All throughout the country people were using #BoycottNike to their social media
posts, and multiple viral videos were released of people burning all of their expensive Nike
shoes and apparel.  Despite the huge population of people who were against the
commercial, Nike stood by the risk that they took and refused to say the commercial was a
mistake. While many analysts thought that the controversy would result in Nike losing a
great deal of money, within only a few weeks, the commercial had spurred a 61% increase
in merchandise being sold and the Nike stock has since gone up 7%.  

Take the Risk
When Nike made the commercial, they knew exactly the kind of response they were going to
receive, and they also knew that their profit would either greatly increase, or greatly
decrease, and yet they still went through, took the risk, and stood by that decision.  Risk
taking is something that is important in order to be a great marketer. With every great risk
comes that chance of failure that you need to be prepared for, but at the same time, the
potential benefit is almost always worth it.

Written by Nick Giordano