Communication Plan to Regain Stakeholders

BCOM 314, Section 001

October 11, 2018

Team #4
Jeff Cassell
Cassidy Cole
Rene Cota
Jacob Reed
Katie Vick
Spencer Wood
 Nike | 1

Table of Contents

Executive Summary……………………………………………………………………………...2
The Issue with Controversial Advertisements………………………………....………....2
Strained Customer Relationships…………....…………………………...……………....2
Recommendations to Improve Customer Loyalty………………………………………..2
Response to Our Stakeholders..…………………………………………………………..2
Nike Fails to Communicate “Believe” Campaign with Stakeholders………………………...3
Document Forecast……………………………………………………………...………..3
Stakeholders Disagree with Nike Advertisement………………………………………………3
Narrative Disconnect……………………………………………………………...……..3
Problem Regarding Key Stakeholders………………………………………………….3
Public Reacts to Kaepernick Advertisement…………………………………………………...3
Nike Chooses Colin Kaepernick……………………………………………………...…..4
Nike Values Customer
Loyalty…………………………………………………………....4
Nike Loses Loyal Consumers…………………………………………………………………....4
Opinion Leaders………………………………………...…………………………….......4
Consumers…………………………………………………………………………...……5
Communities……………………………………………………………………………....
5
Bridge the Gap with Pat Tillman Advertisement…………………………………………...…6
Bridging the Gap with Pat Tillman and Danielle Green…………………………….…..6
Mending Broken Stakeholder Relationships………………………………………….....7
Nike Premieres Pat Tillman Advertisement…………………………………………………....8
Implementing the Pat Tillman Advertisement………………………………………..….9
Nike Mends Relationships and Restores Customer Loyalty………………………………......9
References……………………………………………………………………………………….10
Appendix…....…………………………………………………………………………………...12
 Nike | 2

Executive Summary
Nike has excelled at maintaining our position as the athletic apparel and footwear industry
leader, but our new advertising campaign has weakened our relationships with key stakeholders.
We have identified that there is a disconnect between us and our opinion leaders, customers, and
communities due to the release of the Colin Kaepernick advertisement. Due to this threatening
disconnect, we have a strategic recommendation to mend these strained stakeholder relationships
and strengthen our customer loyalty.

The Issue with Controversial Advertisements

We have identified two key narratives surrounding our company, which were our internal
narratives and external narratives. For our internal narratives, we analyzed our company values,
our advertising strategies, and our financials. For our external narratives, we focused on the pay
discrimination lawsuit filed against us, the positive attributes of our advertising, and the conflicts
surrounding our advertisements. In doing so, we were able to identify a significant disconnect
between ourselves and our stakeholders pertaining to our advertising.

Strained Customer Relationships

The release of our 30th Anniversary Kaepernick advertisement resulted in strained customer
relations and decreased customer loyalty. Specifically, our opinion leaders, consumers, and
communities took offense to our use of controversial Colin Kaepernick. Opinion leaders
negatively influenced millions by attacking our brand through media platforms, consumers
lashed out and destroyed our products, and communities banned together in protest of our
company. Therefore, it is crucial we properly address these offended stakeholders in order to
successfully move forward in our campaign and secure our position as industry leader.

Recommendations to Improve Customer Loyalty

We are recommending an advertisement starring Pat Tillman that also features police officers,
firefighters, and veterans. This advertisement will serve to bridge the gap between our
stakeholders and Nike that was created with our Colin Kaepernick advertisement. Our
stakeholders will be able to better understand our campaign message with this advertisement,
which is to sacrifice whatever it takes to achieve your dreams.

Response to Our Stakeholders

We tend to spend a lot of money on our advertisements, which is why it is our main
recommendation is to release an advertisement with Pat Tillman and other veterans. This
document will outline our recommendation and the steps needed to make the advertisement
along with other important information including the budget and our return on investment that
we are expecting from our recommendation
 Nike | 3

Nike Fails to Communicate “Believe” Campaign with Stakeholders

We have identified that there is a disconnect between us and our opinion leaders, customers, and
communities due to the release of the Colin Kaepernick advertisement. Many of these
stakeholders disagreed with our use of Colin Kaepernick to represent the message we desired to
convey through this advertisement, being, “Believe in yourself, even if it means sacrificing
everything.” We lost both the trust and loyalty of these stakeholders, offending and angering
them.

Document Forecast
Nike has begun to work towards appealing to the key stakeholders that we lost in response to our
advertisement. We have found a way to bridge the gap that was created between us and our
stakeholders in response to this campaign. This document will address our stakeholders’
concerns toward our advertising strategy, and outline our recommendation and plan to regain
customers and repair relationships.

Stakeholders Disagree with Nike Advertisement

The first time researching our company’s narrative was to find out how we are representing
ourselves to the public versus how the public is perceiving us had given us three sets of
narratives. The first set of three were our internal narratives which is what we are doing in
representing ourselves to the public and included the values of Nike, our advertising strategies,
and our financials. The other set of three were our external narratives which were the public’s
perception of us and included a pay discrimination lawsuit, the success of our new advertising
campaign, and the conflicts with our advertising.

Narrative Disconnect
We then identified the disconnect between our internal and external narratives. The disconnect
was between our internal narrative of advertising strategies and the external narrative pertaining
to the conflicts with our advertising. Specifically, our Kaepernick advertisement for our 30th-
anniversary of our “Just Do It” campaign.

Problem Regarding Key Stakeholders

This disconnect led us to the problem concerning three of our key stakeholders: Opinion
Leaders, Consumers, and Communities. The problem was the amount of outrage and backlash
from much of the public regarding our advertisement of Colin Kaepernick for our 30th-
anniversary of the “Just Do It” advertising campaign.

Public Reacts to Kaepernick Advertisement

Based on our internal and external narratives, we identified a significant issue stemming from
our 30th-anniversary campaign, spearheaded by Colin Kaepernick. On September 5th, 2018, we
released this new advertisement campaign, aiming to inspire athletes to “believe in something,
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even if it means sacrificing everything.” For our company, Colin Kaepernick was the perfect
example of this, having sacrificed his NFL career for what he believed in most: protesting racial
injustice.

Nike Chooses Colin Kaepernick

Before his NFL games in 2016, Colin Kaepernick kneeled during The National Anthem, leading
to his release from the NFL. Kaepernick’s protests were deemed “unpopular” and
“disrespectful,” but his intentions of protesting social injustice were pure. At Nike, we strive for
progress in our athletes, as well as social progress in society. We believed that using Colin
Kaepernick would embody our campaign message, while fulfilling our purpose of “moving the
world forward using the power of sport” (Nike).

Nike Values Customer Loyalty

In addition to fulfilling our purpose of moving the world forward through sport, it is imperative
that our 30th Anniversary Campaign advertisement reinforces customer loyalty. We must focus
on customer loyalty because our increased competition is threatening our position as an industry
leader. Both Adidas and Under Armour are rapidly growing, while our earnings in North
America are steadily declining 7% in the past year (Nike, 2018). Preserving stakeholder
relationships and customer loyalty is crucial to our standing as industry leader, providing us with
a strong competitive advantage.

The Kaepernick advertisement was successful in reaching stakeholders because we received

$163 million in free advertising, but it also resulted in substantial outcry from the public
(Kochkodin, 2018). Featuring Kaepernick in our advertisement resulted in upset feelings of
Americans regarding his disrespect of the flag. While we anticipated this reaction, our
stakeholders took a much greater offense than expected. Opinion leaders, consumers, and
communities spoke out against Nike, and vowed to never support our brand again.

Nike Loses Loyal Consumers

Opinion Leaders
One of our key stakeholders offended by the Kaepernick advertising campaign were opinion
leaders, who responded aggressively through their social media platforms. A few of the most
influential opinion leaders against our campaign were President Donald Trump, country singer
John Rich, and Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson.

Following our campaign, President Donald Trump spoke out against Nike during an interview
with Daily Caller, stating, “I think it's a terrible message and a message that shouldn't be sent,
there's no reason for it”. Additionally, he tweeted, “What was Nike thinking,” after we released
our advertisement. The Daily Caller traffics over 20 million readers a month, while President
Trump has a following of 54.8 million followers on his twitter alone (Account, 2018). Trump’s
 Nike | 5

negative sentiments against Nike have damaged our brand image and negatively influenced the
viewpoints of millions of customers.

While John Rich and Tucker Carlson are not as influential as President Trump, they still have
substantial followings. John Rich tweeted a photo to his 201 thousand followers of his
“soundman” with the Nike swooshes cut off of his socks in protest of our Kaepernick campaign
(Rich, 2018). His soundman was a former Marine, and took heavy offense to Kaepernick’s
protesting methods. Additionally, while live on Fox News, Tucker Carlson shared his negative
feelings with his average viewing of 2.8 million viewers, stating that our advertisement
campaign was an “attack on the country” (Joyella, 2018).

The strong influence of these opinion leaders stirred negative emotions over social media,
negatively impacting consumers’ viewpoints of our company.

Consumers
While there are many consumers still in favor of our brand and campaign, the loss of support
from these critical opinion leaders has shaken the foundation of our customer loyalty.

In December of 2017, consumers took a Harris poll asking if they viewed Nike in a negative
light. After surveying over 2000 consumers, nearly 0% saw Nike in a negative manner (Rovell,
2018). However, after the Kaepernick advertisement aired, Harris hosted the same poll and the
percentage of consumers who currently view Nike in a negative light rose to 17%. Additionally,
the number of consumers who stated they couldn’t live without Nike dropped from 33% to 24%.
These statistics reveal that our campaign truly upset consumers and caused division among our
customer base.

In addition, consumers demonstrated their outrage by tweeting the hashtags #justburnit and
#boycottnike on Twitter. In these tweets, consumers posted videos of them burned their Nike
products and vowed to never buy Nike again. These statistics and angry hashtags clearly reflect
the outrage felt by many of our consumers. While this backlash was expected, our stakeholder
response exceeded what we anticipated and left us unsure if we will regain these once loyal
consumers.

Communities
Communities have even begun to boycott and ban Nike because their values do not align with
Kaepernick kneeling during The National Anthem. The National Association of Police
Organizations (NAPO) is encouraging a law-enforcement based boycott against Nike
nationwide. After our advertisement released, NAPO sent a letter to their members requesting
them and their families to stop wearing and purchasing our products. They believe that our
 Nike | 6

campaign disrespects those who “really do make sacrifices for the U.S.” (Ellefson, 2018). In
Mississippi, a police station effectively banned our products because they felt that by Nike
supporting Kaepernick and his NFL protests, “[Nike] prefers to stand with those who show
contempt for our country over those who defend it” (Amy, 2018).

In addition to NAPO, the College of the Ozarks in Missouri decided to remove our logo from
their uniforms and products (Wilkie, 2018). The College of the Ozarks also has a strong view of
patriotism and respect of the flag and they believe Nike is acting disrespectfully for releasing this
advertisement with Colin Kaepernick. Our advertisement contradicts the school’s values, and
they have chosen to disassociate themselves with our brand because of the negative message we
sent. Overall, these bans are a problem for Nike because we are losing important communities
due to misinterpreted values.

By using Kaepernick in our campaign, we have surrendered prominent opinion leaders,

consumers, and communities, who were once loyal supporters. While the use of Kaepernick in
our advertisement is still favorable at 49% compared to 37% unfavorable, every consumer is
crucial and enables us to secure our position as an industry leader (Schultz, 2018). Therefore,
Nike must respond accordingly to mend these strained stakeholder relations and restore customer
loyalty.

Bridge the Gap by Honoring Service Members

After identifying and analyzing the critical issues we face resulting from of our Kaepernick
advertisement, we have developed an effective communication plan in response. This response
will serve to regain customer loyalty and bridge the gap that was created between us and our
stakeholders.

Bridging the Gap with Pat Tillman and Danielle Green

Our solution is to create a commercial honoring military service members and first responders,
specifically those who made the ultimate sacrifice. This commercial will focus on fallen Army
Ranger Pat Tillman and Veteran Danielle Green, who lost her arm in combat. These former elite
athletes and war heroes define our 30th anniversary message of, “Believe in something. Even if
it means sacrificing everything.” Therefore, the opportunity to remember them in our campaign
will likely change the opinions of our stakeholders, who believe we don’t truly value those
“really do make sacrifices for the U.S.” (Ellefson, 2018).

First, it would be an honorable opportunity for our company to feature Pat Tillman in our
commercial, as he defines our message of “Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing
everything.” He was an exceptional football player for Arizona State and the Arizona Cardinals,
beating the odds to become the respected player that he was in the NFL. In lieu of the September
11th attacks, Pat Tillman decided to leave the NFL and turn down a contract worth $3.6 million
 Nike | 7

to do what he believed in and join the United States Army. Tragically, in 2004 Pat Tillman died
while he was fighting in Iraq (Biography, 2018).

Additionally, Pat Tillman represents the message we are sending in this advertisement because
he sacrificed everything to do what he believed in. He left his family and his NFL career behind
to follow his passion. He felt it was his duty to serve his country, and this passion terribly led to
his premature death.

Likewise, Danielle Green will be featured in the advertisement because she represents the same
values as Pat Tillman. She was a Notre Dame basketball player who also served our country in
Iraq. Horribly, in 2004 Danielle Green was wounded and lost her left arm in battle. She is a
perfect figure to feature in this advertisement because she received the Pat Tillman award in
2015 (Jackson-Gibson, 2016).

Furthermore, this advertisement will also feature police officers, firefighters, and veterans. These
figures all make sacrifices to fight for what they believe in and ultimately had risked or still do
risk their lives day in and day out. We plan to not announce this advertisement to the public
before it’s release and let our stakeholders watch it when it debuts on television. This will
prevent our stakeholders from having pre-opinionated feelings towards this advertisement and
allow them to see our message for what it truly is.

Mending Broken Stakeholder Relationships

Opinion leaders Donald Trump, John Rich, and Tucker Carlson all believe that our last
advertisement was disrespectful towards those who serve our country. Our Pat Tillman
advertisement will show that we do support those who sacrifice their lives and serve our country.
This will change the minds of these opinion leaders from what they currently think about our
message. Lastly, their views will align with our own once this commercial debuts.

On the other hand, we want to communicate a message to consumers that will allow us to move
forward as a company. Consumers whom we lost with our last advertisement do not agree with
the message that Kaepernick is sending. The message we are sending with this new
advertisement is to believe in your dream and do not let anything stop you from achieving it.
Using Pat Tillman will cause consumers to see our true message and they will realign themselves
with our brand that they previously could not live without.

Also, there were many communities that erupted in controversy over Nike and the meaning
behind our last commercial. This new advertisement will have a positive effect on consumers
making up communities and will allow them to be able to stand behind the message that we are
sending. Communities that imposed bans on Nike products will lift them after the controversy
 Nike | 8

between consumers ends. This advertisement will settle the disputes about what we stand for and
will lead communities to come together behind such a powerful slogan.

Ultimately, we are moving forward as a company with this Pat Tillman commercial. We are not
changing our message, we are simply changing the figure to represent it. This will bridge the gap
created between our stakeholders which include opinion leaders, consumers, and communities
because they will see the true message we stand behind as a company.

Nike Premieres Pat Tillman Advertisement

In order to regain main stakeholders including opinion leaders, consumers, and communities, we
need to run another advertisement that reaches out to those stakeholders. While keeping the same
message as the previous advertisement, we plan to use Pat Tillman, who not only was an NFL
player but also served in the military, to help us regain popularity with key stakeholders.

While using Pat Tillman for our advertisement, we found that Danielle Green would be a great
addition to the commercial as well. Danielle Green was an athlete at Notre Dame where she
played women's basketball. She also sacrificed her life in the military and lost her arm during her
service. Not only is Danielle green a veteran, but is also the recipient of the Pat Tillman award.
Appendices A and B show a mock advertisement of Pat Tillman And Danielle Green.

This would increase our Demand creation expense in this quarter. Demand creation expense
consists of most of our advertising and our promotions. There has been a trend in how much we
put into advertising each year. In 2014 we spent around $3 billion on advertisement and has
increased every year and at the end of 2018, we were spending around $3.6 billion. The
attachment below shows an increase of the amount we spend in advertising each year since 2014.

Statista.com
Implementing the Pat Tillman Advertisement
Advertisements are one of the easiest ways to reach an audience. Our plan to regain some of our
stakeholders is to run an advertisement with Pat Tillman on November 11th of this year. Not
only is November 11th Veterans day, but also is Sunday Night Football. The average amount of
 Nike | 9

viewers for Sunday Night Football is 18.6 million. Running the advertisement on NBC will cost
us $650,000 per time slot.

After the advertisement airs, we will be posting the advertisement on all Nike social media
accounts:
● Instagram: 81 Million Followers
● Facebook: 32 Million Followers
● Twitter: 7 Million Followers

The feedback we want to see from this advertisement is similar to the 30th-anniversary
advertisement. We would hope to see our sales jump after the viewing of the advertisement to
30% which is similar to our Colin Kaepernick advertisement. We would also like to see the
number of consumers who view us in a negative light as close to 0% as possible. Using this
advertisement is the best way to bridge the gap between those main stakeholders and Nike.

We expect some backlash for using a memorial of a fallen US soldier for financial gain, as this
was indicated in our market research (Appendix C); however, this isn’t our intent. To show this,
we plan to donate fifty percent of our profits to the Pat Tillman Foundation, inspiring veterans
and their families to make a difference in the world by awarding them academic scholarships.

Nike Mends Relationships and Restores Customer Loyalty

Based on stakeholder dissatisfaction about our advertisements, Nike can appeal to lost
consumers by featuring athletes who share similar values. Our advertisement’s message did not
align with stakeholder views and we have researched a way to rebuild our relationships with key
stakeholders. This new strategy will reduce boycotts, minimize negative views of our brand, and
eliminate consumer retaliation. We believe that appealing to the interests of lost consumers will
increase customer loyalty and continue to improve our strong market position.
 Nike | 10

Resources

Account, D. J. (2018, October 10). Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump). Retrieved from

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc^google|twcamp^serp|twgr^author

Amy, J. (2018, September 15). Mississippi Department of Public Safety Says it Won’t Buy From
Nike Over Kaepernick Ads. Retrieved from
http://time.com/5397327/mississippi-agency-nike-kaepernick/

B. (2017, April 28). Pat Tillman Biography. Retrieved October 9, 2018, from
https://www.biography.com/people/pat-tillman-197041

Ellefson, L. (2018, September 7). Missouri College Drops Nike Over Kaepernick Ad. Retrieved
from
https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/07/us/college-of-the-ozarks-drops-nike-colin-kaepernick-
trnd/index.html

Jackson-Gibson, A. (2016, November 11). Ten female athletes who have served in the military.
Retrieved from http://www.excellesports.com/news/ten-female-athletes-military/

Joyella, M. (2018, September 21). Is Fox's Tucker Carlson Destined To Dominate Cable News?
Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/markjoyella/2018/09/21/is-foxs-tucker-
carlson-destined-to-dominate-cable-news/#4ef2799c461e

Kochkodin, B. (2018, September 06). Colin Kaepernick Nike Ad Publicity Gets $163 Million |
Money. Retrieved from http://time.com/money/5388940/colin-kaepernick-nike-ad-
publicity/

LaVito, A. (2018, September 6). Nike’s Colin Kaepernick ads created $163.5 million in
buzz since it began - and it’s not all bad. Retrieved from
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/06/nikes-colin-kaepernick-ad-created-163point5-million-
in-media-exposure.html

Nike. (2018). Form 10K (pp. 1-78, Rep. No. 10K). Nike. Retrieved from
https://s1.q4cdn.com/806093406/files/doc_financials/2018/ar/docs/nike-2018-form-
10K.pdf

Pat Tillman Mock Advertisement [Digital Image]. (2018). Retrieved from

https://www.wfmynews2.com/video/news/nation-world/pat-tillmans-friends-say-keep-
his-name-out-of-the-kaepernick-nike-ad-debate/75-8241313
 Nike | 11

Rich, J. (2018, September 03). Our Soundman just cut the Nike swoosh off his socks. Former
marine. Get ready @Nike multiply that by the millions. pic.twitter.com/h8kj6RXe7j.
Retrieved from https://twitter.com/johnrich/status/1036751396002050050?lang=en

Rovell, D. (2018, September 12). Poll: Nike Kaepernick ad alienated some but hit target.
Retrieved from http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/24656192/poll-shows-nike-
kaepernick-ad-hit-target-alienated-others

Schultz., E., Schultz, E., & Chicago Bureau. (2018, September 13). New poll lends more
evidence that Nike scored with Kaepernick ad. Retrieved from
https://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/poll-shows-approval-nike-s-kaepernick-ad/314924

Wilkie, E. (2018, September. 4) National Association of Police Organizations calls on members

to boycott Nike. Foxcarolina.com. Retrieved from
https://www.foxcarolina.com/news/national-association-of-police-organizations-calls-on-
members-to-boycott/article_16ca331e-fb10-5462-bf78-faacb343c8f1.html
 Nike | 12

Appendix

Appendix A

Pat Tillman Mock Advertisement

Appendix B

Danielle Green Headshot

Appendix C
 Nike | 13

Nike addresses objections of 11 reserve service members accordingly, donating 50% of profits to
Pat Tillman Foundation.