Michael Jordan turns 50 today and is the greatest basketball player in the history of the sport. He was signed by Nike in 1984 and a perfect storm was made that created one of the best marketing opportunities ever. Nike was a struggling company at the time and risked millions on an untested player. They put all of their energy into marketing the Air Jordan's but it was the play of Michael that got people interested in the sneakers. Then in another stroke of brilliance they hired a director that only made one movie and trusted him to make an ad campaign that would sell. Spike Lee as his character Mars Blackmon sold the hell out of each version of the Air Jordan's with the famous line "It's gotta be the shoes." Nike rolled the dice and lucked out by choosing the best player ever, and they chose a relatively unknown director to market their brand. Now they basically own the market on basketball sneakers and people are still saying "I wanna be like Mike."
http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/15/its-gotta-be-the-shoes-how-nike-bet-on-jordan-jordan-bet-on-nike-and-both-won-big/
What do you think about Nikes strategy back then? If you were making the decisions would you have made all those risks and put your company in jeopardy?
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