Friday 20 March 2015

Nike's 'Just Do It', the origin

Nike’s iconic “Just Do It” slogan was described as one of the best taglines of the 20th century, but the man behind its creation has just revealed that it was inspired by an infamous murderer’s last words.

The slogan was pitched almost three decades ago by advertising executive Dan Wieden, who admitted in a recent interview with Dezeen magazine that it was inspired by Utah killer Gary Gilmore, who was sentenced to death in 1977 for robbing and murdering two men. The condemned man reportedly said “let’s do this” as he faced a firing squad. 

In a conference in Cape Town last month Mr Wieden said that in 1988 he recalled Gilmore’s last words and decided to suggest a slightly altered version as the slogan, which first appeared in a Nike advert in the same year featuring 80-year-old runner Walt Stack.

Mr Wieden then expanded on the background of the iconic phrase, as he told Dezeen that at first Nike hated the idea, but then he won them around with the slogan successfully debuting in that TV ad. It marked a new era for the brand.

Wieden described how at the time he was worried that an upcoming series of five TV adverts lacked cohesion because they all had a different feel to them. So he thought that “Just Do It” would become the tagline to tie them all together. And well, the rest is history.

“We came up with five different 30 second spots. The night before [a meeting with Nike] I got concerned because… there wasn't an overlying sensibility to them all. Some were funny, some were solemn. So I thought…’we need a tagline to pull this stuff together’,” he said.
“I wrote about four or five ideas. I narrowed it down to the last one, which was “Just do it”. The reason I did that one was funny because I was recalling a man in Portland… He murdered a man and a woman, and was put before a firing squad. And they asked him if he had any final thoughts and he said: ‘Let's do it.’ And for some reason I went: ‘Now damn. How do you ask for an ultimate challenge that you are probably going to lose, but you call it in?’ So I thought, well, I didn't like ‘Let’s do it’ so I just changed it to ‘Just do it’.”

In the eighties Nike was locked in a war with Reebok for control of the sneakers market. It was Wieden, co-founder of advertising agency Wieden & Kennedy, who managed to resonate across the sporting world with their work for the brand; from women to men, from casual runners, to professional athletes. The slogan helped Nike counter-attack its main rival, who at the time had just announced bigger profits.

Almost 30 years later, the sportswear giant still uses the slogan that changed its history.

Thursday 5 March 2015

Business Intelligence, the new buzz word?

Lately, I have been approached to conduct programs on Business Intelligence.  During the interviews with two of my clients in order to help me to prepare my proposal, I found that they had a misplaced interpretation of the term used, just like some would think that 'marketing' is 'selling'.

So, let me re-cap ... what is Business Intelligence?

The term business intelligence (BI) represents the tools and systems that play a key role in the strategic planning process of the corporation. These systems allow a company to gather, store, access and analyze corporate data to aid in decision-making.
Generally these systems will illustrate business intelligence in the areas of customer profiling, customer support, market research, market segmentation, product profitability, statistical analysis, and inventory and distribution analysis to name a few.
Most companies collect a large amount of data from their business operations. To keep track of that information, a business and would need to use a wide range of software programs, such as Excel, Access and different database applications for various departments throughout their organization. Using multiple software programs makes it difficult to retrieve information in a timely manner and to perform analysis of the data.
Indeed, Business Intelligence is not Market Research which is the initial phase of BI.  It must complete by the usage of the data obtained to formulate strategies for the business.

Tuesday 3 March 2015

Now, this is what I called 'Salesmanship'.

A young guy from North Dakota moves to Florida and goes to a big "under one roof" department store looking for a job.

The Manager says, "Do you have any sales experience?"

The kid says, "Yeah, I was a vacuum salesman back in North Dakota."

Well, the boss was unsure, but he liked the kid and figured he'd give him a shot, so he gave him the job.  "You start tomorrow.  I'll come down after we close and see how you did."

His first day on the job was rough, but he got through it.  After the store was locked up, the boss came down to the sales floor.  "How many customers bought something from you today?"

The kid frowns and looks at the floor and mutters, "One."

The boss says, "Just one?!!?  Our sales people average sales to 20 to 30 customers a day.  That will have to change, and soon, if you'd like to continue your employment here.  We have very strict standards for our sales force here in Florida.  One sale a day might have been acceptable in North Dakota, but you're not on the farm anymore, son."

The kid took his beating, but continued to look at his shoes, so the boss felt kinda bad for chewing him out on his first day.  He asked (semi-sarcastically), "So, how much was your one sale for?"

The kid looks up at his boss and says, "$101,237.65."

The boss, astonished, says, "$101,237.65?!  What the heck did you sell?"

The kid says, "Well, first, I sold him some new fish hooks.  Then I asked him where he was going fishing and he said down the coast, so I told him he was going to need a boat.  We then went down to the boat department and I sold him a twin engine Chris Craft.  Then, he said, he didn't think his Honda Civic would pull it, so I took him down to the automotive and sold him that 4 X 4 Expedition."

The boss said, "The guy came in here to buy a fish hook and you sold him a boat and a TRUCK!?"

The kid says, "No, the guy came in here to buy tampons for his wife, and I said, 'Dude, your weekend's shot.  You should go fishing.'"