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The Nike Effect: Part I

Some of you out there might remember the early days of the running shoe market in the late seventies and early eighties. (And by some of you, I mean if you’re old enough!) There were all these new companies—Brooks, Puma, Saucony, Asics, New Balance, Adidas, Pony—and they were all competing against each other, each company selling pretty much the same thing. Well, by the mid-nineties, Nike basically made it clear that it was the dominant company. How did they take over that market? It’s called genius marketing. They saw needs that the other companies didn’t.

What Nike did was sell us a perceived need—inspiration—but delivered our real need—belonging. They convinced us that we could basically have superhuman abilities by creating a connection between their brand and Michael Jordan—an extremely iconic figure in sports. They had top athlete endorsers from almost every sport—creating more than just shoes, but rather an identity behind them. When they reached their “Just Do It” campaign, the company was one of the top brands in the world. How did they do it? They paved the way for us to see them as more than just shoes. At the time, Nike was so great that no other shoe stood a chance.

Nike was all about belonging and to buy a pair of Nike shoes was like being a part of something bigger than yourself. We have this basic human need to belong; so Nike wrapped their product up in faith and achievement. Why am I convinced that it was about belonging and not a true desire to be better at sports? Because 90 percent of us never used our Nike shoes for anything more than going to the mall on Saturday. We didn’t really want to be athletic—we just wanted to be on the winning team. 

So how does this translate for the church? Well, it helps us see that there is a difference between true needs and felt needs. We know the people we want to reach need Christ, and we can agree that God has given all of us that space in our heart that only He can fill. But until they’ve heard and understood the message, most people don’t know their need is for Him. They might know things like they should be in church and their kids should be there too, and they probably feel something missing in their lives. We know the real need in their lives is belonging to Christ, but they are likely to think the need is something less spiritual.

We’re not frequently going to introduce them to their real need until we can connect with them on what they think they need. Since they don’t fully understand their true need, it’s our job to make that need felt.

What do the people in your community think they need? Is it friends? Childcare? A sense of belonging? Financial provision? A job? Cool music?

© Richard L. Reising

Published on Thursday, February 5, 2009 @ 9:56 AM CDT
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