Nike in a thirtieth-anniversary celebration of its slogan – Just Do it- did the unexpected! It put an NFL player -Colin Kaepernick- who has not been selected to play for the last two years as the face of the campaign launch. They have thumbed their nose at the sitting President, Donald J. Trump, unleashing a fury in Twitter-verse and a boycott by his supporters. Is this a streak of madness?

I would not bet against Nike in this battle that the Trump supporters will cause them to back down. They have a market research capability that is virtually unparalleled. They know what they know. They have more than likely employed their segmentation analyses: hardcore users versus the armchair guys who sit and watch the sports channel making belief that they are experts. They understand their consumers beyond plain demographics – the younger you are the more tolerant and activist you are. This is no whimsical action.

This is not the first time that they have shown a keen sense of what their brand can and should do. Remember Tiger Woods and his troubles? Do you recall how they made an ad where his dead father asked, “Did you learn anything?” They were distancing themselves from the swirling waters that threatened to engulf their prized athlete to save their brand. They have a long history of skillfully navigating the turbulent waters of brand management.

What kinds of calculations may have been at play? More than likely, they have anticipated that key influencers, the likes of LeBron James, who will take a stand and buttress the brand. They know that young men, not old fat men, are the huge demographic in the sneakers market. They have sniffed the political wind and seen that they have permission to execute. In this, they are following Dick’s Sports which pulled back from selling guns post Parkland. While this doubles as a political statement, Nike is about brand building.

The point? This is not a strategy of ‘lets try a thing’. This is shrewd cunning at work with one thing in mind: how to differentiate yourself from …Adidas, maybe? It is underpinned by good research and a clear bead on what their market will give them permission to do. In a sense, they are riding the wave popularized by David Hogg, the Parkland survivor, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of attacking the Establishment. But brand managers cannot be timid if they wish to own a unique position in consumers’ mind, but we cannot be reckless. We got to know our market and go for it! Whatever ‘it’ is at that moment. Can we learn from this moment?

In 2011 Donald Trump boasted that he had ‘the hottest brand in the world’. I guess we are about to see which brand is greater and hotter. My bet is on Nike. Just do it!
“Get closer than ever to your customers”, Steve Jobs would intone.