Advertising strategy for Nike Mercurial Vapors A lot of young children dream about becoming a professional soccer player. Nike uses this to their advantage. Since 1998 when the Mercurial Vapor was invented, Nike’s advertisements have used global soccer icons. Cristiano Ronaldo is currently one of the best players in the world and one of the best players of all time. The fact that he wears Nike Mercurial Vapors both on the pitch and in advertisements for Nike, gives the viewer the impression that if they to wear the product they can achieve the same amount of success.
Nike also uses simple but effective statements to catch the viewers’ attention. Most recently, “My Time Is Now”. This quote would be shown underneath a picture of Cristiano Ronaldo scoring a goal or simply him just standing with a ball while wearing the Mercurial Vapors. This advertising strategy is convincing the viewer that if they take action quickly and buy this boot, they can achieve their dream and become a great player like Ronaldo.
The description of the boot also encourages people to buy the product, for instance, on the Nike website there is a picture of the latest Mercurial Vapor and underneath it reads “Worn by speed demon Ronaldo, Mercurial is for creative players with unbeatable pace” All young children will want to be a “speed demon” similar to Ronaldo. In a way, Nike are trying to convince you that if you buy this boot, you are joining an elite club, it’s almost an honour, as they claim the boot can only be worn by players with creativity and great speed, thus Nike want you to believe if you don’t buy the Mercurial Vapor, you don’t have the attributes described.
The majority of the Mercurial Vapors are bright colours such as luminous green, orange, red and even pink. This isn’t just a coincidence. Nike wants to portray that the Mercurial Vapors are for players who want to be noticed, players who aren’t afraid to be different by not having a common boot colour such as black. The Mercurial Vapor is not for players who want to “hide” on a pitch. The vibrant colours will catch viewers’ eyes, these players want to stand out and be unique to the others around them. Nike tries to give people the impression that the Mercurial Vapor can give you this exclusivity.
In 2009 Nike made a partnership with RED, a charity for the prevention of aids worldwide. The concept was simple, “Lace up. Save Lives”. If a customer bought Nike Mercurial Vapors, they had the option of paying a small fee extra for red laces. The money made from these red laces would go towards the RED charity. Within no time, big name players across the world were wearing these red laces on their Vapors. Although the laces were for a good cause, it was still a great advertising strategy by Nike as the Mercurial Vapor was gaining attention across the world for all the right reasons.
People did not only want the Mercurial Vapor for the normal reasons but also wanted to be a part of “Nikes’ movement to fight HIV/Aids in Africa”. Overall Nikes’ advertising strategy for the Mercurial Vapors is designed to make a connection with the customer. They want the customer to believe that by having the Mercurial Vapor, their overall game will improve, they are unique and that they can achieve their dreams. Competitors outside and inside the business Outside Any company that produces athletic footwear is naturally going to be a competitor of the Mercurial Vapor.
It is up to Nike to eliminate competition and this can only be done by continuously improving the Mercurial Vapor by making it more unique. The main competition for the Mercurial Vapor is the Adidas F50. The current two best players in the world are Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. Ronaldo wears the Mercurial Vapor; Messi wears the Adidas F50 boots. Both firms use similar advertising strategies; they simply advertise Ronaldo or Messi in their boot as much as possible. The two types of boots are the same price so the two firms compete in non-price competition.
They try convincing the customer that their boot is more unique then the other. Since the Mercurial Vapors was first made, its unique selling point was that it was the lightest boot in the world. Adidas then made the F50 boot lighter then the Mercurial Vapour. In 2011, those who purchased Adidas F50 boots were given not only the lightest boot in the world but a chip that could be placed in their boot. During a match the chip would record players stats such as speed and distance covered, the chip could then be put in a computer and their stats could be compared to the great Lionel Messi.
Revolutionary ideas like this would give Adidas the upper hand but for not long as both Nike and Adidas release at least four types of Vapor and F50 in a year, thus boots become out of style fast. The Mercurial Vapor has a lot of competition as other firms do not just have one type of boot. All brands have different types of boot that are designed to a person’s style of play on a pitch. For instance Adidas have boots for “speed” “power” or “heritage”. The Mercurial player prides itself on being for players with pace, hence if you don’t believe you’re fast you can easily just turn to Adidas and purchase a boot that suits your style of play E.
G Adidas Power boots. Inside Nike have many different types of boots and these boots aren’t treated any less important in comparison to the Mercurial Vapor, thus the Vapor has competition within the business. Although the Mercurial Vapor is advertised and worn by one of the best players in the world (Cristiano Ronaldo), the other types of Nike boots such as the “Nike Tiempo” are heavily advertised and worn by icons of the game. Therefore all the attention of Nike and the consumer is not just on the Mercurial Vapor as the consumer has a lot of choice and variety within in Nike.
Overall it is of benefit to Nike that they have a large selection of boots even if it creates competition for their most famous boot, the Mercurial Vapor, if Nike were over reliant on the Vapor and didn’t do as many advertising campaigns for different boots, a consumer may turn to a rival brand and buy their product. It is much better for the firm that if a consumer does not like the Mercurial Vapor; they have the option of buying a different type of Nike boot as it still results in revenue for Nike.
