I Run 17 Miles Everyday

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In the early 90s, Nike worked with a young female ad writer at Widening Kennedy by the name of Janet Champ. She crafted a new print campaign for Nike women's fitness that read more like a series of poems. After decades of explicitly masculine advertising, this was a seismic change in approach. But contrary to what it might seem, it wasn't a change in identity. These new ads weren't soft and flowery, they were tough and direct. It sent a signal to women written in a woman's authentic voice,. Our shoes are for athletes, and you are athletes too.

Great branding is about identity — and it’s about matchmaking too. No one knows this better than the legendary co-founder of Nike, Phil Knight. When he and his partner, Hall of Fame track coach Bill Bowerman, started the sneaker company, they never tried to force-feed customers a product just to drive up the bottom line. They focused on one thing: making an excellent product for people who believed in the edgy Nike ethos. Because they knew, when there’s a mismatch between product and market, the bottom usually drops out. Instead, they told the world who the are, and then did everything they could to find their ideal customers. And made history. Cameo appearance: Eddy Lu (GOAT).

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