Nike: Maintaining a Promotional Edge Nike's initial product advertising strategy of using professional athletes to increase demand through word of mouth provided good publicity. However, its selective demand advertising focused mainly on expensive shoes for traditional sports and ignored newly developed market segments such as aerobics and extreme sports, and new trends such as brown shoes and casual footwear (Etzel, Walker and Stanton). Nike launched a successful advertising campaign based on the slogan "Just Do It" and the "swoosh" logo. Nike increased its visibility through vertical cooperative advertising; expanding its product line to include apparel, equipment, and accessories, which led retailers to use the Nike brand to attract customers to their stores. Nike gained a high level of publicity and increased its appeal to both men and women when it signed famous athletes such as Michael Jordan and Venus Williams (Etzel, Walker and Stanton). Further visibility was achieved when Nike promoted its brand around major events, giving the impression that it partly sponsored the events. It also increased sales promotion through sponsorship of sporting events and collegiate teams. He gained exposure in extreme sports through cooperative advertising when he partnered with a skateboard manufacturer to develop skate shoes (Etzel, Walker and Stanton). Public relations were negatively affected by allegations of child labor in Boustani's third world factories. However, subsequent negative publicity increased the exposure of the online shoe customization service NIKEiD. Nike is generating more selective advertising demand towards women to increase revenue share for that market… middle of paper… hit items and reducing guesswork (Kirk, 2006). Nike has resigned basketball star Kobe Bryant, and is making its mark at the 2006 Winter Olympics by sponsoring controversial skiing star Bode Miller. Miller's Nike advertisement encourages viewers to join “the bold, the brazen, and the intrepid” (Politi, 2006). Works Cited Kirk, Jeremy. “Nike BI Project Seeks Standardization.” IDG News Service February 6, 2006. February 8, 2006 .Koch, Christopher. “Nike Rebounds: How (and Why) Nike Recovered from the Supply6BoustaniChain Disaster.” CIO Magazine June 15, 2004. February 2, 2006. Etzel, Michael., Bruce Walker, and William Stanton. Marketing. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004. Nike Foundation. Retrieved February 2, 2006, from http://www.nike.com/nikebiz/nikefoundation/home.jhtmlPoliti, Steve. “Let Bode go downhill fast.” The Star-Ledger February 8, 2006. February 8 2006.2006 .7