A Comparison of Brand Association Between Adidas and Nike

Brand associations are images, symbols, activities or famous people that associated with a brand, which is deep seated in customer’s mind. Now we compare the brand association of these two sport brands, Adidas and Nike. 

The brand agency collected a comprehensive list of more than 1.7 million associations that people from around the globe have with brands. And the above table just show the popular ones. The result is a good opportunity for these two brands to compare their meanings and messages of their brand communication strategy and brand positioning with the brand associations of a cross section of the market. 

As to be expected, both brands have a high level of association with terms such as ‘shoes’ and ‘sports’. But the two sports apparel brands have quite distinctive meanings with the market as we can see that they have their own associations in terms of design, function and emotion.

The Adidas Brand

"Soccer"

Adidas is more strongly associated with soccer than Nike. Perhaps as a result of its German heritage, Adidas has a stronger link to football than to any other sport. Nike started the 2014 World Cup with the most teams of any brand. Despite its spend, the Nike swoosh will not be prominently displayed on the jerseys of either Argentina or Germany, the two nations competing in the World Cup Final.  Both federations are sponsored by Adidas.

"German"

Adidas German heritage has a strong brand association, while Nike is seen as a global brand without a clear link to any particular country. Adidas’ German heritage is recognised as a positive association, the high quality and European history.

"Stripe"

The 3 stripes mark is the earliest symbol of Adidas which has become an easy recognition 

It is the No. 7 brand association which suggests Adidas has the potential to strengthen the role that 3 stripes plays in their brand communication to increase the level of brand association.

"All day I dream about sex"

Interestingly, adidas' slogan "Impossible is nothing" was not in the list of brand association while Korn's  "All Day I Dream About Sex" ranks top ten (the acronym of the track is A.D.I.D.A.S. ) However, the brand seems to have benefited from the association regardless. As we can see the following picture which is Adidas Propaganda Poster uses this association. 

"Cool"

Among the Adidas brand association list, the most distinctively unique associations which links to the emotion is the term "cool". With the association of "sneakers" at No.4 and "Cool" at No.6, we can see what the strategy Adidas has developed over the years. Adidas created the cool brand experiences through using technology such as their current augmneted reality campaign for their Originals range. Adidas also creative collaborations with musicians and artists to delver the cool experience. Collaborating with the French artist Fari, who is well-known her whimsical graphics, Adidas intent to bring the street styles to a range of footwear and apparel for girls.

The Nike Brand 

"Just do it"

The two strongest Nike brand associations are ‘Swoosh’ and ‘Just do it’, reflecting just how effective Nike has been in establishing and owning these two unique brand properties. "Just do it"  it is Nike classical slogan, surely the most powerful and perfect one there has ever been. It helped distinguish Nike from being a sports apparel brand to a brand that represented rebellion and youth. In 80th, all the other sports brand focused on sport, while Nike focused on renegades and heroes.

“Sweatshop” and “Child Labor”

Unfortunately for Nike, there are negative brand associations, like "Sweatshop" and "Child Labor". Nike is characterised of making its equipments in countries which are in the developing phase, having very cheap labor, authoritarian government and lack of human rights appeal and union movement. In doing this it has made greater margins on the cost of mere cents to its workers. So Nike success story is not based on good name and advertising alone but also attached to it is the tears of tortured workers and child labor.

"Jordan"

Liking a celebrity with a brand can transfer those associations to the brand. Nike is a good example. It has a clear association to Michael Jordan with the Nike’s Air Jordan Shoe Series. 

Resource :

http://www.trulydeeply.com.au/madly/2010/02/22/adidas-nike-brand-association-designer-melbourne/

http://slpglobal.com/blog/the-perfect-slogan-just-do-it

Edited by  Mengdi LI