Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight first founded Nike Inc. Essays - Nike

Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight first founded Nike Inc. Essays - Nike Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight first founded Nike Inc. in 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports. In 1971, it was re-named Nike after the Greek winged goddess of victory, strength, speed, glory, and fame. The Nike swoosh is meant to represent the wings of the goddess Nike, as she was often depicted in mythology with. The iconic swoosh was created by Caroline Davidson, an advertising student at Portland University. She was a freelancer asked to design a graphic logo that could fit on the side of a shoe by Phil Knight; she was paid $35 for her design. The first interaction between the founders of Nike was in 1959, when track coach Bill Bowerman met Phil Knight; who was a runner at the University of Oregon where he was coaching. The need for the company arose out of Bills desire to find lighter, more durable racing shoes for his university track team, and Phils desire to find a way to make a living without having to give up his love of sports. The two put their heads together, and the end product was a company that now dominates the market in its sportswear segment, despite having begun as a small distributing outfit from the back of Phils car. While Phil was obtaining his MBA degree at Stanford in the 60s, Professor Frank Shallenberger assigned his students with a project; the goal of which was to devise a small business and a marketing plan for its success. Building on his earlier brainstorms, Phils project consisted of the idea that quality running shoes could be produced at low cost in Asian countries like Japan, and shipped to the U.S. for distribution. In 1963, Phil actually traveled to Japan, and scheduled an interview with a Japanese businessman affiliated with Onitsuka Corporation and its subsidiary Tiger; to whom he presented himself as an American distributor with an interest in selling Tiger shoes to American runners. The boardroom executives liked what they heard; and Blue Ribbon Sports (BRS) was born. By 1964, BRS had sold 8,000 pairs of Tiger running shoes and had added salesman Jeff Johnson to the team. By 1971, the trademarked swoosh was implemented, BRS officially became Nike Inc., and the company hit $1 m illion in sales. Later into the 70s, Nike went from $10 million in sales to $270 million in sales and was hugely benefiting from (if not leading) Americas craze towards popularized fitness; a revolution that caused the idea of exercise and game-playing to transcend from an extracurricular that the average American did for fun, into a cultural signifier of status for health and wealth. Nikes brand prosperity is clearly evidenced in a quote from 1996 in Advertising Age (a magazine that analyzes data on marketing and the media), the ubiquitous swoosh was more recognized and coveted by consumers than any other sports brand. That same year, Nikes revenues were $6.74 billion, with $8 billion expected in the upcoming year, and a target of $12 billion by the millennium. With all that said however, Nike was still mindful of its competitors and the risks they pose on its global stage. For example, Nike is the main leader in its industry of sportswear (footwear, apparel, equipment and accessories) and is valued at 10.7 billion, but it does have a hefty amount of competition. Nikes main four competitors are Reebok, Adidas, Fila, and New Balance. Nike is the industry leader with a 47% market share, Reebok is in second place at 16%, and Adidas comes in third at 6%. The biggest contributor to Nikes edge over its competitors is its marketing and global business strategy. Nike relocated all of its factories overseas where it could utilize a more inexpensive workforce to fabricate its shoes, and 86% of its total products are now produced in either Taiwan or South Korea. With Nike cutting costs on the labor and production expenses, more capital was freed up and put towards increasing their advertising budget. For example, Nike spent four and a half times as much in advertising expenses as Adidas in 2003. This helped Nike gain much more awareness in the regions where they were marketing their product by demographic statistics. A tactic Nike has also relied on heavily to hold

Free Essays on Concert

For this concert report I chose to go to a performance of student composers held at the Kimball Recital Hall. I chose this one because I wanted to see some of the talent that my peers have in the music realm, and also it was one of the only concerts I have been able to attend because I usually work at night. It was impressive to hear pieces composed by students. I cannot imagine creating something as complex as a musical composition, much less actually performing it, so this aspect of the concert was particularly awe-inspiring. There was a large attendance, and I think that much of the audience consisted of friends of the composers and/or performers. I went with three friends, who I convinced by telling it would be interesting to see student composers. The first piece was called Oblique/musique composed by Patrick Swanson. This piece instantly stood out among the others because of the instruments involved. The piece was performed by two people: one playing a vibraphone and the other playing a large drum/cymbal/gong. However, the piece also contained prerecorded sounds of static, bass, and an incoherent voice. In this piece the melody was repeated many times. It was similar to the works of John Adams because of its repetitions, background recording, and minimalistic sounds. The second piece was a piano composition by Thalia Ventimilla called Ecuadorian Afternoon. This piece had a very relaxing melody and a â€Å"walking speed† tempo. It was not fast and not slow. The intensity of the piece started out high and gradually declined, then built up to decline again. This went on in a series of decrescendos, rising and falling with lots of chords being played. The third piece was a duet for the flute and the oboe by Julia Grace Brown. The piece contained two movements, but I could not tell when one stopped and the second began because there was no pause. While they played the flute was quicker, playing in short, fast, high pitched notes. ... Free Essays on Concert Free Essays on Concert The concert performed April 24th, 2001 in Baldwin Auditorium was one of the most remarkable I have attended. The title â€Å"Classical Meets Jazz V† drew my attention because I have studied that Jazz has a strong parallel with Baroque, but not with the classical period due to its counterpoint and layering. I thought that it would be a mixture of them, but I later found out that each piece performed was a style of its own. It all started with Andrea Adamcov playing the piano. She started playing a few soft notes with her left hand and suddenly she added some scattered notes with her other hand. The rhythm was starting to gain pace and you could hear the counterpoint that kept a constant tempo. This piece was clearly Jazz. After the second section of the tune was stated, it was then followed by the return of the first one. You could hear some dissonance. There was a point in which the texture became homophonic in a slow tempo, which appealed to my senses as sad. The final section of Children’s Songs by Chick Corea starts very fast in an andante fashion. It keeps its speed through the whole piece. Then another melody is added and repeated again. The performance of Andrea struck me in the sense that it seemed that she really was into the music. I noticed this by her body language and the way she let the music flow through her arms, hands, fingertips, keyboard, strings and finally to the ears of the listeners. The second piece played by her was by Alberto Ginastera, which was an Argentinean composer known for making music that combines folk Argentine rhythms and colors with modern composing techniques. What I could notice from this piece was an exhilarating rhythmic energy and an hallucinatory atmosphere. The Prelude seemed to have some dissonant, fast, high-pitched notes. Another thing that could be appreciated was the motoric rhythm, which presented both the basic pulse and its subdivision. The Creole dance was a representation of ... Free Essays on Concert The concert performed April 24th, 2001 in Baldwin Auditorium was one of the most remarkable I have attended. The title â€Å"Classical Meets Jazz V† drew my attention because I have studied that Jazz has a strong parallel with Baroque, but not with the classical period due to its counterpoint and layering. I thought that it would be a mixture of them, but I later found out that each piece performed was a style of its own. It all started with Andrea Adamcov playing the piano. She started playing a few soft notes with her left hand and suddenly she added some scattered notes with her other hand. The rhythm was starting to gain pace and you could hear the counterpoint that kept a constant tempo. This piece was clearly Jazz. After the second section of the tune was stated, it was then followed by the return of the first one. You could hear some dissonance. There was a point in which the texture became homophonic in a slow tempo, which appealed to my senses as sad. The final section of Children’s Songs by Chick Corea starts very fast in an andante fashion. It keeps its speed through the whole piece. Then another melody is added and repeated again. The performance of Andrea struck me in the sense that it seemed that she really was into the music. I noticed this by her body language and the way she let the music flow through her arms, hands, fingertips, keyboard, strings and finally to the ears of the listeners. The second piece played by her was by Alberto Ginastera, which was an Argentinean composer known for making music that combines folk Argentine rhythms and colors with modern composing techniques. What I could notice from this piece was an exhilarating rhythmic energy and an hallucinatory atmosphere. The Prelude seemed to have some dissonant, fast, high-pitched notes. Another thing that could be appreciated was the motoric rhythm, which presented both the basic pulse and its subdivision. The Creole dance was a representation of ... Free Essays on Concert For this concert report I chose to go to a performance of student composers held at the Kimball Recital Hall. I chose this one because I wanted to see some of the talent that my peers have in the music realm, and also it was one of the only concerts I have been able to attend because I usually work at night. It was impressive to hear pieces composed by students. I cannot imagine creating something as complex as a musical composition, much less actually performing it, so this aspect of the concert was particularly awe-inspiring. There was a large attendance, and I think that much of the audience consisted of friends of the composers and/or performers. I went with three friends, who I convinced by telling it would be interesting to see student composers. The first piece was called Oblique/musique composed by Patrick Swanson. This piece instantly stood out among the others because of the instruments involved. The piece was performed by two people: one playing a vibraphone and the other playing a large drum/cymbal/gong. However, the piece also contained prerecorded sounds of static, bass, and an incoherent voice. In this piece the melody was repeated many times. It was similar to the works of John Adams because of its repetitions, background recording, and minimalistic sounds. The second piece was a piano composition by Thalia Ventimilla called Ecuadorian Afternoon. This piece had a very relaxing melody and a â€Å"walking speed† tempo. It was not fast and not slow. The intensity of the piece started out high and gradually declined, then built up to decline again. This went on in a series of decrescendos, rising and falling with lots of chords being played. The third piece was a duet for the flute and the oboe by Julia Grace Brown. The piece contained two movements, but I could not tell when one stopped and the second began because there was no pause. While they played the flute was quicker, playing in short, fast, high pitched notes. ...