How Nike creates its brand identity through Instagram

The brand identity of Nike is a subject that has been research, but close to no inquiry is on Nike’s brand identity through its Instagram content. Nike is one of the largest companies in the world, and in turn influences many people of society. Nike is a brand that promotes sports, performance, and in general wants people to do the best they can. This research finds whether this is the case or that there is more to this subject. To find out, a qualitive approach was used, accompanied with a thematic analysis. As thematic analysis allows to find out what deeper meaning there is among the content of Nike on Instagram. Concepts that guided this research are that of brand identity in general, branding on Instagram, and celebrities endorsement. Hence, the most important aspects that make this research effective are the models of Kapferer (2008) and that of De Chernatony’s model (1999). The first model knows four components to examine brand identity, which are: ‘physique’, ‘personality’, ‘relationship’, ‘culture’, ‘reflection’, and ‘self-image’. In turn, the second model knows four components of brand identity, which include: ‘personality’, ‘positioning’, ‘visions and culture’, and ‘relationship’. The execution of the thematic analysis included 302 posts of the official Instagram account of Nike. Over a period of a year, posts of Nike were thoroughly analyzed to find meaning of how Nike creates brand identity through their content on the social media platform Instagram.