“Michael opened every marketing dollar in the world for every future athlete.” (McCann)
-Sonny Vaccaro, Nike Executive
Michael Jordan showed that a close collaboration between an athlete and a major brand is special and unprecedented. With Nike, Jordan was less of an endorser and more a colleague. Jordan was in a relationship with Nike where the employer and the employee were partners. This had never been seen before with a sports marketing deal (McCann).
The “Jordan Effect” is all about the impact the Jordan brand has had on other professional sports and athletes in the realm of marketing, advertising, and branding. Jordan’s brand did more than just promote his own name and earn him millions of dollars, as it also impacted sports endorsements for years to come. Every deal in sports has been compared to Jordan’s deal. The deal between Jordan and Nike opened up doors for every athlete looking to establish a partnership with a brand name. The Jordan brand was the epitome of a sports deal and showed how far reaching sports marketing could go in endorsing future athletes. This is why the Jordan Effect has had a momentous impact on future athletic deals and sponsorships inside and outside of basketball.
The “Jordan Effect” on the NBA
The Jordan Effect has had a pronounced impact on the NBA. The Jordan brand has influenced:
- NBA television ratings
- Cable and broadcast rights fees paid to the league and shared with NBA players
- Gate receipts to NBA games
- Sales of merchandise, apparel, and products
- Films, computer games, and video games associated with the NBA (McCann)
The Jordan Effect also influenced NBA players’ abilities to obtain sponsorships. Once the Jordan brand proved its success, sneaker and apparel companies became more willing to negotiate massive deals with unproven rookies. Companies hoped that the players would not only develop into superstars on the court but also become marketing machines off of it (McCann).
The Jordan Effect has been attributed to influencing these NBA player endorsement deals:
- 1996 – Reebok signed Allen Iverson to a 10 year, $50 million deal
- 1997 – Adidas signed Tracy McGrady to a 6 year, $12 million deal
- 2002 – Nike signed Lebron James to a 7 year, $87 million deal (McCann)
The Everlasting Jordan Effect
The Jordan Effect is still felt in sports marketing today. The Jordan brand rules above all other brands in terms of marketing, and it has left an everlasting legacy that all other brands must strive to reach the level that Nike and Jordan have (Wyld).
The Curry Brand
Steph Curry, a top NBA player for the Golden State Warriors, has his own brand with Under Armour, which began in 2013. The Curry brand is a prime example of how a brand has been impacted by the Jordan Effect.
Beginning in 2020, Under Armour sought to position a new Curry brand as an alternative to Nike’s Jordan brand. The company saw the Jordan brand as the ultimately marketing ploy and sought to create a similar marketing campaign. Under Armour even went so far as to create a logo that would rival Jordan’s Jumpman logo (Wyld).
The creation of the Curry brand has been seen as a way for Under Armour to better compete with Nike’s Jordan brand. The company also hopes the brand will boost its fortunes in the athletic shoe market, as it has recently fallen into 11th place in that market. In the future, Under Amour has stated that it hopes that Steph Curry will be “its Jordan” for the long hall (Wyld).
Years later, the Jordan Effect is still taking place. The Jordan brand is the measure in which every athletic company hopes to reach, and the brand continues to impact sports marketing deals and endorsements today. It brings into question how long brands will strive to “Be Like Mike”. It is a question that seems to be unanswerable, but in the mean time, the Jordan Effect will continue to impact sports marketing, advertising, and branding far into the future (Wyld).
The next pages will look at the Jordan Effect on the case studies of professional soccer players & the PSG soccer club, the University of Michigan football program, and Maya Moore & the WNBA.