Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Nike's Visual Appeal


            Nike’s website uses both words and visuals to try to make you believe that their shoes are new, effective, and unmatched. The first thing one notices when viewing the website is the star basketball player Kobe Bryant, strategically placed at the top center of the webpage so that it draws the viewer in immediately. Since it is a site to sell basketball shoes, the creators of the webpage know that its viewers will be familiar with Kobe and his basketball prowess, and they have him wearing their Nike brand shoes as a way of saying “if you wear these you will be great at basketball, just like Kobe Bryant”. Nike further pushes this strategy by naming the shoes Kobe 8 System, putting a name to the visual. If the consumer buys their product, they will be wearing shoes not only worn by Kobe Bryant, but are named after him as well. The use of this authoritative figure causes the viewer to feel almost compelled to buy the product, as if anything else is lesser and unacceptable.
            Along with the use of a well known athlete, Nike furthers its appeal to the consumer athlete with the use of a blurred image of Kobe to make it seem as if he is moving very fast, accompanied by the caption “Strike at Lightning Speed”. With this technique, the webpage is making the viewers suspend their belief of what is humanly possible by suggesting that its shoes can allow you to move at “lightning speed”, making you appear as nothing but a blur to your opponents. While this may be an exaggeration, it gets its overall message across that it will make you faster.
            Finally, the webpage uses colors to lure its viewers in and intrigue them to further look at the site. The purple and yellow colors are not used not just as the colors of a professional basketball team, but are also bright and inviting, creating a visually appealing appearance for the viewer right when they see the page. It is meant to intrigue the viewer and cause them to continue looking around the page. From the webpage, there are other vibrant and visually unique pictures accompanied by more links to other pages with more Nike products. The creators of this webpage are trying to make it so that viewers first come to this page where their attentions are captured, and then become consumed by the overall message and appeal and move on to other pages, further selling their product. Overall, its techniques are very affective as they use a wide range of tactics to capture the attention of viewers.

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