Nike

In 1984 Nike, a running-shoe company losing ground to Reebok in the aerobics boom, paid a 21-year-old who had not played an NBA game about $250,000 a year plus royalties for a signature shoe. The Air Jordan 1 launched in bold red and black that violated league uniform rules; the NBA fined Michael Jordan $5,000 a game for wearing it. Nike paid the fines and turned a banned shoe into the story. First-year sales reached roughly $100 million.

This case is for founders and operators who suspect their product is good but their story is flat. It sharpens a specific decision: what a customer gets to believe about themselves when they buy from you, and whether your marketing reinforces that or talks past it. The bigger move came in 1988 with a campaign that sold something other than product specs. What Nike was actually selling, and why endorsement works at all, is the part the app keeps for you to put to work.