In 1964, Philip Knight and Bill Bowerman began selling track shoes in the US for a Japanese company. In 1971, they began selling under their own label and hatched a simple yet brilliant marketing strategy — harness the power of the halo effect.
The halo effect is a cognitive bias1 first identified in psychological studies conducted in 19202. In these early observations, people were found to assume that physically attractive people also possess desirable traits, such as generosity, financial success, dependability, organization and care. In the ensuing years, the halo effect …