What Is Your Brand Saying About You? Growing a brand is a journey. Do it right, and you'll be rewarded.

What's Nike's symbol? What's its slogan?

Unless you've been cryogenically frozen for the past 50 years, you can probably answer both of these questions without thinking. Nike is one of the most well-recognized brands on earth — it even earned a place in the Smithsonian Institution for its outsized influence on American culture.

Nike's success was no accident. In his memoir, Shoe Dog, Nike founder Phil Knight describes the highs and lows he experienced during the long process of building his company from a small operation importing Japanese shoes to a full-blown sportswear empire. As a runner himself, Knight spent the company's early days at track meets, talking with other runners and selling shoes out of the back of his car. Why, he wondered, was he so much better at selling shoes than any of the other goods he'd tried to peddle in the past?