I agree that the white lens, red ring and L badge was a stroke of genius (even if it looks crap

) but the reasons behind them becoming so prevalent are ultimately technical ones stemming from board decisions. Nikon only have poor strategic decisions to blame for losing the sports mantle and you could almost say that the sea of white at such events now is self sustaining for Canon and that it's effectively a closed shop for Nikon even though there's now little if any difference between the systems.
Look at video- great opportunity for Nikon and they screwed it up- what could marketing do with a format nobody wanted? You could argue that their market research should feed into the board so perhaps they are at fault. mmm... lets sack them all