Athletic Footwear Industry - Focus: NIKE

Second, because of the current distribution network and infrastructure that Nike had in place for its high-end

Obviously, there is a big number of driving forces in the athletic footwear industry. Each of these driving forces has different impacts—some of them can have a more considerable effect than others on figuring out how much cross-company differences influence market shares and a number of units sold. The first line of most influential factors includes comparative prices, S/Q ratings, and a number of models offered among the footwear competitors. These three most important competitive forces affect customer decisions of which athletic footwear brand to choose. Furthermore, the decisions of customers whether to purchase one brand or another are also influenced by such forces as advertising, celebrity endorsements, the number of independent retail

For some time now Nike has been making a breathtaking promtion deal and sponsoring with popular althlets from different sports. Michael Jordan, Mia Hamm, Venus Williams, and some of the popular althlets that

Kotler P et al, 2001, Principles of Marketing, p 2490-259, 1 th edition, Pearson educational editorial.

Market segmentation is a concept in economics and marketing. A market segment is a sub-set of a market made up of people or organizations sharing with one or more characteristics that cause them to demand similar product and services based on qualities of those products such as price or function. With this concept as the back bone nike take these 4 key bits of research as there starting point :

What is Market Segmentation? According to Investopedia (n.d), market segmentation is a term used in marketing that refers to the aggregating of a potential buyer into groups, or segments, that share common needs and would respond similarly to a particular action in marketing. By utilizing market segmentation it enables Victoria’s Secret to target different categories of consumers who recognize the full value of certain products and services differently from one another. Furthermore, market segmentation is an extension of market research for the purposes of identifying targeted groups of consumers in order to tailor products and branding in a way that it is attractive to that group. There are three general criteria used to identify different market segments: homogeneity, distinction and reaction (Investopedia, n.d).

Of all the major fads and trends surging through popular culture, none is more prevalent than flashy footwear. Mainly with athletic sneakers, the footwear industry has experienced a major influx in the demand for the output of iconic shoes. The current manufacturing practices of the sneaker industry, in particular companies such as Nike, Reebok, Adidas, and New Balance, takes place all over the globe. With the industry experiencing severe competition and the product requiring intensive labor, firms are facing extreme pressure to increase their profit margins through their sourcing practices. No competing sports brand is more eminent and internationally established than Nike, Incorporated. Introduced to the world in 1964, Nike has made

Market segmentation is the process of dividing a market up into different groups of customers, in order to create different products to meet their specific needs. The most obvious type of segmentation is between customers who buy distinctly different products.

As the world change and develop, new opportunities are opened for the innovators, and big companies must take advantage of those opportunities in order to maintain the leverage, otherwise they will topple. As company Nike, Inc. place innovation in it center of engagement, with a view to become the leading athletic brand in the world, today and into the future. There is a growing awareness and popularity for sport around the world, people are running more, doing more sports activities and eating healthier, Nike is riding this wave by a few actions. Nike as begin focusing on technology improve products and teaming up with other companies to create products that are combining together sports and technology in a perfect way. Apple is one of Nike's closest partners, and they even started launching a new revolutionary product called the IWatch. Nike all so planning on expanding into new sports, create more sister firms and reach smaller and bigger market, Nike as already begin sponsoring tow champion fighters in the UFC challenge. Nike also started entering the American football in order to get more supporters in North America, this act will expand Nike's target audience significantly. Another action Nike is going to take in to broaden the Nike Foundation by creating larger scale projects worldwide and support C.S.R, for example the building of soccer clubs for young kids in Brazil in order to pull them out of the crime cycle and give them a chance for

There are global marketing events that can be utilized to support the brand such as the soccer World Cup and The Olympics (marketingteacher.com). Soccer is the most popular sport in the world. Even if everyone in the world didn’t know about Nike before the Olympics and World Cups, they would certainly figure out sooner or later by wondering what the “check mark” stands for.

Nike’s market cap recently eclipsed $77 billion. They have been making a huge push into the soccer market and that, in return, has tremendously helped their brand awareness across the world.

Here we subdivide markets into segments based on geographic distribution-- the regions, counties, cities and towns where people live and work. This can be taken out by taking into consideration:

population, a geographic location that can be directly related to that nation. Based on the

Nike’s management understands how important a relevant strategy is in the global environment, as Don Blair, Nike’s CFO, stated “...we are refocusing our efforts, increasing our investments in innovation, using our voice for stronger advocacy and looking at how we incubate new, scalable business models that enable us to thrive in a sustainable economy.”

The second factor that we used is the age groups among the cities. Looking at different age groups in the community is critical because businesses are often provide services to only a certain amount of age groups. For example, it is not appropriate to have an amusement park in a community where the