Nike Case Study Essay

Dick’s Sporting Goods has had reputable equitability consistently throughout the years. Investors have been able to regularly earn a respectable return on their investments. However, some of the valuation metrics of Dick’s Sporting Goods are slightly troublesome. The price to earnings ratio, which is one of the most commonly used gauge of valuing equity securities, has decreased over the last 3 years and recently decreased 24% compared to the previous year, while their earnings per share has increased every year with the exception of the current year where it decreased minimally. This indicates that the market is lessening their expectations of the company. Another commonly used measure is the price to cash flow which eliminates the manipulation that is possible with net income that is used in the price to earnings ratio. This ratio also has decreased recently, thus also indicating a lessening in expectations in the market.

The evidence could be found in the case of Detroit, they did seem to be “customer – orientation” by spending money on customer research, especially in urgent situations.

NIKE, Inc., is a company that was founded in by William Jay Bowerman and Philip H. Knight in 1964, and was originally called Blue Ribbon Sports, Inc. It’s name was changed to Nike, Inc. in 1971. It’s base of operation is located in Beaverton, Oregon. NIKE, Inc., is the world’s leading designer, marketer and distributor of authentic athletic footwear, apparel, equipment and accessories for a wide variety of sports and fitness activities worldwide. Entirely owned Nike subsidiaries include Converse Inc., a brand that develops, advertises, and sells athletic apparel and accessories; and also Hurley International LLC, which designs, markets and sells surf and youth lifestyle clothing and many different accessories. Its athletic footwear products are designed primarily for specific athletic use, although a large percentage of the products are worn for casual or leisure purposes. Nike offers products in many different categories such as men’s/women’s training, running, basketball, golf, and more. The company also sells products designed for children and youth athletic activities such as baseball, cricket, lacrosse, outdoor activities, football, tennis, volleyball, walking, and wrestling. Also, Nike sells sports apparel and accessories; and markets apparel with licensed college and professional team and league logos. Further, it sells a line of performance equipment and accessories, including sports bags, balls, eyewear, digital devices, bats, gloves, protective equipment, golf

The company I have chosen to do my research financial analysis paper on is Nike Inc. NIKE, Inc., based near Beaverton, Oregon, is the world's leading designer, marketer and distributor of authentic athletic footwear,

The aim of this paper is to use the “Nike - The art of selling air.” case study and concepts from strategic marketing theory to identify marketing challenges and how those challenges could be best addressed using marketing principles. The paper will:

Apparently, the issue of Nike’s case is to control and check the calculation cost of capital done by Joanna Cohen who is the assistant of a portfolio manager at NorthPoint Group. But I am willing to tell you that it can be a complex case in which we can doubt about sensitivity analysis done by Kimi Ford (portfolio manager) too. Because her assumptions such as Revenue Growth Rate, COGS / Sales,

It appears that Nike is taking a few steps in the right directions through innovation and restructuring of their workforce to better position themselves financially in the long term.

To conduct this study on Nike I used a mix of primary sources, books, and websites that are all dedicated to Nike Brand’s past and present history. All of the sources I used have proven to be credible in the sneakerhead world and are sources that Nike will leak information to so they can publish it and make it known to everyone it may interest. Additionally, I used a connection I have with the District Loss Prevention Manager at Nike, Inc for the greater New York City Area to obtain an interview in order to gain insight into why Nike conducts limited releases the way they do. To protect his identity, for this paper I will be referring to him as “Bill Harris” as he provided me with insider information that is classified and

     History: NIKE, Inc. is engaged in the design, development and worldwide                 marketing of footwear, apparel, equipment and accessory products. The                 Company sells its products to retail accounts and through a mix of            independent distributors, licensees and subsidiaries in over 120 countries            around the

1. A decision to retain an in-house arm of agency Weiden & Kennedy by Nike exemplify the concept of organizational design by allowing Nike use the agency’s creative designers to focus solely on Nike work, giving them un-parallel access to executives, researchers and anyone else who might provide Nike advertisers with their next inspiration for marketing greatness before listening to any other organization. Having the agency in the building is having them at their disposal at anytime they need them and also the agency will have to consider them first incase of any new ad or good idea discovered by the agency or when Nike needs to salvage a problem with the help of the agency. Thus, the agency at their finger-tips serves great advantages

Enderle, K., Hirsch, D., Micka, L., Saving, B., Shah, S., Szerwinski, T. (2000, March 14). Strategic Analysis of Nike, Inc. Retrieved on December 14, 2005, from

Nike is a well renowned apparel company that ranks superior on a global scale. With that said Nike along with countless other companies in the apparel industry face numerous challenges regarding that of corporate social responsibility when it comes to their supply chains around the world. A major challenge regarding corporate social responsibility would be the manufacturers that are hired and contracted by these companies in the apparel industry. Essentially these manufacturers are being hired in foreign countries who are in turn adding to the poor working conditions due to the lack of regulation in these countries. For example “[25%-50%] of factories denies workers at least one day off in seven”, “employees work more than 60 hours per week” and “workers refusing overtime were punished” (p. 1). Ultimately, these quotes show how the manufacturing companies themselves were pushing the workers into these intense labor conditions. This is where the company itself faces the challenge and backlash essentially have to initiate change with the help of “engaging labor ministries, civil society, and competitors around the world to try to raise the bar…” (p. 2). Another major challenge faced would be the lack of reward towards these companies. The Vice President of Nike’s social responsibility Hannah Jones addresses this issue to the delegates at the Ethical Trading Initiative “consumers are not rewarding us for investments in improved social performance” (p. 2). Essentially these companies are investing large sums of money for better work environments in these countries which in turn adds another expense to the production cost with nothing in return.

Nike began as Phil Knight’s semester-long project to develop a small business, which included a marketing plan. This project was part of Phil Knight’s MBA course at Stanford University in the early 1960s. Phil Knight had been a runner at the University of Oregon in the late 1950s. His idea for his project was to develop high quality running shoes. He thought that high quality/low cost products could be produced in Japan and then shipped to the United States to be sold at a profit. His professor thought that Knight’s idea was interesting, but not much more than a project.

Report on the Case Study Nike This report has been produced to provide an insight into the consumer decision-making process, buyer behaviour factors that consumers of Nike are influenced by. The report also details recommendations based on the findings. 2.0 Summary = =

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.”