Nike: Air Jordan's Athletic Retailers

Nike is one of the biggest footwear and apparel manufacturing companies in the word. The company came into existence in 1964 by Bill Boweman and Phil Knight and named it as the Blue Ribbon Sports. The company changed the name to Nike, which is Greek word meaning victory, in 1972 after producing a good brand of shoes that became popular among the athletes (NIKE, Inc., 2001). Since then, the company has been successful, dominating the world market of athletic shoes. The company’s products are sold in more than 170 countries across the world. The company also sponsors various sports events at national and international levels. The company slogan “just do it” is catchy and attract many people tom

Since an increasing number of people focus on brand names instead of product, brands become important elements for customers to choose products (Carroll, 2008). When customers trust the brand, the benefits for the manufactures are generated. In the first place, brands can be used by products as the tool to identify and differentiate themselves from various products. Secondly, brands are helpful for companies to build a competitive advantage (Bick, 2009). Therefore, organisations take more attention to branding.

Nike’s slogan, “Just Do It,” reinforces these emotional appeals. Since the slogan is subjective to the consumer, they have the power to associate their own emotions and interpretations with the brand. Nike’s logo, the “swoosh,” is one of the most recognizable logos in the world, and is enough to represent everything about their products. It is able to express the brand value, product

The company focuses its marketing on celebrity endorsement, i.e. athletes in basketball, golf, soccer, and tennis. Lately, Nike has also began to sponsor big sporting events so as to create huge awareness and brand following. In 2008, Nike spent significant amount on advertising in the Beijing 2008 Olympics and the Football Championship. After the recent Tiger Woods scandal Nike plans on revisiting it celebrity endorsement strategy. It can be noted that the ‘swoosh logo’ is one of the most famous in the world due to these huge advertising efforts.

Promotion/Sponsorship- Nike is very active at sponsoring big events, clubs and athletes. It has a number of celebrities ' athletes and professional teams to focus attention on

Nike now has a direct hand in how a product is marketed and displayed. Image is extremely important to Nike and by producing a wholesome image throughout the world, it believe sales will increase.

This case study will examine the industry in which Nike resides and how it has been doing over the last 5 years while analyzing the pros, cons, and risks associated with Nike's core marketing strategy and how they managed to develop a strong customer relationship with their target market. In addition, I will name the three top competitors of Nike and decide what is it about their company, brand, and product development that allows them to be competitive in the industry. Finally understanding competitors and what recommendations is the next step for these competitors. Because of these recommendations, how should Nike combat these competitors' accomplishments to stay successful in such a competitive market?

Nike is a brand that usually signs top athletes of every sport from across the world to lucrative deals so that the athletes can wear and represent Nike to its fullest. Nike, unlike its competitors, wants to be seen more as a symbol of strength, dedication, hard work, sweat, perseverance and the desire to succeed. Superb athletes and role models have extreme power over teenagers and often influence them into purchasing products not otherwise thought of. Nike has been able to sign numerous top notch athletes while other companies just simply

Nike pays top athletes in many different sports to use their products and promote/advertise their technology and design.

Nike gets top athletes to wear and sponsor their products rather than events or competitions as much. Nike explains that people tend to remember what the player wore and not the brand that sponsors the event that the players perform at.

Meaningfulness as a brand the meaning of Nike is the “greek goddess of victory”. Likability of the brand the symbol of the brand reminds the minds the sign of ok in addition it is associated with victory and winning. These all have a positive effect on peoples minds. Adaptability is how the brand responds to change nike has changed its logo many times in years which shows how Nike uses adaptability for brand equity. Transferability is the capability of the brand to add new products nike always adds to their portfolio of products they also change their logo according to gender ,product etc. Protectability is the last of these elements which is about protection and legal registration nike has protected their brand elements with the swoosh appearing alongside the trademark “just do it” since

With a slogan of “Just Do It,” Nike is known all over the world for its products ranging from apparel to shoes. Receiving recognition and sponsorship from various celebrities and athletes including Michael Jordan, Nike’s brand is generally associated in a positive light. However, the brand itself, variety of products, and numerous sponsors exist as only a few aspects of this continuously expanding brand. Another aspect to consider when addressing the overall existence of a product as well as the constant introduction of new products is the production process itself: how the product came to be, who is involved in creating the product, and where the product is produced.

The strategy adopted by Nike is most effective, by looking deep inside the customer’s emotions, Nike comes up with emotional branding strategy by creating classic stories of the heroes’ journey and they also twisted their brand story by turning their customer story into hero and villain. By adoption of this strategy by Nike Company, the customer loyalty is off the chart. Nike’s brand communication strategy is so powerful that it inspires customer loyalty from people all over the world, this is also because of Nike’s emotional branding

Branding is the independent identity given to a company to differentiate it from the rest and be above the competition. Branding is important because without branding nothing would be sold as there would be no promotion and nobody would know about the brand disallowing it to be bought. Branding is especially important for Adidas because the brand costs a lot of money and without branding no profit would be made and the CEO’s would be in debt.

Nike is a successful company that has been in business since 1972. Throughout the decades, Nike has built up its brand to one that is respected and sought after. Nike has grown its brand name through the acquisitions and partnerships of many other brands (Hurley, Umbro, Cole Haan, and Converse) to provide to its customer different products that suit every athletic need. In order for Nike to gain success in its growth, the company follows the four functions of management: planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. External and internal factors play unique roles into how the company carries out each of these functions. In contingency to the functions, factors such as globalization, technology, innovation, diversity, and ethics affect