Nike Controversy

Producing product overseas puts Nike at risk of overseas sourcing, manufacturing, and financing. Nike buys and sells to different countries using different currencies. The currency rate fluctuates very often and Nike, at times could take a loss. This is a risk most companies cannot take. Nike has the ability to produce materials, import product and sell product in international market during a time of disease outbreaks, terrorist attacks, and military conflict. With these risks there are few companies who can afford to take these risks (aflorzak.com). This also proves no new threat for Nike.

In the last couple of years Nike’s sales have decreased which were targeted at 15-19 year olds. This problem has caused Nike to lose customers which means a loss in sales/ profits. Over the past few months competitors have been raising their strategies to bring in customers in which increases their profits. This is having a negative effect on Nike, if Nike carry on the way

Nike is competing in the market with Adidas, Reebok, New Balance and many other brands.

Nike was established in 1972 by Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight. These two men were visionaries. The goal for Nike was to carry on Bowerman’s legacy of innovative thinking by helping every athlete reach their goal or by creating lucrative business opportunities that would set the company apart from any competition. This included providing quality work environments for all who were employed by Nike.

Nike is criticized for contracting with factories (known as Nike sweatshops) in third world countries. Vietnam Labor Watch, an labor union group, has documented that contracted factories by Nike have not been following the minimum wage and overtime rules and regulations in Vietnam as late as 1996, Though Nikes claims to have stopped these unfair practices. The Company has been accused of offering poor working conditions for their workers overseas employed in free trade zones where there goods are manufactured. Sources for this criticism are Naomi Klein's book No Logo and Michael Moore documentaries. Other than that, In the 1990s, Nike faced criticism claims for child labor in Cambodia and Pakistan in factories it contracted to produce footballs. Although Nike took action to reduce the practice, they still continue to contract their production to firms in countries with less regulatory checks and child labor laws so that they are not caught in the future. In 2001, a BBC documentary uncovered their practices of child labor and poor working conditions in a Cambodian factory used by Nike. The documentary focused on six girls, who all worked seven days a week, often 16 hours a

Like other large corporations, Nike looked to expand their operations outside North America. Many companies do this because of the law and wage demands of the United States making overseas operations very appealing. Employment laws are scarce and labor is cheap in most third world countries and can be easily become targeted by giant corporations such as Nike.

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

They have created more sustainable products such as t-shirts made of recycled polyester and recycled plastic bottles. Recycling old shoes into new ones. Nike started numerous charities and has donated millions of dollars to organizations to help repair Nike's image. Nike must continuously work towards the enforcement of their corporate social responsibilities that they have presented to their suppliers at the same time they must remain competitive in the market place.

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:

This bad public image has led to loss of existing customers and potential customers switching to more ethical brands. Nike’s marketing team has had to make it a big priority to counter any negative publicity and re-focus consumer’s attention on what they are doing about the allegations.

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.

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.”

Firms undertake a situational analysis and planning process to identify and justify appropriate marketing opportunities for growth. This report provides an introduction to Nike with a background to the Company, its history and its product.

Instead of spending millions of dollars on their workers, who are the backbones of making the actual shoes, they are spending it on their advertisements to promote their company. I realize that advertisement is essential to the success of a product, but it should not be at the cost of another human being to make a profit. I know that Nike is just one of thousands of companies that have taken their labor overseas, so that the product can be made at a fraction of its cost. Unfortunately the public sees Nike as a company whose product is worn by the rich and famous, therefore it is something that they would want for themselves. We the consumer enable them to continue this kind of business, because we buy the product. Through global media, we the public are becoming more aware of this kind of exploitation of workers. Overall, I think there is no pride to be found in companies that exploit their employees at the cost of a better profit for themselves. Awareness is going to be the key to hopefully fix it in the near

The ethics of businesses are under more scrutiny than ever before (Bones, 2014). Ethics can be considered as following a code of behaviour agreeable with the context of society and can also be defined as the application of moral and ethical considerations in a business environment (Hurn, 2008). Sport businesses have been targeted a lot more in recent years due to the conditions they place their workers in has become more apparent to the outside world. Nike are one of the world’s leading sports brands but have been faced with many allegations in recent years (Daily Mail, 2011) in regards to the conditions they put their workers in and their ethics and morals have been questioned. This report will critically evaluate the impact ethics has on the business operations of Nike and then analyse the reasons for why ethics impact the sport organisation. Finally, recommendations will be made to improve Nike’s business ethics.