Nike 's Competitiveness And External Environment

The five forces of rivalry is an efficient method that companies apply to facilitate their ventures to locate most valuable industry for its business. These five forces

Nike was founded by an athlete Phil Knight and a track coach Bill Bowerman in 1964 on a handshake. In addition, Nike is the number 1 contender in athletic footwear industry. Over the years Nike has developed a reputation for providing quality footwear that not only appeal to athletes (prior only male), but that of female customers and children. There were implications that Reebok had an advantage over Nike, somewhere in their success they lost their strategy. However, over time Nike gain a competitive advantage over Reebok, they had conducted research and form a well thought-out plan that gave them a top position with U.S. and foreign markets as far as athletic products (i.e. athletic shoes, clothing), branding (i.e. Swoosh logo and “Just Do It” positioning statement) and sports celebrities (i.e. Michael Jordan, Phil Sampras, Tiger Woods). Nike’s management team was responsible for Nike’s success. Phil Knight, Nike’s CEO was a former excellent marathon runner. He knew what runners wanted in a shoe, so he knew what type of strategy to use as far as shoes and how to make it work; he decided to make products according to the consumer wants and needs. Examples of great decision-making are:

Nike at this time knew the situation could not be resolved. Nike has changed there working environments for their employees from past mistakes. Hopefully Nike and the Universities

In this paper, we present an elaborate analysis of the marketing mix employed by Nike in its marketing strategy. The marketing mix is conducted on the basis of the concept of "marketing mix" which is usually referred to as the "4Ps" as an important means of effectively interpreting as well as translating the marketing strategy into practice as noted by Bennett (1997).A recommendation is also provided.

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:

6). This strategy is a major component of Nike’s business strategic level plan. In applying this strategy, Nike has attained a great deal of consumer insight, which it uses to offer uniquely designed premium products to the athletes. Still on product differentiation, Nike focuses more on research and development at a greater level. These unique features to Nike, have transformed the competition levels in this competitive industry, leading to a trend of a paradigm shift in the market. Most consumers opt for Nike branded sports products and apparels, at the expense of the other brand names.

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

Nike’s main strategy revolves around product branding. Their brand compromises of a swoosh logo which is accompanied by a message of “just do it”. The logo was imprinted on all of their products with the message developed to express the individuality of their target group. The branding was further promoted by Nike’s relentless approach on the quality of their product as demonstrated when considering overseas business opportunities, quality must not be compromised in order to do so. This ensures consumer satisfaction and loyalty towards Nike.

Nike soon realized even though they have attempted to make changes within their subcontracting companies it has not been enough. Nike realized they have an ongoing obligation to the workers, as well to the different cultures that are involved. Nike implemented a process called The Compliance Generation, which involves increasing their business value by establishing the function, fighting fires, building a global team, and establishing partners. Employee management interaction making the work more systematic, building excellence in management audits, building environment, safety, and health global process, creating transparency, and creating ratings. Nike wants to have a transformational focus on building excellence in factory remediation, developing a sustainable sourcing strategy, building business integration and accountability, increasing contract factory ownership of corporate responsibility, and building industry conditions (Nikebiz, 2010).

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

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 has three main areas that they highlight in their strategic plan: innovation, sustainability, and market leader of athletic brands. These are three areas that are very hard to accomplish, and I hope Nike has not bit off more than they can chew. According to Nikebiz.com,” innovation is at the heart of NIKE, Inc. 's business growth strategy. Our relentless focus to be better helps us create the world 's most innovative products for consumers across the globe”. Innovation, especially in the clothing department, is difficult.

There are numerous definitions of competitive strategy; whether, it was defined by a scholar, a textbook, or a dictionary source, it is not the same. A source may refer to this subject as a competitive strategy or a competitive advantage. Therefore, this subject is difficult to understand and then apply to a company. The Five Generic Competitive Strategies that Michael E. Porter developed are not really five strategies, more like five with subsets under them. Nike does not fit neatly into a specific strategy. The first factor within the competitive strategy as described in the Essentials of Strategic Management textbook is a broad target market or a narrow target market. The second factor considers

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.

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