Strategic Marketing Case Study

NIKE Inc. has been the worldwide leader of athletic shoe sales for many years now. The company’s successful brand image combined competition and enablement for the competitive, athletic user. Nike has to modify their brand to a focus of excitement and freedom and not just competitiveness. By collecting and studying an assortment of material we could be able to understand where NIKE is currently placed in the athletic shoe industry compared to their competition, and how they will be able to adjust their brand focus so it can be more effective in the future. These adjustments can help NIKE reach the more casual group of urban runners and ultimately increase the sales forecasts, while still controlling a percentage of the market for athletic shoes.

Nike is the world’s single largest producer of sporting wear, clothing, shoes and accessories. An Oregon based company founded in 1972 by Phillip H. Knight and William J. Bowerman. Nike’s broad range of products is the key to it’s success, it’s range includes Nike Skateboarding, Nike Golf, Nike Pro, Nike +, Nike Air Jordan and owns other big names such as surf brand Hurley; shoe manufacturer Cole Haan; and two large sports companies – Converse and Umbro. Having such huge sponsorship contracts with many of the world’s biggest athletes and sports teams, these huge profiles are simply another outlet for Nike to promote their products. Nike currently employs over 31,000 people

Nike is the leading and yet renowned supplier of athletic apparel and shoes. The company controls close to 33% of the global athletic shoe market (Dogiamis & Vijayashanker,2009).Nike was founded by Bill Power and Phil Knight in 1962 as a Blue Ribbon Support and then was later on renamed to Nike in the year 1968 (Patrow,2003).The company supplies very high quality product in close to 100 countries with major markets being located in the U.S,U,K, Asia Pacific as well as in the Americas. The company has managed to attain its lead and legendary position via the application of innovative and yet attractive product design which is backed by quality production as well as well crafted marketing strategies.

As the brand name of Nike continue to soar, other companies in the industry; learning from the success Nike has experienced, start focusing more on brand development to keep up with the increasing levels of competition. These companies resort to brand maintenance, which has become the main target in this industry due to product differentiation made by Nike. Nike, being market-advantaged, produces an extensive range of products, through which it gains a balanced level of profits. This has influenced rival companies to initiate a new range of products in their businesses too. Previously these companies had high risks of failing in business, if their single products did not appeal to the market. Due to the impact of Nike’s business strategy, the other companies are also enlarging their product range,

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

Since its creation, Nike has proven itself as a popular brand and it has created niches by selling products such as footwear, apparels and various types of sports equipment. This paper will attempt to trace the product development of Nike shoes from its origins in conception and design to the manufacturing and production process located in contract factories in developing countries to advertising and marketing of Nike as a cultural commodity and finally, the retailing of the footwear around the world.

Nike’s mission statement is “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world. If you have a body, you are an athlete” (Nike, n.d.). In order to be successful in this, Nike’s business strategy will rely on the sustainable economy and the ability to challenge. The core strengths of Nike are to bring systemic changes in the footwear, apparel and sport equipment industry; create sustainable products and business models; and release potential energy through sports. Nike’s vision is clear: “to help all the customers thrive in a sustainable economy where people, profit and planet are in balance” (Nike).

The athletic shoe industry stands one of the greatest and most profitable in the world. Currently, global annual athletic footwear revenues stand around $75B per year, with annual US consumers spending close to$20 billion. Unsurprisingly, the largest growth in the industry took place during the 1980’s and 1990’s, during Jordan’s career in which the popularity of athletic and sport oriented casual shoes skyrocketed. Also not alarming is who the dominant player in the athletic footwear market is – Nike. The market share of Nike and Jordan brands combined is routinely measured at close to 50% in this market, proving their sponsorship deal with Jordan in 1984 provided the springboard to which they never have looked back on.

Currently, Nike stand as a leading figure in producing high quality sports and fitness equipment and apparels. Bearing just a simple start of selling Japanese imported shoes from a station wagon has transformed

In 2005, Adidas the renowned footwear company from Germany was in a raging war with it’s U.S competitor Nike over market share in the field of football footwear and accessories. In the war over market share Adidas acquired Reebok the prominent company in basketball footwear to further gain a share in the U.S. Nike has also gained a lot of grounds in the field of football footwear by it’s aggressive marketing and sponsoring strategy that included the Brazilian national team and other prominent football clubs like Manchester United among many others. Nike strategy paid off and in 2003 Nike edged over Adidas for the first time ever in the European football market with a 34 percent market share against a 30 percent for Adidas.

Nike’s organizational Form reflects a conglomeration of resources, processes and people around the activities most critical to their target customers in terms of its Value Proposition. It decided therefore to concentrate in depth on the critical activities and competencies rather than increasing the breadth of its

Nike‘s vertical structure includes CEO Mark Parker and a board of directors chaired by co-founder Phil Knight. Although Nike has functional divisions and divisions based on specific products it is not a matrix organization. In a matrix organization, employees report to a functional and divisional manage. At Nike, employees report to the divisional manager and the president of each division reports directly to the CEO. Nike’s continued product innovation and successful marketing are due to the combination of functional and divisional organization using an operations department to insure communication between divisions. There is division of labor but it is not clearly identified. With a more pronounced division of labor and levels of direct supervision Nike can improve its

Nike business model has always been contracting underdeveloped countries, mainly in Asia, to produce its athletic shoes at a much lower cost as compared to its competitors. As it is simple to manufacture an athletic shoe, Nike’s contractors are often able to capitalize on the abundance of unskilled and low-wage workers in their home country to cut down on production costs.

The report is about Nike, regarding the case study. The report elaborates on the aspects including buyer behaviour, brand image, consumer decision making, and marketing research techniques applicable to Nike. 3.0 Introduction Nike is the worlds number one sports shoe company. In the US Nike dominates 35% (source: see appendices) of the sports shoe market and its products are sold in more than 140

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.