Swot Analysis Of Nike 's Marketing Strategy

Nike, Inc. is an American multinational corporation that is engaged in the design, development and worldwide marketing and selling of footwear, apparel, equipment, accessories and services. The company is headquartered near Beaverton, Oregon, in the Portland metropolitan area. It is the world 's leading supplier of athletic shoes and apparel and a major manufacturer of sports equipment, with revenue in excess of US$24.1 billion in its fiscal year 2012 (ending May 31, 2012). As of 2012, it employed more than 44,000 people worldwide. The brand alone is valued at $10.7 Billion making it the most valuable brand among sports businesses. Nike and Precision Castparts are the only Fortune

For Nike's business model to continually flourish and stay profitable, the senior management team and strategic planners must continually monitor short, intermediate and long-term economic factors that will affect their operations. Nike's business model is heavily dependent on supply chains, as the majority of their products are manufactured in Asian nations, either in their own manufacturing centers or contract manufacturing partners. Sales forecasts for next-generation shoes, apparel and sporting equipment must be accurate to ensure the supply chain estimates and forecasts can meet product demand. The influence of economic factors on sales and marketing planning and strategy development is among the most immediate and significant for any enterprise operating in global markets (Cerullo, Avila, 1975). Strategic planners at Nike, working in conjunction with product development and product launch teams, must understand the price elasticity of demand for a given new product or an entirely new division before launching it. Economic data gives Nike senior management and strategic planners the insight necessary to determine which new products to launch or not, when, and in which specific regions of the world. Economic variables will in short tell Nike's senior management how to navigate risk and capitalize on opportunities as quickly as possible.

1. Discussion: What factors drive Nike’s decision to stick with some form of network organizational structure rather than own its manufacturing operations?

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.

Business level strategies are plans that a firm forms to describe and project how it intends to build a sustainable competitive advantage, over its competitors in a discrete market (Furrer, 2010, p. 1). These strategies have changed the nature of competition in industries, and paved way for further developments in product quality and cost. Business level strategies employed by Nike work mainly in two forms, that is, competitive strategies and corporative strategies (Furner, 2010, p. 1). By looking at the different business level strategies Nike has employed, this essay will explain how it has had such a massive impact in the Sports and Apparel industry it now leads.

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 is known as one of the most consistently innovative companies for its technologically advanced products. As Nike stated, Innovation is the company’s heart in its business growth strategy because it helps them to become more sustainable company and to keep up with the competition and customer demands (nikeandunderarmour.com, 2015). Therefore, Nike vision innovation is a key business success of the company. It invests

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 places more importance on choosing the right local partners, not just the right ports. Nike doesn’t own any of its facilities, and local partners make important logistics decisions (Field, 2003a). To manage relationships, Nike has both a global and regional vendor management team – as output volume increases, Nike don’t expand the number of suppliers, but increase the volume of business they do with each supplier (Field, 2003a).

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

One of Nike’s main opportunities is product development. Developing their product range makes them more competitive and because products tend to go out of fashion quickly, Nike must introduce new products relatively fast because consumer demand the newest and latest products. Increase in internet shopping will no doubt reduce the cost and improve prices making them even more competitive.

A comprehensive analysis, using market data and market research, allows us to assess all areas affecting Nike’s strategic direction:

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

Firstly Nike sold its franchise licenses in different countries expanding the market share in sports wear industry, and then the company moved towards purchasing shares in equity to reduce the risk uncertainty. Finally the company managed to bring the dealers’s corporation under one direction enabling them a better control and monitoring capabilities. Nike is making new policies, analyzing the performance of marketing and advertising with the standards they have set to make sure that the company is in line with its required its standards in addition; company is moving towards improving its advertisement in order to make it more effective in different regions. Nike has also faced different issues while internationalizing the business, such as capabilities, access, finance and business environment; unavailability of trained workers, limited information about the market, inability of contacting foreign customers and new business environments describes these issues on a vast ground.