Nike was founded by Philip Knight in 1962 originally known as Blue Ribbon Sports mainly dealing in sportswear, footwear and sports equipment’s for basketball, football, tennis and golf to name a few, based in the US. Nike believed in designing innovative footwear for serious athletes, which helped in building the brand among the US consumers. It also believed in “Pyramid of Influence” that the preferences of a small percentage of top athletes influenced the product and brand choice of others. Therefore Nike contracted with athletes like Steve Prefontaine and Michael Jordan, professional teams in Europe during the football world cup to advertise and promote their products. After a successful start and rage in the US, Nike ventured into the Europe and transformed from a sneaker company into a brand that represented emotion, allegiance and identification as the team that it sponsored won the World Cup. This win by the Brazilian team it had sponsored in the world cup helped Nike get a good start in the international markets and by 2003 it had surpassed US revenue. In order to increase its revenue in Europe it acquired Umbro, the only supplier of uniforms to over 100 soccer teams around the world, which helped, boost Nike’s presence in soccer. Nike also recently teamed up with apple to produce Nike+ products that includes a sensor that helps capture the athlete’s mileage, calories burned and pace. This information can be stored until deleted.
The Essay on Cricket World Cup 2
Professional cricket player. Largely considered cricket's greatest batsman, Sachin Tendulkar was born April 24, 1973 in Bombay, India, to a middle-class family, the youngest of four children. His father was a professor while his mother worked for a life insurance company. Named after his family's favorite music director, Sachin Dev Burman, Tendulkar wasn't a particularly gifted student, but he'd ...
Nike invested huge sums in their marketing strategies and product designs and to sustain their dominance in the industry it actively responds to the market trends and changed in consumer preference by adjusting their marketing strategies. Nike does investment in advertising and promotions on a huge scale. Therefore it makes contracts with famous athletes in order to draw attention to their products. This has made Nike very popular among the consumers. Their aggressive advertising campaigns, celebrity endorsement enhances their brand and image.
Nike only targets consumers who are more of utility and quality conscious rather than price and hence this way price is not an issue for Nike at all. People who focus on brand and quality will buy the brand irrespective of the price issue. This make Nike a well dominated brand as once the consumer has tried and tested the product it tends to buy it again and becomes a loyal consumer for that brand.
Nike has a clear segmentation when targeting its consumer. It mainly targets athletes or people who are active. Keeping this strategy in mind the endorsements and advertisements also have athletes and players that people can very well relate Nike to and hence buy Nike.
Although Nike does follow an excellent marketing strategy it still lacks to completely conquer the market. The reason behind such a drawback is its cost. Although Nike is very clear in the segmentation they targeting, there still seems to be the cost issue that does hold Nike back. Many consumers in the market do think Nike is too costly and only bought by really rich people who can afford it and hence fails to target the middle class society, which does comprise more than 50% of the population. Secondly Nike is fully dependent on a group of famous athletes to influence the consumer’s choice to buy the brand. This can act as a fall back as if some day the athlete looses or gets caught in a scandal the consumer will not buy Nike as that particular athlete was endorsing it. These drawbacks that Nike has in its marketing strategies can also lead to a lot of risks that they might be taking. Nike needs to be well aware of any change that takes place in the market in regards to trends or preferences of the consumer. This can have a very deep impact if they fail to follow.
The Term Paper on Nike vs Adidas 2
... of today’s new consumers and are both equally fighting to gain that share of the market. Nike and Adidas both keep growing ... a loyal demographic of sports enthusiasts, athletes, gym regulars, brand consumers and image seeking buyers. Nike has a targeted customer of ... and inspiration to every athlete in the world” is seen in its demographics profile and business strategy. Nikes current and loyal ...
As mentioned earlier that in spite Adidas being the official sponsor for Summer Olympics in Beijing in 2008, Nike was given the permission from the international Olympic committee to run Nike ads featuring Olympic athletes during the games. This was a major drawback to Adidas and hence Nike’s marketing strategy was better than Adidas.
Adidas needs to compete with Nike and can follow the following strategies in order to improve its presence in the market. Currently Nike is a very costly shoe in the market as it only targets consumers willing to buy for the reason of quality and pride. On the other hand Adidas can target the other set of consumers who think Nike is too expensive and can afford Adidas because of its reasonable prices and also quality. Cost can be a very strong platform to compete with Nike.
Nike features only famous athletes in its campaigns and promotions. Adidas can on the other hand feature a common man and this can very well be related to the fact that anyone can wear Adidas irrespective of being an athlete. This will help Adidas focus the local market, which Nike fails to conquer at the moment.
To summarize Nike follows a very strong and effective marketing strategy but it fails to target the local market and their competitors can stand a chance.
Reference:
Pearson Education Limited (2012).
Marketing Management (14th ed.).
Kotler Keller: Author.
