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Running head: NICE INC. GLOBAL MARKETING PLAN Nike Inc. Global Marketing Plan March 17, 2009 Nike Inc. Global Marketing Plan Abstract The research examines Nike Corporation, one of the most famous sportswear and equipment retailers in the world, focuses on Nike's marketing mix and its global marketing plan.
The research was done mainly through qualitative analysis, using the review of literature publicly available, along with the peer reviewed sources. The researcher identifies Nike's current marketing opportunities and provides the analysis of external environment (forces, competition and public), along with the analysis of Nike corporation (the companys SWOT, missions, etc), and thorough analysis of Nike's marketing information systems as it referred to the companys global marketing plan. According to the research findings, Nike Inc. global marketing plan provide the company advantage over its leading competitors such at Reebok, Adidas, & Under Armour, allowing Nike keep leading the industry in shoes, sports apparel, & equipment in the future. Introduction Nike, Inc. is one of the most popular sportswear and equipment retailers all over the world.
Nike, Inc. was founded in 1972 by William J. Bill Bowerman and Philip H. Knight. The company operates in sportswear and sports equipment industry and provides the customers with an extremely wide range of products, including athletic shoes, sports equipment, apparel and accessories. Nike, Inc.
positions itself as a one-stop-for-everything store, with its highly popular the Swoosh logotype and trademarks Just Do It. The companys marketing strategy is a core component of its worldwide recognition, popularity, success and profitability. Nike, Inc. operates at a highly competitive environment, competing with well-known brands like Reebok, Adidas, Under Armour and others. Despite Nike's brand recognition, the companys dilemma is obviously indicative of the current challenges confronting giant sport apparel and equipment retailers in an increasingly commercial and competitive environment in conditions of current economic slowdown. In order to succeed, the company strives to obtain a competitive advantage by inventing and implementing new marketing strategies enabling the company to maximize its promotional potential.
In a highly technological world of the 1990 - 2000 s, sports and healthy lifestyle have emerged via television and other media to promote healthy way of life and to obtain global dominant position. No wonder that many sport retailers adopted this approach as the core of their marketing plans. Nike, Inc. is no exception to this rule. According to various sources, Nike, Inc. has always considered the role of sports marketing from a strategic viewpoint, placing high emphasis on promotion of sport activities to gain brand line awareness to increase its market share.
This research examines Nike Corporation and aims to answer two major questions: How does Nike Inc. global marketing plan compare to its leading competitors such at Reebok, Adidas, & Under Armour? Will Nike Inc. keep leading the industry in shoes, sports apparel, & equipment in the future?
Methods and Procedure The research conducted for this section was mainly done through qualitative analysis. The researcher has used secondary sources, mostly the review of the literature available in the internet as well as information available from periodicals, books, journals, and various marketing and business related websites. Nike, Inc. official website was also used to obtain up-to-date information regarding Nike's marketing strategy, latest press releases and news about Nike, Inc. s activity at the market and other important data accessible in the net. From these sources, there will be information derived from statistics and other related data from surveys and reviews.
In addition to that, the researcher has used information obtained from literature sources to identify Nike's current marketing opportunities through analysis of external environment (including Nike Inc. s competition, forces, public), analysis of organization (Nike's mission, objectives and SWOT as it relates to Nike's global marketing plan, thorough examination of marketing information systems and market research as it referred to Nike, Incs marketing strategy in the global environment, to define marketing objectives and its mission. Finally, the last step included Nike's global strategy determination along with examination of global marketing strategy implementation, its evaluation with regards to how does Nike Inc. global marketing plan compare to its leading competitors such at Reebok, Adidas, & Under Armour, answering the question whether Nike Inc.
will manage to keep leading the industry in shoes, sports apparel, & equipment in the future, and recommendations concerning adjustment or any improvements needed. Results While examining Nike's global marketing plan, it should be noted that at Nike, Inc. professionals deliver marketing plan along with the organization-wide processes. Nike's marketing strategy is directly correlated with the overall corporations plans for their future development and achievement of Nike's strategic goals. Global marketing plan takes into account environmental factors, influencing Nike corporation indirectly. According to the researchers and scientific articles available on this subject, Nike's marketing strategy takes into consideration technology, economic climate, political forces, government legislation in the countries the company operates in, as well as important social and demographic trends.
Nike consistently monitors changes in these areas, as the corporation needs to adapt quickly to a changing business environment and retain its positions of the leader in a highly competitive industry. Also, monitoring the industry competition is one of the most important parts of Nike's strategic marketing. While shaping its marketing plan, the company uses classic Porters five forces model to examine competitors and to evaluate the attractiveness of the specific product at a specific market or country. Nike takes into consideration the intensity of competition between the companies that already established presence at the market, such as Reebok, Adidas, and Under Armour and others, the bargaining power of customers, threat of potential or existing substitute products for Nike's product range, the bargaining power of Nike Incs suppliers, and the threat of new entrants to the market. Also, in thinking strategically about Nike's marketing plan, the company obviously takes into consideration many other factors, such as the extent of geographic coverage and product diversity, the number of specific market segments Nike serves, the role of branding, marketing channels used for specific products, the level of marketing efforts for each brand or product range, as well as the role of quality of Nike's products. The current Nike's marketing plan obviously places high emphasis on innovation and pricing.
The company also focuses greatly on its strategic approach to new product development, Nike Incs cost position, the companys relationship to the competitors, customers, partners and suppliers. While examining Nike's marketing plan, it becomes obvious that the company undertakes all efforts to manage marketing complexity, especially in conditions of current economic slowdown. Nike strives to exceed customer and stakeholders expectations, to create strategic opportunities for future development, and to maximize returns to shareholders by maintaining a competitive advantage in providing and delivering incredible value to its customers. Nike's Recent Marketing Endeavors The companys global marketing plan is the core element of Nike's success. Nike positions itself as a premium quality brand, with a wide range of expensive and well-designed products tailored to the customers needs. Nike's slogan Just Do It encourages the customers to be active both in life and in sports, and Nike's promotional strategy with the participation of professional and college athletic teams and top start in the world sports make Nike's marketing strategy the most effective and unforgettable one.
Similar to its competitors, Nike's marketing mix comprises of numerous elements, such as product, price, place and promotion (advertising, points of sale, public relations, and word of mouth). Product The company offers a wide range of sports apparel, shoes and equipment. Nike's brand Cole Haan presents a line of accessories, casual dress and footwear. Sports Specialties is also their popular brand Price The companys tactics in relation to pricing is mostly focused on premium and expensive products. Nike's pricing has a vertical integration, thus allowing the company to control related costs.
Place Nike's products are sold both in Nike's store and in multi-brand stores all over the world. The company sells its products to over 20, 000 related in the United States alone and in over 200 world countries. Promotion Promotion is the core of Nike's global marketing plan and will be examined more in-depth in this research below. As global market becomes fiercer, Nike Corporation reshapes its marketing strategy, undertaking new steps to enhance its positions as a global leader. One of the most recent Nike's marketing undertakings was taking part in Oregon Bach Festival. The company participates in it since 2007, with its Nike Inc. 's "innovation kitchen" - the lab and playground of Nike's creative team, led by designer Tinker Hatfield. (Nike Puts Its Footprint on Oregon Bach Festival, 2008) In order to increase public awareness of the brand, the company puts poster images of its recent ad campaigns as well as a timeline of dozens of Air Jordan basketball shoes and prototypes. (Nike Puts Its Footprint on Oregon Bach Festival, 2008) According to Nike's marketing directors, creative energy is crucial to Nike's success and the company undertakes all efforts to continue introducing innovations and to climb up the stairs to its goal as the worlds largest maker of athletic clothing, shoes and equipment.
During preparation stage, the company helped John Evans and George Even, officials with the Oregon Bach Festival, to secure the ' 08 Trials. Nike's creative marketing team helped the officials to design the Eugene essay 08 Trials logo, featuring grandstands at historic Hayward Field. According to Mark Pilkenton, Nike's director of event marketing and meeting management, global brand management, Nike Corporation was donating the work, and although the company could assist the music festival with additional financing, Nike's marketing team has chosen to donate their marketing expertise and design (Nike Puts Its Footprint on Oregon Bach Festival, 2008). Marketing director considered that it is better for Nike to take active participation in this music festival instead of simply giving cash, showing greater commitment and interest. According to the companys marketing professionals, Nike strives to build a positive image of the corporation. During this and other sponsorships, Nike donated its own products, such as sport equipment and polo T-shirts.
However, Nike, Inc. is not a huge donor to music festivals and arts. Instead, the company places more emphasis on youth and, therefore, takes active part in all kinds of promotions and incentives aimed to give excluded youth better access to sports. According to Nike Incs marketing plan, the company wants to give $ 315 million in cash, products and in-kind support to such projects through 2011. (Nike Puts Its Footprint on Oregon Bach Festival, 2008) Besides, according to Nike's corporate responsibility report, during the past two years the leader in sport equipment has given over $ 100 million to various community-based sports programs all over the world.
Charity is a strong component of Nike's global marketing plan. Although it may seem that there is almost no correlation between Nike's marketing strategy and charitable contributions, the company considers that making charitable contributions to the communities where the companies stores and offices are based, serves as the best proof of the companys involvement and interest in community affairs, raising Nike at a higher level and adding the company more strength and competitive advantage over its competitors. Nike Inc. and Fierce Competition As far as Nike Corporation is a giant in sports industry, it consistently competes with other market leaders such as Adidas, Reebok and other worldwide famous brands. That could be noticed during the Xiang sponsorship, where Nike and Adidas vied for top place on podium (Adidas and Nike Vie for Top Place on Podium; BUSINESS OF SPORT, 2008). This is not the first experience of Nike with Xiang sponsorship and other sport events, as the companys previous experience included sponsorship of famous American basketball player Kobe Bryant, Roger Federer and many other famous sportsmen.
The company now treats these participations as their standard marketing procedure. Nike's direct competitor, Adidas, it not so focused on sponsorships, as it, according to the estimates, spent only approximately 50 million pounds to...
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