Marketing Essentials: Nike's Marketing Strategies, Mix and Plan Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of Nike's marketing strategies, examining the role of marketing within the organization and its interrelation with other functional units. The report delves into the roles and responsibilities of the marketing function at Nike, highlighting its connection with product development, finance, sales, human resources, and distribution. Task 2 explores the application of the marketing mix (7Ps) by Nike and Adidas, comparing how they use elements like product, price, place, promotion, people, process, and physical evidence to achieve their business objectives. The report also develops and evaluates a basic marketing plan for Nike, providing insights into how the company can further enhance its marketing efforts to meet consumer needs and maintain its competitive edge. The report concludes with a summary of key findings and recommendations for Nike's marketing approach.

Marketing Essentials
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................2
TASK 1......................................................................................................................................2
P1 Role of marketing and its interrelation with other functional units of organization.........2
P2 Roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to Nike......................................................4
TASK 2......................................................................................................................................5
P3 Compare ways in which organizations use elements of the marketing mix (7Ps) to
achieve overall business objectives........................................................................................5
P4 Develop and evaluate a basic marketing plan...................................................................8
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Marketing is focusing on the customer and identifying their needs. In other words,
marketing is thinking about business in terms of need of the customer and differs from selling
Nike established in the year 1964 and indulged in the manufacturing of global sports shoes,
equipment, and apparel. Marketing mix of Nike is key strength and is spread around the
world with the use of effective marketing strategies. The report is prepared to address the
Nike approaches, concepts and principles of marketing processes to marketing manager of
Nike by the marketing assistant who has been recently appointed in the head office of UK.
This report aims to discuss the marketing process of Nike, the relationship of marketing with
other function, use of marketing mix for achieving the objectives of the business. In last the
report; the report will develop a basic marketing plan.
TASK 1
P1 Role of marketing and its interrelation with other functional units of organization
Marketing is the process which increases the customers and enhances relations with
them. (Lovelock and Patterson, 2015). Nike is heavily dependent on marketing and thus has
reached to the large market and outside nation. Marketing assists in the identification of
successful products for the market. Marketing takes the product to the customer for value
proposition and helps customers in knowing the whole purchase journey. Marketing also
helps the customer by presenting in every stage of the journey and guiding them for
purchasing of product and availing of service. Marketing department will have to interrelate
with all departments to understand the key focus on the purpose of taking the product in the
market, the logic of the charged price, supply chain mechanism and the price on which the
organization will be profitable (Armstrong, et. al., 2010). For this entire information,
marketing department will have to go to different department collecting the variety of
information and then after filtering, the information is passed on to customers.
Marketing is a learning where customers are targeted and finding out the ways how
the products can be sold and then informed to the organization for delivering such product
and services or make some modification. Marketing helps in promotion as well. It creates

awareness to the customer about the existence of product and service and then provides the
advantages of using the same.
Role and Responsibilities of marketing function in Nike
 Marketing function of Nike mainly responsible for managing strategies and framing
marketing research. The role of marketing function of Nile is to have better relations with
product development, finance team, sale support system, human resource department, and
distribution system (Baker, 2016). Since marketing function is a part of operations of
Nike and thus it has a connection with other department and functions.
 Marketing function is also responsible to get back up from other operations and
department for performing effectively. Marketing provides a great support to sale
function of Nike as it gets the Company the product which is known by the target market.
Marketing function of Nike also play role in assisting in providing the materials the sale
operation required to reinforce the points of selling.
 Marketing function of Nike works with finance in the pricing of products as per the
demand of customer and market. Marketing operations role of Nike is to tell the finance
department what market will bear and margin which has been insisted on. Finance
department makes available the budget for the marketing department for planning and
implementation purpose.
 When Nike implement the marketing plan then requires a support of finance from the
finance department, need of a human resource to form a team for implementing a
marketing plan, sales department for delivering the product to advertise in market and
production department for telling the budget of what and how much to market. The
details of other departments are discussed as below:-
Marketing of Nike has a great link with the legal department which ensures that
messages through marketing and sales stay within the limit or bound of customer or any
applicable law. Marketing also works with the production department in order to make ensure
that the products which are produced and lying in the stock are meeting the requirements of
the customer (Varadarajan, 2010). Production department then communicates with the
logistics department for the fulfilment of demand of customers regarding goods and services.
Marketing function of Nike also works with distribution department which ensures
that products are timely available to the point of purchase so that customer can buy them
timely and effectively. When there is discussion made on a budget then the marketing stood

first in budget cutting as some cost save in marketing can be further used in selling more
products to the customer. The requirement of human resources and their policies are framed
in accordance with the trends of marketing, target consumers and sales.
P2 Roles and responsibilities of marketing relate to Nike.
The responsibilities and role of marketing function of Nike is mainly consisting of
five major concepts which involve current and future trend of a successful plan for
marketing. The concepts are here discussed below:-
Production concept- This concept is mainly based on how customers perceive for
product and how they inclined towards easily availability of goods at an inexpensive price.
The production concept of Nike is based on an evaluation of customer choices and demand
and then working on getting the best for the customer.
Product concept- Consumers usually select the products which can provide greater
value for money, innovative approach, and quality (West, et. al., 2015). After observing the
demand of customers towards the Nike products such as running shoes, sports shoes, tennis,
and cricket, Company increased its products and address new products such as tops, jerseys,
golf clubs etc.
Selling concept- Modern consumers are more focused on the promotions,
advertisement and concentrate on the product which is aggressively advertised and promoted
in the market. Nike uses many modes for selling its products. Some are through retailers, an
official site of Nike and own retail outlet of Nike town. The strategy of Nike implies that
Nike works with the retailers often. The major distribution of products of Nike is facilitating
through retail outlets and Company’s official site.
Marketing concept- Marketing concept needs the Company to focus on target
consumers for providing of goods and services. For facing competition there is needed to
deliver the better quality than the rival firms in order to stay ahead of competitors. Nike brand
value is high to connect with the target customers (Charlesworth, 2014). Due to the great
value in the market, Nike has always a high demand for goods and services. Nike has a large
investment in advertisement and it is also acting as biggest contribution to Company in
attracting more and more customers including celebrity endorsers such as athletes and sports
team. The company also performs personal selling which persuades customers to buy the
product from retailers. The company believes more face to face communication with the
customer.

Societal marketing concept- The concept provides the major focus on the needs and
demand of the consumer so that consumer prefer Nike brand over any other contemporaries
in the market. The societal marketing concept is the new concept which refers to the
involvement of the public as much as possible. Social media platform is giving huge
opportunity to get connected with customers easily and at any time. Nike is also active on
social media platform for promoting of products and has ongoing touch with taste,
preferences, and demand of customers.
Marketing plays a different role in promoting goods. The roles and responsibilities
include research on the market, finance, communication, distribution, development of the
product, promotion, planning, and selling etc.
When Nike launches any new product, then the marketing department has to ask the
selling a production department to know the offer and discounts on the product such as buy
one get two free. Although each department is operated separately with their different team
and management but is a link with each other in order to accomplish the one goal of the
organization (Felix, et. al., 2017). Coordination between the marketing departments of Nike
is significant to have with other departments as this can reduce the profits of Nike and also
can lead to a negative impact on the image of the Company. Profits increment and sales
require the participation of all departments equally.
Hence, marketing plays a crucial role in business and carries a close relation with
other functions of an organization. In other words, the functional unit of Company is
correlated effectively together for a successful marketing plan and gaining more and more
customers for sale.
TASK 2
P3 Compare ways in which organizations use elements of the marketing mix (7Ps) to achieve
overall business objectives
The marketing mix is a significant approach to marketing planning and applied when
planning for marketing. This is the best procedure for the achievement of goals and
objectives of Nike through marketing efforts such as getting more and more customers from
all over the world and persuading them to continue buying. Different methods are applied for
the application of marketing mix and mostly based on demographics, products, and services,

size of market and Company (Griffith, 2010). Marketing mix acts as the tool for Nike and
Adidas for understanding the market and its demand for the product proposed to be marketed.
Previously there were only 4p's of marketing mixes such as product, price, place, and
promotion and now the approach has been extended to 7p’s of marketing including physical
evidence, price, process, place, promotion, people and product.
Nike is a popular Company working with more than 70000 employees and highly
focused on providing quality footwear and other products to the customer. The company now
uses the extended marketing mix approach which has helped in the identification of genuine
passion of customer and becomes a customer-centric approach. Nike spent a large amount in
marketing as shown in the annual report of the Company and most preferable form of
marketing by Nike is an advertisement and personal selling. The sole reason for the success
of Nike is a better understanding of the needs and wants of the customer and building the
goals and objectives as per the approach of customer-centric.
Adidas is a multinational Company having headquarters in German. Company is
indulged in designing and manufacturing of shoes, clothing and accessories. Company is also
considered as largest sportswear in the area of Europe and second largest in world after Nike.
The marketing mix is focused on a number of concepts such as the dimension of the
product, place of selling product, the structure of price, and promotional activities utilized by
Company. The extended marketing process is more focused on the physical evidence
provided for the customer, better delivery of products, understanding the needs and wants of
the customer in depth and using the right process of providing of final products and services
to the customer (Cooper and Kleinschmidt, 2011). 7p's of marketing for the Nike and Adidas
are here discussed below:-
Product- Product is the physical goods or services which are offered by Nike to
customers. The product can tangible and intangible. The product can be further manufactured
in the firm itself or can be bought from some other firm for sale. Nike is a Footwear
manufacturing company and thus it has its own unit of production and then distributed to the
selling department for delivery to the customer. Adidas also has its own production of shoes
and also includes the production of men, women and kids clothing. The product runs a
lifecycle where the product is first addressed in the market then reaches its peak position and
after that, the product requires to be removed from the market. The stages of the product are
introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. The products of Nike are at the maturity stage

and needs to be protected from falling and for that Nike need to work on innovation, and
recognition of needs of the customer.
Place- Place is the move of product from initial point i.e. manufacturing to the
intended user. Intermediaries who are involved in this process have a different location and
falls under this process. A perfect place of distribution of goods leads to reaching of the right
customer at right time (Wilson, 2010). Nike sells its products such as shoes, equipment, and
apparel through a large number of outlets around the world. Further Nile sells its product
through retailers and in USA Nike has many outlets in Walmart and through online stores.
Nike has its own retail outlet Nike-outlet retail outlets. Adidas works with more than 800
factories globally and have its outsourcing in more than 55 countries. Company has more
than 700 tier in brand and 249 tier in supplies.
Price- Price is the amount charged from a customer for buying the product. It can be
calculated by adding the cost with margin profit. Nike adopts different strategies of pricing at
a different stage of product life cycle. Different strategies can also be due to the culture and
quality of the organization. Some organization uses premium pricing under which the
organization already have a brand image in the market and which serves best quality
products. Penetration strategy is utilized when the market is to penetrate to introduce the new
product in the market. Some organization also uses economic pricing under which the
product is sell which is not in demand and also has low quality.
Adidas follows high low pricing strategy which prices the products high than rival
firms and offers promotions and discounts for customers. Adidas usually charge low price
when launching new products and then increases the price after certain period.
Nike implements value-based pricing under which there is ensured growth and profits.
Value-based pricing strategy is used by Company in consideration of the perception of the
customer regarding the value of products (Nezamabad, 2011). The value used to tell the
maximum price for the consumer who is willing to pay for buying sports shoes, equipment,
and apparel. The company is successfully using valued based pricing to increase profits and
emphasize the high value of products.
Promotion- Promotion is reaching to customers and telling about the product.
Companies use different promotional activities to position the product in the mind of the
customer such as an advertisement, direct marketing, personal selling, sales promotion,
public relations etc. Promotion of product is mainly done for informing people and enhances

the demand of the product. Nike uses direct marketing activity for attracting colleagues,
sports team at the local level, and other organization. With this Nike also offers special offers
and discount for attracting of more customers.
Adidas has adopted pronged strategy for renew its image of brand and attract
customer. It focuses both on traditional marketing and new technology such as social media
to grow its popularity.
Figure 1: Marketing mix
Source: (Brooks and Simkin, 2012)
People- People refers to the humans who purchase the products. People can also
involve employees, suppliers, distributors, customers and sales staff etc. Marketing activities
of both Nike and Adidas are mainly performed with help of humans such employees of the
marketing team, distribution of people, sales staff and personal of marketing engaged in
personal marketing.
Process- Process is the involvement of lots of activities for reaching to customers. It
is the flow of activities. Nike has the very quick process of supplying products to the different
outlets and department (Alex, 2012). Supply chain process is also effective which is able to
meet out the huge demand of customers at any particular time.
Adidas also has quality process of supplying products from production unit to final
customers. Supply chain process of Adidas is quite less speedy than Nike.

Physical evidence- Physical evidence is elements which generate feelings of products
to the customer. Physical evidence also includes the display of products, stores and
merchandising. It is a material part of the product which acts as an evidence of product. Nike
takes huge care on physical evidence of products.
P4 Develop and evaluate a basic marketing plan
Introduction
Marketing plan is a written document which provides the marketing strategy for new
or existing product and includes the marketing efforts for coming year. Nike aims to launch
kids and women wears. Kids and women wear will be sold on the online platform at the
initial level. The time to time delivery with online payment services will also be the part of
marketing strategies of NiKe.
Executive Summary
The report provided a discussion on the internal and external environment of Nike in
order to plan for a new product (Varadarajan, 2010). Nike is right now a market leader in the
shoe industry and needs to make more efforts to maintain such a position.
Company overview
Nike is a multinational American Company engaged in manufacturing, designing,
development, and distribution of shoes and other apparel, accessories, equipment worldwide.
The company is headquartered in Beaverton, United States.
PROVIDE VISION, MISSION,MARKETING OBEJCTIVES(SMART)
Visio, Mission, Marketing objectives and strategies
Mission of Company is to bring the clothes best for the women and kids and make
them feel more comfortable with the clothes they are wearing.
Vision of Company is to provide authentic, connected and different brand of women
and kids wear.
Nike aims to plan for new product and for that need to analyse the market for
increasing base of customer and improvement of cross-functional communication
(Armstrong, et. al., 2010). Nike must use social media platform as a marketing strategy to
reach large customers in a short period of time rather than using direct marketing and
advertisement.

Budget
Budget is amount which is planned to be spent on marketing activities. Company will
spend $50000 in overall marketing activities which will include door to door marketing,
direct selling, social media marketing and promotions and discounts at initial level.
Segmentation, targeting and positioning
The market has been segmented into teenagers, youngsters and college students as
they prefer to wear shoes. The target will be more on women between the age of 20-25 and
newly married couples for buying clothes for their kids. All the marketing activities should be
performed with proper control. The positioning will be set more of comfort and quality in the
mind of customers.
Market analysis:
External analysis
The external analysis is the examination and evaluation of market condition for the
purpose of the launching of a new product. The analysis is here discussed below:-
Political- Due to Open minded government and stability in the political environment brings
many opportunities for Nike. The environment is completely different in different nations and
thus Nike cannot enjoy equal success. The entry in the Asian market is difficult for Nike and
a lot of political strife is also taking place in corners of the world. These lead to a huge
expenditure on lobbying.
Economic- With the decreases in an economic condition such as inflation, high-interest rates
the purchasing power of customer decreases and reduces the profits of brands like Nike
(Reijonen, 2010). Fluctuation in rates of currency is also not healthy when they are
unfavorable. There is a recession in many countries and the stronger dollar is reducing even
the sufficient profits of the Company.
Social- The social factors includes the demand, preferences and wants of the customer. This
also includes culture and religion. Nike will have to check the culture in order to design the
products and further the preferences can be in the form of stylish, fashionable or traditional
and this also has to be kept in mind when product making. For instance, the Olympic season
has always been profitable for Nike and other competing brands.

Figure 2: Pestle analysis
Source: (Baker, 2016)
Technology- Technology is changing is phase day by day and if any organization is not in
touch with new technology then other competitors get opportunities to grab the market.
Technology is changing in each and every activity of the organization such as marketing,
selling, production, distribution etc (Charlesworth, 2014). Inventory management through
software and social media marketing are popular technology development. Nike needs to
update itself with a new product for the launching of a new product.
Environmental- Environment safety is now one of the main aim and concern of all over the
world. Brands are required to reduce their impact on the environment as much as possible in
order to prevent any bad impact on image, penalties, and fines from the government.
Legal- Laws and regulations are becoming more stringent these days in every country. In the
launching of the new product, Nice will have to take care of the rules and regulations of
different countries for preventing any interruption.
Competitor analysis
Bargaining power of supplier- Since Nike is involved in manufacturing itself there
is low bargaining power of supplier. The individual supplier is low in size which has reduced
the competition. Whereas the suppliers for supplying Nike product are high and thus there is
less bargaining power.
Bargaining power of buyer- Bargaining power of buyer is low to moderate due to
the high number of competitors such as Adidas, Puma, Reebok is international brands.
Switching cost for the customer is also low.

Threats from substitute- Threat from substitute is low to moderate a large number of
competitors are selling matching or similar brand (West, et. al., 2015). The threat is
moderated by quality and design.
Threat from new entrants- This is also low to moderate as Nike has already made a
good image in the market and starting a business is just the need as there are other
requirements also need to be fulfilled.
Threats from competitor rivalry firms- Competition in the sports industry is high and
thus there is a strong threat from competitors such as Adidas, Under Armour, and Puma.
Internal analysis-
The financial position of Nike is strong due to positive results in performance and
high generation of revenue (Lovelock and Patterson, 2015). The revenue of Company is
increasing from last six years constantly which implies that Nike is working with the right
strategy and policy.
There is little issue in the communication between the different departments which
needs to be improved. The company mainly focuses on open retail stores which are helping
Company to increase its sales and especially from direct selling market.
SWOT
SWOT is an analysis of strength and weakness of Company and also the threats
and opportunities which can be utilized while planning for the new product.
STRENGTH
Nike has a high brand image.
Adoption of innovated marketing
opportunities.
Financial strength is also high and
achieved $34.4 billion revenue in 2017.
Good presence at international level.
Well managed supply chain and
distribution.
WEAKNESS
Nike is over-dependent on US market.
There is more than 40% of revenue
comes from the US which can be risky
for Nike in the future.
High investment in marketing activities.
The company spent $3 billion on
marketing in 2017.
OPPORTUNITIES
Product innovation and digitalization such
as e-commerce.
Nike can go for acquisition.
THREATS
Strong US dollar earnings are hurting.
There is huge competition pressure such
as Adidas.