Marketing Management: Market Segmentation and Nike Case Study Report

This report delves into the critical concept of market segmentation within marketing management, emphasizing its role in enabling businesses to effectively target specific customer segments. The essay explores the core principles of market segmentation, including demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral approaches, and highlights their importance in tailoring marketing strategies to meet diverse consumer needs and preferences. A significant portion of the report is dedicated to a case study of Nike, analyzing how the company implements these segmentation strategies across different product lines and geographic regions. The analysis examines Nike's use of segmentation to understand consumer lifestyles, interests, and purchasing behaviors, as well as its efforts to adapt its product offerings and marketing communications to resonate with various customer segments. The report also touches upon the challenges Nike has faced in market segmentation, particularly in reaching lower and middle-class market segments, and how the company has leveraged its understanding of segmentation to enhance its brand equity and competitiveness. The essay concludes by reiterating the significance of market segmentation in driving business success and achieving sustainable growth in a competitive market environment. The report references multiple academic sources, including the provided Goyat (2011) article, to support its analysis and findings.

Running head: MARKETING MANAGEMENT
Marketing management
Name of student
Name of University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction..............................................................................................................................3
Literature review about market segmentation......................................................................3
Selection of company and its relevance to market segmentation........................................5
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................7
References.................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
The essay is prepared to discuss about the management of marketing by the business
organisation so as to make people aware of the products and services delivered and also make
them understand how they can gain accessibility to those for meeting their needs and
requirements. The essay also highlights the importance of managing segmentation of market,
i.e., where the market has to be divided into multiple segments so as to ensure targeting the
people from different market segments and ensure fulfilling their needs and preferences
largely too (Goyat, 2011). The segmentation of market, according to Venter, Wright & Dibb
(2015), is a major way of dividing the market into compatible sections comprising of the
customers, thereby select those segments and targeted market that shall be reached with a
proper and unique marketing mix. The focus of the essay has been on the ways the company
can manage market segmentation to label the potential customers, provide additional benefits,
draw their attention and enhance productivity and profit level to attain competitiveness within
the concerned industry (Venter, Wright & Dibb, 2015). Not only does the market
segmentation help in improving the marketing effectiveness, but also has helped in
effectively using the marketing resources and skills required to balance coordination between
the company and its potential clients in different market segments too.
Literature review about market segmentation
According to Goyat (2011), the concepts of global marketing has become a major
factor for making every business organisations attain success and long term competitiveness.
The implementation of the right marketing strategies is critical to achieve the marketing
objective while at the same time, establish the brand in different market segments, reduce
sales resistance and develop a sense of interest and willingness among the customers for the
products and services to be purchased. Goyat (2011) also stated that the marketing

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segmentation has helped the companies to segment the market into multiple small groups of
market consisting of the clients with different sets of needs, preferences and behaviours that
influence them to make purchases from a specific company. The more closely and effective
the company has matched up to the different needs of people in different market segments,
the greater has been the effectiveness in terms of attracting the customers and influencing
their buying behaviours too (Goyat, 2011). There are different types of segmentation that
have been sued by the companies nowadays to address the distinct behaviours and needs of
people in different market segments such as with the help of demographic segmentation,
geographic segmentation, psychographic segmentation and behavioural segmentation as a
whole (Wilkinson, 2013).
As stated by Weinstein & Cahill (2014), the market segmentation is based on certain
factors and those have been managed with the help of demographic segmentation,
psychographic behavioural and geographic segmentation. The geographic segmentation has
been based on regions, the climatic conditions and also on the basis of density of population
whereas the demographic segmentation is based on the age, income, sex, size of family, etc.
(Weinstein & Cahill, 2014). The psychographic segmentation, according to Venter, Wright &
Dibb (2015), represents the life styles and behaviours of the individuals, based on which, the
market has been segmented, which also comprised of customers having behaviours that are
different from that of people belonging from another market segment. The behavioural
segmentation has been managed with the assessment of customers’ behaviours and their
needs such as the benefits that thy want from using the products and services, the occasion
for usage and also the frequency of usage of the product (Venter, Wright & Dibb, 2015).
Also, Cross, Belich & Rudelius (2015), suggested that the segmentation bases have been
managed with the help of assessing the nature of demand in the marketplace and then use
effective methods and techniques of distribution so as to facilitate the market communication

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and ensure keeping the customers motivated, encouraged and influenced to make purchases
of those products n services conveniently (Cross, Belich & Rudelius, 2015). Also to be noted
that the market segmentation has been necessary for the companies to meet the demands of
people from different segments and thus a positive brand image and reputation have been
established among them, thus, created a sustainable and competitive position of the brand in
all these market segments to reach out to more customers and attain higher level of profit too
(Anderson & Xie, 2014).
According to Camilleri (2018), the concepts of market segmentation have been the
major trends of marketing nowadays and the demographic segment shave been targeted with
the consideration of the ages of people, their gender, income as well as the occupation and
family size, religion and nationality. It has been found that the products preferred by young
individuals are quite different from those preferred by the older individuals. Many companies
have successful managed to bring such kinds of products that could cater to the needs of both
the individuals who are young as well as those who are considered as older individuals
(Camilleri, 2018). Due to this, the needs and requirements of people of different ages have
been fulfilled. It has also been found that for a certain type of segmentation, according to
Budeva & Mullen (2014), the leisure market has been quite different because of the presence
of children as they travel during their holidays with their families while the young individuals
aged in their early twenties look to spend their disposable income while travelling with their
friends. The older individuals, who have retired often travel with their husband or wife. Thus,
this kind of segmentation has fulfilled each of their needs based on ages, income and
demands for the services or products quite comprehensively (Budeva & Mullen, 2014).
Selection of company and its relevance to market segmentation
Considering the fact that a company’s case study has been focused on here in this
essay and no tourism or food based businesses are to be considered, thus, the sports footwear

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and apparel based company named Nike in Queensland has been considered here. Nike Inc.
has always been a major company, which has managed its operations worldwide and thus
while operating as a factory outlet or store in Queensland, Australia, it has delivered good
quality footwear items, apparel, accessories and sports equipment for meeting the varied
needs of people from different market segments (Brohi et al., 2016). Based on the case study
revolving around Nike, it has been found that the company lacked certain skills to segment
the market properly, because of which, only premium segments of market were targeted and
not the lower and middle class market segments, which reduced the sales and profit to a
certain extent. These issues and challenges also created significant growth scopes and
opportunities for the company to diagnose the issue, analyse that and evaluate the
opportunities to make strategic decisions and ensure sustenance within the competitive
business environment largely (Andaleeb, 2016).
The demographic segmentation has been managed with the inclusion of different age
groups and also on the basis of gender and income of the targeted customers from different
market segments. The company has introduced three different categories of products such as
the men’s products, women’s products and the kid’s products and also based on the different
age groups from 15 to 55 years of ages, which helped in serving the clients properly and
delivered a great buying experience.
To ensure successful geographic segmentation, Nike also understood the cultures and
lifestyles of people in different regions, i.e., in different countries (Singh, 2013). The
introduction of different kinds of products and services in different nations helped in suiting
to the needs of consumers and thus sneakers and winter clothes were made available in
Australia and US whereas only sportswear such as sports tees, shoes and accessories were
made available in Singapore, which consists of summer season all the year round.

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Based on the psychographic segmentation, Nike targeted the customers on the basis of
their lifestyles, behaviours and areas of interests. Thus, the active individuals who have been
interested in sports and gym activities have been targeted through application of sports
centric strategies for keeping the customers motivated and inclined towards the athlete
products made available by Nike (Darroch, 2014). The mission statement of brining
inspiration and innovation by Nike further helped the company to remain aligned with the
behaviours of individuals and ensured establishment of brand trust and loyalty among the
customers. On the other hand, the other market comprising of customers who have love for
fashion based clothing has also been targeted by Nike. Nike has made sure to fulfil the needs
of those who are fashion conscious and conscious, which make them buy the products to keep
up with the latest fashion trends. Thus, the fashion lifestyles have been followed as well by
Nike to cater to the needs of people in this segment as well (Green & Keegan, 2019).
To make customers feel what they have bought, Nike has followed the tagline “If you
have a body you are an athlete” and “If you are an athlete, Nike’s products make you feel
athletic”, which enabled greater level of engagement of customers and promoting good
behaviours too,. The behavioural segmentation further helped Nike to provide them with the
best quality goods and services and even those that have been innovative, which has fostered
positive behaviours and made them align with the brand by purchasing more frequently
(Goyat, 2011). The creation of opportunity for the customers has further helped in sharing
their experiences in the form of feedback, which have further been circulated through word of
mouth promotions and created influence on the buying behaviours of consumers largely.
Conclusion
The essay demonstrated about the impact of segmentation of market that had been
brought with the help of creation of more opportunities to excel and thereby, attract more
customers for the purpose of higher revenue generation and attaining competitiveness within

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the industry as well. The case study of Nike was highlighted here to demonstrate how the
company managed to segment its market and fulfilled the needs of different market segments
to make a mark everywhere and establish brand equity, thereby, influenced the purchasing
behaviours and drew in large amount of profit in business too.

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References
Andaleeb, S. S. (2016). Market segmentation, targeting, and positioning. Strategic Marketing
Management in Asia, 179-207.
Anderson, C. K., & Xie, X. (2014). Pricing and market segmentation using opaque selling
mechanisms. European Journal of Operational Research, 233(1), 263-272.
Brohi, H., Prithiani, J., Abbas, Z., Bhutto, A., & Chawla, S. (2016). Strategic Marketing Plan
of Nike.
Budeva, D. G., & Mullen, M. R. (2014). International market segmentation. European
Journal of Marketing.
Cross, J. C., Belich, T. J., & Rudelius, W. (2015). How marketing managers use market
segmentation: An exploratory study. In Proceedings of the 1990 Academy of
Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 531-536). Springer, Cham.
Darroch, J. (2014). Why Marketing to Women Doesn't Work: Using Market Segmentation to
Understand Consumer Needs. Springer.
Goyat, S. (2011). The basis of market segmentation: a critical review of literature. European
Journal of Business and Management, 3(9), 45-54.
Green, M. C., & Keegan, W. J. (2019). Global marketing. Pearson.
Singh, J. (2013). Market segmentation: A conceptual framework. International Journal of
Advanced Research in Management and Social Sciences, 2(9), 224-230.
Venter, P., Wright, A., & Dibb, S. (2015). Performing market segmentation: a performative
perspective. Journal of Marketing Management, 31(1-2), 62-83..
Weinstein, A., & Cahill, D. J. (2014). Lifestyle market segmentation. Routledge.

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Wilkinson, F. (Ed.). (2013). The dynamics of labour market segmentation. Elsevier.