University Assignment: Marketing Analysis of Nike's Strategies

This report provides a comprehensive marketing analysis of Nike, a leading brand in the sports industry. It begins with an executive summary, followed by an introduction that highlights Nike's history and global market presence. The core of the report examines Nike's segmentation strategies, including demographic, behavioral, and psychographic approaches, as well as its geographic segmentation. The report then delves into Nike's targeting strategies, focusing on product sponsorship and customization. Market positioning is also discussed, emphasizing Nike's brand image and slogan. The marketing mix strategy is analyzed, including product offerings, pricing strategies, distribution channels, and promotional activities. The report also addresses the changing nature of contemporary marketing, including direct marketing, sales promotion, and social media usage. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing Nike's potential for continued success through its diverse product range and customer-focused strategies.

Running head: MARKETING ANALYSIS OF NIKE
MARKETING ANALYSIS OF NIKE
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1MARKETING ANALYSIS OF NIKE
Executive Summary
This report discusses on the marketing strategy of Nike and contains important portions
including segmentation, targeting, and market positioning, marketing mix strategy and
changing nature of the contemporary market. The wide range of products that the company
provides and the ways in which it has always been unique from its competitors has also been
discussed. The revenue chart of Nike in the year 2015 has been provided so that a clear
understanding of its income can be got. Lastly, in the conclusion section the report
summarizes the finding with respect to the information that obtained or the analysis that was
done.

2MARKETING ANALYSIS OF NIKE
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Segmentation..............................................................................................................................3
Targeting....................................................................................................................................4
Positioning..................................................................................................................................4
Marketing Mix strategy..............................................................................................................5
Product...................................................................................................................................5
Pricing....................................................................................................................................5
Place.......................................................................................................................................5
Promotion...............................................................................................................................6
Changing nature of contemporary marketing............................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

3MARKETING ANALYSIS OF NIKE
Introduction
NIKE Inc. specializes in sports related products and has captured the global market
for the innovations it always comes up with. Originally named as Blue Ribbon Sports it was
founded by Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman in the year 1964. Both of the founding members
belonged to the University of Oregon. Since then Nike has come a long way and emerged as
one of the leading brands of the athletic market of U.S. Its products are available across the
world and as per data of 2015 has an income of $30.6 billion (Childs and Jin 2018). In this
paper, marketing analysis of Nike will be discussed.
Segmentation
The Market segmentation of Nike includes the following:
1. Demographics segmentation: In this age group and gender has been segmented in such a
way that it comprises of different products as per the requirements of the people aged
between 15 years to 55 years.
2. Behavioral and Psychographics classification is done for understanding the consumer’s
needs and the reason a consumer should purchase the company’s product (Brohi et al. 2016).
With regard to this Nike segments its market as given below:
a) Sports oriented
b) Active lifestyle
3. Geographic segmentation- Nike’s target customers are being served all over the world.
Nike’s main focus is sportspersons segment and it makes different types of products like
clothes and footwear that are unique in nature and have special features in comparison to
other products. Nike has certain target strategies which consists of aggressive marketing for

4MARKETING ANALYSIS OF NIKE
creating awareness among its target customers regarding the products and it has also enabled
customization of the products by the consumer as per their requirements. Major markets of
the company are USA, Africa, and Asia-pacific Europe (Ahmed 2016). The company has
shown a continuous objective to serve customers in different markets such as North America,
Japan, Middle-East and China.
Targeting
Strategies of targeting also consist of product sponsorship with the help of celebrities
and sports team. It wisely links its apparels with triumph and sponsorship is done by popular
sports celebrities. The main objective is of product styling by utilization of psychological
tactics. Nike organizes cross training which involves all the athletes from over the word and
provides training for various sports activities and this has proved a way for gaining the
satisfaction of the target market (Flynn 2015). Nike also uses aggressive marketing and
customers can get their customized products.
Positioning
In Market positioning Nike has developed an image in the target consumer’s mind as
the leader in the production of sports goods and it has manufactured such products which
provide satisfaction to the niche market and almost all the products are linked to sports. The
appealing slogan ‘Just do it’ has encouraged customers to purchase the products with
confidence, thus becoming a major competitor in sports industry. There are various
placement strategies of Nike which comprises of leveling up the lifestyle of an athlete in the
minds of its consumer (Ranjan 2016). It also caters to the style and attitude in an appealing
way and places itself as a classy brand having attractive products designed in a very efficient
way. The quality level of the products is also ensured.

5MARKETING ANALYSIS OF NIKE
Marketing Mix strategy
Nike leads in marketing and has very strong strategy in marketing mix. It is dependent
on a strategy called pull strategy and has built its seizing against other competitors like
Adidas and Reebok.
Product
A variety of products are offered by Nike which comprises of sports equipments,
shoes and apparel and in recent times these are counted in the category of products having
high sale. Running shoes is the first product that Nike has produced. In addition to this it
offers for products related to soccer, basketball, hockey, lacrosse, tennis and also includes
shorts, cricket shoes and shirts. One of recent products is cricket shoes that are light in weight
than 30% of its market rivals (Do, Ko and Woodside 2015. Apart from the wide range of
products that Nike provides, its sub brand NikeID provides the customers with the provision
to design their customized Nike footwear.
Pricing
The pricing strategy of Nike is competitive than the other retailer shoe and the
company’s pricing is depends on its target customers considering them as the premium
segment. It makes use of a strategy of vertical integration that is participants at the various
channel levels take responsibility of more than one channel for controlling costs. Nike makes
use of Cost based or Value based pricing (Ranjan 2016). The target customers are mainly the
ones that are well off thus they prefer this brand to maintain status.

6MARKETING ANALYSIS OF NIKE
Figure 1: Income statement of Nike for the year 2015 (Ranjan 2016)
Place
Nikes shoes are sold at different multi brand stores and exclusive Nike stores
throughout the world. It has almost 20,000 retail account across the US and serves customers
of almost 200 countries. Independent distributors, subsidies as well as licenses sell the
brand’s product in the international market. The company is opening more and more stores as
well as franchise so that it can reach a wide range of target customers (Davis 2016). In order
to bring in reductions in the cost of the products Nike has outsourcing strategy with countries
like China.
Promotion
Nike makes use of different mediums of promotion including print advertisement,
television advertisements and has also taken to social media advertising. The company also
runs advertising in the newspapers.
Changing nature of contemporary marketing
Nike makes use of direct marketing that is sales persons are deployed to approach
different organizations as well as individuals in the segment of target market. Sales
promotion includes providing coupons as well as special offers to the customers. The

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company has not used public relation to that extent in marketing. It can use charity events as
well as public relation activities which can serve as sponsors (Grow 2016). There are a huge
number of followers of Nike on social media and thus the company makes use of this
platform when introducing new products.
Conclusion
Thus it can be understood from the discussion that Nike keeps the potential to execute
the objectives that is set by it and has been successful in expanding the business. It has come
up with wide range of products and its continuous objective is to include more unique
products and serve a larger market.

8MARKETING ANALYSIS OF NIKE
References
Ahmed, R.R., 2016. „Strategic Marketing Plan of Nike “. ResearchGate, Indus Institute of
Higher Education.
Brohi, H., Prithiani, J., Abbas, Z., Bhutto, A. and Chawla, S., 2016. Strategic Marketing Plan
of Nike.
Childs, M. and Jin, B., 2018. Nike: An Innovation Journey. In Product Innovation in the
Global Fashion Industry (pp. 79-111). Palgrave Pivot, New York.
Davis, R.E., 2016. Word of foot marketing: Nike's marketing efforts prior to the" Just Do It"
campaign (Doctoral dissertation, Wichita State University).
Do, H., Ko, E. and Woodside, A.G., 2015. Tiger Woods, Nike, and I are (not) best friends:
how brand's sports sponsorship in social-media impacts brand consumer's congruity and
relationship quality. International Journal of Advertising, 34(4), pp.658-677.
Flynn, P., 2015. Nike Marketing Strategy: A Company to Imitate.
Grow, J.M., 2016. Stories of community: The first ten years of Nike women’s
advertising. The American Journal of Semiotics, 22(1/4), pp.167-196.
Ranjan, W., 2016. The Financial Performance Analysis of Nike Inc: with Special Reference
Year 2015 Annual Report.