Marketing Fundamentals: Reflection on Nike's Strategies

This report provides a reflection on marketing fundamentals, utilizing Nike as a prime example. It begins by emphasizing the importance of marketing research in understanding consumer needs and the external environment, as demonstrated by Lego's strategic shift based on market insights. The report then analyzes Nike's competitive landscape, highlighting its product differentiation strategies, such as the innovative HyperAdapt 1.0 shoes. The analysis includes a detailed examination of Nike's marketing mix, covering product offerings, pricing strategies, distribution channels, and promotional activities. Furthermore, the report discusses the implications for Nike's future, recommending digitalization and continued innovation to maintain a competitive edge. It also touches upon the importance of addressing imitation concerns and exploring potential mergers and acquisitions. The conclusion reiterates the significance of market research for effective decision-making and the continuous pursuit of competitive advantage, with Nike as a case study demonstrating these principles.

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MARKETING fundamentals

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Contents
Marketing planning and objectives........................................................................................2
Competition for favourite product.........................................................................................2
Implications for future and Recommendations.....................................................................3
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................4
References.................................................................................................................................5

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Marketing planning and objectives
In every business organisation, marketing research plays an important role with the process of
systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of data relating to the marketing conditions.
It helps the business enterprise to explore various complex and dynamic elements in the
external environment that can influence strategic decision making while fulfilling customer
demands (Arora et al, 2008). After the completion of marketing research, management plans
to develop various marketing campaigns in align with marketing objectives for the segmented
market. Taking a practical example, Lego is one of the companies who completely changed
into a profitable venture due to effective marketing research. Previously, Lego has been a toy
geared in the direction of boys for several time. However, with the help of market research, it
was found that 9% of the prime consumers of the toy were female. Considering this, the
organisation tend to create new products for the girls. In addition, the company also sent out
their team of researchers to do a four year examination including 3,500 girls and their
mothers. In this market investigation, playing habits of girls are also being examined so that
to include this in innovative product development (delucchiplus.com, 2017).
Competition for favourite product
Every business product has some sort of substitute or similar line of product impact the
strategic decision of the organisation. This requires organisation to develop necessary goals
to exceed the competition by meeting customer demands effectively. To understand the
practical implications, the favourite product which I have selected is Nike shoes. The
footwear industry is highly competitive because of the existence of big number of domestic
and multinational companies. Nike contests with the organisations such as Puma, Uniqlo,
Lululemon, Adidas, athletic and many others. This fierce competition in the industry force
Nike to undertake product differentiation with extensive market research. For instance, Nike
had introduced HyperAdapt 1.0 in 2016 with limited quantity for $720 (Bain, 2018). This
shoes from Nike has sensors that repeatedly mould the shape of the shoe to one’s foot when
step on it. It is also known as self-racing shoes. It shows that the market research of Nike is
way long from future perspectives. The company is also doing various innovation in areas
like kinematics and ankle motion range. Though in U.S. share of Adidas is increasing in

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association with changing expectations of consumers. To better under various aspects, Nike
marketing mix is presented below -
Product – Nike produces a wide range of shoes wear inclusive of various sports such as
tennis shoes, aquatic activities and for normal running shoes. The company is famous for its
assortments of products and placing continuous innovation in the marketing competition. For
instance, one of their innovative product is Flyknit Racer, a shoe that “is more
environmentally friendly and could reduce long-term production costs (Carr, 2019)” Such
innovation benefits help Nike to stands out as a unique position in the footwear industry.
Price – In association with another shoe retailer, Nike keeps its price competitive and target
groups with offering premium products. The company also able to control its cost effectively
due to adoption of vertical integration in pricing where they own participants at various
channels levels or involve in more than one channel level operations (Hua, Wang and Cheng,
2010). The premium price of Nike shoes is due to its superior quality of products made from
imported shoe materials.
Place – This element of marketing mix is used by Nike with the help of three channels, i.e.
exclusive stores (meeting demands of customers in specific geography), online platforms and
retailers. Nike shoes are also readily available on various e-commerce channels such as
Amazon. It allows the company to cut mediator price and make the shoe delivered to
customer at low price.
Promotion – Promotion of Nike is highly dependent on identifying accessible store
locations. The company also has various numbers of famous athletes who help the company
in endorsement of the products such as Derek Jeter, Roger Federer and Kobe Bryant. Nike
states it increased outlay on demand foundation - comprising promotion, brand events and
social marketing - 10% to $804 million (Mahoney, 2016). This help the company to increase
its brand awareness globally and led the shoe market to a big success.
Implications for future and Recommendations
From the future perspective, Nike needs to adopt digitalization by stepping on online
platform so that it can cut down the cost of other marketing areas such as broadcasting, T.V.
advertising, print media and so on. In addition, it will help the company in its global reach
and attain the number of customers.

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HyperAdapt 1.0 is one of the best innovation from Nike. Such innovation will help Nike to
control market competitiveness and gain higher share in the industry. However, the company
must address concerns related to imitation and patent protection. This requires the company
to collaborate with the government effectively. Nike could have merger and acquisition with
other organisations to increase its business scope across its global portfolio of business.
Conclusion
To conclude, it can be said that market research is a constant process to bring out various
insights about the marketplace for a specific product or service group. Market research is
essential in many ways. For instance, it assists in effective decision making, recognising
consumer needs and wants, improving sales forecasting and to facilitate smooth introduction
of new products. Considering Nike, the company has substantially increased its presence all
over the world and the company is continuously doing innovation to gain competitive
advantage in the industry. Nike has to ensure its brand to build upon various sustainability
pillars.

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References
Arora, N., Dreze, X., Ghose, A., Hess, J.D., Iyengar, R., Jing, B., Joshi, Y., Kumar, V., Lurie,
N., Neslin, S. and Sajeesh, S. (2008) Putting one-to-one marketing to work: Personalization,
customization, and choice. Marketing Letters, 19(3-4), p.305.
Bain, M. (2018) THE NEXT GENERATION OF NIKE’S AUTO-LACING SNEAKERS WILL
DEBUT IN PRO SPORTS WITHIN A YEAR [ONLINE] Available from:
https://qz.com/quartzy/1402863/whats-next-for-hyperadapt-nikes-auto-lacing-sneakers-pro-
sports/ [Accessed 22/08/2019].
Carr, M. (2019) Nike: The No. 1 Most Innovative Company Of 2013 [ONLINE] Available
from: https://www.fastcompany.com/3005275/nike-2 [Accessed 22/08/2019].
delucchiplus.com. (2017) Rise of Brands as Ecosystem [ONLINE] Available from:
http://www.delucchiplus.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/2017-Feb20-Q1-DP-
TrendsReport.pdf [Accessed 22/08/2019].
Hua, G., Wang, S. and Cheng, T.E. (2010) Price and lead time decisions in dual-channel
supply chains. European journal of operational research, 205(1), pp.113-126.
Mahoney, S. (2016) Nike Increases Advertising And Digital Budget; Sales Up [ONLINE]
Available from: https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/271792/nike-increases-
advertising-and-digital-budget-sal.html [Accessed 22/08/2019].