Nike Brand Portfolio: Brand Management and Strategies Report

This report offers a comprehensive analysis of Nike's brand portfolio, examining its brand management strategies, the role of brands in society, and their impact on consumer behavior. The introduction provides an overview of Nike's global presence and its success in the sports apparel and equipment market. The report delves into key streams of thought in brand management, including brand identity, image, and loyalty, along with the importance of SWOT analysis and customer identification. It explores brand management models, such as Aaker's and Keller's Brand Equity Models. Furthermore, the report discusses the influence of brands on society and consumption patterns, emphasizing brand awareness and positioning. Recommendations on brand strategies are also provided. The report concludes with a summary of findings and a reference section.

A BRAND PORTFOLIO ON NIKE
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Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Key streams of thought in the brand management field:...........................................................3
The role of brands in society and their impacts on consumption:..............................................7
Brand Management models:......................................................................................................9
Recommendations on brand strategies:....................................................................................13
Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................16
Reference..................................................................................................................................18
Appendix..................................................................................................................................20
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Introduction:
Nike is a multinational company which is involved with the basic designs, develops,
manufactures and with marketing all around the world with the sales of the products which
includes footwear, apparel, accessories, fitness equipment and other services. The
headquarter is located in Washington Country, Oregon near Beaverton in the United States of
America. Nike being the largest provider of shoes and apparel for athletes around the globe.
It also produces equipment used in sports on a major scale. This multinational company was
formed in the year 1964 and was named as Blue Ribbon Sports then. The name Nike was
taken from the Greek goddess of success and was officially named as Nike in the year 1971.
Since then, the continuous innovations and management are the reason for the success of the
brand (Nike 2017).
The report will analyse the developing brand strategies of the company to become a leading
company in its field all around the world. The products of Nike are in demand and with lower
bargaining power to the suppliers. In this report, the analysis of the brand management along
with the role played by the brands in the society as well as their demands and some brand
models are recommended to gain the advantage in the competition as well as strategies
related to which helps in describing to encourage the importance of the multinational
company. Moreover, the research tries to analyse the models such as Aaker's Brand Equity
Model and Keller's Brand Equity Model.
Key streams of thought in the brand management field:
Brands are used to make some products in the demand for a long time and also different. The
brand identification is explained by the way the products of a company is perceived by the
customers as the main components of the brand is their name, logo, tagline and the tone.
These are made by the company to show the demand in the market and also to attract more
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customers to buy their products. Nike owns a different tagline "Just Do It" with a swoosh
logo as it attracts the customers with all these things and makes the customers satisfied with
their products. Brand identity is often mismatched by brand image as the identity is showing
the company's services as the quality of the products and the characteristics that make Nike a
different company from its competitors (Grow, 2015, p.328). As the brand image is the
review of the customers of the brand and its products, generally Nike tries to keep the match
of identity and image together to gain more customers. To build a brand identity every
company requires to follow certain steps which are stated as follows:
1) SWOT Analysis of the company is necessary because this analysis shows the
particular strength, weaknesses, opportunities and the threats that help the whole
company to understand and define the goals and help the company to achieve the
goals (Morgan et al. 2016, p.89).
2) The important objectives and goals must be fulfilled to stand with the competitors as a
good brand identity.
3) Customer Identification is necessary to reach to a specific set of customers to provide
better sales of products and their services.
4) The note that is to convey to the market.
Figure 1: Brand management
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(Source: Morgan et al. 2016, p.89)
A brand identity is an effort of the disciplines and strategies as every component is required
to strengthen the goals and the note that is conveyed to the market to reach more customers.
Nike with its innovative designs and looks with different compositions of the products with
the swoosh logo and highly appreciated socially requires a different team to handle these
things.
A brand identity built effectively will try to convey the impression of the company along with
the value of the products to value its customers and help the brand to be recognised by
everyone (Holt, 2014, p.83). As Nike is the leading company which is dealing and selling
footwear to equipment that help the athletes for the comfort and better performance. The
company to build a better brand identity need to specify the brand and its products that are to
be supplied to the customers as this helps the company to gain a competitive advantage in the
market. The brand advertisement needs to be attractive to make the non-regular customers of
the brand to stay aware of the new products and achieve positive feedbacks. The messages
that are conveyed by the company are not at all confusing or complicated but a difficult task
which requires that each and every component of the company work with respect to the brand
identity. Nike achieved such an easy yet difficult task as the name provides strong and
positive assumptions regarding the products Nike deals with and this also helps the company
to achieve a better brand image. Brand loyalty is also an important part of the brand image
and its identity as to build a better brand loyalty constant performance of the company is
required in production and delivering the products and services to the customers (Fulberg,
2013, p.195). Nike, a brand with loyal customers also focuses on celebrity oriented marketing
and advertisement on promoting and attracting the customers. Brand value is the most
important asset of a company on the profit sheet. The brand value is something that is to be
considered by the brand managers to adjust the performance of the company accordingly as
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to increase the value in the market. As the value of the brand is decided by the cost that
would take to build a similar company with the products and the customers.
Figure 2: Brand management of NIKE
(Source: Fulberg, 2013, p.195)
Nike owning a big brand value is indeed a dream for most companies with its high monetary
value in the global market. It can be easily stated from the above that the brand management
is a market function which uses different methods to increase the value of the products and
the brand with time. Also, the effective brand management also helps to raise the price and
still building loyal customers with the help of the image of the brand. Moreover, to maintain
the equity of brand and to gain more brand value the company needs to develop certain
strategies and plans with overall visions of the company. The implementation of the brand
management strategies the values that are main are focused and it is necessary to maintain the
innovations conveyed by the company and also the comparison with the competitors (Evans,
2013, p.423). Profits of the company are the not only stat that can ensure the effective brand
management as there are different factors also.
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The role of brands in society and their impacts on consumption:
A brand value is not only calculated by the profit of the company but by the relationship with
the customers and the socially earned feedbacks. As strong competition in the market, a
company like Nike needs to maintain a competitive advantage over its competitors in the
global market (Von Borries, 2014, p.96). The brand image is an important factor for equity in
a brand as the company needs to keep a regular check on the demands of the customer and
inform the customers about the product the brand owns and also to develop different
marketing strategies as the relationship of customer and the brand is equally necessary for the
brand.
Figure 3: Elements of Nike’s brand management
(Source: Von Borries, 2014, p.96)
A brand is basically the relationship of the customers to the company and its products as the
relationships that are built are based on the customer experiencing the products and services
of the brand. The customers and the society are the ones defining the brand image of Nike
with its spectacular combination of design and technology use in its products. This is the
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reason of making a brand for the customers is to emphasise on the basic needs of the
customers and provide the customers better experience with the products and services. The
products with better features and specification attract the customers and benefits the brand
and the sales of their products even with the higher prices because of the trust that the brand
makes with the customers (Aaker, 2015, p.99). The customers feel, think, sense, act and
relate the brand products and these experiences gives the customer a better knowledge of the
quality of the product. Sensing the products helps to understand the quality of the product of
the brand as the shoes of Nike are comfortable and easy to maintain. Relating the brand
products with other products socially helps to get a better advancement in the brand image of
Nike. Nike mainly focuses on advertising and promoting its brand products and also on the
after sale experiences of the customers and other services. Brands play a very significant role
in the society as well, as the brand affects the identity of the customers using a particular
brand. The use of brands also gives the customers a different status in their societies as the
products of the brands are highly priced and their use enhance the personality of the
customers. Social media also plays an important role as the customers define the brands in
their own way and also by sharing various information of the product by the brand. Social
media is also a great platform for the customers to share the experiences related to the
product of the brands the customers uses which helps in the promotions of the brands and
their products. It also benefits the company to get reviews to certain products and also to
make it better or to maintain the quality of the product (Grow, 2015, p.32). Negative reviews
help in checking and improving the qualities and add a few more specifications which will
help the brand to attract more customers as the brand follows the recommendations of the
customers and works on the products immediately.
Brand positioning of Nike
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As per the brand positioning of Nike, the company has been able to build up an image that
appeals customers all over the world. On comparing with other brands such as Adidas and
other competitors, Nike is at a higher level in all the aspects such as performance and fashion,
which makes the price level for its products to rise as well (refer to appendix).
The awareness of the brand is an important part of the efforts made in marketing as the
customers are impressed by the advertisement of the brand and the message the brand wants
to convey to the customers. The communication of good brand identity is necessary as it can
help in increasing the sales of the brand and particularly the areas of the brand which are
more stronger than the competitors. Customers also try different researchers to study the
brands and also to get an assumption about the products and also to compare with its
competitors which show that brand awareness is as important as any other services of the
brand. The customers also select a product more rapidly from among various choices that
incorporate one known brand than they choose with a set that incorporates just new ones
(Rao et al. 2014, p.137). Also, with the introduction of different brands, the cases of selecting
the first in view of mindfulness is rejected, yet most still picked a similar high mindfulness
mark they select at the first place. Brand Awareness can also help in increasing the market
shares also in a huge number of ways. The brand awareness also depends on the technology
that is being used by the brand to make targets to a particular set of customers and their
demands of the products like the athletes like to use newly designed shoes which can enhance
their performance. The brand awareness can mainly be carried out with particular campaigns
and social media is very helpful in the strategy of brand awareness among the customers
(Douglas et al. 2014, p. 106).
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Brand Management models:
The different brand models are suggested to achieve more and more competitive advantage in
the global market. Models developed by David Aaker and Kelvin Lane Keller are helpful for
the company to gain the advantage.
1) Aaker's Brand Equity Model: The brand equity as stated by David Aaker was a few
set of assets related to the brand that is capable of making differences in the value of
the products or the services offered by the brand.
Figure 4: Aaker's Brand Equity Model
(Source: Cheng-Hsui Chen, 2013, p.546)
A) Cost reduction: New customers are hard to maintain when compared to the loyal
customers as it is much cheaper.
B) Trading: The loyal customers of the brand are always helpful in generating a constant
source of profits revenue.
C) The introduction of New Customers: The existing customers always have the capability to
attract more customers to the brand by consulting them and appreciating the type of product
the brand deals with which helps in influencing more customers (Cheng-Hsui Chen, 2013,
p.546).
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D) Competitive Threats: The loyal customers of the brand usually take a lot of time to change
their demands and their attraction towards different products or new products launched by
other brands. Therefore, this gives the company or the brand enough time to get in the
competition with its competitors.
Awareness of the Brand: The following factors will explain the extent of which the brand is
known by the customers:
a) Anchoring associations: The brand strength if strong can help in the formations of
associations with the brand to help in brand awareness.
b) Familiarity: The loyal customers will suggest the brand to a different person with the same
requirements can help in improving the brand awareness.
c)Sustainability: The feedbacks provided by the customers of the brand are helpful in
providing more promises in the improvement of the products to the customers.
d)Considering the opinion of the Customer: The customers while purchasing a particular
product usually notices the brand name.
The quality of the products assumed by the customers:
a) Quality: The quality is the main reason to buy a product of the brand. A better quality
product is much more preferable by the customers which fulfil their requirements and
needs (Pritchard and Morgan, 2016, p.222).
b) The position of the brand: The position of the brand also decides the quality of the
products that are assumed by the customers that are if the brand position is high for
example Nike, the product must be also of a very good quality.
c) Price: It is socially accepted that the price of the product is a status symbol and also a
quality decider for the product of the brand. higher the price better is the quality.
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d) Availability: Customers prefer the products that are widely and easily available
products as quality products and rely on them.
e) Extension of Brands: Numerous shops and outlets provide the guarantee of the
product which is useful in attracting the customers to buy the products that are
required.
Associations of the Brands: It is the term for the product or the service to be known by the
customers and its purpose to be used by the customers (Hatch and Schultz, 2016, p.131).
Retrieving Information: The information is to define the level at which the brand is able to
carry out the further processes related to it.
Purchasing of Drive: The associations which encourage the customer to buy the products to a
high extent.
c) Attitude: The associations need to create a positive attitude on the customers to encourage
better sales of the products.
d) Brand Extensions: The number of brand extensions helps in creating more opportunities
for the brand associations.
Also, there are proprietary assets which are helping the brands to increase their competitive
advantage in the global market such as, patents, trademark, secrets and other rights.
2) Keller's Brand Equity Model: The model was developed by Kelvin Lane Keller as this
model is totally based on the ideas that empowers the brand as the reviews of the customers
like the feeling after using a particular product (Martinez and De Chernatony, 2014, p.42).
This model is also known as customer-based brand equity model. This model helps with four
basic questions related to the:
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