Nike
Large multinational companies employ several marketing techniques.
I did several reports and researches about the Nike Company when I was in college. Due to several unavoidable circumstances, I did not perform in the group presentation however, I wrote a report on marketing about Nike Company basing on the facts acquired during my college time. Nike Company is the largest manufacturer and distributor of athletic footwear in the world, being a part of Nike Inc. In 1998; the company’s global shares hit 30.4% of the world market.
As at the moment, the company’s assets are worth 14.4 billion US dollars. The company employs 34,400 people around the globe. The procedure of this presentation will be to first attempt to identify the types of the company’s products and the groups of customers for these goods. Second in the procedure of presentation is defining the company’s appeal aimed at different target groups and the company’s future trend. Last, I will provide a marketing plan for the company.
Nike has various products for customers ranging from footwear to sports gear. Examples of the company’s products are Nike footballs, Nike basketballs, Nike volleyballs, Nike handballs etc. Each product is suitable to a specific sport. The company has also invested in casual wear to meet customer’s demands. The company’s products fall under three classes as shoes, clothes, and equipment. Each class, on the other hand has three divisions under it including basketball, football, cheerleading, lacrosse, baseball, rugby, running, tennis, golf, training, casual, indoor activities, volleyball, and wrestling.
All the nine mentioned divisions are sport-specific. Most of the company’s products have a wide range of age. Categories like shoes and clothing aim on customers between the ages of 4-50 years. This age group is comprised of individuals having active lifestyles with specific sport preferences. Targets are from lower middle class to high-class income groups of people. The company uses different collections of cloth-ware to target customers with different incomes, for example the Christiano Ronaldo collection is currently targeting people with high income.
The producs are designed differently to appeal to different customers is the company’s success. For instacne, shoes designed for football players will have different characteristics as compared to shoes designed for running. Each sport has different terrains and different environments hence the difference in the manufacturing. The company also makes shoes in variety to appeal on numerous categories of people, for example shoes for men, women, girls, and boys. A basketball designed for men has different characteristics then the same ball manufactured for women.
Each category has several prospects of having new segments in the market. An example is seen in the company’s heavy development of Nike +. The Company tends to expand into the software and equipment market. Nike + is equipment consisting of two modules: a small sensor put in the shoe, and a receiver attached to an iPod. The device measures distance one runs in a particular direction, hence helps athletes in training. Other recent developments are Nike + stopwatches with GPS capability and Nike + stop band.
Customers also have different preferences for shoes. The company therefore has to produce products with a variety of colors, traction, dimensions, and materials. Cheap productions, limited sets of materials, and little colors turn off customers. The company therefore has to invent a multiple set of products to satisfy each of its customers.The relationship between price and quality of Nike products shows that the company products enjoy lower costs through economies of scale.
The company’s new products are expected to be cheap: a thing the company can only accomplish through heavily investing in R and D. There are definitely no big competitors of the company in the category of clothing fitted with electronics except for a small company that develops similar products for smart phones and expensive products produces by mass electronic companies. It is important to perform segmentation criteria analysis, which will enable the company to see the target consumer group. Electronics of such type aim at enhancing athletic performance of people through sport-lifestyle. The marketing strategy for the company involves using brand awareness thhrough multiple creative sports slogans. The advertisements pass on different kinds of media ranging from posters and flyers to online internet advertisements, which tend to reach customers faster.
The company also advertises itself through sponsorship of different sports club to tap in the clubs’ fans market. The United States of America has so far been the most successful market for the company because the country has the highest number of people using the internet. Other areas where the company has many customers are Asia and Europe. Europe specifically has strong customer relationships with the company due to the company’s constant support of football championship leagues in Europe. The company faces competition from several other companies producing similar products, for example Puma Company.
Nike Company has an advantage of its brand name, being famous as opposed to other companies’ product names. Another advantage is the company’s age. Due to the fact that the company has been in place for a long time, it is known by many which shows credibility, and hence favorable for many customers. The company uses this fact to produce expensive products since it has an almost 100 percent market trust.Nike has strong distributional channels across the world. It can utilize it to convince their Customers for promoting best experience of purchasing and using their product.
Currently Nike is using several distribution channels, such as its own brand stores, trading partners, and e-commerce. A good combination of both is required to achieve best customer satisfaction. Another important issue unique to this type of product will be the technical problems related to software. The best option will be collaboration with Nike’s trading partners to create a group that will be able to provide technical support of Nike’s customers across the world. The ways of communication with the customers should be expanding online support through the internet, technical support group landline that will enable customers to call them and resolve their issues. It is important to minimize the costs so that land lines support groups would be available only at priority geographical locations.
