Company name – Nike
Founder– Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight
Nike is a multinational company selling a wide range of products from shoes to apparel and their own personalized accessories.
They have been ruling over the world with their products since 1971. They have become a globally acclaimed brand now.
How it all started
Bill Bowerman was the one who initiated the idea of this company he was a nationally-renowned track and field coach at the University of Oregon.
Bill Bowerman has always been a track enthusiast he aimed to improve the performance of his athletes.
On the other hand, Phil Knight was a runner and fortunately, he was enrolled in Bowerman’s track program.
Both of them felt that shoe build, quality, and technology could be improved. Phil Knight, later on, approached his old coach, Bowerman convinced him that a partnership was best for both individuals and stared at this company.
Launching
Nike started with the two visionaries, Bill Bowerman and his University of Oregon runner Phil Knight in the year 1964 the company was then named Blue Ribbon Sports.
The company aimed to try and do a better job of designing and selling shoes to runners. And now Nike is the world’s leading innovator in athletic footwear, apparel, equipment, and accessories.
Marketing strategy and its successes of NIke
Wide range of products–
Nike products offered their products in nine key categories; Running, Nike Basketball, the Jordan Brand, Football, Men’s Training, Women’s Training, Action Sports, Sportswear, and Golf.
Price–
The pricing strategy of Nike is based on consumer perception and the value of its products and the maximum prices that consumers are willing to pay for the company’s sports shoes, apparel, and equipment.
The price of the products is based on a premium branding strategy that establishes Nike products as higher in quality and value than other rival brands.
Nike is ranked the number one sports brand in The Forbes Fab 40 as the world’s most valuable sports brand in 2014.
With its tradition of introducing innovative products to the market and high-profile endorsements from world-class athletes, the company has positioned its products at the higher price points in the market.
The average selling prices for footwear by the previous records was increased by an average of 5% worldwide and 4% in North America in fiscal 2014. On the other hand, apparel prices increased by 4% overall.
Worldwide Distribution of their products–
Nike has been dominating the world’s market in athletic shoes and apparel and operates in more than 200 countries in Europe, Asia, North, and Latin America are the main markets of Nike.
According to the research 20%of the U.S. athletic market is controlled by Nike.
Nike designs and markets its products while contracting for their manufacture from 600 factories scattered all around the globe and that employ around 650,000 people.
Online website–
Nike understands the needs of the customers they wanted to introduce their products to the worldwide customers and with the blooming of the internet and the social media sites, people spent more time on the internet.
Nike has its customers around the globe and this website helps the customers be informed and connected with the brand which gives Nike a new source of value.
Nike understands the business and use of involving customers by offering internet sites where customers can share their interactions and experiences also give their suggestions. This helped them build trust and relationships with customers.
Customer facility–
Nike understands the need to build trust among its customers and being a global brand they need to have a proper setup for its customers where they can get excellent and quick service.
Nike gives its customers a service that allows customers to customize the products purchased from Nike and it must be through the online purchase.
The special NIKEiD studios were launched to give customers have a great personal experience and it was first released for iPhone and iPod Touch where on the NIKEiD App customers could search for products online.
They also prove to provide a Nike PhotoiD service by which customers can take pictures or images with their mobile and send to Nike and their new software will analyze the image, and then based on it they would design a shoe.
Soon an image of their desired shoe will be received by the customer. Then they can choose to save the image or purchase the new design.
Awards–
In 2013 Nike received The Corporate Register Reporting Awards (CRRA) 2013 awarded NIKE, Inc. top honors in two categories for its FY10-11 Sustainable Business Performance Summary: Innovation in Reporting and Best Overall Report.
Then in the same year, Nike was ranked 22nd in CR Magazine’s 14th Annual 100 Best Corporate Citizens List.
Nike has been recognized for its standout performance of public companies in the U.S. Also by FTSE Group, a leading provider of global index and analytical solutions, named Nike a constituent in its FTSE4 Good Index Series.
Then in the year 2012, December for the sixth straight year, Nike was ranked first in the Apparel and Accessories sector in the Climate Counts performance rankings.
In 2011, December NIKE was ranked highly on Climate Counts’ annual scorecard of companies addressing sustainability and climate change. Along with this for the ninth consecutive year, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) named Nike one of the best American companies for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender workers. Nike scored 100, the best possible.
In the same year in March Nike received The Corporate Responsibility magazine unveiled the 12th annual “100 Best Corporate Citizens List,” featuring Nike at number 10 on the list.
Campaign
Nike has invested in various campaigns to introduce its products to a wide number of customers worldwide.
Nike has been successful in its effective campaigns. The main aim of Nike is to focus on creating meaningful stories to build a loyal fan base and tries to induce emotion in the customer using “emotional branding”.
The advertisement aimed to evoke particular feelings and make Nike products more meaningful in the eyes of the customers.
The advertisement is about Nike telling stories with a traditional narrative of a hero who overcomes hardships, fights with an enemy, and leads to a win at the end.
The tagline “Just Do It” in the advertisement became a famous one which shows that every person is a hero within they need to fight for their rights.
Along with this Nike also invested in Celebrity endorsements like Michael Jordan, Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, LeBron James, Rafael Nadal, Derek Jeter, and others were seen endorsing their brand.
Conclusion
Nike has been successful to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world and the company further states that everybody is an athlete and if you have a body, you are an athlete.
Their mission represents the company’s strategic goal of reaching out to the global leisure and sports footwear, apparel, and equipment market have been a successful one.
And now Nike is a global brand and earned its deserved position in the market.
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